WRQ supplies security through Reflection

SSL component in Version 10 adds encryption

WRQ rolled out the latest version of its Reflection emulation product at HP World this month, giving HP 3000 customers more than migration tools to mull over at the show. The Version 10 features add interface, launch and security capabilities for a platform that hasn’t slipped from the company’s focus.

Marketing director Dave Hebert said the company hasn’t reduced the amount of developing resource for the HP version of Reflection. “We didn’t change our development plans at all,” he said. “We still have the largest amount of development resources in the company dedicated to Reflection.” WRQ developers remain focused on nuances of the NS/VT emulation that’s key to the HP 3000 host market.

But the HP 3000 is only one of a half-dozen hosts served by the WRQ products, from well-integrated cousins like IBM’s iSeries to Unix servers from Sun and others. This year the company is rolling a Version 10 of Reflection for all of its platforms on the same day, a first for the company since it branched into other markets.

The consolidation is possible because of code shared by products. All of the Version 10 releases, including the Reflection for HP edition for the HP 3000, include the following new features:

• A Reflection Web Launch that lets administrators save time by using a new control to deploy terminal sessions, macros, and other Reflection files to multiple users or groups of users via a web browser:

• A Reflection Administrator’s Toolkit of a Profiler and Deployment Manager, delivered in a separate installation to help keep admin tools off the user’s desktop and in the control of the system administrator;

• A Windows XP look and feel which enhances Reflection to take advantage of the new Windows XP theme manager to customize display of applications;

• An enhanced FTP client takes advantage of new security capabilities and flexible firewall authentication. It also includes new capabilities for saving settings and site-to-site file transfers.

Secure transmissions

Hebert said Version 10 is the first product to offer the HP 3000 community emulation security through SSL and TLS protocols. Reflection Security Component is a downloadable module that runs with Reflection for Windows, a set of libraries and dialogs that allows customers “to do any kind of security they need,” Hebert said. “There’s not a lot of security infrastructure in place like this for the 3000. We’ve got customers who are asking for this.”

Putting these SSL and TLS capabilities in the WRQ emulator lets customers connect to the Security Proxy that ships for Reflection for the Web. This servlet permits a secure conversation between client and host following SSL and TLS standards. The servlet can be on a separate Web server or on the HP 3000 using its Java services.

Interface improvement

Version 10 includes a new Find function similar to that in a Web browser. The command can find or find again any phrase or string of characters, searching the display memory containing multiple pages of data or column displays wider than the screen.

Using display memory in this context, WRQ’s Verastream product can then think of that data in memory as a table, and search it through SQL database query logic. “It’s another way to reuse the terminal IO data stream,” Hebert said.

Version 10 also transforms Reflection settings to XML and other formats, to simplify transitions from the fat client version of the product to the Reflection for the Web version. “XML has become one of those bridges between the Sun and the Microsoft world,” Hebert said. Settings info in browsers can be shared with Windows emulator implementations.

The XML works to move customers between fat clients and the Java-based Reflection for the Web. WRQ will transition licenses from one version to another at no charge for its customers on support — a group the company estimates at 80 percent of its installed base.

“Some are going to migrate from the HP 3000 to a version of Unix or potentially the iSeries,” Hebert said. “They can move to any of those products and we won’t charge them. They just have to surrender their HP license.” Reflection for the Web contains all emulation: HP 3000, Unix, X and iSeries.

The company is also looking for ways to be supportive of the OpenMPE movement to extend the life of the 3000. “We’re trying to figure out where WRQ can help beyond marketing support,” Hebert said. “As I see the dialog evolve, I’m beginning to see there may places where can add value that helps us as a business, but also continues to support this community.”