1.1 ABOUT THIS  DOCUMENT

 1.3 Requisites

 1.4 Terminology

 1.Product Summary

 2.Frequently asked questions  3.Comparison with other  products

Horeb is a transaction processing system.

Horeb receives user requests (which are referred as transactions) and process them using application programs assigned for their processing. The processed result (or the output transaction) is sent back to the user.

Horeb is an open transaction processing system.

‘Open’ means that the user can be anywhere in the world wide internet and the processing application program can be anywhere in the world wide internet.

Horeb transactions are secure.

A Horeb transaction can only be accessed by the authorized user; who can be either the creator or a receiver who has been pre-authorized to receive such transactions. All others will not receive these transactions.

Hence spam mails and virus will never attack Horeb.

Horeb transaction processors, the application programs are secure.

Only authorized Horeb transactions are received by the application programs and no other data can ever be submitted to the application programs.

Horeb transactions will not be lost, either in transit or on terminals.

All Horeb transactions are accounted for and properly logged at authorized secured locations and can never be lost in transit.

Likewise, when on location they are always backed up at offsite locations and can be auto-restored in case of any unlikely emergency or disaster.

Horeb transaction processing beats all the rest on performance.

Horeb out performs all other online systems. Its ability to dynamically alter the route or the multiply the availability of the application programs gives a phenomenal transaction throughput, competent enough to take control of any business processing.

Horeb is not a Middleware

Horeb is an aide not a bottleneck; a coordinator not a collaborator. It provides the pivotal environment that is required for a very mission critical application development and processing; but does not put rules that would eventuate as restriction and hindrance either of business processing or development or operations.

Horeb is a open transaction processor which enables development and administration of applications on a open system. Horeb commissions applications in servers and enables them to be open transaction processing servers.

2.What is t-mail

t-mail is a front ender to Horeb collecting transactions at the client processor or device.

3.Why do we replace mainframes

To reduce system, maintenance and development cost, to go open system, to enhance the business processing with the currently available technology.

4.How Horeb aids the replacement

Horeb provides the same features enjoyed by mainframe; it provides security, performance and reliability. Horeb applications are scalable as it dissects applications into transactions. The replaced application enjoys feature that are not possible under mainframe. They are open and hence they can be distributed through the IP network.

5.What are the monetary benefits in terms of development

Development can be done using PCs where the debugging and problem determination tools are plenty compared to mainframe. The development cycle is much simpler and hence more cost effective.

6.What are the monetary benefits in terms of maintenance

For one thing, the change control offered under Horeb is more universal and have the repository of all previous releases and hence backing out is much simpler. Quality assurance is more automated by the use of different test environment and databases.

7.How all of mainframe features of achieved through Horeb

Horeb has components called managers. There is a manager for each service.

Transaction manager – handles all online and batch transactions
Security manager – handles all user and object security and administration
Admin manager – handles system, network, application and data center administrations
Communication manager – transports transactions throughout the IP network
Device Manager – handles all devices and enables the data acquisition and distribution
Object manager – handles all transaction object definitions
Database manager – provides all database services
Utility manager – provides tools, utilities and translators

Collectively, Horeb offers all that is in the mainframe and add them to the open system technology.

8.How is it secure

Horeb security manager offers security profiles based on users and objects.  It provides the following functions to ensure the security.

Provide security for the system inline with RACF (level D1).

• Users, user groups
• Classes for resources
• Certificates for messages (transactions)
• Each transaction object can be secured, meaning a field in a screen can be secured or a field in a database table can be secured.
• Resources are calculated for each user and sent for accounting
• Logs all security violations and warnings
• Any resource or facility can be secured
• Data always encrypted (using SSL)
• Special processing for signature fields, seal and envelopes

9.How is it reliable

Programs and databases are configured with alternative and redundant servers, enhancing the reliability by several folds, reducing the system outages to a bare minimum

10.What performance we get after the transformation

Performs the batch and transaction processing, collectively called as business processing, by distributing the programs and databases throughout the network servers and hence providing performance better than mainframe systems.

11.What languages are supported

All languages with compilers are supported. Cobol, C, Fortran, Java etc., Horeb does not put any restriction on any language environment. The existing compilers can be used.

12.How Horeb provides rapid development

• Horeb relieves the burden of application programming by a huge margin of 60%, since Horeb supports these functions internally. For example, the help facility, error handling, GUI handling, device support etc., are processed internal to Horeb.
• This leaves the application programming to deal only with the business rules specific to the client.
• The above features enable Horeb to be a rapid application development system.
• The applications are developed at a rapid pace and meticulous details, since Horeb provides all the necessary guidelines, rules and checklists that are mandatory for developing an application at a rapid speed as well as with reliable and useful facilities.
• Rapid and reliable development facility offered by Horeb is achieved through a set of well thought and innovative processes that carefully governs the development cycle from the initial design phase to the final implementation.
• Detailed database modeling, quality assurance, information products, user training, system support are all the part of the Horeb technology.

13.Has Horeb any script or 4-gl

NO.

14.How change control is handled

Change control is handled using Horeb Admin manager and it is called promotion.

Admin Manager, promotes an object using the migration program that is bound to this object. This promotes to the next version and release as opted by the user. For each version and release there is a migration program that would do the promotion.

• Object Change Control – handled through version and release information. For all release r > 0, signifies a test transaction and hence the defined programs through control tables and database systems are in test mode as well.

• Transaction Migration – when r = 0 the version v is incremented. For example after 1.3.8 comes 1.4.0 which is a production version and hence all the programs and database systems. This will have an additional program specially made for migration that converts all underlying database systems (that includes all transactions of 1.3.0 and earlier). Limited migration is done on archived database systems depending on the years of context history (which is 7 for IRS, 10 for government and so forth).

15.Is Horeb scalable

Yes. Each manager of Horeb has sub-components, which can be upgraded optionally.

16.What is transaction processing

Horeb is a message (or data) driven system as opposed to the conventional process driven systems. These messages are known as transactions. Each transaction comprises input or output data fields. These transactions move from place to place, system to system and network to network (IP) and in the process, they update the databases, get some users to enter data, collect some data from devices, log some information for accounting, provide security for access and so forth. In summary, this is business processing. The faster it happens, the longer the availability (24 hrs, 7 days) and secure as it can be, to near perfection, that is Horeb.

The modus-operandi of the transaction processing (or business processing) can be explained by the following key points.

• The client workstation collects the data from the user and devices and encapsulates them into a message, which is also known as a transaction. At this time for uniqueness’ sake, a transaction unique identifier is also issued.
• Each transaction is connected to a collection of server programs based on the functions (eg. verify, reject, approve, delegate etc.,). The Administrators establish the connection rules.
• The server programs can run in any server on IP, and can issue any APIs to achieve the business tasks.
• Security, message queuing or redistribution, device access, database access and open access are all handled by Horeb components called managers.

17.How applications are administered

• Applications can be developed in multiple server platforms comprising NT, OS/2, MVS, VM, CICS, IMS, UNIX etc.
• The components of Horeb perform mutually exclusive functions and they are scalable; meaning that Horeb can function in proportion to the number of implemented components.
• Since Horeb makes the applications as transaction processors, transaction routing between different system platforms is possible. For example, application can be spanned over several servers and so are the devices and other external applications.

18.How security is administered

One of the most crucial features of any business application is security. If the application is not secure then many of the clients would not be able to use it, regardless of its versatility in other areas like GUI, internet and so forth.

For Horeb, security is the primary issue.

• Horeb secures application objects and entities using the profile technique. This is very similar to IBM’s RACF profiles. Each application object can be subjected to profile or classes. As a result access is restricted for those who have are defined to these profiles or classes.
• Application data can be selectively encrypted or compressed. The keys required for decryption are transported using secure devices. Horeb supports encryption devices to achieve its security features. This drastically limits the space available for the hackers.
• The support of special classes and objects like signature fields, authorization elements provide mechanism for online security at the administrative levels. Such objects make Horeb applications fully capable of supporting any financial institution and value added business application.
• Security is also heavily reinforced with automatic logging and snoop checks of Horeb. These snoop-logs provide access violation information to security administrators very quickly and more effectively.
• Automatic logoff, emergency logoff and intruder locks are the other security features that horeb supports.

19.How network is administered

Using Horeb Communication Manager networks are administered.

The Communication Manager provides all necessary communications between the client and the server at the transaction level.

• Each transaction has several functions hooked on to it and these functions can be running in any server as server application programs.
• These server application programs can run in any hardware and in any operating systems. Hence it is open as the transactions are also called open transactions, meaning they can be processed by any application on IP.
• A transaction can be continuous transaction (a chat session, PPP) or a connectionless transaction (a SMTP mail) or a very large transaction (an FTP file) or a management transaction (a SNMP data). Hence all kinds of data are supported in an open system.

20.How system is administered

Horeb aids systems programmer to administer the system.

For the systems programmer,

Horeb lets them

• to install or de-install any device, its drivers and its support classes
• to install and upgrade any other classes as required by the users
• to install and upgrade any communication objects and their classes
• to maintain all the logs in the system by developing any reporting modules are maintenance routines
• to develop any class support method as required by any newly implemented third party classes

21.How development is administered

For the developers,

Horeb lets them to,

• develop applications in the language of their choice (like COBOL, C, FORTRAN, PL/1 and so forth)
• develop applications in the multi-platform environments (like NT, LINUX, OS/2, MVS, VM etc.)
• develop only the business processing part of the application and not to worry about device support, communication with other systems, help management and so forth
• access data from multiple databases using the fastest accessing techniques like the static SQL and application binding.
• quickly solve the problem by using the logs, memory blocks and other development utilities
• develop object based user and control exits which achieve special business processing

22.How data is administered

• Horeb provides a full-fledged object oriented and a system managed database manager, which supports a sophisticated database system that cuts off the requirement of may application programs.
• Applications need not implement audit trails and exceptional reporting; as provided by Horeb.
• History database management, backup, archive and restore, data aging etc. are provided as a part of database manager.
• A warehouse database native to Horeb provides many useful functions like tracking, ordering, permissions, hierarchic data management and so forth.
• Horeb classifies application database into four types and two modes. Types are master, transaction, work and temp. Modes are public and private. These classifications govern the rules of update, inserts, audits, archives and reports.
• These facilities downsize application programming.

23.Is horeb a middleware

NO.

24.What kind of application that can be developed under Horeb

All applications.

25.Is Horeb a overhead over operating systems

No, since Horeb is a open transaction processing system, like FTP, SMTP and SNMP.

26.Is Horeb web-based

Horeb is not web-based but web-enabled. The difference is that Horeb is not developed using web programming but on native IP. Horeb is web-enabled, meaning the input and output are translated to HTML documents.

27.How long will it take for a person to get trained to develop under Horeb

2-3 weeks to be a developer and 1-2 week for an administrator

28.How does Horeb transform a IDMS application

All ADS screens are promoted to transaction manager.
All flat files IDMS DBs are converted to database tables
All programs are translated to server programs

29.How does Horeb transform a batch application

Batch programs are translated to server programs and run on the receipt of batch transaction.

30.What is the difference between Horeb programming and java programming

Java programming needs a JVM (Java virtual machine). Horeb does not force any virtual system; it is a plain IP based open system. Horeb does not have a programming restriction.

31.How does Horeb compare with other tools like com+, asp, Delphi and so forth

All these tools are scoped with limitations. Large applications can not be handled by them. Horeb has no such limitation.

32.What is the support plan for Horeb

Horeb product will be released every six months. All horeb related problems will be handled by Horeb Level-3 support. Onsite support is provided.

33.How long will it take to transform an applications

3 months.

34.Once transformed do we need the old code

No.

35.How the databases are transformed

Migrated to database tables.

Traffic problems are addressed by following configuration management.

• By providing alternative server port and/or server address (multicasting)
• By excluding update functions from inquiry functions (partial refresh)

Multicasting is an innovative data pooling mechanism, which become very popular with the advent of Internet. It is simple but very effective. An example of the application of this technology is the VPN architecture or the DSL link stations. In Horeb communication manager a local server and a collection of alternative server and port(s) are defined which is updated on the transaction throughput. This lets the next arriving inbound transaction to be routed to the least serviced server/port.

Partial refresh is an age-old concept deployed in older systems. It categorizes transactions into inquiry and update modes. The update transactions goes through a staging mechanism of updating the databases in levels, called partial refresh, whereas the inquiry transactions are passed through since they do not alter the status of the database. This isolation allows the transaction throughput to be more serviceable.

2.Some are not attracted by the cost saving of mainframe. How do we tackle them (Tracy)

Cost saving is one of the benefits of replacing the mainframes. However it is not the only benefit. Due to the current market environment it is used as one of the main benefits for going out of mainframe and going into horeb. However, the main strength of going into horeb is the ability to get the open-system working for the critical business processing. Mainframe applications have the least availability for other applications. In addition the following are the benefits.

• Minimizing on vendor dependence
• Cross scalability using different vendor products
• Component based or application based outsourcing
• Online disaster recovery
• Flexible production turnovers and change control
• Development and support team need not be in a polarized team
• More robust security
• Scalable performance upgrade to suit the transaction throughput
• Qualified transaction processing based on volume, throughput and availability

3.Mainframe rehosting using Microfocus cobol; is horeb better, how do we compare (Matt)

Re-hosting through using Sun system means just dumping most of the application programs in yet another box. This is Sun’s strategy of becoming another IBM. There are many pitfalls in this. However, the biggest of all is the infeasibility of the solution itself. This might hold a very small application, but destined to fail for any medium size application.

Database is another main area that Sun solution would under perform. Horeb comes up with an inbuilt database manager, which provides the support for static SQL, which is needed for all legacy application and not available in any of the server based database management system.

The security is a big deal with Horeb. Since Horeb provides security at the object level. This means, more the granular the objects are more the number of security profiles that governs the rules of access.

Horeb supports D1 type security which is superior to the C2 grade security as provided by Windows NT and UNIX operating systems. Hence Horeb records the violating and accessing usernames along with timestamp. IBM’s security product RACF is a D1 grade security system. Another important feature of being a D1 grade security system is to have the ability not to store the password anywhere but only validate it. Hence only the creating user can ever know the password.

Horeb achieves D1 grade security by using several kinds of profiles and they are explained in the following sections.

Security Overview

Security is provided to users or group of users. A logon user is identified by his/her user name which is unique throughout the Security server or the group to which s/he belongs. For this reason, a group name is treated similar to the user name throughout the security server.

In an age of rapid information exchange using powerful communication tools like FTP it is important to secure the data and the network from the internal and external hacking techniques. Horeb provides a clear vision for a detailed security administration and hence leaves the hackers at bay.

A note for the security administrators: Most industrial espionage were executed by the people who are internal to an organization rather than the external forces. It is therefore, extremely important to have a clear plan for security administration. Information systems which ignore the principles of security in the initial stages, stand more prone to a hacker attack.

There are two major categories of rule sets. The profiles and the classes.

A profile is the one which is directly connected to the resources; whereas, a class is more tied to the functions. For example, a table is secured by means of a profile and a select statement is secured by means of a class.

Horeb encapsulate all the elements of the application and the system as system of objects. Each object is identified by the object identification number.

Every secured object is connected to a profile. A profile is a set of rules like read, update, delete and so forth. There are different kinds of profiles since there are different types of rules. Rules that are needed for a device access may be different for the rules that are meant for a file access.

So an accessing user or a user belonging to a group should have the profile and the class defined, in order to have an access.

Every access is trappable and can be logged along with the user name or group name and the timestamp. This is the pre-condition for a D1 grade security system.

The following sections define the various elements of the security system which comes along with Horeb.

Groups and Users

A group is a collection of users. Users are identified by two modes. They are userids and usernames. A userid is a numeric type and the username is a alphanumeric type.

A group is identified by a groupid and a group name.

A username is 16 characters long. A userid is number that is within the rage of 1 and 2**32. No user is allowed to have zero as userid.

A group name is 16 character long and a groupid is a number that is within the rage 1 and 2**32-1.

A group consists of one or more user or other groups.

For all practical purposes a user and group is treated and dealt in the same way as far as the security manager procedures are concerned.

There are several attributes that govern the status of a user or a group. The following are the list of such attributes.

1. Super user
2. Operator
3. Auditor
4. Account managed
5. Background

The following are the general rules that apply to all users and groups.

Password

Each user or group should supply a password when logging on to the system. This password is never stored in the system and hence it can never be reproduced when it is lost. A password is automatically revoked when it is accessed unsuccessfully beyond the limit, which is set for each user or group.

When revoked, the system administrator can reset the password which then be set to a once only used common password. The system forces the user to setup his own password when he or she logs on the first time.

The users and the groups are periodically forced to change their password when it falls beyond the limit which is set for each user or group.

Passwords follow a set of rules which are set by the security administrator. These rules can be any of the following.

1. Minimum number of characters
2. Forcible entry of numeric digits
3. Never let use the previous passwords
4. Allow the case sensitivity
5. Force virtual keys

Passwords are stored nowhere and never can be reproduced.

Passwords are multiply tiered. For instance, one password would allow to read an another may allow to update. This is more useful for group names.

Identification - User and Groups

Each user or group is identified by user name and group name. User id and Group Id are numbers tied to the user names and the group names.

A group or a user will be revoked if they have not used the system for the days as limited by the security administrator.

All access violations will be recorded with the user and group name tags along with the timestamps.

Classes

A Class is a subset of a facility or a generic group. There are no predefined classes other than the commonly accepted classes like, files, programs, facilities and the commands. However, the users can define as many classes as they can to distinguish the variables.

The most important feature of the class is it has a combined effect with the profiles. Hence the profiles and the classes formulate a multi-dimensional security platform. The following are the Horeb provided classes.

1. Program
2. Facility
3. Server
4. Database
5. Commands
6. User types

Profiles

Data Profile

This is the most common profile which most of the security systems address.  A data profile is defined for a data object. The following are examples of a data object.

1. Database
2. Table
3. File
4. Directory
5. Row within a table
6. Column within a table
7. Disk volume
8. A memory file or pipe

Transaction Profile

A transaction profile is defined for a transaction or fields of a transaction. The following are the transaction profiles.

1. Transaction profile
2. Window profile
3. Window object profile
4. Device object profile
5. Communication Object profile

Device Profile

A device profile is defined on a device. All devices that are connected to a port of the local processor is qualified to receive a device profile. The following are the device profiles.

1. Printer profile
2. Device profile
3. Driver profile
4. Port profile
5. Controller profile
6. Device address profile

Communication Profile

A communication profile is defined on a communication layer. They are as follows.

1. Data Link Control (DLC) profile
2. Protocol profile
3. Transport layer profile
4. Sub Area profile (IP address based)
5. Network control profile
6. Router profile
7. Presentation Layer profile
8. Subsystem Layer profile
9. Queues and Pipes profile

Application Profile

An application profile is based on the modules and application components. They are as follows

• Application profile
• Library profile
• Module profile

Groups

Users

Profiles

Classes

Like security, reliability is a definite factor for applications in a corporate business space. Performance, security and reliability are the three main reasons for why applications are still developed under extremely expensive hardware and software like IBM mainframe platforms.

With Horeb, PC network has been able to demonstrate that it can be relied for high-tension transaction processors like those that run 24 hours in stock exchanges and financial institutions. These are achieved by following means.

• Redundant logging of all input transaction at the node level
• Automatic switching of servers based on futuristic outage parameters
• Automatic store and forward facility for offline and offload transactions
• Automatic tuning of transaction rate depending on the threshold factors

Storage

Backup/Restore, Reformat/Migrate, Storage Management, Job Management, Help Desk, and Disaster Recovery.

• Are these features built-in to Horeb? If so, how do you accomplish this? Do you send the commands to other programs or do you handle with Horeb?

They are built-in functions of Database Manager and operational from Admin Manager.

They work similar to FDR/ABR. Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly backups and restores. Dailies are incremental and the rest are full volume. An online uninterrupted backup facility is on the planning since it addresses the DR sites directly.

They archives are chosen during these runs.

• Mainframe applications require a great deal of operator intervention; will this be required with Horeb? If so, in what capacity?

Operation is very much based on the operating system environment. Mainframe is an intense operation based system, because of MVS. NT needs lesser operation but the operators should be technically qualified (meaning high priced).

Horeb Admin Manager is used by operations. However most of these storage management jobs are scheduled by auto transactions on the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. Hence, monitoring is the only activity for the operation.

Horeb admin manager do not require the technical skills as required for server operating system.

• Disaster Recovery happens on many levels within the WAN environment. What features of disaster recovery do you have with Horeb?

DR occurs on all levels, they are

• Facility level
• Data center level
• Network (sub area) level
• Work station level

The level is defined as per the grouping; can be generic and hierarchic, meaning the level is user defined.

• Listed on Page 9 are the Database Manager features. Since the Horeb database manager acts as a front end to database system such as MS-Access or Oracle.

Horeb database manager is designed to work with other database systems at the physical layer. It can also be just flat files. The SQL is parsed and depending on the definitions it will access databases and tables stored in and across other database systems and/or flat files.

Why do we need this?, because using Horeb, the applications can automatically create the history, backup and log information. These are valuable for back-out and restart. Such features are available in mainframe CICS transaction processors, but not availed in the database system (DB2,oracle, sql). Therefore Horeb has to support such features in order to replace the mainframe platform. While providing these features it is also possible for Horeb to provide other features, which the current database systems cannot offer. Some of these features are partial refresh and hierarchical tables.

• How does Horeb handle the size limitations within each database system?

In fact, size limitation is one major problem that is solved with this organization. For example, an MS-Access database has a size limitation of 1M (1024x1024) rows restriction and the application needed 500M rows table then having many MS-Access db (500 of them) would solve the problem. The control and the integrity are provided in the Horeb database manager.

• Are these database engines robust enough to tackle the size of data we will be processing?

Yes, as explained

• Is the cost of the database system included with Horeb?

No. This means, if the client wants to have Oracle then it is going to cost them high. MS Access will be a lot lesser.

No matter, what database system they choose, as far as the data integrity, security, volume and throughput are concerned, the yield is the same, since Horeb database manager is the one which is controlling these features.

• Are the customers responsible for choosing and installing the database system?

Yes they can. They will have to be made aware of the cost involved.

• What type of security features within the SANS are available?

System Admin – transaction security since all inputs and outputs are through transactions
Audit – database manger, as all log and historical information are stored in here
Network – resource (or device) security as given by the security manager, since all network devices are considered as resources
Security – user entry and exit, profile and policy accesses as defined within security manager

Implementation

• If a company agrees to a single application as a “test”, what are the implications with integration if there are “feeder” or dependant programs associated with the transferred application?

Implications involves at varying degree. For example,

If the test application has to access a database, which is integrated with other application then the difficulty factor would be classified as moderate.

If the test application has common call programs then the difficulty factor would be classified as high-impact.

If the test application has interfaces to other applications then the difficulty factor would be classified as low-impact.

It is therefore understandable that the choice of this test application is chosen through a mutual agreement than being given by the client.

• What level of documentation will be provided to the users?

All user, reference, technical and problem admin manuals will be given for all managers. It is the part of our deliverables.

• What level and quantity of user training for the IT staff will be included with the installation, knowing that additional training can be purchased by the customer?

User training for user level, development level and admin level are mandatory for all clients. The system programming level may only be needed for those clients who want to take care of their own support.

• Since the application will be the “same” just running on Horeb instead of the mainframe, will the end user see any difference? Will the end user need training?

The end-user will be seeing a lot of differences. All of them are in the following area.

• The common user interface with GUI windows as opposed to 3270 screens
• The users will be able to customize their end of the transactions. How? This is the part of the user manual and user level training.
• Handle the transactions over work flow management

These will be the part of end-user training.

• How many local and remote devices will be included with the installation, knowing that each corporation will be different? Also factoring into the equation is the fact that a base number of devices can be added, then the IT staffed trained to do the remaining devices or an extra consulting time can be purchased?

All local and remote devices will be included. Horeb Resource manager handles all these requests. This manager identifies each resource with an IP address (or address space) and collects the data (spools the data) accordingly.

• Can Horeb be used for new development?

Yes. This is the part of developers support. Reference Manuals and training address this.

• On page 5, on the list of Mainframe application statistics, you had stated were average figures for a mid-sized mainframe environment. Could you please tell me what WAN hardware and software requirements would be necessary to replace the mainframe? I would like to create a sample network design layout with pricing.

This will be similar to any WAN network, involving servers, routers and Tn/En. It is similar to the network diagram that was given in the presentation.

All aspects of mainframe are going away and hence the replacing network will not have any special nodes that are not currently available in WAN.

Please let me know if I have to provide more specifics.

When come to marketing any product, it is important to know the strength of the competition.

From the beginning we maintained that there is no competition for horeb-command10.  The following sections will explain why we maintain that lead.

Secondly, amongst many nagging queries some confusion can creep in as a result of oversight on our part in failing to address them. This document addresses some of them.

Are there any competition for horeb-command10?

No.

• All other products that are claiming to compete are simply an assembly of modules as promoted by vendors, who desperately want to keep up their current clients, with the clear intention of showing and fooling but not proving and providing.

• Their solutions are digging from archives and are already discarded, for they,

• Replace mainframe but would not provide the performance, security and reliability
• Shrink rap mainframe into smaller constrained boxes which will not achieve the throughput
• Will not abide by transaction processing as they are conception is out of line
• Implement expensive cycle of redevelopment which after a long wait, transpires into a state of infeasible solutions
• Promote proprietary language environment as they are easy to develop, but non-standard (ANSI) and destined to lockup the client for a long time

• Cost saving was never there since the method of their solution depends on expensive set of tools and facilities and ties with multiple vendors and their combined effort, naturally reduces the client view as there are too many vendors to slice the pie.

On the other hand, horeb-command10 employs a radically new technique to provide the strength of mainframe, but without the mainframe. They are,

• Transaction processing through distribution of servers

• Clearly adhere the protocols and rules of transaction processing such as, identity of a transaction, begin and end states of transaction, back-out (rollback) in case of transaction abnormal terminations, commit of transaction with logging, releasing the external agents (database servers) at the end of transactions, security profiles, journaling, logging, recovery and restart.

• Each transaction as such is an independent entity, secured throughout the life of the transaction and at the end, stored in a medium, which can only to be accessed by the authorized user groups.

• Distribution of processing enables the better performance and the reliability compared to the one availed in the mainframe.

• Again distribution means the performance can be upgraded momentarily, depending on the growth of the business by just adding on to transaction and database servers, a feature, which is not available in the mainframe-based transaction processing.

What Language environment horeb-command10 promote?
 
horeb-command10 does not promote any language. Whatever the language the client chooses will work for them. The following rules apply.

• It must be a Language not an Interpreter, meaning the compiler that produces machine code and not a pseudo code.

• It must be an ANSI (American National Standard Institute) language, since once endorsed the syntax are frozen and cannot be modified by the language inventor.

• Horeb-command10 APIs can be called from any proprietary language (that is non-ANSI) as long as they adhere to the protocols of horeb API external interface.

• It is not in our interest to promote any language as a part of horeb-command10 since we know for sure that they will reduce our client base. Therefore the horeb architecture has been carefully laid-out not to include any special preference to host languages. Furthermore, it is an important compliant for being in the open environment.

Should we care about our competition or worry about them?

Yes we should care, since we need to know how they are planning on keeping their current client base.

No, we need not worry, as long as we are clean and telling the truth and not falling into their pitfall of deception.

Our sincere effort will be rewarded.

How we go about facing all such queries in the future?

More discussion means less misconception. There are things each of us has to understand and communicate effectively so that we will be in a position to answer any question.