IBM Cognos Axiant 4GL

New Environments for IBM Cognos PowerHouse Applications

As a companion product to IBM Cognos PowerHouse 4GL, Axiant lets you migrate existing server-centric IBM Cognos PowerHouse applications to modern computing environments. With IBM Cognos Axiant, you can:

• Adopt new environments such as Windows, with your applications functioning as thin, fat, or mobile clients.

• Move to fully distributed client/server, reusing your existing UNIX, OpenVMS, and MPE/iX servers...or introducing Windows servers.

• More easily move IBM Cognos PowerHouse applications from indexed file systems and non-relational databases to relational database management systems.

Best of all, because IBM Cognos Axiant uses the IBM Cognos PowerHouse 4GL server for your client/server applications, you continue to derive value from your IBM Cognos PowerHouse investment while at the same time simplifying your move to new technologies.

Powerful Visual Development
Axiant wraps a powerful new visual integrated development environment (IDE) around the IBM Cognos PowerHouse 4GL you’re used to. Additional functionality includes inheritance; definition of relational database structures; and graphical representation of IBM Cognos PowerHouse elements, tables, and programs.

Migrating IBM Cognos PowerHouse Applications
IBM Cognos Axiant contains built-in utilities that import data definitions from the IBM Cognos PowerHouse dictionary; relational metadata; QUIZ, QTP, and QUICK source code; and IBM Cognos PowerHouse Client for Windows forms—and from them automatically generate the basic structure of an application.

Increasing Productivity Through a Workbench Repository
IBM Cognos Axiant provides a shared and unified repository for storing the data dictionary, application logic, relational data definitions, and forms—making it easier for you to manage development projects, and also offering you the flexibility to work independently.

The inheritance and reuse capability in IBM Cognos Axiant, which goes well beyond that provided by USE files in IBM Cognos PowerHouse, can significantly enhance developer productivity. For example, because forms inherit their look and feel, the user interface can be developed and maintained by altering single objects in one location.

To support team development and enhance developer productivity even further, IBM Cognos Axiant uses a repository locking feature. When a programmer is working on an object, it can be locked to ensure that another programmer does not overwrite it. Similarly, a DBA can lock the data definition to ensure that no unwarranted changes are made.

Leverage Your IBM Cognos PowerHouse Investment
With IBM Cognos Axiant, IBM Cognos PowerHouse skills and experience are reusable, because IBM Cognos PowerHouse is the underlying engine of IBM Cognos Axiant and remains the server for your client/server applications. Code is reusable because IBM Cognos Axiant contains import tools that help automate the migration of IBM Cognos PowerHouse applications and data definitions. And your MPE/iX, OpenVMS, and UNIX hardware environments are reusable when redeploying your existing application to open, portable client/server environments.

Flexible Client/Server Deployment
IBM Cognos Axiant allows an application to be deployed in a variety of configurations simultaneously: thin client, fat client, mobile, server-only and Web (when used in conjunction with IBM Cognos PowerHouse Web). Equally important is the fact that IBM Cognos Axiant applications are not locked into a single topology. For example, the fat-client deployment configuration of a small workgroup application can easily be reconfigured to a thin-client configuration should you need to scale the application up to support larger data volumes or an increased number of users.

Open, Portable Applications
IBM Cognos Axiant applications can be deployed to a mixed environment of PCs and servers—all from the same source code. This translates into productivity advantages and faster delivery of applications when business environments change.

Optimized for Mixed-Platform Client/Server
IBM Cognos Axiant is optimized for building applications in a mixed environment when the application requires a combination of server and PC processing, terminals, and native support for existing indexed files and new relational databases. Server-based processing is essential for volume processing, batch processing, and high availability.

An Evolutionary Approach to Client/Server
IBM Cognos Axiant provides a managed and controlled transition to client/server because you can support existing indexed file systems or redeploy to new strategic databases, continue to run some applications on servers while putting other applications on the Windows desktop, and add Windows functionality while retaining support for your terminal users.

Who Should Consider IBM Cognos Axiant?

Technical Specifications
IBM Cognos Axiant 4GL and its associated IBM Cognos PowerHouse 4GL servers are available for the following platforms:

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