Multi-Platform.

The GUI’s client/server technology allows you to simultaneously connect to many different servers – even if they are different platforms – through a single interface. You can even view information from different machines on the same screen just as you would display two different folders simultaneously in Windows.

Has not yet been done, to our knowledge.

Server Distribution.

Data can be extracted from the iSeries system and kept in a local or network database. This facilitates reporting through the GUI without further demand on vital iSeries resources.

There is no distribution. Everything runs on the host machine.

User comfort, ease of use and speed of work.

The modern GUI came about in the first place to make the desktop more intuitive and more efficient. buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes, color, icons and instant pop-up menus all create a fast-working environment that makes for high productivity and low fatigue. Lists and combo boxes for selections - including libraries and objects – need you to trust very little to memory.

Even the boldest attempts at trying to reproduce a GUI-like environment in green screens does not come close to the rich dedicated graphical user interface. Greens screens are simply slower and more tiresome.

Due to the speed of work, graphs and user comfort, each described elsewhere in this table, you have tools in hand to get through the implementation process and set up the security in your organisation quickly and quietly.

Less sophisticated tools resulting in a slower implementation.

The instant graphs afforded by the GUI give the administrator a powerful tool for assessing risks, trends and assists the decision-making process.

Not available.

The workstation-based GUI allows you to print to a local or network printer sidestepping out-queues and System i5 printing resources.

System-based printing only.

Reports can be saved for later viewing and analysis in Excel.

User scope and operational expertise.

Look at the kind of users who will need to access the system. Firstly, there are administrators who are neither ex-programmers nor experts in OS/400. Secondly, there are auditors. Both kinds of user will find a Windows-based application familiar and comfortable to work with.

Non-programmers and auditors will find the green-screen environment less familiar and less user-friendly than the GUI.

Alerts on PC and email.

The PC-based alert server allows you to pop-up instant alerts on any PC anywhere in the world and to send them as email messages. All built into the product.

You would need to port your alert application to other products.

Scope of functionality.

Bsafe/Enterprise Security takes the degree of functionality further due to its use of a GUI interface. To maximize the benefit of the GUI, the Bsafe product includes entire security and auditing functions like the user profile manager, system audit and policy manager, journal control port control, object authority definition and system inquiries.

This scope of functionality is not seen in comparative green-screen products.

On top of all the benefits achieved by using the graphical user interface, the Bsafe/Enterprise Security GUI holds one additional card towards quick control and understanding of the security tasks in question. At the click of a button from any screen, you display instant and intuitive context-sensitive help with hyperlinks to connected topics.

Slower, duller and without pictures