Abstract

Microsoft Corp. commissioned The Tolly Group to evaluate the performance and efficiency of several 5250 access approaches. The testing focused on scalability as measured by end user response time, AS/400 CPU utilization, and wide area network efficiency. Three client connectivity scenarios were compared: Microsoft’s SNA Server, IBM’s AnyNet, and industry standard TN5250 (all client code as implemented in Wall Data’s RUMBA). Furthermore, The Tolly Group evaluated the performance of database access over an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) connection to the AS/400.

Results show that as client loading increases, the SNA Server approach delivers better end-user response time than either of the other two methods. In all test scenarios, SNA Server delivers excellent response time with a minimal usage of AS/400 CPU resources.