Moving to Chrome/OS Web Terminal Emulation With Inventu

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In 2019, a distributor with a very comprehensive AS400/IBMi application in the Auto Parts business chose to move users to Chrome/OS instead of Windows 10 as support for Windows 7 ran out. They were also unhappy with their existing TN5250 desktop terminal emulator vendor, who had not extended support for the existing software past the Windows 7 platform.

During the Free Trial Period, Inventu Support worked on supporting the users so that their transition from their desktop terminal emulator would be smooth. A variety of specific 5250 keyboard behaviors were fine-tuned in Inventu Viewer+'s FVTerm so that keystroking would not be changed and the speed of users not impacted.

Before Inventu was asked to help with a free trial, another web terminal emulator had been tested and had serious reliability problems with Web Sockets with remote offices or home users. FVTerm Web Sockets had no difficulty as they have been tested and built-out in very challenging customer environments. FVTerm Web Sockets will even gracefully degrade to using traditional AJAX HTTP requests as a backup when Web Sockets experience errors.

Along with Chrome/OS the customer is a Google G-Suite account and all users were enjoying single sign-on using Google Sign-In. Inventu worked with the account and added support for Google Sign-In along with full integration with the Google organizational administration Application Programming Interfaces (API's). This allowed the integration of Organizational Units and Groups in the access definitions for the FVTerm application. As a result, there is close control over who can access the FVTerm terminal emulator based on membership to a group created specifically to define FVTerm access.

A license feature offered exclusively by Inventu in the Web Terminal Emulator market is the Concurrent User License. This was chosen as a very cost-effective option as the distributor's users typically have three open terminal emulation sessions at one time. With a concurrent session licensing model, the per-user cost would be prohibitive, unlike many customers who have a 1-to-1 ratio of users to sessions.

All put together, support for Google Sign-In and Security Groups; full 5250 functionality; Per-Concurrent-User licensing and reliable network support created a successful trial and a Chrome/OS Web Terminal Emulation Success!

Want to Learn more? Ask us or simply install and go!