News and Reviews

Isode announces AMHS Server Solution supported by 8 key industry partners.

Isode, the London-based supplier of email and directory server products, today announced the release of version 10.2 of its X.400 message transfer and message store products and X.500 directory server.

(LONDON. - December 17, 2003) - AMHS (Aeronautical Message Handling System) defined by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Authority) is the new standard for message handling in ground to ground communications between airports, air traffic control facilities and airline companies and is gradually replacing existing systems based on the older AFTN standard.

In this critical and specialised market robustness amongst the component parts of an AMHS solution is vital. Isode's server products are ideally suited to this market and form a key element of AMHS solutions offered to civil and military aviation by leading solution providers in this market including; Airtel ATN of Ireland, Avitech and Comsoft of Germany, Artemis and Boldon James of the UK, RadioCom of Argentina and BCI and GWDI of the USA.

Conformance and Robustness

In the latest releases of M-Vault, M-Store X.400 and M-Switch X.400, Isode has added significant extra functionality to address the evolving demands of AMHS solution providers.

Failover clustering support has been added with configurations for Windows, Linux and Solaris. These servers can now be operated in a hot-standby configuration enabling the continuation of operations should the primary system fail.

Logging and auditing has been extended to achieve compliance with ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices, including all protocol capabilities required for basic compliance and some extended elements.

AMHS Integration

X.400 provides an extensive and powerful set of features, not all of which are directly applicable to the requirements of AMHS. A new X.400 integration API, shipped with 10.2 provides a simple cross-platform abstraction of X.400 functionality to meet the needs of AMHS application. The API can be deployed in three ways:

For use in situations where the AMHS solution requires storage services, the API enables an AMHS application to access M-Store X.400, using the X.400 P7 protocol.
For AMHS solutions that have their own storage and wish to transfer messages over AMHS without a message store overhead, the API provides protocol access to M-Switch X.400, using the X.400 P3 protocol.
Where there is a need to access X.400 functionality to enable an AMHS/AFTN or AMHS/CDIN gateway solutions. Isode does not supply gateways, but provides X.400 functionality which makes it straightforward for partners to offer gateway products.

Isode CEO, Steve Kille said: "As a key component supplier to solutions providers in the AMHS arena, Isode is determined to ensure that the X.400 products we provide help our partners to continue to secure market share in this fiercely competitive market."

"Our new X.400 product releases help our partners to maintain the lead they have built up in supplying both AMHS services and integration between AMHS and legacy AFTN systems."

The Isode launch is supported worldwide by 8 Isode Partners, each prominent in the AMHS market:

Airtel
Artemis
Avitech AG
BCI
Boldon James
Comsoft
GWDI
Radiocom

Details on the partners supporting this launch can be found on the Isode website here.

About Isode

Isode is a software product company, originally established in 1992. Its M-Vault (LDAP Directory Server) and M-Switch (SMTP Message Switch) are used around the world by Multinational Corporations, Government Departments, ISPs, and Universities including BT Ignite, Federal Bridge Certification Authority, Novis Telecom, EDS, PTM.com, Queens University Belfast, Steria Limited, Her Majestys Government Computing Centre (HMGCC), Leeds Learning and The Government of Alberta.

Contact Information

Isode
+44 (20) 8783 0203

Wednesday, December 17th, 2003

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