A great deal of organizational data is managed on host and mini computer systems by DB2 products such as DB2 for MVS/ESA, DB2 for VSE & VM, and DB2 for OS/400. With Distributed Database Connection Services (DDCS), applications running on any of the supported client platforms can work with this data transparently, as if it were managed by DB2 Common Server. You no longer have to download data from a host database to your local database for your client applications.

DDCS connects you to your data wherever it is.

DDCS provides the connection by implementing the DRDA protocol to allow desktop and workstation applications to work with DB2 servers on host systems. DRDA is the most widely implemented protocol for use in a distributed environment, and has been adopted by all the leading suppliers of relational database management systems.

DDCS can connect your favorite desktop applications to corporate data. Tools like Lotus Approach**, Lotus 1-2-3**, Lotus Notes**, Microsoft Access**, Intersolv Q+E Database Editor, Crystal Reports, and many others can work with DB2 products such as DB2 for MVS/ESA, DB2 for VSE & VM, and DB2 for OS/400.

Additionally, your can turn DB2 for MVS/ESA, DB2 for VSE & VM, and DB2 for OS/400 into enterprise database servers so you can use popular tools such as VisualAge, VisualGen, PowerBuilder, VisualBasic, and SQL Windows to develop applications that are fully integrated with your existing enterprise data.

DDCS comes in two versions: Single User and Multi-User Gateway. In the single-user version, local clients on the DDCS workstation can acess the host. DDCS Single User is available on OS/2 and Windows NT platforms.

The Multi-User Gateway provides a managed gateway for remote clients to access host databases. DDCS Multi-User Gateway is available on OS/2, Windows NT, AIX, HP-UX, SINIX, SCO OpenServer, and the Solaris Operating Environment.

In addition to the communications support, DDCS contains the following components:

* Not available on all platforms.