Governments and big users around the world are growing increasingly paranoid – and with reason – about computer security, and in an announcement that came late last week and went quite unnoticed, IBM has made an important enhancement to VM/XA Release 2, which it describes as its premier VM operating system. The key addition is new security features, designed to meet US Department of Defense requirements for C2 level Security. The release containing the new security features became available this week and costs a one-time $118,100 or $4,015 a month on a 4381 to $293,400 or $5,430 a month on a 3090-600S. IBM has submitted a request for evaluation of the new features to the US National Computer Security Center, but warns that there is no commitment that the centre will evaluate the system, nor any forecast of when it might be placed on the evaluated product list. In addition, with the new release, IBM is offering VM/XA SP Release 2 manuals in soft copy – electronic – form with no licence charge. They are available in two formats – displayable and source code.
