Browsium Blog

Goodbye IE6, Hello Ion

Posted by: Browsium    Tags:  Home    Posted date:  January 31, 2012

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Today’s introduction of Browsium Ion, makes this a very exciting day for Browsium and our customers. For the past 6 months, we’ve been hard at work on this next-generation solution to help solve IE6 and IE7 dependencies in the enterprise. Browsium Ion is officially available to you today. Everyone who has previously evaluated our UniBrows product is gearing up to take a close look its successor, Ion. The differences between UniBrows and Ion make this innovative, new product a true game-changer.

What’s New with Browsium Ion

New features and capabilities
Ion builds on our first-generation product, UniBrows with many additional features including completely redesigned administration tools to put even more power, granular control, and compatibility management directly in the hands of enterprise IT. Ion was created using our proven, patent-pending technology which enables you to run any browser engine, version-specific add-ons, and custom security settings inside any browser tab. As with UniBrows, Ion is focused on enabling enterprises to run IE6- and IE7-dependent web applications in IE8 or IE9, thus unblocking upgrades to Windows 7.

Unmatched manageability, compatibility, and control, but with a twist
In a major departure from our first generation solution, Ion uses only the browser engines built into IE8 and IE9 – it does not include the IE6 engine used in UniBrows. We recognized the challenges our customers faced compiling installers using the UniBrows Prep Tool and the limited upgrade path of the legacy IE6 engine. As we planned our roadmap for our next-generation product, we wanted to tackle those core issues, as well as increase our ability to provide better compatibility for more complex enterprise web applications. The result of our efforts was a set of innovations that led to a much better solution – one that addresses those version one challenges while also removing all of the confusion around Microsoft licensing policies on the use of the IE6 engine on Windows 7.

Key innovations deliver IE6 compatibility without requiring the IE6 engine
These innovations include the Adaptive IE Quirks Profile, which intelligently chooses between IE Quirks Mode and IE7 Standards rendering, and a powerful new String Replacement feature that overrides HTML, JavaScript or CSS from the client browser in real time with no need for server-side code changes. These features, when combined with Profile settings and management features from the previous Browsium solution, such as disabling Data Execution Prevention and Java version redirection, eliminate the need for the IE6 engine entirely.

During the past several months of Ion beta testing, our customers have reported excellent results with applications like Siebel, Hyperion, Brio, and Clarify running seamlessly using Ion in IE8 and IE9. In fact, we have yet to come across an enterprise application that Ion cannot handle. The power of this tool means we can dispel the notion that IE6-dependent applications require the IE6 engine to run properly. Instead Ion provides the granular management and control to make any legacy application work properly in modern versions of Internet Explorer.

Start your Ion Technical Evaluation Today with the Free Ion 60-day Evaluation Kit

If your organization is looking for a solution to your IE6 (or IE7) dependency, or you just want to give Ion a try to see what it can do to help you manage your business-critical web applications, then be sure to download the Free Ion 60-day Evaluation Kit. If you’ve filled out our form in the past, you don’t need to sign up again. You should have already received an email from us with a link to your eval kit. Email sales@browsium.com if you can’t find it.

Thank you for your continued advocacy for Browsium products within your organization. We look forward to helping you with a successful Ion evaluation and deployment.