Micro Focus Acquires Liant for COBOL and PL/I Tools
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Well, from the looks of things, the market for COBOL compilers and related tools to extend COBOL applications to the Web is coming down to three big players--IBM, Micro Focus, and Fujitsu and a few smaller ones--Envyr, Infinite Software, LegacyJ, and Veryant. We're down to six players because late last week, Micro Focus continued its acquisition binge and bought Liant Software. READ MORE >

Top Mainframe Stories from Around the Web

(Market Watch) When IBM releases its second quarter financial report this week, it is expected that sales of zSeries servers will be particularly noteworthy. How much credit can be given to attributes such as virtualization capabilities, reduced energy consumption, and the centralized computing model, will be left to the analysts to debate. READ MORE >

(ComputerWeekly) Evidence that mainframes can do more work per kilowatt of electricity consumed than clusters of Unix and Windows servers is being presented by the research and analysis firm Robert Frances Group. Is this likely to rekindle an interest in mainframe computing? One Gartner analyst says: "I think it would be a brave user who would consider replacing Unix servers with mainframes running Linux." READ MORE >

(Mainframe) Running Linux on the mainframe has its supporters and detractors. Disagreements like this used to be settled with pistols after 10 paces, but there's much less mess to clean up when using dueling blogs. READ MORE >

(Intelligent Enterprise) Hot aisle/cold aisle has been a data center practice since the turn of the century. It entails server racks positioned in rows with cold-air intakes all facing one aisle, hot-air exhausts the other. Physical barriers separate the hot- or cold-aisle airflow. Seems as though the idea that was once thought of as pretty cool is now taking some heat.READ MORE >

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

See our full calendar of events at
http://www.itjungle.com/big/big-calendar.html

August 10-15 -- San Jose, California - Service oriented architectures and the "SOA journey" as well as server virtualization and the benefits that big iron provides in terms of efficiency and reducing energy consumption are the key topics that will be discussed at the next SHARE user group meeting and expo, held in the heart of Silicon Valley. LEARN MORE >

August 25-28 -- Chicago, Illinois - The IBM Energy Efficiency Initiative takes center stage at the "See Blue, Think Green" Technical Conference that brings together technical experts and business leaders. Sessions will concentrate on best practices in energy efficiency, innovative power and cooling technologies, and eco-friendly asset disposal services. There will also be technical sessions and hands on labs featuring IBM's most recent System announcements (including Power Systems, Mainframe Systems, Storage System, and Modular Systems) to present platform-specific topics. LEARN MORE >

October 13-17 -- Las Vegas, Nevada - The IBM System z Expo will include more than 300 sessions featuring z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE, and Linux on System z. There will be an emphasis on the z10 Enterprise Class server, WebSphere application server, DB2, CICS and IMS support, GDPS and Parallel Sysplex support, service oriented architecture, virtualization, and data center energy efficiency. LEARN MORE >