Top OS/400 Stories from Around the Web

(IT Jungle) What's your IT road map for 2011 and beyond? CIOs at midrange shops are sizing up new technologies that will solve business problems based on this recently released report completed for IBM. IT infrastructure improvements are a top priority with collaboration, business analytics, and business performance management applications getting the "most wanted" attention. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Which thaws first this year . . . the IT job market or the lakes in Minnesota? Although these reports are not IBM i specific, and you probably are, indications from two of the largest professional recruitment companies point to mostly sunny days ahead for experienced IT professionals. Those who have gone years with little or no financial rewards are looking to change companies. And the largest companies will scoop up the best available talent. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) It's a lot more comfortable sitting on the NASDAQ Composite with that 20 percent cushion that was installed during 2010. Yes, it was a good year for tech investors. And that includes those with close ties to the IBM Power Systems i environment. Here's a look at how some of the public companies in this community fared. READ MORE >

(IBM Systems Magazine) I hear a lot of criticisms about Big Blue's lack of effort in telling the business world about the benefits of the IBM i operating system. If there wasn't something to that, there'd be no iManifest. Steve Will is one IBMer who is willing to pick up the torch. He does a lot of preaching to the choir, but occasionally spreads the word beyond the flock. READ MORE >

(MCPress) The OCEAN user group, based out of Orange County, California, recently hosted a training session on PHP and open source content management systems. More than 60 OCEAN members attended, which seems to indicate a far-reaching interest in the areas of application modernization, Web development, and enhancing the value of Power Systems. READ MORE >

Vendor Announcements, Promotions, and Deals

(IT Jungle) Virtual tape libraries are not inexpensive, but they reduce several cost factors and workflow bottlenecks. A few that come to mind are tape mounts (VTLs are disk-to-disk), third-party tape storage facilities, and in most cases they reduce or even eliminate the number of tapes required. And don't leave out the de-duplication features when giving VTLs consideration. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) A few weeks ago, Four Hundred Monitor pointed readers to a story about Oracle killing IBM i-related development and technical support related to MySQL. IBM i developers are unlikely to miss Oracle in the least. They're a hearty crew for the most part and they find the open source community support suits them just fine. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) I doubt I'm the only one whose skepticism throws a shadow on crowd-sourced product reviews. I think it's too tempting for companies to hire a posse of "reviewers" to write good things about their products and bad things about their competitors. Still, the idea of Security Scoreboard is very interesting and worth watching--with a critical eye, of course. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) A good enterprise job scheduler allows workloads to be managed across multiple platforms. Along with IBM i, it might be wise to manage workloads on Windows, Linux, Unix, mainframe, OpenVMS, and even Mac OS. It also provides flexibility by allowing schedules to be time-based, trigger-based, or built around several types of constraints. READ MORE >

Redbooks, White Papers, and Other OS/400 Resources

(Vision Solutions) The latest research pertaining to companies using disaster recovery and availability technologies to protect and recover physical, virtualized, and cloud environments is contained in this 20-page research paper. It's based on the findings of more than 6,000 in-depth surveys taken by your IT peers during 2010. READ MORE >

(looksoftware) This archived webcast provides an overview of popular handheld devices and how they can be used to access IBM i applications quickly, safely and securely. Examples of successful customer deployments and the modernization of IBM i applications are showcased. iPads, iPhones and Android devices get most of the attention. READ MORE >

(Townsend Security) More than a dozen white papers on security-related topics such as encryption, tokenization, key management, and compliance can be found under the "RESOURCES" menu tab on this vendor's website. There's decision-making help in comparing options, an emphasis on reducing data loss risk, and reports for the technical and executive readers. READ MORE >

(RJS Software) For those interested in electronic document management, here's a video with voice over explaining the product features of the RJS document management solution. Although product specific, it doesn't sound like a sales pitch and it explains the benefits of a document management system and what the various features can provide. The presentation was created as a Flash video and should be viewable on most operating systems. READ MORE >

(IBM) Big Blue is celebrating 100 years as a corporation. On this website you'll find a nicely done 13-minute video titled "100 x 100." It has 100 people talking about 100 IBM ideas, inventions, and achievements. Yes, the AS/400 makes the cut. There are other stories to be found here, including a video message from IBM chairman, president, and CEO Sam Palmisano. READ MORE >

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

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

January 30-February 3 -- Orlando, Florida - Lotusphere, the biggest Lotus event of each year, brings together developers, administrators, IT and business professionals looking for collaborative software and solutions. It includes presentations on the hottest innovations, hands-on training, and networking discussions, as well as the latest word on Lotus products and strategy. LEARN MORE >

February 8 -- Fort Wayne, Indiana - This meeting of the STATUS Midrange User Group will feature a presentation on RPG pointer variables, which are used to create data structures and arrays. Guest speaker will be Dave Roehling, a local programmer and a former STATUS scholarship winner with 25 years of applications programming experience. The meeting will be held at Don Hall's Guesthouse located at 1313 West Washington Center Road. It begins at 7:30 a.m. LEARN MORE >

February 9 -- Trevose, Pennsylvania - Programming Technologies for System i will be a one-day educational event presented by programming expert Don Denoncourt. The agenda includes sessions on cloud computing, REST and Web Services, Regular Expressions, CSS and Page Design standards, JavaScript and Ajax, XML and JSON, Source Control, and Agile and Extreme Programming. Denoncourt is systems and Web consultant and lecturer focusing on Java, Groovy, Grails, and PHP development and specializing on integration with Power Systems running IBM i. The course fee is $285 for non-user group members and $250 for user group members. LEARN MORE >

February 10 -- Milwaukee, Wisconsin - IBM's DB2 Web Query gets the spotlight at the monthly meeting of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association. Guest speaker is Jackie Jensen, a long-time IBMer currently with Information Builders, the software company behind the DB2 Web Query technology. Jensen will discuss Web Query tips, techniques and performance, and also provide an overview of product enhancements. Two sessions are on the agenda. The first begins at 4:30 p.m. The second begins at 7:30. In between is dinner and networking with the members. LEARN MORE >

February 10 -- Maryland Heights, Missouri - IBM's Greg Hintermeister will discuss Systems Director for IBM i at the monthly meeting of the Gateway/400 Group, a System i user group serving the greater St. Louis area. The meeting begins with lunch at noon and the presentation following lunch. RSVP no later than the Monday before the meeting date. LEARN MORE >