Top OS/400 Stories from Around the Web

(IT Jungle) The reason we have roadmaps is to see farther than the horizon. We find it useful to know what's ahead that we can't see from where we are. Our best guesses, unfortunately, are not always correct. Thank you, Rand McNally for helping us get from Tucson to Tucumcari or Tehachapi to Tonopah. When it comes to product roadmaps, things are not quite as tidy and concise. And when we're talking about IBM and its System i . . . well, we'll take what we can get, but Rand McNally this is not. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Building a successful data warehouse allows users to hit a target that no one ever saw before. But accomplishing it is no shot in the dark, even though some are going about it with the lights turned off. A data warehouse can be simple. It can be complex. But it absolutely depends on better data than most companies presently have in their possession. READ MORE >

(Forbes) Will technology solve the problem of too much unusable data? No. Not all by itself. (See previous story) And that's just not my opinion. It comes from no less of a source than Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive for the IBM software group. It's up to business managers to determine what data holds value and how specific company functions can profit from obtaining that valuable data. It's data that companies have and aren't using and data that companies aren't even collecting. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Cloud computing promotes the image of big, puffy, white clouds and sunny summer days. But cloud computing can be dark and stormy, too. The black clouds are heavy with worries over security. And what about those cloudless days? Where are the clouds that have databases, Web servers, and support for applications coded in RPG? Somewhere over the rainbow? Guess again. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Thorny business challenges should be relegated to things like equipment purchases, inventory reductions, and forecasting market fluctuations. Eliminating employees and bringing economic turmoil to a personal level goes far beyond thorny. When decisions get made because of the impact on Wall Street simply outweighs the impact on Main Street, business challenges are not being met, regardless of what the shareholders say. Have you seen IBM on the "Best Companies to Work for List"? Don't bother looking. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Whatever happened to the iSeries change management software vendor SoftLanding Systems? Prior to being purchased two and a half years ago, SoftLanding was a well-known and respected member of the AS/400 community. Since that time, they've pretty much become invisible, except as an occasional subject to be found on the rumor grapevine. Breaking that long silence, the company, now a part of UNICOM Systems, announced it is ready to be a one-stop shop for all enterprise computing customers. READ MORE >

Vendor Announcements, Promotions, and Deals

(IT Jungle) It's only a matter of time before unified communications unplugs organizations from their old PBX phone systems. And that time frame is getting shorter. The fuse has been lit, even in the System i installed base where you can bet it will burn a little slower. Combining software-powered customer service with phone systems running on servers is the future. Here's an example of innovation in action. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Innovation is alive and well in the terminal emulation business. Some people may be surprised, some will be unfazed, others will be ready to put it into play. What's to get excited about? Let's look at three areas: virtualization, security, and customization. Here's how you can streamline the information worker's experience. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Many companies have used e-mail as a convenient method to reduce the cost of distributing reports to employees, partners, and customers. And many of those have eventually locked horns with Internet service providers that require customers to utilize e-mail authentication. Authenticated e-mails are positively identified and therefore easily separated from e-mail sent by spammers and other cyber bandits and bad guys. One reoccurring problem: your IBM System i may not support e-mail authentication. What next? READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) As barcode scanner capabilities expand, the amount of information contained in barcodes grows right along with it. So what you get are longer and larger barcode labels. Maybe that's not a big deal if you are shipping large packages, but some documents also carry barcodes and if more information could be included in a smaller amount of space, it would be useful in this instance. Here's something that might help. READ MORE >

(MCPress) Some might call autonomic computing the holy grail. After all, systems and networks that are completely self-configuring and self-healing pretty much allows us to turn out the lights and go home, right? Although we're not to the point of eliminating human intervention, reducing intervention is a big benefit. IBM's Lotus Foundations has scored autonomic points, but you decide whether it's living up to the hype that autonomics represents. READ MORE >

Redbooks, White Papers, and Other OS/400 Resources

(Coglin Mill) Building a data warehouse, a data mart, or architecting a business intelligence reporting system relies on converting the data now collected, as well as some that's not being collected, and making it into useful data. This white paper discusses data quality issues and provides remedies based on using the company's software. READ MORE >

(looksoftware) Many application modernization projects have goals such as reducing costs and increasing productivity. Compared to replacing a significant number of applications or even an entire ERP system, a popular alternative is to reuse existing code and deliver Web services. This video presentation shows examples and demonstrations of System i applications being reused and extended with smart, thin and mobile user interfaces. Company software is featured. READ MORE >

(GMAN Tech) Good programming relies more on understanding the process than the use of any single language. If you're a programmer, you understand that at the end of the day all that matters is getting things done. This is the philosophy that guides Bruce Guetzkow, and this is his Website where he shares his System i development skills with others READ MORE >

(IBM Lotus) This white paper is a guide to the newly released Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5. It covers everything you would expect in terms of mail, contacts, calendar, and security, but it also examines new features such as Domino Attachment and Object Service, the Notes ID Vault and Shared login, disk I/O reduction, and the latest features in iNotes. 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 29 -- Webcast - Two online sessions on IBM i and i5/OS security compliance topics will cover best practices and reducing costs in the compliance process. The first one-hour session, "Encryption - Your Last Line of Defense," will be presented by Bob Luebbe, president of Linoma Software. It will begin at 1 p.m. EST. It will be followed at 2 p.m. EST by a one-hour session, "Attaining and Maintaining the Compliance Lifestyle," presented by Carol Woodbury, president of SkyView Partners. LEARN MORE >

January 29 -- Webinar - Increasing data visibility, streamlining business processes, and reducing costs by connecting multiple databases and servers through business application mashups is the topic of this online session. Particular focus will be given to gaining a composite view of customers, orders, product, and inventory that are confined to silos in their current application configuration. LANSA Product Marketing Manager David Brault and two individuals from System i organizations that have implemented application mashup programs will be presenting the material. The event begins at 1 p.m. CST. LEARN MORE >

February 10 -- Webinar - Increasing data visibility, streamlining business processes, and reducing costs by connecting multiple databases and servers through business application mashups is the topic of this online session. Particular focus will be given to gaining a composite view of customers, orders, product, and inventory that are confined to silos in their current application configuration. LANSA Product Marketing Manager David Brault and two individuals from System i organizations that have implemented application mashup programs will be presenting the material. The event begins at 1 p.m. CST. LEARN MORE >

February 11 -- Webinar - Every IT person in your company thinks he or she needs to have security officer capability. But the next time the auditors look at your system, they'll think otherwise. How do you satisfy both? In this presentation, John Earl, director of security technology at PowerTech, will demonstrate a tool that provides programmers with the capability to deal with both sides of this dilemma. The session begins at 11 a.m. PST. LEARN MORE >

February 12 -- Maryland Heights, Missouri - Daniel Hiebert, a software engineer with IBM Systems and Technology Group, will discuss Web services on IBM i at the monthly meeting of the Gateway/400 Group, an iSeries user group serving the greater St. Louis area. The meeting time is 11:30 a.m. with lunch at noon and the presentation following lunch. RSVP no later than Monday before the meeting date. LEARN MORE >

February 17 -- Madison, Wisconsin - An DB2 Web Query for System i, IBM's replacement for Query/400 will be the topic of Madison Area Midrange Systems Users Group meeting this month. Guest speaker is Jackie Jensen, the IBM i solutions manager at Information Builders. Her presentation will cover the creation of dashboards, analyzing reports, and the migration or conversion of Query/400 applications to DB2 Web Query. Get to the meeting at 8 a.m. and you'll get some coffee and donuts. The session begins at 8:30. The location is Fiskers restaurant on the corner of Pflaum Road and Daniels Street. LEARN MORE >

February 19 -- Costa Mesa, California - RPG experts Susan Gantner and Jon Paris will present two sessions at the monthly meeting of the OCEAN User Group. The first session, at 5 p.m., will highlight application modernization strategies from Web enablement to new application development. The second session, at 7 p.m., will uncover new tricks for old RPG dogs. Between the two sessions is dinner and networking with peers. The OCEAN User Group serves the greater Orange County, California, area and meets the third Tuesday of each month. Meetings are held at the IBM offices located at 3545 Harbor Blvd. LEARN MORE >

February 24 -- Oak Brook, Illinois - The annual OMNI User Technical Conference will be held at the Drury Lane Theater and Conference Center. This conference is one of the largest System i local user group training and education conferences in the country. It features timely and cutting edge topics presented by national and local experts, as well as a vendor expo. LEARN MORE >