Top OS/400 Stories from Around the Web

(IT Jungle) Viral marketing is a lot like what we used to call word of mouth advertising, which was always cited as being the best of all advertising presumably because you were getting it from a friend as opposed to a stranger who might not have your best interests in mind. The king of viral marketing these days is the quirky video that has the appearance of being homemade, even when big companies like IBM are responsible. They are entertaining and they get passed around, especially among a younger crowd that likely has never heard of a System i. That's good and it's bad, too. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Glass hammers and concrete parachutes still top the worst ideas of all time list, but IBM's introduction of WebSphere Development Studio Client (WDSc) Version 7.0 Standard Edition without two key features--Screen Designer and Application Diagram--may have moved into third place. After you read what these folks have to say, you might even think it deserves a higher ranking. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) As you know, the System i has not been doing so well lately in the revenue-generating department. Of course, this is a relative statement. System i generates quite a tidy sum of revenue. It's just not as good as it used to be. And that's not good if your job performance is based on revenue comparisons to last quarter and last year. So, if you were responsible for boosting revenue, what might you do? Here's a hint. It has something to do with maintenance fees. READ MORE >

(MCPress) IBM's VIP program is an attempt to return to the glory days of the AS/400 when sales and marketing of that product flourished. The strategy involves intensifying the sales and marketing efforts with packaged solutions for specifically targeted industries, also known as vertical niches. By now you might have guessed that VIP is an acronym for Vertical Industry Program. IBM's stated goal is to combine the best solutions and the best team of business partners in 80 vertical markets and dominate them like the AS/400 used to do. READ MORE >

(Insider Weekly) The cyber ink was flowing this week on the topic of those System i videos that can be seen on YouTube.com and in Web advertising campaigns that show up in places like the Diggnation podcast. Yes, reaching out to a younger audience is a great idea (not to mention long overdue), but what do the young System i professionals think about these videos as well as other ways to reach the so-called "Intel Generation"? READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) After a considerable amount of talking, a new transaction processing benchmark is finally seeing the light of day. It is the first test with standardized code that available to anyone in the IT community with the goal of gauging system performance. Compared to the well-worn TPC-C test that has been manipulated by vendors for years, this TPC-E test will level the playing field rather than let each tester establish its own field. READ MORE >

(System iNetwork) In case you were wondering, midrange servers are not going to disappear any time soon. The System i remains popular within its large installed base, despite its lack of revenue growth as noted in recent IBM financial reports. The midrange market, however, continues to be squeezed from servers that are maturing from the low end and becoming less complex on the high end. READ MORE >

(eWeek) Business intelligence meets the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Now there's a concept I wish I had heard about one week earlier before the opening round of games and in time to help me fill out my brackets. Although this is just a clever and timely way to show off the virtues of predictive analytical software, it also makes the point that any business that has quantitative data can benefit from BI. READ MORE >

Vendor Announcements, Promotions, and Deals

(IT Jungle) The blending of high availability products resulting from the merger between Vision Solutions and iTera continues to be seen with the latest release of ORION Data Center Edition version 2.1, which is scheduled to become generally available in May. The continued "cross pollination" of technologies will ultimately lead to a converged product, but company president Nicolaas Vlok says there will be no forced upgrades during the process. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Infor has a boatload of ERP software packages that have been acquired over the years. BPCS, MAPICS, Baan, and Infinium make up only a partial list. It also has an SOA strategy, and that calls for a lot of integration work so that its 70,000-plus customers can get onboard with SOA without adding more complexity, which is always a stated goal for integration projects. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Business intelligence sounds like a great oxymoron to me. I prefer to think of it as quantitative data analysis. I know, that sounds a bit stuffy and maybe just as preposterous. But you know what is really preposterous? Depending on Query400 for data analysis. It's a good thing that IBM has a better plan in the works. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Based on the unwillingness of many companies to go there, you'd think that application modernization carries with it the curse of the mummy. C'mon, open up the ancient application development tomb. It doesn't have to be a big step into the darkness. Incremental progress can make this a lot less frightening. But the key is to maintain your progress and avoid dead ends. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Companies with warehouse management software running on iSeries or System i servers know all about terminal emulation. They should also know about a "pool license server" and how it can simplify deployment of host-based terminal emulation in certain distributed environments. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Safe as a walk in the park used to be a description for as safe as you could be. Now parks aren't all that safe and (OK, I'm getting to the point) neither is unencrypted data. If I could show you a utility with features that you could actually be put to use and a price that is more comfortable than many of the other encryption options, would you walk this way? READ MORE >

Redbooks, White Papers, and Other OS/400 Resources

(IBM) System administrators planning to implement or upgrade to Domino 7 for i5/OS in their organization should have a look at this draft redbook from IBM. It provides tips and techniques for deploying and administering Domino 7 servers on i5/OS and explains the installation, configuration, and performance tuning of Domino 7 in this environment. It also provides information on moving Domino servers to the System i platform as well information on backup and recovery and troubleshooting Domino 7 servers running on i5/OS. READ MORE >

(Cape Clear) If you are involved in a service oriented architecture project, you might find this beta program interesting, particularly if you navigating in a swamp of complexity. Cape Clear, a software vendor with a reputation based on its enterprise service bus platform, is seeking feedback on its Eclipse-based productivity tool known as Studio 7.0. READ MORE >

(Lakeview Technology) SOA creates high-level business services that rely on many technologies. It also poses new risks to business continuity This white paper takes a look at automated resiliency against unexpected interruptions and planned system downtime for key SOA technologies. READ MORE >

(Vision Solutions) On August 10, 2006, at the height of Towne Air Freight's business day, every interactive session on every active desktop device throughout the organization froze. "We operate 700 trucks and generate $110 million a year in business, so this was defnitely a big deal," says John Loughran, the company's IT Operations Manager and Disaster Recovery Coordinator. Check out this case study and see how the story ends. READ MORE >

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

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

March 22 -- Chat Session - An online presentation featuring topics ranging from RPG, ILE, SQL, DB2, and WDSc and featuring experts Susan Gantner, Skip Marchesani, Paul Tuohy and Jon Paris will be presented live from Las Vegas, where a conference on these topics--the RPG & DB2 Summit--is taking place. The event, which will be conducted in a question and answer format, begins at 12:30 PDT. LEARN MORE >

March 22 -- Webcast - This 60-minute session presented by Tim Rowe of IBM demonstrates two recently added features to the IBM Web Administration for i5/OS console: Web performance advisor and Web performance monitor. Rowe will cover how to easily measure and analyze performance on WebSphere Application Server-based solutions running on System i. Details on WebSphere Application Server performance monitoring capabilities that have been recently added to i5/OS Collection Services will also be discussed. Registration is free to both COMMON user group members and nonmembers. The event begins at noon CT. LEARN MORE >

March 26-28 -- Wakefield, Massachusetts - Three days of System i education and training, featuring more than 80 sessions and 10 hands-on labs will be presented during the Northeast iSeries and AS/400 User Group Conference, hosted by the eight user groups of that region. Keynote speaker will be Dr. Frank Soltis, chief scientist for the System i. The event is being held at the Sheraton Colonial Hotel, and it includes a vendor expo. LEARN MORE >

March 28 -- Webinar - Session four of a five-session Webcast on open-source software solutions for System i presented by Jim Mason of ebt-now is being hosted by the COMMON user group. The discussion focuses on ways to maximize the return on investment on the System i technology without the need for additional software by using proven, open-source solutions. The agenda includes sessions on Web workspaces, Office integration, Web database applications, and Web reports. The earlier sessions were presented on consecutive Wednesdays during March. The event begins at noon and concludes at 1:15 p.m. CT. LEARN MORE >

March 30-April 2 -- Houston, Texas - The i5/OS Hartley Racing Team--headed by Allen Hartley, owner of ProData Computer Services--will be lining up their 330-mph pro fuel dragster at the O'Reilly Spring Nationals. Allen's son, Joe, will be at the wheel and competing against the fastest, quarter-mile race cars in the world. Time trials are run Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The final round of the 16 fastest cars compete on Sunday. For more information on the racing Hartleys, go to the iDigDrags Web site where you can also find a link to the National Hot Rod Association and info about the Spring Nationals racing event. LEARN MORE >

April 3 -- Nashville, Tennessee - "Beyond the Basics with SQL," a one-day seminar presented by Skip Marchesani will combine a lecture and live demonstrations in a six-hour workshop to illustrate the more complex SQL concepts and functions. This event is sponsored by the local user group, IMUG, and the COMMON user group. The event get under way at 8:45 a.m. and concludes at 4 p.m. LEARN MORE >