Top OS/400 Stories from Around the Web

(IT Jungle) For the System i afficianado who is waiting to upgrade to a Power6 box, a close look at the System p servers, which are first in line for Power6, will provide the answers to many of your questions. In techspeak, the Power6 chip has advancements such as a decimal floating point unit and vector math units. In a more commonly spoken language, Power6 is made to deliver loads of memory and I/O bandwidth that can keep high performance processors well fed with data. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Server sales revenue and shipments continued to rise during the first quarter of 2007 according to statistics compiled by Gartner and IDC. It's the highest first quarter revenue level since 2001, according to the server sleuthhounds at IDC. On the Gartner side, the total number of servers shipped and the percentage of increase compared to the first quarter of 2006 exceeded the IDC numbers. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) PHP Web application development on the System i is not the most well traveled path, but then again, you tell me what Web application development path is well traveled on this platform. In a year or two, PHP could easily be the road of choice. Here's an example of why that may be the truth. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) The similarities between IT managers and carnival vendors might make an interesting list, but rather than go there I'll simply note that if the IT manager was as good at sizing workloads to computers as the carnival vendor is to guessing the size or weight of midway inhabitants, there wouldn't be so many over-capacity computer purchases made. READ MORE >

(MCPress) ERP software delivered as a service is an option small to mid size businesses may find to their liking. Although this article may be selling the concept a little too loudly, it does lay out useful guidelines for those who may be considering it as an option that minimizes the expense of a purchased system and the value compared to no ERP system at all. READ MORE >

Vendor Announcements, Promotions, and Deals

(IT Jungle) Everyone in the System i camp will not be getting in line for the new Power6 machines that are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2008. Some will see the time leading up to the new models as an opportunity to get a deal on the current models. IBM is already offering some incentives to buy now and factor in the savings that these trade-in rebate programs offer. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors are all familiar with product information management. Those that are working to get better at PIM activities have their supply chain eyes on becoming part of the certified data pool, a standards-based repository. Keeping current with the standards, and allowing data synchronization among other organizations, is one of the highest priorities. Here's help. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) i5/OS-based ERP products are the rock upon which the AS/400, iSeries, and System i foundation was built. And where there were once many independent ERP software companies, there are now the consolidators. Their job is to get the acquired installed bases all dancing to the same music. For Infor, one of the biggest i5/OS-based ERP software vendors, it can be seen as an "acquire versus build" product strategy. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Like a virtual shot in the arm for sluggish networks, virtual pipelining promises bandwidth acceleration that will make your online traffic well again. Compared to existing wide area network optimization controllers, users are being told to expect as much as 40 percent improvement in Web applications. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Overconfidence is saying, "Nice doggie" and petting an unfamiliar dog just before he makes your hand look like raw hamburger. I don't like the idea of selling fear, but it seems clear that companies need to get serious about tighter security controls in their IT departments. Rochester is taking a leading role in this at IBM and the other platforms will be following their technological lead. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) It's not exactly like Big Brother, but Big Blue will keep an eye on you. So this is nothing to be paranoid about (don't quote me on that), but when you buy a server or high-end disk array--and while that product is under an IBM warranty or a maintenance agreement--the watchful eye of the Electronic Service Agent will be there to ward off potential problems. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Hardware Management Consoles arrived on the scene when a control stick was needed for managing logical partitioning and capacity on demand (for processor cores and main memory) on multiple Power-based servers. New HMC models have been announced and will become available June 8. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Virtual tape libraries have become part of the consolidation strategies that can hold down the costs of power and cooling in the data center. At the heart of this is the emulation of hundreds of virtual tape libraries, thousands of virtual tape drives, and hundreds of thousands of virtual tape cartridges. READ MORE >

Redbooks, White Papers, and Other OS/400 Resources

(Aldon) This white paper on application lifecycle management is primarily for IBM's WebSphere customers. It examines their development environment and how it can become more interactive and collaborative in parallel development circumstances. READ MORE >

(CCSS) This white paper offers a perspective on the hotly debated availability issue and provides a practical guide to resolving costly incidence of unplanned downtime. It takes the approach that lack of availability is measurable and quantifiable in terms of costs, and that eliminating unplanned downtime requires a roadmap, which this report helps establish. High availability based on software and hardware is included in this discussion. READ MORE >

(IBM) When you think of the System i and the return on investment that you are getting from it, do you take into account the applications that run on it? Are the applications so good and do they run so efficiently (on the hardware and in conjunction with other applications) and with such a high level of automation that it makes the platform a better value than any of the alternatives? This report looks at the System i Vertical Industry Program with a focus on hotels, resorts, and gaming. The application software companies highlighted include Agilysys, Bally Technologies, InfoGenesis, and Infor. READ MORE >

(PowerTech) The data in this report originates from iSeries security assessments conducted during the past 12 months. It may open your eyes to risks that require attention in your own IT department. Confidential information may not be as protected as you think it is. READ MORE >

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

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

June 5 -- Dearborn, Michigan - The Michigan iSeries Technical Education Conference is a one-day education event with more than 50 sessions and 16 industry experts making presentations. The topics include: LPAR, PHP, .NET, WDSc, EGL, SOA, XML, IP telephony, HTML, Web development, SQL, CL, RPG, DB2, Domino, iSeries Access for the Web, security, Java, disaster recovery and more. The event will be held at the Henry Ford Event and Conference Center. A vendor expo is also included. LEARN MORE >

June 6 -- Webinar - Database administration, index management, and the capability to analyze database objects and recommend best practices using software from Centerfield Technology will be the topic of this online session. Managing SQL indexes and logical files on the iSeries and System i get special attention. The benefits of Centerfield's soon-to-be-released HomeRun software will also be highlighted. LEARN MORE >

June 11 -- Atlantic City, New Jersey -- ASNA, iSeries Modernization Technical Seminar. Unlock, extend, and leverage the value of your iSeries to enable business change! This one day iSeries modernization event introduces you to Web Services expands the definition of modernization unravels SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) while explaining how you can use your team's skills to take advantage of all of the benefits of these new technologies. LEARN MORE >

June 14 -- Kent, Washington - The Pacific Midrange Systems Association meeting features an insider's overview of IBM's new security tool called Secure Perspective, software designed to help organizations implement tight, object-level security across their System i servers. Guest speaker is John Earl, a security expert with first-hand experience testing the tool. Earl is the CTO at PowerTech Group. The meeting begins at 11:30 a.m. LEARN MORE >

June 18-22 -- Scottsdale, Arizona - The IBM System i Spring Technical Conference features excellent training sessions on topics ranging from server consolidation and WebSphere to PHP and VoIP. Other topics include: Java Virtual Machine, free-format SQL in RPG applications and enhancements to CL, workload management, and database-performance management and index-maintenance tools. Educational sessions are geared for IS managers, programmers, system analysts, administrators, and operators. LEARN MORE >