Top OS/400 Stories from Around the Web

(IT Jungle) The importance of high availability was boldly underlined once again this week when IBM purchased one of its HA business partners, DataMirror. IBM's director of product strategy for Information Platform and Solutions says data capture and replication technologies in DataMirror's iCluster HA software was the reason for the acquisition. The 2,200 customers that come with the deal also might have been important considering that a huge portion of the System i HA customers have recently congregated under the Vision Solutions high availability tent. READ MORE >

(MCPress) Did Elaine Lennox, IBM's vice president of System i marketing, say that i5/OS was being ported to other platforms? According to this report, the answer is yes. Details are cloudy regarding the specific platforms, but it favors the idea that IBM is close to an announcement regarding running i5/OS on a blade as part of the IBM BladeCenter. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) IBM just put a Big Blue bow on its best second quarter in revenue and profit growth since 2001. That's a nice present to itself and its stockholders. For those of you most interested in sifting out the System i financials, the second quarter was no party. Business was off 15 percent. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Where have all the DB2/400 databases gone? Look at all the chips over on the Oracle side of the table, where nearly half of the relational database revenue is stacked. That pretty much takes the mystery out of that question. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) How's this for a new System i motto: We can't wait until tomorrow, because the i5 515 gets less expensive every day. Not exactly true--at least the everyday part--but constant improvements in the user-based pricing model have certainly been encouraging. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Gateway Technical College is located in the OS/400 heartland. That is to say AS/400, iSeries, and System i shops abound within a stone's throw of the Kenosha, Wisconsin, campus. Those companies are looking for young talent and Gateway is preparing students for IT careers that require a new mix of skills, with emphasis on i5/OS. READ MORE >

(SearchCIO) The marketing department at IBM Lotus will be delighted to hear this report. The folks there love to talk about collaboration and the value-add of Web 2.0 features such as blogs. According to analysts at Forrester Research, more than half of IT decision makers at U.S. companies surveyed said they are blogging at some level. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Vulnerability is synonymous with the Windows operating system. It's rarely used in the same sentence with OS/400. If you buy into that 100 percent, you'll be shocked to learn that OS/400 V4R2 through V5R3 is vulnerable in the TCP/IP stack. So now if you are concerned, follow this link. READ MORE >

Vendor Announcements, Promotions, and Deals

(IT Jungle) Business intelligence options for mid-size companies tend to have different parameters than BI implementations at the world's largest enterprises. If you've ever noodled with the idea of increasing the benefits of data warehousing without rebuilding your IT staff or hiring a small army of consultants, here's a strategy you might want to put into place. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Think of PCs as piranhas and your System i server as a water buffalo sharing the same river. Would you trust the piranhas not to attack the water buffalo? Probably not, and that would be wise. Those mean little fish--I mean PCs--use ODBC, FTP, SQL, and TelNet to access data, some of it is sensitive data, and unless you are restricting access, you might start to notice blood in the water. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) A content management system for System i users that runs on Windows but supports the Firefox browser? Goodness, what is this world coming to? Not everything is black and white and Internet Explorer. It's known as freedom of choice. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) How will you play your cards when it comes to application modernization? That question may be a little bit easier to answer if you could determine cost projections for several scenarios. Here's a tool that you can use to compare the costs of continuing your delay tactics, replacing the legacy system, or modernizing using software from LANSA, one of the major ISVs in the System i ecosystem. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Ever since Oracle bought PeopleSoft, which had bought J.D. Edwards, there seems to be occasional occurrences of something unpleasant hitting the fan. Most of these messes come from Oracle's high maintenance charges and third-party companies that will provide maintenance for less. So even with temperatures rising past 90 degrees this past week, be careful when you stand next to the fan. READ MORE >

Redbooks, White Papers, and Other OS/400 Resources

(IBM) Collaboration is mostly about creating, editing, and sharing documents within an environment that is customized for your business. This IBM Redbook is written for administrators who want to install, configure, and administer Workplace Services Express on i5/OS. The information includes the deployment and customization of Workplace Services Express on i5/OS, and its integration with an existing IBM Lotus Domino or Microsoft Exchange infrastructure. Also covered is how to enable the iSeries Web Access portlets so you can work with your System i machine from a Workplace Services Express environment. READ MORE >

(IBM & Manhattan Associates) This report examines warehouse management on the System i with a goal of reducing costs while improving efficiencies and service levels. The warehouse is more than a picking, packing, and shipping environment. You may know how to move goods, but are you good at moving information? READ MORE >

(Devon IT) The server-based approach to computing makes sense to a lot of people. Tom Bradicich is one. He's an IBM executive and in his report titled "Seven Benefits of Server-Hosted Desktops" he outlines how to lower total cost of ownership, centralize management, and simplify security management through a server-based approach to computing. READ MORE >

(Bytware) What are your security worries? Perhaps your security policy is shot full of holes or it is time consuming, difficult to manage, or error prone. This white paper distinguishes between an object-based approach and a transaction-based approach. When security is your responsibility, you should know all the potential weaknesses. READ MORE >

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

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

July 19 -- Webinar - This session, hosted by New Generation Software, highlights financial performance reporting and analysis for the System i. It is designed for companies and ISVs that need to modernize and streamline their financial reporting and analytics without moving their general ledger data off the System i. Topics of discussion will include NGS Web portals, reports and analysis built over a DB2 data mart, and business intelligence application development tools. Samples of financial performance dashboards and OLAP models and Microsoft Excel-based financial reports will be included. LEARN MORE >

July 19 -- Fairfield, New Jersey - Integrating RFID technology in a System i environment will be the feature presentation at the North Eastern System Technology Users (NESTU) meeting. This session will also include a discussion of the mandates for major retailers and the U.S. Department of Defense. Topics will include EPC global tag standards, requirements of an RFID mandate, tag placement, integrating RFID readers, and using RFID to add value to manufacturing and distribution. Sheldon Reich, vice president of CYBRA, will be the featured speaker. Dinner is at 6 p.m. with the presentation at 7, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. LEARN MORE >

July 19 -- Webcast - An online session on IP telephony on System i, presented by Erik Papir of 3Com, is being hosted by the COMMON user group. The discussion will provide an overview of IP telephony, and SIP and application integration will be discussed in detail. This session will also cover the different deployment scenarios for IP telephony to provide redundancy on the System i. You must be a COMMON member to participate. The event begins at noon CDT. LEARN MORE >

July 19 -- Webinar - A session on the strategies and techniques for encrypting credit card numbers and other sensitive data within the System i database files is being presented by Linoma Software. Topics of discussion include the Payment Card Industry standards and methods for properly managing and securing encryption keys. This Webcast begins at 11 a.m. CDT. LEARN MORE >

August 12-17 -- San Diego - IBM technical training tailored for enterprise-class IT professionals will be featured at the SHARE user conference. More than 700 technical sessions and hands-on labs will be presented by industry experts, top developers, and experienced users. Session topics range from implementation of new software releases to in-depth views of the latest technologies. Session topics will include services-oriented architecture, Web services, ITIL, and mobile computing. A preconference workshop on DB2 for z/OS is also on the agenda. If you don't know about SHARE, you should. It has been educating IT professionals since 1955--the longest history of any IT user group. LEARN MORE >