Top OS/400 Stories from Around the Web

(IT Jungle) What's all this fuss about virtualization? It offers a lot of promise to a lot of people who are new to business computing, but it's not innovation. We've seen this in the AS/400 environment for more years than many of us would like to count. Well, the fuss is all about the volume market, because as this article points out, "all the innovation in the world does not matter as much as volume." And, when the volume market makes use of technology that was formerly the province of the high end, there will be changes occurring. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Was the decision not to support DB2 storage in the latest release of Lotus Domino both insult and injury to Notes/Domino users that run on the System i? Whenever IBM's other platforms have products and features and capabilities that are not extended to the System i, there's bound to be gripes. Some are specific to this particular support issue and some are more general in the vein of System i getting the short end of the stick again. But it is also valid to ask if this DB2/400 storage support was in place, how many customers would actually use it? READ MORE >

(Internet.com) In the enterprise environment, instant messaging pretty much comes down to two options: IBM Lotus Sametime and Microsoft Live Communications Server. Sametime may have the technological advantages, but LCS has the Microsoft Office juggernaut. Does Sametime have a shot at penetrating that? READ MORE >

(BetaNews) IBM would love to shock the world with an "Office Killer" that would reverse Microsoft's fortunes. There was a time when this would most naturally have been attempted by a suite of Lotus applications. Then Big Blue came up with a completely different idea--join with Sun Microsystems in the development of OpenOffice.org. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) The sales of external disk arrays during the second quarter of 2007 continued a torrid pace with EMC still comfortably ahead of its competitors. IBM, which is running second in this race, put some distance between itself and its rival Hewlett-Packard as HP stumbled badly. Running farther back in the pack, Dell made some significant gains. READ MORE >

Vendor Announcements, Promotions, and Deals

(IT Jungle) Single sign-on (SSO) is a great feature for IT department managers with a conscious. It authenticates a user by using a combination of user names, passwords, and, if desired, biometric devices or smartcards at the beginning of a session or a day. It also is used to automatically sign on the user to other systems as needed. It is credited with greatly reducing the costs associated with requests for lost passwords, which are a major resource drain for most organizations. Now, with additional simplification, there are additional savings related to elimination of many of the deployment hassles that have plagued SSO. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Although this Ohio-based company was only thinking in terms of an LTO tape solution to replace its Magstar tape drive, a completely different type of storage option came to the attention of executives and things sort of came together from that point. Backup time was reduced from three hours to one, and that was just the beginning of the benefits that resulted from implementing a vaulting solution. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Sometimes feeding your inner control freak is a good thing. Don't let anyone tell you any different if you are the sheriff trying to maintain the peace on a System i server accessible through the Internet. Get a handle on source IP address and port as well as destination IP address and port. How do you do this? Use this packet filtering technique. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) There are companies, you may work for one, that are almost up to their audits (that's approximately waist high) in compliance regulations and need to find answers to security-related issues. Compliance is a time-intensive undertaking and what most companies want is automation. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Could you develop i5/OS applications (OS/400 counts, too) with the capability to access external databases directly from the 5250 green screen and via SQL commands? OK. If you can do that you're pretty good. But what if you had to do it without using System i programmers, SQL clients, query tools, or ODBC access? READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Taiwan's largest freight forwarder and logistics company was being hampered by an albatross of 60 decentralized computers that devoured manpower and resources just to accomplish daily data input and updates. How did they improve customer service, gain access to more current information, and implement a disaster recovery plan without adding staff or resources? A System i had something to do with it. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Sirius Computer Solutions, IBM's largest solution provider in the United States, has acquired Strategic Computer Solutions, a major reseller in the Middle Atlantic and New England areas. Sirius, which is based in Texas and has the bulk of its business in the western U.S., gains a stronger presence in the northeast. READ MORE >

Redbooks, White Papers, and Other OS/400 Resources

(BCD) This white paper discusses PHP as a technology and as a productive method for transforming legacy applications to Web applications or creating new Web applications from square one. It explains the popularity of PHP, how it is different from other technologies, and uses the company's WebSmart PHP as the focal point for Web application development. READ MORE >

(Quadrant Software) Identifying the bottlenecks in the purchasing, receiving, and payables processes at your organization is the first step toward implementing a paperless solution. The second step is taking advantage of cost savings related to reducing the payables cycle and improving productivity. This archived Webcast titled "Making the Case for a Paperless Accounts Payable" includes methodology to help avoid the pitfalls in paperless implementations. READ MORE >

(MKS) Requirements may be the most critical aspect of the software development cycle. More than 60 percent of software projects in the U.S. fail. Poor requirements are one of the top reasons. This paper examines requirements management and how the company's Integrity software can help in areas such as parallel development, versioning, and base lining. READ MORE >

(Vision Solutions) If you aren't exactly sure how much one hour of downtime costs your organization, this white paper will assist in determining that figure and provide suggestions for effectively managing this risk. READ MORE >

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

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

September 13 -- Webinar - Encrypting database fields on the System i, secure key management, and audit trails are among the subjects to be discussed in this session hosted by Linoma Software. The company's latest product, Crypto Complete, will be prominently featured. Crypto Complete is designed to automate the encryption process. This session begins at 11 a.m. CDT. LEARN MORE >

September 13 -- Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Making modifications to third-party applications and then dealing with product updates is the topic of the day at the monthly meeting of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association. Guest speaker is Christopher Burns, director of client system modernization at the GEMKO Information Group. Burns is well versed in the areas of custom programming, modernization, networking, database, web development, the IFS and Windows integration. This session will focus on "Externalization," which he describes as "getting ample equivalent custom function without altering the vendor's source code." 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 >

September 13 -- Maryland Heights, Missouri - IBM's Jacqueline Jansen will discuss the DB2 Web Query for System i product at the monthly meeting of the Gateway/400 Group, an iSeries user group serving the greater St. Louis area. LEARN MORE >

September 13 -- King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - A presentation on network resiliency relating to disaster recovery will be highlighted at the quarterly meeting of the Delaware Valley Computer Users Group. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. at the offices of Strohl Systems. LEARN MORE >

September 13 -- Kent, Washington - The Pacific Midrange Systems Association meeting features a session on DB2 Web Query this month. Guest speaker is IBM's Doug Mack. His presentation will include an overview of this new tool and he will cover such topics as reporting and graphing, improving the look and functionality of existing Query/400 reports, and creating dashboards. The meeting begins at 11:30 a.m. LEARN MORE >

September 18 -- Norwalk, Connecticut - The Fairfield AS/400 Users Group monthly meeting topic is an introduction to DB2 Web Query, the new IBM alternative for Query/400. Guest speaker is Jackie Jansen, a senior consulting IT specialist with 30 years at IBM. The presentation will include demonstrations of creating reports, graphs and dashboards that can be used effectively for operational or data warehouse reporting purposes. FASUG meetings are held at the Norwalk Inn and begin at 5:30 p.m. LEARN MORE >

September 18 -- Irving, Texas - Data encryption is the featured topic at the monthly meeting of the Metro Midrange Systems Association, a user group for the Dallas and Fort Worth metro areas. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. with dinner at 6 and the presentation at 6:45. MMSA meetings are held at the Radisson Hotel DFW South. LEARN MORE >

September 18 -- Lombard, Illinois - The featured topic at the monthly meeting of the OMNI User Group will be PHP and MySQL. This presentation, by IBM's Erwin Earley, will examine PHP and MySQL offerings for i5/OS and explore the development/deployment stacks that these offerings enable. Earley heads up the Open Source Technologies Center of Competency for System i. His article titled, "PHP on i5/OS: A Whole New Stack" can be found in the June 27 issue of Four Hundred Guru. The OMNI User Group meeting begins at 5 p.m. LEARN MORE >

September 18 -- Costa Mesa, California - A presentation titled "Power6 from a Programmer's Perspective" will be featured during the regular monthly meeting of the OCEAN User Group. 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 and begin at 6 p.m. LEARN MORE >

September 18 -- Bloomington, Minnesota - IBM tape data encryption will be the topic presented at the regularly scheduled local user group meeting. Guest speaker is Mervyn Venter. The event begins at 2 p.m. at the Comfort Inn located at 1321 East 78th Street. LEARN MORE >

September 19 -- Woodbury, New York - The Long Island Systems Users Group monthly meeting topic is an introduction to DB2 Web Query, IBM's reporting solution alternative to Query/400. DB2 Web Query is a reporting tool that can be used for operational or data warehouse reporting purposes. This session will include a product demonstration that covers areas such as creating reports, graphs, and dashboards. LISUG meetings are held at the Fox Hollow Inn and begin at 6 p.m. LEARN MORE >

September 19 -- Seekonk, Massachusetts - DB2 Web Query will be the featured topic at the monthly meeting of the New England Midrange Users Group. This overview of this new browser-based alternative to Query/400 will include information on accessing data from end users through metadata layer and parameterized reports, improving query performance, and reducing IT support efforts. The meeting is held at the Ramada Inn and begins at 5:15 p.m. LEARN MORE >

September 19 -- Independence, Ohio - Transitioning to Freeform RPG is the discussion topic at the monthly meeting of the Application Systems Users Group of Greater Cleveland meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. and takes place at Harry's Steakhouse. Topics on the agenda include built-in functions; user-defined functions; alternatives for any Move, MoveL, MoveA, Case, and Do operations; OpCode specific error handling without indicators; and how to recognize and avoid the /FREE gotchas. Guest speaker is educator, author and consultant Greg Veal. LEARN MORE >

September 19 -- Webinar - One approach to streamlining business processes is to eliminate or greatly diminish paper transactions with trading partners. This session, titled "EDI in the 21st Century," examines electronic document interchange (EDI) with trading partners and points out the savings for those that have never implemented EDI as well as those that have been using the system for years. Dermot O'Doherty, regional services manager for the supply chain automation company LANSA, will host the Webcast, which begins at 1 p.m. CDT. LEARN MORE >

September 19-21 -- Cincinnati, Ohio - The CA Plex/2E Worldwide Users Event, hosted by the Ohio Valley Plex/2E Developers User Group, will feature more than 40 educational sessions including product technology previews, new product releases, and opportunities to pick up tips and techniques. All sessions on Sept. 19 are free. Pre-conference training September 18 is fee-based, as are the training sessions Sept. 20 & 21. An agenda and listing of educational courses is available on the Web site. LEARN MORE >