Top OS/400 Stories from Around the Web

(IT Jungle) How about 'dem 9406-MMA boxes kickin' butt out there in the marketplace? Oh, you're wondering what the devil a 9406-MMA is. That's Big Blue internal code for the new Power6-based System p 570 and System i 570 models. IBM says it already has shipped 1,000 of these high-performance cans of meat and potatoes. How do the sales break down according to platform? IBM's not saying, but here's a good guess. READ MORE >

(IBM Systems Magazine) We know the Power6 machines are going to flex some serious muscle. This article is a bit of an anatomy lesson in where the muscle gets its strength. The "core" potency includes details like the L1 data cache, the L1 instruction cache, the instruction execution pipes, floating-point units, and address translation support, to name just a few. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) The Power6 processors soon to be rolled out across the System i and System p server lines are guaranteed to be a performance kick in the pants. But how do the Power6 chips stack up against the next incarnation of z6 mainframe processors? You can bet big iron will maintain its edge, but the lines between these systems will be blurred a little more than before. READ MORE >

(MCPress) Upgrade your old iSeries now or wait? Not surprisingly, the answer will be different for companies. I mean, there's no reason to wait for Power6 if that's too much horsepower for your business. So why even think about upgrading at this time? Because IBM has some attractive offers right here, right now. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) They say ignorance is bliss, but for those who remain contentedly unaware of power consumption in the data center, there may be a rather rude awakening when the electric bill comes due. According to one forecast, the amount of electricity used by IT organizations globally is on a course to double in four years. Its time energy efficiency moves from the awareness phase to the quantification stage. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) (IT Jungle) A large percentage of IBM's i5/OS and OS/400 customers use the platform to run ERP systems. By comparison, relatively few use the platform for running business intelligence software. So when it comes to running benchmark tests, which workload might you expect IBM to load on the System i in order to impress the most customers? The answer is easy if you think in terms of up being down and right being left. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) It's a cold, cruel world out there. And to put a number on how cold and how cruel it is, IBM let the world know it plans to spend $1.5 billion developing security products in 2008. How's that compare to what Big Blue spent in 2007? If anybody knows, they're not saying. READ MORE >

Vendor Announcements, Promotions, and Deals

(IT Jungle) Will data integration tools be the next segment of the software industry impacted by commercial open source? The answer is yes, if you ask Bill Miller, the executive chairman of XAware, a company that will give away licenses to its enterprise-level integration software, launch an open source development community, and support MySQL relational database management systems. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Paperless process management (PPM) offers a list of benefits as long as your System i is tall. Improved workflow was always high on the list, but generally the benefits were limited to a single platform--the System i, for instance. If multi-platform capability adds the type of workflow improvement you had in mind all along, it's time you take a closer look at PPM. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Compared to some of the well-known marketing monoliths that shall remain nameless, fourth-generation language (4GL) application development tools are mole hills when it comes to brand awareness. But marketing alone doesn't whitewash the fence, if you know what I mean. Where's there's work to be done, get something that works for you. And, keep your eye on ease of use, flexibility, and workflow productivity. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) The online backup and recovery option is helping many small- to mid-size businesses develop disaster preparedness plans that are really more accurately described as business continuity plans. In the bigger picture, companies are not only looking at preventing data loss and application downtime, but this topic expands to data management, and minimizing risk and loss after a worst case scenario. It could also include the promise of receiving, within 48 hours, a System i machine to recover data and applications. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) This story starts with a clothing manufacturer and an idea to service-enabled its back-end RPG applications for access over the Web. Part of the drama involves large customers requiring access to the manufacturer's e-commerce Website via their own procurement systems. If you're thinking this is a tear-jerker, you're wrong. This story has a happy ending. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Some IT departments go through disk faster than prunes go through a goose. Slowing down disk usage is a whole lot easier than reprogramming the goose. And if you follow this link, you'll find a tip on how to save money in the process. READ MORE >

Redbooks, White Papers, and Other OS/400 Resources

(Tango/04) Some companies continue to struggle with Sarbanes Oxley compliance issues that require a great deal of manual effort. This white paper highlights the implementation of internal auditing controls featuring the vendor's software, which centralizes the control of all security and operations events. READ MORE >

(Vision Solutions) Combining uptime objectives with a more effective IT strategy is sometimes like completing a jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing. This whitepaper covers the concepts of disaster recovery and information availability as well as how to calculate the business impact of downtime and evaluate software solutions. READ MORE >

(IBM) Short of pulling the plug, what can you do to tame the power-hungry IT beast? This 12-question tool promises to deliver energy efficiency improvements through increased awareness of power-related issues and data center planning. Data centers that use less energy, generate less carbon dioxide, take up less space, and can also save big bucks. READ MORE >

(IBM) A side-by-side comparison of iSeries and AS/400 models with the new System i Express 515 and 525 models is presented. Included in the comparison are topics such as monthly cost of operations, workload throughput, software maintenance costs, and power consumption. IBM describes this tool as a way customers can find the right replacement system. READ MORE >

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

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

November 8 -- Maryland Heights, Missouri - An all-day session on disaster preparedness will be presented by Richard Dolewski, an award-winning speaker and noted author on the topic. Dolewski will talk about planning, security, and varying degrees of high availability, among other things. LEARN MORE >

November 8 -- Kent, Washington - The Pacific Midrange Systems Association meeting features a session on System i availability and disaster recovery. Guest speaker Vince Fazio will discuss various technologies, how they are being used, and how to plan and implement them. Topics of discussion will include storage/data resiliency, DR planning, recovery time and recovery point objectives, single-server and multi-server options. Fazio is a former IBMer who now works for MSI Systems Integrators. The meeting begins at 11:30 a.m. LEARN MORE >

November 8 -- Milwaukee, Wisconsin - The Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association meeting will host two sessions at this month's meeting. First up is WMCPA member Tom Davidson, who will provide tips on identifying errors in i5 jobs. Topics will include reading a joblog, identifying problems, and resolving common problems. He will also discuss iSeries Navigator and the toolkit that operators and programmers should be familiar with operating. The second session will be IBM's Steve Finnes, who will be covering the topic of business resiliency with an emphasis on high availability and security. LEARN MORE >

November 13 -- Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois - The OMNI Day of Education one-day conference is scheduled to take place at IBM's training facility. Visit the OMNI user group Web site for a list of sessions, speakers and registration information. LEARN MORE >

November 13 -- Norwalk, Connecticut - The Fairfield AS/400 Users Group monthly meeting topic is an introduction to PHP programming and how it is used to Web-enable i5/OS resources. Plenty of code examples and references for further study are included. FASUG meetings are held at the Norwalk Inn and begin at 5:30 p.m. LEARN MORE >

November 13 -- Costa Mesa, California - A presentation titled "RPG, PHP and More" will be presented by Jon Paris and Susan Gantner. The meeting will be held at the IBM offices on Anton Boulevard and begins at 3:30 p.m. LEARN MORE >

November 14 -- Webinar - Replacing Query/400 is the subject of this online session for companies evaluating their best migration path from Query/400. Topics of discussion will include important factors to consider about IBM's DB2 Web Query replacement for Query/400 and the tangible benefits of transitioning to NGS' business intelligence and reporting solutions. Demonstrations will show how to leverage existing Query/400 queries and transform output directly to Excel, Word, Access, PDF, dynamic dashboards, multi-dimensional models, Web pages, and other options. This event begins at 1 p.m. CST. LEARN MORE >

November 14 -- Webinar - Cross-platform remote database access and data analyzing capabilities will be the topic of this online session hosted by ProData Computer Services. ProData's DBU RDB software will be the focus of this presentation that explains how to connect via green screen to databases such as Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL, DB2 and others. The event begins at 2 p.m. CST. LEARN MORE >

November 14 -- Woodbury, New York - The Long Island Systems Users Group monthly meeting will include two topic presentations. The first session will have guest speakers Charles Guarino and Paul Trapani explaining their experiences of installing and configuring PHP on System i. They will also talk about learning PHP and building PHP applications. The second session, which begins after dinner, features IBM's PHP expert Erwin Earley. This presentation will concentrate on programming with the PHP language and how to use it to Web-enable i5/OS resources. LISUG meetings are held at the Fox Hollow Inn and begin at 6 p.m. LEARN MORE >

November 14 -- Webcast - IBM/Lotus Domino and its collaborative capabilities for System I will be the focus of this online session presented by the COMMON user group. Products covered will include the recently announced versions of Notes, Domino, Sametime and the new Quickr capability. Guest speaker is Bill Hume, IBM's Director of Domino Development. This event begins at noon EST. Attendance is open to everyone regardless of COMMON membership. LEARN MORE >

November 14 -- Seekonk, Massachusetts - Data manipulation will be the featured topic at the monthly meeting of the New England Midrange Users Group. Guest speaker Tim Eagan, a consultant with Aurora Technologies, will explain various methodologies to move files to and from the System i. Among the file types discussed will be data files, Save files, Source files, and EXCEL/CSV files. A portion of the talk will cover useful FTP commands, how to automate FTP processes, and the sometimes troublesome gotchas that occur when working with FTP. The meeting is held at the Ramada Inn and begins at 5:15 p.m. LEARN MORE >

November 15 -- Webinar - Learn to track and report on changes to your database files for regulatory compliance management or internal control requirements during this online session hosted by ProData Computer Services. ProData's DBU Audit software will be the focus of a presentation that explains the benefits of data stored in journals rather than spooled files and how this simplifies the tracking and reporting of database file changes. The event begins at 2 p.m. CST. LEARN MORE >

November 15 -- Webinar - Extending legacy applications to increase functionality and intuitiveness will be discussed in this online presentation by David Brault, product manager at LANSA. Highlighted in this session will be several examples of businesses that have transformed applications quickly and without major disruptions to their users. The event is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. CDT. An additional Webinar, featuring additional customer deployments, will be held November 28. LEARN MORE >

November 15 -- Webcast - Experts from IBM and Vision Solutions will present information on how to upgrade System i hardware (that includes iSeries and AS/400) and i5/OS (and OS/400, too) operating systems to the new Power 6 server. This process makes use of Vision Solutions' Migrate While Active software that is designed to eliminate the downtime and hassles typically associated with an upgrade. The session begins at 8 a.m. PST. LEARN MORE >

November 16 -- College Park, Maryland - The Washington Area Midrange Users Group will host its annual JAM, a technical conference for users, managers, and administrators of IBM OS/400, i5/OS, and AIX/L. Session topics include: systems management, application development, iSeries Web Access, SQL, RPG ILE, Java/WebSphere, and others. LEARN MORE >