Vision Seeks to Simplify HA Options with 'Hybrid' Solutions
by Alex Woodie

Things used to be simpler for buyers of i5/OS high availability software. While there were more HA vendors to chose from, most of the vendors' offerings were relatively similar. Now, buyers must be able to navigate not only logical journaling and clustering, but newer, more exotic approaches, like switched disk, cross-site mirroring (XSM), and hardware-based replication. Vision Solutions, the only remaining HA heavyweight ISV, will be looking to clarify customer choice in 2008, and in some cases will advocate a hybrid approach that blends these IBM technologies with its own. READ MORE >

PowerTech i5/OS Security Conference Open to All
by Alex Woodie

When i5/OS security software vendor PowerTech held its inaugural iNSIGHT user conference last year, it was open only to PowerTech customers, and focused heavily on PowerTech products. Due to growing demand for i5/OS security information from non-customers, the iNSIGHT 2008 show to be held in Las Vegas next month will be open to just about anybody who wants to learn about the latest in System i security, and will include a preview of security changes in i5/OS V6R1. READ MORE >

CCSS Adds System i Battery Monitoring to QSystem Monitor
by Alex Woodie

System i shops concerned about their servers' built-in batteries failing, leaving them with an iSeries server with reduced capacity, can rest easy thanks to a new battery-monitoring solution from CCSS that automatically alerts them to failing batteries. The new capability, which was added to QSystem Monitor, makes it considerably easier to check the state of the server's batteries than using the operating system's facilities. READ MORE >

Quadrant's Formtastic Keeps Closer Watch on Print Jobs
by Alex Woodie

While there are many upsides to document management technology, the capability it provides users to generate practically any document with a just few keystrokes--such as printing oneself a bonus check from the company's coffers--is a powerful invitation for fraud. Quadrant Software recently addressed this problem (if not the temptation) with Formtastic 5.4.1, a December release of its i5/OS-based document management solution that introduces new auditing tools designed to make business' data, documents, and dollars, more secure. READ MORE >