Kisco's i OS Twitter Product Gets Two-Way Communications

Published: June 23, 2009

by Alex Woodie

Kisco Information Systems last week unveiled an update to SNDTWEET, its novel utility that turns the social networking tool into a communication and system management tool for the System i. Now, with version 1.03, Kisco is enabling customers to reply back to the System i using Twitter, instead of just enabling the System i to send "tweets" through the service.

In just a week and a half, thanks to a contentious election in Iran and the crackdown on mainstream media that has followed, Twitter has gone from being the poster child for everything that's wrong with the social networking movement to being a seriously useful communications tool. Instead of continuing as the laughing stock for Web 2.0 excesses, Twitter's unprecedented role in delivering news out of Iran, in defiance of the country's leadership, has proved that it's not whether you're hip for following the latest Internet gizmo, it's whether you can put the latest technology to use and get real benefit out of it.

Kisco president Rich Loeber gambled his company's reputation a bit when he introduced SNDTWEET in April. The Upstate New York company was known for delivering serious communication, security, and report delivery tools for the System i, which, as we all know, is a very serious computer. Then it launched its Twitter utility, SNDTWEET, ostensibly to turn a teen-ager's online plaything into a systems management tool. "OMG, R U 4 Real?" was the response from some people.

While SNDTWEET is still fairly new, Kisco is very much behind the new product, and believes it can play a useful role in System i shops. These roles fall into two general categories. First, SNDTWEET can function as a general communication device, sending general messages to targeted groups of internal and external users. Secondly, SNDTWEET can function as a systems management tool, allowing administrators and operators to receive notifications about potentially serious problems occurring on the System i server, such as DASD filling up.

The version 1.03 update helps to build SNDTWEET's second role, as a systems management tool. The new release now includes a message queue monitor function that allows users to receive Twitter messages from the System i server when a qualifying message arrives on the designated message queue. If there's an error message or inquiry message that requires a reply, SNDTWEET now allows anybody following the System i on the Twitter Web site to respond to the message with a reply.

Previously, SNDTWEET only worked with outbound messages from the System i server, not inbound messages. But don't worry, you're not opening your System i server to just anybody. Kisco says the software can be set up so that only authorized users can monitor the System i server via Twitter and reply to messages.

SNDTWEET pricing has not changed. The product costs $295 per i OS LPAR. A license to install SNDTWEET on multiple partitions costs $495. For more information, see www.kisco.com.

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