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News Briefs and Product Shorts
A San Francisco Bay Area water district has announced plans to use several modules of Gauss Interprise's latest Web-based enterprise content management
system, VIP Enterprise, to create a secure intranet for capturing, managing, and distributing a variety of
forms, images, and other information source residing in a range of applications. The Alameda County Water
District already uses Gauss's Document Management system to manage human resource policies, notices,
forms, and a newsletter, which are printed and delivered manually. When the ContentManager and
PortalManager components of the VIP Enterprise suite are installed on the district's iSeries, its employees
will have a range of additional capabilities. For example, the ContentManager will allow technical
engineers to access hazardous material reports and IBM
Lotus Notes calendaring and scheduling features through the intranet. Additionally, PortalManager will
give the finance department greater access to forms stored in the district's J.D. Edwards payroll application. The installation is being performed by
NextBrick, a firm based in Campbell,
California.
LANSA last week announced the successful
implementation of an iSeries-based B2B Web site for Hilton Corporate Casuals, a global clothing
manufacturer and distributor. LANSA built what Hilton CC calls its Multi-Site Systems, which is a template
Web site that can be used to rapidly build new, customized Web sites for the distributors that buy clothing
from Hilton CC. Web sites built with the Multi-Site Systems are automatically integrated with Hilton CC's
OS/400-based ERP system and allow distributors to order products, receive online confirmation, track order
status, and check on shipments by using a link to the FedEx or UPS tracking system. According to LANSA,
Hilton CC has achieved a significant return on investment as a result of the Multi-Site Systems, including a
$10 million increase in revenues, reduced operating costs, and improved customer service. Hilton CC's
distributors also are able to reduce their operating costs, which in turn lowers the price of goods for
consumers. To date, several customers, such as electronics retailer Best Buy, have benefited from the
functionality offered with Hilton CC's new system.
NetManage last week announced the immediate
availability of RUMBA 7.1, the latest release of the company's host access software for iSeries, zSeries, and
Unix servers. Chief among the new enhancements is Microsoft certification for running the NetManage connectivity
software on Windows XP and Windows 2000 PCs. Other enhancements shipped with RUMBA 7.1 include
new tools for running scripts developed for other NetManage host access products, such as Host/Unix Link
and ViewNow scripts, on RUMBA; migration wizards for upgrading other NetManage host access products
to RUMBA; an install shield wizard for customizing RUMBA installations for groups of users; improved
file transfer capabilities; and security enhancements.
Later this week, IBM will begin shipping the latest
release of its XML Toolkit for iSeries. The toolkit includes the latest mods of a range of XML parsers,
which are interfaces designed to allow traditional iSeries applications that were written with RPG, COBOL,
C, and C++ to use, modify, and accept XML documents in the conduction of B2B commerce over the
Internet. The XML parsers are based on cross-platform, Apache open-source code and are compliant with World Wide Web Consortium's XML industry standards, IBM says. The
XML Toolkit for iSeries costs $250, requires OS/400 V5R1, and will be available April 19. (See IBM's announcement letter for more information.)
Security is a growing market. Just ask PentaSafe
Security Technologies, the Houston, Texas, provider of software security solutions for OS/400,
Windows, Unix, and other platforms and applications. Last week the company announced its year-end
financial results for fiscal year 2002. Revenue was up 60 percent, the privately held company said. More
than 39 new customers were added during its fourth quarter, the company said, bringing its total client base
to more than 1,250 companies worldwide.
Two former employees of PowerTech
Group have formed their own iSeries security consulting practice. Last week, Carol Woodbury and
John Vanderwall announced their immediate departure from PowerTech to found SkyView Partners, a Seattle, Washington, company that
seeks to work with IBM business partners and AS/400 and
iSeries users to create OS/400 security policies and practices. Woodbury, a former IBM engineer, who
worked as the AS/400's security architect in the Rochester, Minnesota, labs for 10 years before joining
PowerTech, in September 1999, will provide the technological expertise at the fledgling firm and steer it as
president and CEO. Vanderwall, who has years of experience in sales, marketing, and business development
with a variety of midrange ISVs, including WRQ, will
supply SkyView the business know-how as its COO. For more information about SkyView Partners, visit www.skyviewpartners.com.
Linux might be open-source, but that doesn't necessarily mean that hackers are tempted to break it. Or
at least that's the conclusion one would logically draw from the results of a new survey by Evans Data. Seventy eight percent of the 400 Linux
developers surveyed had never experienced an unwanted intrusion on their Linux systems, and 94 percent
have operated virus-free. When asked to compare Linux to an established operating system of equivalent
security, most Linux developers chose Sun Solaris and IBM AIX operating systems, "two very secure operating
systems long trusted by large enterprises, and above any of the Windows platforms by a significant margin,"
Evans Data added. The survey also found that 84 percent of the developers surveyed believe Linux is
inherently more secure than software not created in an open source software environment. Of course, all
of this begs several disturbing questions: Are nearly one-quarter of Linux systems getting hacked on a regular
basis? Is one in 20 Linux systems commonly infected by viruses? And, most importantly, does the
addition of Linux partitions with OS/400 make the iSeries more or less secure? Linux may not be ready for
the enterprise, but Linux statistics continue to provide fun for the entire family.
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