IBM's Battle Plan for i5/OS Blade Servers
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Putting together a blade server strategy that will appeal to the i5/OS and OS/400 ecosystem is not as simple as getting a blade server into the field and making OS/400 and i5/OS run on a Power blade. If it were--and I will remind everyone that this is how Windows and Linux got blades, and eventually Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX, too--then you would expect that OS/400 would have been on a blade server many years ago and the blade form factor would account for roughly 10 percent of revenues among i5/OS shops today, as it does for the server market at large. READ MORE >

Sundry i5/OS V6R1 and System i Enhancements
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Our coverage of the forthcoming i5/OS V6R1 operating system continues this week with a hodge-podge of smaller enhancements and features that were rolled up into the January 29 announcements. IBM has made a bunch of tweaks to DB2 for i5/OS, logical partitioning, performance measurement, peripheral support, and other areas that will probably not individually compel customers to upgrade, but add their collective weight to the stack of new features and it could break the camel's checkbook open to do some spending in 2008. READ MORE >

IT Salary Increases Are Anemic in 2007, Says Dice Survey
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Dice, which is a Web site devoted to helping engineers and other technology experts get a job, recently put out its report casing how well or poorly professionals in the IT sector did in terms of salary and raises during 2007. And the short answer seems to be that, on average, pay raises were not anywhere near the increases that programmers and managers saw in 2006. That doesn't mean that IT personnel are not in high demand, but that companies are being a bit stingy with the cash. READ MORE >

Mad Dog 21/21: Recovering Lost Prophets
by Hesh Wiener

If you ask computer professionals who they thought were the leaders in data storage, chances are you'll hear names like IBM, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Network Appliances, and Hitachi. If you asked these storage companies, you might get a different list that included some outfits that were largely unknown in the end user world. But end users probably don't have to worry that they will miss out on some important new vendors. The Storage Establishment is buying up many of the emerging suppliers. This high-profile interest in the new crop of vendors makes all the contenders a lot more visible. READ MORE >