Getting Dizzy from Dynamic Infrastructure
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

When the economy went into recession in December 2007, and maybe even before, the top research and marketing minds at IBM were already hard at work on a new, big sales pitch that just so happens to coincide with the kinds of economic stimulus and long-term investments that the Obama Administration here in the United States and leaders in other governments want to make. What they want, of course, is a new and potentially much larger wave of automation, which has implications for our lives as well as our data centers. READ MORE >

The Economy Gives the Server Biz a Flat Tire in Q4
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

If IT departments are not being given the green light to attack the backlog of application development and infrastructure modernization projects they have on their to-do lists, the one thing they most definitely do not do is buy new server capacity. And that is why the fourth quarter, according to the analysts at Gartner, was not a particularly good one for server makers. Thankfully for them, though, a lot of projects are already funded and there is always basic capacity requirements driving some sales. READ MORE >

Infor Battles Customers in Court Over License Fees
by Alex Woodie

ERP software giant Infor is taking legal action against customers as it seeks to recoup license fees it claims it is owed. The company reached an out-of-court settlement last week with a BPCS customer, Vaughan & Bushnell, regarding a dispute over an AS/400 upgrade performed in the 1990s. While the parties avoided a trial, Infor is still pursuing similar lawsuits against two other customers for license fees it claims the companies avoided paying following server upgrades. READ MORE >

As I See It: Isolation
by Victor Rozek

During the Great Depression, it was common that people greeted each other with a question. In shops, bars, and on the street, anxious men glanced self-consciously at one another and asked the only question that mattered: 'Are you working?' Absent a social safety net, work was everything. It staved off hunger and the specter of bread lines and tent cites. It provided today's security and tomorrow's dignity; and made you the object of envy among the unemployed. READ MORE >