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But Wait, There's More
An Idea from the OS/400 Gurus: Let Companies Download New Features Piecemeal
As we are entering yet another OS/400 upgrade cycle, the gurus at Guild Companies want to offer this suggestion to IBM for all of its operating systems. Instead of announcing a new operating system and related systems programs, and forcing customers to upgrade everything all at once, it might make more sense for customers to have a special kind of license that allows them to download only the new features that they actually want to use in production. Shannon O'Donnell, one of our resident propellerheads, for instance, says that he would like to get the new enhancements for RPG but doesn't usually care about enhancements to printing systems.
Using such a modular approach would mean that the download system would have to be able to look inside an OS/400 server and know a great deal about dependencies between program elements. But there is a perfect tool for keeping track of these dependencies and building a giant database of program elements and their relational connections. They call it the iSeries.
IDC Says IT Recovery in U.S. Is Starting in the West
IT spending is starting to pick up in the western part of the United States, according to research from IDC. IDC reckons that IT spending in California was $37.9 billion in 2003 and that it will grow by 5 percent this year. The company suggests that growth will be good in other western states, too. However, IDC says that IT spending in the manufacturing areas of the Midwest and the South will not pick up as quickly, particularly in Missouri, Kansas, and South Carolina. IDC says that the Northeast is a volatile region and that financial and banking institutions, which are the economic pillars of this region, will lead IT spending growth. IDC is projecting that the U.S. economy, as measured by gross domestic product, will grow by 4.6 percent in 2004 and that IT spending in the United States will nearly match it, with 4.7 percent growth. During the boom years of the late 1990s, IT spending growth was typically double that of GDP growth.
Friedman, Bynari Join IBM's ISV Advantage Marketing Program
Friedman, a provider of OS/400 software to furniture makers, announced last week that it has joined IBM's ISV Advantage marketing and development program for software vendors as they try to attack small and midsized businesses. As part of the deal, Friedman will be using IBM's WebSphere middleware to modernize its RPG-based Frontier ERP suite. In exchange for that loyalty to WebSphere, IBM will help Friedman with co-marketing and sales in its particular vertical market, which is a subset of discrete manufacturing. Friedman is a subsidiary of Constellation Software, a Toronto, Ontario, conglomerate of vertically focused software companies.
Bynari has also joined the ISV Advantage program. The company's InsightServer messaging server and related products run on top of Linux and provide similar functionality to Microsoft's Exchange Server and IBM's Notes/Domino. Bynari will support DB2 as the database behind InsightServer for Linux. The "Stinger" release of DB2 for Linux on Power is expected later this year, which means iSeries customers will be able to opt for Bynari's messaging products on a Power-based iSeries, instead of using an OS/400-Domino combo.
Lakeview Offers Discount on MIMIX ha Lite, MIMIX dr1
When Lakeview Technology announced its new MIMIX ha Lite remote journaling high availability solution in February, the company also announced a 20 percent discount off the cost of acquiring this software if it is acquired with one of IBM's specialized iSeries for High Availability servers. These iSeries for HA boxes are less costly than iSeries machines but are fully functional, and in the event of a disaster that knocks out a production machine, they can run full 5250 workloads.
EU Slaps Microsoft with Fine, Sanctions
When you have over $50 billion in the bank, like Microsoft does, the record-breaking $613 million fine that the European Commission's antitrust authority just imposed on the company last week, after finally deciding to sue Microsoft for antitrust violations following a five-year review, does not really register. And the stiff sanctions that European antitrust commissioner Mario Monti is asking for may all come to nothing, if the experience of the U.S. court system is any measure.
To read about the EU fine and sanctions and get our initial thoughts on this case, see our new Windows platform newsletter. As for most AS/400 and iSeries shops, Windows is a part of their lives, both on the desktop and in the data center. But this lawsuit, like many others, is more about curbing Microsoft's behavior and Microsoft usurping its rights than it is about technology. This case will drag on for years, and while it is interesting, because of the issues it raises, the day-to-day IT operations at OS/400 shops are not going to change dramatically for many years, if at all.
Get the Latest OS/400 PTF Guide
Our partner DLB Associates has been keeping track of IBM's PTF updates to OS/400 and its related programs. Here are the latest OS/400 PTF Guides:
February 28
March 6
March 13
March 20
March 27
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