ISVs React (Or Not) to PHP on the System i
by Mary Lou Roberts

The news that PHP will be available on the System i--and for free!--seems to have captured the imagination and interest of many. After all, it's a Java alternative, and we all know how unenthusiastic many iSeries users have been about going down the Java road. The potential is there, many say, for PHP to have a big--even huge--impact on the System i5 line. But there are some issues that need to be dealt with first. READ MORE >

Oracle Indefinitely Extends the Life of JDE World, EnterpriseOne
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The users of the World and EnterpriseOne ERP software suites from the former J.D. Edwards will probably breathe a sigh of relief this week, and so will the top brass at IBM's System i division. The reason why is that Charles Phillips, Oracle's president, and Mark Shearer, general manager of the System i business, will announce that Oracle will now support and enhance the JDE World and EnterpriseOne suites indefinitely--no strings, no gimmicks, no tricks. READ MORE >

Cost Controls Boost IBM Earnings on Flat Q1 Revenues
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

If this were a decade ago, and IT industry juggernaut IBM told Wall Street that its mainframe business was off 6 percent, its proprietary midrange server business was off 22 percent, its Unix server business was off 9 percent, its services business was off 1 percent, and its software business was only up 3 percent, Big Blue would have had its corporate head handed to it. But, this is 2006, and what matters more than revenue growth for the largest IT company in the world is improving profits, which IBM did manage to get in the first quarter of 2006. READ MORE >

As I See It: Fearless Leaders
by Victor Rozek

Your name is Henry McKinnell and for the past six years you have been struggling on the job. By exacting corporate standards, where results are the measure of intentions, there is not much in your performance that demonstrates anything but a steadfast intention to get by on mediocrity. Secretly, you're tired of all the pressure and weary of all the complaints. It would be nice just to walk away, to leave the mess for someone else to sort out, but retirement is so uncertain these days. READ MORE >