IBM Previews "Blue Business" SMB System Sales Approach
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Last week, at its Business Partner Leadership Conference in Los Angeles, IBM gave its partners and customers a sneak peek at a future application and systems strategy, code-named the "Blue Business Platform," that Big Blue could roll out this year or next. While that doesn't sound like much of a code-name, the Blue Business Platform project represents a new and potentially game-changing way in which IBM will chase the $500 billion IT market driven by small and medium businesses worldwide. READ MORE >

Micro Focus to Acquire NetManage for $73.3 Million in Cash
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

In these times of tight credit, cash is without a doubt king. Or at least a knight, considering how inflation is affecting the cost of the consumables we all buy to live. Nothing demonstrates the power of cash more than the contrast between Rocket Software's failed $69 million attempt to acquire host connectivity and application modernization software maker NetManage, which was launched in December 2007 and withdrawn in March because Rocket Software could not raise the capital it needed, and an a $73.3 million all-cash deal announced last Thursday by COBOL and application modernization tool maker Micro Focus International. READ MORE >

Power Systems: The Feeds and Speeds
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

This week, IBM begins shipping the new Power6-based Power 570 and Power 595 servers that support the i, AIX, and Linux operating systems. And Big Blue is in the process of ramping up sales of the entry Power 520, which started selling in AIX and Linux edition in late January and which started shipping in i Editions on April 18, and midrange Power 550 servers, which also shipped earlier this year in an AIX and Linux Edition and which will hit the streets in an i Edition on May 23. READ MORE >

There's No i in Future, But Is There a Future in i?
by Neil Palmer

Editor's note: IBM hosted its New Power Equation merger of the System i and System p server brands at the COMMON midrange user group meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, a little more than a month ago, and Neil Palmer, a long-time midrange expert and member of both COMMON and the Toronto User Group, prepared a statement, chock full of criticism and questions, to read to the top IBM brass. He didn't get a chance to get the whole thing vocalized at the meeting, so we are giving him a chance to speak his mind, on your behalf, in The Four Hundred. READ MORE >