IBM To Declare War with Future Armada Power5 Servers
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

If there is one thing that remains consistent about the IT industry, it is that the day a vendor announces a hot new technology is when companies want to know what the future has in store for them. IBM is not set to start shipping Power4-based servers in the iSeries line until two weeks from now, and customers are already wanting to know what IBM has in store for them with the future Power line of 64-bit RISC servers. READ MORE >

iSeries May Get All Kinds of Capacity on Demand Options
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

In last week's issue, I told you that IBM had, as part of the OS/400 V5R2 and iSeries Model 890 announcements, significantly broadened and improved its Capacity Upgrade on Demand offering for the iSeries. I then told you that this week I would give you an advanced look at some of the CUoD technologies that IBM is cooking up for other aspects of the iSeries beyond processors. IBM's got some pretty cool things that it might do. READ MORE >

Special Report: The State of OS/400 User Groups, Part 5
by Alex Woodie

As we have learned in the first four articles in this special series on the state of the nation's OS/400 user groups, the groups are not going away. Despite the poor economy, IBM's "strategic" positioning of the platform, the advent of virtual meeting rooms over the Web, and the aging installed base, the OS/400 user group phenomenon has momentum to carry. If anybody is telling you the sky is falling, make sure he's donning a hardhat before making any moves yourself. READ MORE >

Correction: WebSphere Partition Pricing Is Available, Not Rumored
by Joe Hertvik

In last week's issue, the article "IBM Previews WebSphere Application Server V5" incorrectly reported that IBM might offer subcapacity pricing for WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Commerce Suite. The WebSphere licenses have, in fact, been priced based on the number of CPUs in your machine. The effect of subcapacity pricing is that, when running these products in a logical partition, customers only pay for WebSphere licenses based on the number of CPUs used in any logical partition where the software is running. READ MORE >

IBM Taps ISVs as Partners in Project eLiza
by Alex Woodie

IBM is opening up its drive toward self-healing, autonomous computing by including software vendors such as Lakeview Technology, SafeStone Technologies, and Tango/04 in Project eLiza. Earlier this month, IBM announced the first eight software vendors to participate in its new program, which seeks to publicize the fact that there are already several solutions in the market that can help users reduce the complexity of managing heterogeneous operating environments. READ MORE >

Lawson Tells OS/400 Users It's Committed to the Platform
by Dan Burger

Lawson Software, although slow to deliver its latest software package for its OS/400 customers, is sending a message that it is, in fact, in the works, and that the company is committed to delivering a new product written in RPG IV. AS/400 and iSeries customers using Lawson Solutions, the ERP package from the St. Paul, Minnesota, based company, will have an upgrade path to Version 8.0 with features such as portal technology, enhancements to financial and procurement applications, and new capabilities in areas such as services automation, enterprise reporting, and international functionality. READ MORE >

But Wait, There's More . . .

The Latest OS/400 PTF Guide, Compliments of DLB Associates . . . Lakeview and Metaserver Go the iWay . . . ICOM Informatics Forms Alliance with Voxa . . . WRQ and AltoWeb Partner for Web Services . . . Is EMC Planning to Buy BMC Software? . . . IBM to Release Final Client Access Service Pack . . . READ MORE >

Mad Dog 21/21: Cotton Blather
by Hesh Wiener

You would think that computer companies would eventually learn to spot areas where standards make so much sense they are obviously inevitable, and develop their products accordingly. But they do not. A current example of this foolishness is the blade server market. Blade servers are an awful lot like the racks of servers everyone already has, with one basic exception: Instead of the customer wiring all the gizmos in the rack together and managing the mess, blade servers have the wiring built in and include system management tools. READ MORE >

Reader Feedback and Insights

We value your feedback and your insights into the OS/400 market. Feel free to drop us a letter to the editor and we will post them in a reader feedback column associated with this newsletter. READ MORE >