I, Cloud-i-us
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

It is perhaps fitting to discuss the future of cloud computing on the IBM i platform on the same day that IT and consumer electronics darling Apple is expected to launch iCloud, its fourth iteration of online services for its various iMac, iPhone, iPod, and iPad devices. If anyone has dibs on the iCloud name, you would think it would be IBM with its iSeries, System i, and Power Systems-IBM i platforms. But Apple ponied up the $4.5 million to buy the iCloud name from its owner and beat IBM to the punch. READ MORE >

STG to Buy IBS for $35 Million
by Alex Woodie

The troubled ERP software company International Business Systems (IBS) is set to be acquired by Symphony Technology Group (STG), a private equity firm based in Silicon Valley. Under terms of the deal, STG will pay 217.5 million Swedish Kronor, or about $35 million, for all outstanding shares in IBS. The deal was announced mid May and is nearly certain to be approved by IBS shareholders by the end of June. READ MORE >

The Long and Short of Modernization
by Dan Burger

Companies that take on application modernization projects almost always have a great notion. Many of those expectations have come up short. The quickest way frequently doesn't deliver the hoped for objectives and what often is realized is that more effort than expected is required. Alison Butterill, IBM's application development offerings manager for Power Systems, has seen it play out many times. Taking care of the interface is the easy part, she points out, but she also offers advice to make back-end transformations much easier. READ MORE >

As I See It: The Improvement Industry
by Victor Rozek

The moment humans started walking upright, someone was probably trying to improve their posture. In all likelihood there was a Cro-Magnon version of Tony Robbins, hairy, charismatic, with an enviously large cave, who made a living telling his fellow troglodytes how to evolve. Humans, it seems, have a self-improvement gene that, in spite of our best efforts, has unaccountably survived. That's how we know never to stand under the back end of a woolly mammoth. READ MORE >