Companies Want Good Enough IT, Not 'Best of Breed'
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

If you are an IT organization accustomed to assembling your systems and software piecemeal using the so-called "best of breed" components on the market, or are one of the major IT players used to supplying such customers, watch out. Best of breed is a dying breed. With IT budgets tight for going on three years now, and decades of history during which so many well-intentioned IT projects failed, the best-of-breed approach to IT is being downshifted to "good enough." READ MORE >

How i5s Stack Up to Alternatives, Revisited
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

In the wake of the May eServer i5 announcements, I compared the i5 machines and other entry and midrange boxes running Windows, Linux, or Unix. Since then, IBM has announced the new midrange i5 Model 550 and changed the pricing on all i5s. The company has also launched the p5 Unix variants of the "Squadron" Power5 machines, and rival Sun Microsystems has delivered similarly powered Opteron servers running Solaris. To help you make your acquisition decisions, I am updating those comparisons. READ MORE >

Forrester Says IT Budgets Will Be Up 7% in 2005
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

One of the main staples of the IT consultancy business is polling C-level executives about their plans for IT spending so that these very same consultancies can sell predictions of IT spending back to those same execs. It's a nice piece of business if you can get it, and Forrester Research, which bought GIGA Group a few years ago, has been making as much noise as Gartner and IDC in calling IT spending up or down for the coming years. READ MORE >

An AS/400 Romance Continues
by Jeff Beddow

I bought a mainframe computer on eBay for $6.50. Technically it was a "midrange computer," but the distinction is lost on people who think a "computer" is the size of a smallish gravestone. This was as big as a refrigerator, and heavier by far. When I got it, I had no terminal to log on with, no knowledge of the system itself, and I did not even know if it worked or if I could get juice to it. I had just a wild-eyed hope and a devoted wife, whose faith in me was about to be tested to yet another deviation from the norm. READ MORE >

  But Wait, There's More

CEOs Who Outsource Seem to Be Profiting Nicely . . . IBM Updates iSeries Financing Deferral Deal . . . Seagull Targets Offshored iSeries with Indian Reseller Partnership . . . ACS Snaps Up ERP Outsourcer BlueStar . . . Get Your Vote On: COMMON Board Election Ends Tomorrow . . . Original to Host Its First Testing Conference in U.S. . . . GST to Source LTO Drives from Well-Known Tape Drive Maker . . . READ MORE >

Reader Feedback and Insights

We value your feedback and insights. Feel free to send a letter to the editor. Letters may be printed, unless otherwise specified, and edited for clarity or length. READ MORE >

Better On-Line Solutions
California Software
Guild Companies
Asymex
WorksRight Software