Don't Wait Until 2008, Kick It Up to 11 in 2007
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The latest rumor running around the System i community, which has not in any way been substantiated by IBM, is that the next round of i5/OS software and System i hardware announcements will be pushed to 2008. IBM executives have been prepping the System i community to expect the Power6 processors first in the System p AIX-Linux server line, but having no substantial announcements in the System i line would be unprecedented. And it is also a bad idea for the i5/OS and OS/400 ecosystem. READ MORE >

Server Sales Perk Up a Little Bit in the Third Quarter
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

A bump in mainframe sales and the expansion of sales of blade servers were a big factor in a slight resurgence in server sales in the third quarter, according to market research from both IDC and Gartner. Both research firms tend to put out their numbers on the same day, and they take the pulse of the market in slightly different ways, but both agreed last Wednesday, when they put out their stats, that the third quarter was pretty good after relatively flat growth or declines in the prior several quarters. READ MORE >

iSCSI for System i Update: Showing Some Promise
by Dan Burger

The idea of bringing external System x and xSeries servers under the skins of System i servers seems to be picking up speed. It's difficult to gauge how much speed, because IBM plays the "if I told you, I'd have to kill you" game when it comes to specific adoption rates, but it's a good bet that the new iSCSI adapters and the increasing popularity of BladeCenter blade servers are responsible for a momentum in this area. READ MORE >

As I See It: The Other "Tude"
by Victor Rozek

It's a wonder that the Thanksgiving holiday even exists. Consider that during their first years on the continent, the Pilgrims dug seven times as many graves as they built huts, yet still found reason to set aside a day of gratitude. Perched on the edge of an alien and seemingly hostile continent, knowing hunger, fear, and disease, they nonetheless saw value in expressing thanks. It was an extraordinary affirmation that deep within every manure pile lies a pony; or perhaps (from the natives' point of view) that no pile is so high that it cannot get higher. READ MORE >