Language Barriers Broken, mrc Says

August 9, 2011 Alex Woodie

Development tool maker mrc last month unveiled new software that it claims will help eliminate the hassle that organizations face when trying to prepare and maintain Web sites in multiple languages. The company says its new product, called m-Power Translate, automatically generates copies of the same Web site in multiple languages.

According to mrc’s announcement, m-Power Translate eliminates the need for companies who want to do business internationally to pay for multiple translations for each language, and then to pay for the ongoing maintenance of those website whenever something changes.

Instead of handling translations manually or as a one-off job, m-Power Translate creates a single Web application that’s associated with multiple presentation layers for each language the organization wants to target. The m-Power user simply selects which languages to translate into. At runtime, the m-Power application will automatically detect which language to display. Visitors also have the option of overriding that decision.

In addition to eliminating the upfront time and expense of manual translations, mrc claims that m-Power Translate pays dividends on the backend, too, by automating any updates that an organization wants to make to its application or its website. Because the underlying application is the same, updates to the application do not affect the language layer.

The software doesn’t appear to be a total panacea for language barriers, however. For starters, the user must create a language dictionary with custom translations to ensure that all apps are translated perfectly. Computer-generated translations are notoriously error-prone, and this approach is needed to ensure accuracy.

Nonetheless, mrc is upbeat on the prospects for m-Power Translate to simplify the language translation challenge. “Up until now, creating Web applications in multiple languages was expensive and time consuming,” Brian Crowley, mrc’s director of development, says in a press release. “”With the new m-Power Translate plug-in, companies can instantly create Web apps in any language they desire.”

m-Power is a model-based development tool that generates J2EE-based Web applications that can run on a variety of platforms, including IBM i servers. It is commonly used to create mobile Web apps, Web portals, e-commerce sites, executive dashboards, business intelligence systems, and other applications. For more info, see www.mrc-productivity.com.

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mrc Unveils Software Exchange for m-Power Users

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Technology Mashup Yields an iPhone App for BPCS Data

m-Power Gets New Interactive Reporting Templates

mrc Goes Fully Graphical with Development Tool Interface

FMS Solutions Finds mrc’s m-Power a Good Fit

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Do the Math When Looking at IBM i Hosting for Cost Savings

COVID-19 has accelerated certain business trends that were already gaining strength prior to the start of the pandemic. E-commerce, telehealth, and video conferencing are some of the most obvious examples. One example that may not be as obvious to the general public but has a profound impact on business is the shift in strategy of IBM i infrastructure from traditional, on-premises environments to some form of remote configuration. These remote configurations and all of their variations are broadly referred to in the community as IBM i hosting.

“Hosting” in this context can mean different things to different people, and in general, hosting refers to one of two scenarios. In the first scenario, hosting can refer to a client owned machine that is housed in a co-location facility (commonly called a co-lo for short) where the data center provides traditional system administrator services, relieving the client of administrative and operational responsibilities. In the second scenario, hosting can refer to an MSP owned machine in which partition resources are provided to the client in an on-demand capacity. This scenario allows the client to completely outsource all aspects of Power Systems hardware and the IBM i operating system and database.

The scenario that is best for each business depends on a number of factors and is largely up for debate. In most cases, pursuing hosting purely as a cost saving strategy is a dead end. Furthermore, when you consider all of the costs associated with maintaining and IBM i environment, it is typically not a cost-effective option for the small to midsize market. The most cost-effective approach for these organizations is often a combination of a client owned and maintained system (either on-prem or in a co-lo) with cloud backup and disaster-recovery-as-a-service. Only in some cases of larger enterprise companies can a hosting strategy start to become a potentially cost-effective option.

However, cost savings is just one part of the story. As IBM i expertise becomes scarce and IT resources run tight, the only option for some firms may be to pursue hosting in some capacity. Whatever the driving force for pursing hosting may be, the key point is that it is not just simply an option for running your workload in a different location. There are many details to consider and it is to the best interest of the client to work with an experienced MSP in weighing the benefits and drawbacks of each option. As COVID-19 rolls on, time will tell if IBM i hosting strategies will follow the other strong business trends of the pandemic.

When we say do the math in the title above, it literally means that you need to do the math for your particular scenario. It is not about us doing the math for you, making a case for either staying on premises or for moving to the cloud. There is not one answer, but just different levels of cost to be reckoned which yield different answers. Most IBM i shops have fairly static workloads, at least measured against the larger mix of stuff on the public clouds of the world. How do you measure the value of controlling your own IT fate? That will only be fully recognized at the moment when it is sorely missed the most.

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