Alex Woodie
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Manufacturing Automation At A ‘Crossroads’ For IBM i Shops
July 13, 2015 Alex Woodie
… Read moreManufacturers across the country rely heavily on their MRP or ERP systems to automate the handling of resources. That’s what the “R” stands for, after all. But it turns out that MRP and ERP systems leave a whole lot to be desired when it actually comes to managing resources–including raw materials and labor–on the shop floor. That’s where companies like Crossroads RMC and its manufacturing execution system (MES) comes into play.
Crossroads RMC was founded more than 20 years ago to develop automation solutions for the factory floor. The Lisle, Illinois, company originally developed its Crossroads MES solution in the
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What’s Legacy Now: WSDLs and Stored Procedures
July 1, 2015 Alex Woodie
… Read moreThanks to the breakneck speed that information technology is evolving, the definition of what is “legacy” in computing is constantly changing. For example, 10 years ago, organizations that were coding stored procedures into their databases and exposing mainframe business logic as WSDL-based Web services were following best practices in development. But some people are now lumping those objects into the legacy computing camp, along with old RPG and COBOL programs.
The folks at OpenLegacy aren’t interested in starting a war by labeling stored procedures and first-generation WSDL-based Web services as legacy. The software modernization vendor–which last week announced a new
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IBS Sold To Marlin
July 1, 2015 Alex Woodie
… Read moreA new chapter in the saga of International Business Systems began Friday when the Swedish company announced that the California-based private equity firm Marlin Equity Partners has signed a definitive agreement to acquire IBS. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Once a widely respected software company with 5,000 customers running on RPG or Java versions of its IBM i-based ERP system, IBS has struggled recently. But things appear to have stabilized of late under CEO Doug Braun’s leadership. At its annual user conference in May, the company announced that it signed 200 contracts during 2014, which it said counted
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Magic Goes In-Memory With App Framework
July 1, 2015 Alex Woodie
… Read moreMagic Software recently launched a new release of its application development and runtime framework that features in-memory data grid (IMDG) technology. The IMDG–which will eventually support IBM i–will bolster the scalability, stability, and elasticity of applications developed with xpa Application Platform 3.0, the company says.
Scalability is one of the most common worries that keep enterprise application architects up and night, especially in this age of big data. What happens to the app if I add 1,000 more users? What about 100,000? Can my database handle more data? Will I need to redesign the application using non-relational technology? What is
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Vendor Patches VTLs So You Don’t Have To
July 1, 2015 Alex Woodie
… Read moreIBM i shops that don’t have the time to properly patch and update their virtual tape libraries (VTLs) may be interested in a new service unveiled by Dynamic Solutions International (DSI). For a small fee, the Colorado company will patch and update its Linux-based VTLs in customer accounts, leaving IBM i admins to focus on other things.
IBM i shops may not be doing all they can to secure their environments, but they’re usually pretty good about applying integrity PTFs from IBM and loading them onto their Power Systems servers. But when it comes to applying security updates and patches
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Top Five New Technologies On IBM i
June 29, 2015 Alex Woodie
… Read moreOne of the great things about the IBM i server is it adapts to the times. While the platform often gets tagged with the “legacy” name, that’s merely because there’s still a lot of vintage iron running antique software in the real world. But the little elves way up north in IBM‘s Rochester toyshop have been hard at work bringing new capabilities to the platform.
Here are the top five new things that IBM brought to the IBM i platform in 2014 and 2015:
1. Native Flash Storage
IBM added support for native flash storage in the latest round
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Audit Time: How Do Your Source And Objects Match Up?
June 22, 2015 Alex Woodie
… Read moreWhen an auditor comes into your IBM i shop, chances are good he will check that processes are in place to control source code. But all too often, your underlying source code will not match up correctly with the program objects that actually run in production, indicating a process problem. A free new tool from Rocket Software called iAudit is designed to help IBM i shops identify this divergence of source code and object before the auditor comes around.
Regulatory audits are once again on the rise. Whereas the Sarbanes-Oxley Act enacted in the wake of the Enron scandal at
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Why You Might Want To Encrypt Your Syslogs Now
June 19, 2015 Alex Woodie
… Read moreEvery day millions of IBM i server events are packaged up in the syslog standard and sent offsite for safekeeping and analysis. In many cases, the syslog files are sent in plain text across the wire because, hey, they’re just boring old log files, and what could anybody ever do with those, right? Wrong, says IBM i security software company Raz-Lee Security.
Syslogs are a bread-and-butter data format for IT professionals around the world. Just about every device in the data center uses the syslog format to transmit data about what it’s done. All sorts of IT activities are
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dbFunnel Provides Native ETL For IBM i
June 17, 2015 Alex Woodie
… Read moreOne of the software startups showcasing new wares at the recent COMMON conference was Hamway Software Solutions, which develops an extract, transform, and load (ETL) application called dbFunnel that runs natively on IBM i. As CEO Laura Hamway explains to IT Jungle, the software fills a need for lightweight data extraction and reporting involving DB2 for i.
Hamway’s journey to becoming an ISV begins, as so many do, with a consulting gig. The programmer was helping Del Monte Foods with an implementation of an automated data collection system for its packing and warehouse operations. The longtime BPCS shop
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LaserVault Moves IBM i Backups Forward
June 17, 2015 Alex Woodie
… Read moreThere’s no shortage of ways to back up your IBM i data, each of which fills a need according to one’s particular budget and requirements. LaserVault recently provided one more option with UBD Replacador, which is aimed at those wanting to de-duplicate and backup their IBM i data to an IBM Storwize array. The company also announced a significant new feature in its software-based virtual tape library (VTL) solution.
IBM’s Intel-based Storwize arrays have traction in the IBM i base, particularly among small and midsized businesses that want the benefits of a centralized storage array but not the cost and