Alex Woodie
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Inventory Forecasting Software Lives in the Cloud
November 4, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreWholesaler distributors that fail to update demand forecasts are often left holding the bag when sales patterns change downstream or retailers cease carrying a product. Now a company called Thrive Technologies says it can offer advanced demand forecasting and inventory optimization for a variety of industries with its cloud-based offering.
In exchange for vast volumes, big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot extract deep concessions from their suppliers and often require them to maintain high service levels and in-stock percentages. When retailers add or drop products from their shelves, or demand unexpectedly changes, that makes it more difficult for distributors
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HelpSystems Bolsters Automation Tool with Database Triggers
November 4, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreOrganizations that use HelpSystems’ business process workflow software, dubbed AutoMate, last week gained the capability to incorporate database triggers into their integration scripts. The software, which can integrate with IBM i resources, also got a new GUI.
AutoMate and AutoMate BPA Server are Windows-based workflow scripting products that HelpSystems obtained earlier this year with its acquisition of Network Automation Inc. (NAI). The Los Angeles-based company had been selling the AutoMate line of products for 10 years.
With the version 10 releases of AutoMate and AutoMate BPA Server, HelpSystems delivered a new database trigger function that enables users to initiate
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Startup Looks To Take the Pain Out Of HA Testing
November 3, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreOne of the big issues with IBM i high availability is the lack of testing by the users. The problem is, without regular testing, the chances of a successfully completing a real failover when it counts are slim to none. Last week, a Florida startup called Focal Point Solutions Group unveiled a hosted high availability offering called DR FlashCopy that uses an innovative approach to allowing customers test their HA environments at their leisure.
“I hate to say it but the majority of high availability customers haven’t done a switch in several years,” says Ron Venzin, the CEO of Focal
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IBM Bolsters Multi-Site Disaster Recovery In DS8870 Arrays
October 27, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreOrganizations will be able to implement more complex data replication and protection schemes thanks to the new Multiple Target Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy (MT-PPRC) capabilities that IBM will be making available in DS8870 storage arrays. The capability to mirror data from a production environment to two target systems with MT-PPRC will give customers more flexibility in how they prepare for, and respond to, disasters. The company also bolstered its FlashCopy mechanism, and made various other enhancements to the DS8870s.
PPRC is one of the core underlying technologies that IBM exposes through DS8000 Copy Services. The technology is used in three primary
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Despite IBM Power Surge, MPG Keeps Performance Tool Relevant
October 21, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreThe folks at Midrange Performance Group have a well-deserved reputation in the IBM i community as performance experts. When it comes to capacity planning exercises and sizing new boxes, its Performance Navigator product is considered top-notch. But how does the company keep PerfNav relevant when the majority of IBM i customers’ workloads can comfortably fit on a relatively small machine? Here, it’s the little things that count.
The huge amount of raw performance that IBM delivered with the Power7 servers (and is continuing to deliver with early Power8 servers) is a double-edge sword for the community as a whole. On
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Shield Shoots the Gap Between HA and Vaulting with LVLT4i
October 21, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreShield Advanced Solutions is gearing up to launch Library Vault for IBM i, a new data vaulting solution aimed at larger IBM i shops and managed service providers. LVLT4i uses an interesting mix of remote journaling, object replication, and independent auxiliary storage pool (IASP) technologies, which Shield says provide the data protection of a full high availability solution but without the cost and complexity.
LVLT4i is a hybrid product that borrows the data and object replication capabilities from HA4i, the company’s remote journaling-based high availability software. Because remote journaling only protects database files, Shield built its own object replication process
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Cybernetics Banks on IBM i Storage Expertise
October 21, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreIBM i shops have many options when it comes to selecting a virtual tape library (VTL) provider, including a software-based solution that runs on the Power Systems server itself. While you may not be familiar with the name Cybernetics, the storage device manufacturer is quite familiar with the IBM i line of servers, and has provided VTLs, SANs, and tape backup solutions to many IBM i clients over the past 25 years.
Privately held Cybernetics has been designing and selling storage solutions since it was founded in 1978. Today the Yorktown, Virginia-based company sells everything from high-end SANs equipped
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Protecting IBM i from the Wild Wild Web
October 21, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreWhen Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web more than 20 years ago, he couldn’t have known it would turn into the Wild Wild West, a place where people are forced to take pains to protect themselves from malicious marauders, lest they lose precious data and money. Today’s cybercriminals are experts at taking advantage of weakness, including using malware to exploit vulnerabilities in corporate IT systems, including IBM i.
While IBM i’s attack surface is smaller than other platform’s, its proximity to less well-designed systems (coughWindowscough) make it more vulnerable than it would otherwise be. No
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IBM Pushes Tape’s Envelope with TS1150 Drive
October 21, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreOn Friday IBM will begin deliveries of the TS1150, the fifth generation of the IBM 3592 enterprise tape drive. The new high-end drive will move data at rates up to 360 MB per second and support cartridges that store up to 10 TB of uncompressed data. And later this fall, the TS1150 will also borrow a neat trick from its LTO sibling.
The 3592 enterprise tape drive is IBM’s high-end drive for the biggest, most demanding clients who need tape environments with the highest capacity, highest speed, and lowest error-rates. The tradeoff for choosing the 3592 series over the Linear
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HTTP Server for i Gets Isolation Chambers
October 21, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreRunning big Web workloads on the IBM i server is about to get easier, thanks to changes IBM made to the HTTP Server for i with the latest Technology Refreshes.
IBM has done a great job with its HTTP Server for i, the one powered by Apache. It’s powerful, standardized, and integrated directly into IBM i, giving users the best of both worlds. And with application modernization on the upswing, it’s no surprise that the HTTP Server is getting a good workout at shops around the world.
But with all that use comes a cost, particularly when hundreds