Alex Woodie
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DSI Targets IBM i Shops with VTL Solutions
June 3, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreDynamic Solutions International (DSI) last month announced that it’s targeting IBM i shops with its line of virtual tape libraries (VTLs).
DSI entered the midrange radar in December when the Englewood, Colorado, company unfurled a partnership with IBM i juggernaut HelpSystems. As part of the deal, the companies planned to integrate their respective products, and jointly sell an integrated backup solution to IBM i shops.
DSI’s May announcement of the new VTL solutions for IBM i shops signals that the company is ready to get down to business. That business, of course, is replacing tape drives at IBM i
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Virtualization and Analytics: Recurring Power8 Themes
June 2, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreIf you struggled with virtualization with your Power7 box, you might want to improve your skills in that regard with Power8, which brings an even more heavy reliance on virtualization. On the plus side, the massive compute and I/O capacities of Power8 open up new possibilities in the analytics world. For IBM i shops, that means taking seriously the potential to run new analytics workloads right next to your transactional loads.
Analytics and virtualization were the highlights of a recent conversation on Power8 with Tim Klubertanz, a senior IBM Power Systems architect at Evolving Solutions, and formerly of IBM
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Popping The IBM i Security Bubble
May 27, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreAs an IBM i professional, you feel safe knowing that your organization has entrusted its data to the most secure business server on the planet. You watch as other companies–Target, eBay, victims of Chinese hackers–scramble into spin-control mode following a breach, confident that will never happen at your shop. If this sounds familiar, you’ve succumbed to a dangerous condition known as “IBM i security bubble-itis.” Let us help you pop it.
The first step in overcoming this debilitating condition is admitting you have a problem. Like the security blanket your kid won’t give up, your mistaken faith in the inherent
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Pivot Tables Now Supported in SEQUEL Web Interface
May 20, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreBusiness intelligence software developer SEQUEL Software recently issued a new release of its Web interface that supports Client Tables, which function just like pivot tables in Excel. SEQUEL previously supported the Client Tables function only in ViewPoint, its Windows-based client. On May 5 the HelpSystems subsidiary announced that Client Tables has been added to its SEQUEL Web Interface (SWI), which can be accessed by any device with a Web browser.
The addition of Client Tables to SWI makes it easier for SEQUEL users to access this powerful interactive feature. Like pivot tables in Excel, Client Tables in SEQUEL allow users
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iFD Goes Mobile with iSign Signature Capture
May 20, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreThe concept of a pen and paper is becoming increasingly foreign in our mobile world. Need to capture some information while on the go? That’s what tablets are for. One software vendor that’s signing up for the new iPad world is inFORM Decisions (iFD), which last week unveiled iSign, a new IBM i-based signature capture solution for mobile devices.
iSign is an HTML-based app that allows users to capture signatures from the comfort of smartphones or tablets. The software works by digitally capturing signatures from the touchscreen of any mobile device loaded with a Java-enabled Web browser. The software then
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Fresche Preps IBM i Customers for SQL Migrations
May 20, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreWith its acquisition of Databorough and its highly regarded X-Analysis product last year, Fresche Legacy made it clear it viewed database modernization as a key component of its overall strategy. Now, by making a key database migration feature of X-Analysis available to a greater number of users, the company clearly is setting its IBM i customers on a SQL path.
The big news coming out of Fresche Legacy during the COMMON conference two weeks ago was the availability of the Automated Data Model extraction feature in X-Analysis Professional Edition. Previously, this feature–which is a critical first step in the process
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IBM Cranks Up Storwize V7000 Capacity to 4 PB
May 20, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreOrganizations with really, really big storage needs may find what they’re looking for in the new Storwize V7000 storage array that IBM announced April 28. The second generation Storwize V7000 Model 524 that IBM ships in June features up to 4 PB of raw storage capacity, up from the 1.44 PB of raw capacity it previously offered.
That mindboggling figure can be achieved by clustering four of the new Storwize V7000 systems and outfitting as many of the 1,056 drive slots with the largest drive available–the 4 TB SAS near-line drive spinning at 7,200 rpm. The exact storage number will
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Surround Tech Revs Windows-Based Dev Tool for IBM i
May 20, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreSurround Technologies is now shipping version 5 of Accelerator for .NET, a Microsoft Visual Studio-based development environment for creating graphical, database-powered apps to run on IBM i and other platforms. With version 5, the development process is smoother and faster, the company says.
Accelerator for .NET includes a set of prebuilt components and wizard-driven code generators that plug into Microsoft‘s Visual Studio development environment. The software enables developers to build three-tier apps that run on IBM i and use its integrated DB2 for i database and use Microsoft’s UI technologies, such as Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight, to
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Linoma Adds Single Sign-On to MFT Offering
May 20, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreLinoma Software customers will have an easier time signing onto Linoma’s managed file transfer (MFT) product thanks to a new single sign-on (SSO) feature that leverages open source security protocols. The new release of GoAnywhere Services brings several other features as well.
Linoma enabled SSO by adding support for SAML (Security Assertion Mark-Up Language) in the Web client of GoAnywhere Services version 3.5. SAML enables the secure exchange of authentication information between Web browsers and service providers and applications. It’s backed by OASIS and is an alternative to OpenID.
Support for SAML allows the Web client for GoAnywhere Services to
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Logicalis Touts Cloud as IBM i Skill-Replacement Solution
May 20, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreOrganizations that are having a tough time filling jobs for IBM i professionals may find that outsourcing their IBM i environment to a private cloud fills the gap, Power Systems cloud operator Logicalis said recently.
As the baby boomers who manage IBM i systems around the country reach retirement age, the skills gap is looming as a big potential hurdle for the continued longevity of the IBM i platform. IBM is trying to inject new blood into the platform with educational programs, such as its Global Skills Initiative.
But trying to convince kids to learn this thing called the IBM