Alex Woodie
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ExaGrid Unveils New High-End Backup Appliance
November 19, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreExaGrid last month unveiled its biggest backup appliance yet, the EX21000E, which holds can hold up to 210 TB of full backups when 10 of them are linked together in a grid. And thanks to a partnership with LaserVault, pushing backups from the IBM i server doesn’t involve weird Linux commands or expensive IBM backup software.
ExaGrid makes disk-to-disk (D2D) appliances designed to address the backup and recovery needs of midsize organizations with growing data storage needs. The company says its horizontally distributed scale-out architecture gives it an advantage over other architectures that require forklift upgrades to expand capacity.
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Infor M3 Gets Fresh with Food
November 19, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreInfor is working on a new version of its M3 ERP system that’s specifically designed to meet the needs of ultra-fresh food manufacturers whose products have a shelf life of days, rather than weeks or months.
The food and beverage market is one of Infor’s strongest vertical industries for the Lawson M3 software, in addition to the clothing/footwear and equipment sale and rental industries. Along with the major verticals, Infor differentiates itself from other ERP vendors by targeting hundreds of so-called “micro-vertical” industries where it can deliver fine-tuned functionality and processes for specific types of businesses.
The new ultra fresh
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Cloud MFT from Ipswitch Gets Mobile
November 19, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreIpswitch File Transfer last week unveiled MOVEit Cloud 8.0, a new version of its managed file transfer (MFT) software that customers can deploy in their own private clouds. New Android and iOS clients headline the new features in version 8.
MOVEit Cloud version 8 is the second major release of the cloud product since Ipswitch first unveiled it in 2012. The Windows-based software delivers the same core set of secure file transfer features and capabilities that Ipswitch offers with its regular MOVEit products, including MOVEit File Transfer Server and MOVEit Ad Hoc Transfer. This includes support for FTPS, SFTP, and
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Joomla’s CMS is RAD
November 19, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreIBM i shops that are looking for a full-featured content management system (CMS) to run sophisticated Web sites might want to check out the latest release of Joomla, the PHP-based open source CMS. With the newly released version 3.2, Joomla gets lots of enhancements, with a big focus in the areas of app development, security, authentication, and version control.
In early November, the Joomla Project and Community announced the availability of version 3.2 as a stable release. With about 600 new features and bug fixes, version 3.2 is the biggest release of the CMS ever, according to project coordinators.
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Kronos Ditches Reports with Analytics Updates
November 19, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreKronos last week announced updates to its Workforce Analytics offering that should help customers make sense of large amounts of employee-related data stored in various Kronos applications. The company also used its annual KronosWorks user conference to tout big gains made in hosting its customers’ HR apps in the cloud.
With the Workforce Analytics update, there will be a big focus on using visualizations to allow managers to explore their employee-related data sets in a self-service manner. For example, managers can start out using heat-map visualizations and 2-D imaging to see broad-based data about overtime, absence, scheduling, and productivity data.
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Spinnaker Says Third-Party Support Biz Growing at a 30 Percent Clip
November 19, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreSpinnaker Support, which provides third-party technical support for ERP and CRM systems from Oracle, JD Edwards, and SAP, brought in 34 percent more money during the third quarter of 2013 than it did in Q3 last year, the company announced last month. One of the accounts it landed during the quarter was a big JD Edwards World shop by the name of Cook County.
When it comes to third-party support for ERP applications, there are two main games in town: Spinnaker Support, which is based in the old JD Edwards stomping grounds of Denver, Colorado, and Rimini
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IBM i Developers Sound Off On JavaScript Frameworks
November 18, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreIf you’re an IBM i developer, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the amazing stuff that people are doing on the Web with JavaScript. However, as an IBM i professional, JavaScript may seem like a foreign language to you. Luckily, you’re not the first IBM i developer to venture down the JavaScript path. In fact, many IBM i developers have used JavaScript long enough to develop strong opinions about them, especially as it relates to Ext JS versus jQuery.
As you might expect, there are dozens of JavaScript libraries out there to choose from. Evaluating all of them is best left to
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What Does ‘Big Data’ Mean for IBM i?
November 12, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreWhen IBM i 7.1 Technology Refresh 7 (TR7) ships on Friday, it will contain several updates to the DB2/400 database designed to help it handle big data, including an expansion of SQL indexes, easier movement to SSDs, and tools to track the growth of tables over time. But what exactly does big data mean on the IBM i? We set out to find some answers.
The traditional definition for big data has to do with the three “Vs,” which refer to the volume, velocity, and variety of data types. IBM sometimes likes to add a fourth “V” to the mix
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Mobile Password Management App Supports IBM i
November 12, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreThe bring your own device (BYOD) movement is freeing users from the bounds of cubicle land. However, forgotten passwords remain a problem and keep users tied to the help desk. Last week, ManageEngine announced a new Apple iOS app for its self-service password reset software, called ADSelfService Plus. It also announced that, with ADSelfService Plus version 5, the software now supports IBM i, giving users the capability to reset their IBM i passwords from iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches.
Forgotten passwords remain a big problem. ManageEngine says that 40 percent of help desk tickets are for password resets, and take
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Sugar Says CRM-to-Social Opportunity is Sweet
November 12, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreWhen it comes to user interfaces, business software developers often take their cues from the wider consumer world. That trend continues today with the launch of SugarCRM‘s seventh major release of its eponymous CRM application. With the new Sugar UX user interface, the Silicon Valley firm has incorporated into their CRM system the data and customer relationships that exist in the social media world.
In the old world of CRM, data lived in separate silos, and wasn’t easy to cross-pollinate. There was no simple way to take advantage of, say, a customer service representative’s 500-plus LinkedIn contacts within the