Alex Woodie
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Free Format RPG: It’s All About the Jobs
October 29, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreThe upcoming free format enhancements that will debut with IBM i 7.1 Technology Refresh 7 (TR7) are good for the programming language and good for the platform as a whole. But according to IBM i educator Jim Buck, the biggest impact may be helping to attract a new generation of workers who are eager to find jobs.
The free format RPG enhancements unveiled earlier this month will become available on November 15, when IBM ships a database group PTF that contains the free format updates to the RPG compiler. At that time, any developer working inside of Rational Developer for
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NSi Secures Printer Output
October 29, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreNotable Solutions (NSi) recently launched NSi Output Manager, its new offering designed to bolster the security of printed output by requiring a user to authenticate himself before retrieving the paper-based document at the printer. The software provides some IBM i and IPDS capabilities in its own right and supports an even broader array of source inputs as a part of NSi’s overall AutoStore suite.
NSi Output Manager has two, interrelated roles. For starters, it’s designed to ensure that the person who sent a job to the printer is the one to pick it up, thereby helping to prevent sensitive information
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LinkIt Hooks IBM i to Windows
October 29, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreSeveral months ago, we told you about the new VTLBackup4i offering that VRTech launched in 2012. The folks at the Israeli software firm tell us they’re also having success with LinkIt, an integration tool that hooks IBM i applications to Web and Windows programs.
According to VRTech, LinkIt provides integration between a midrange application and the data housed in Windows-based programs, including Word, Excel, Outlook, as well as document archives, document scanners, and biometric authentication. The software gives users another way to access data and documents from the IBM i environment and also provides another data and document output mechanism.
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MicroStrategy Giving Away Analytic Tool
October 29, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreIBM i shops in the market for a data analytic and visualization tool may want to add MicroStrategy‘s Analytics Desktop tool to their short list, for one very good reason: It’s free.
Analytics Desktop is a new, in-memory business intelligence tool unveiled last week by the Tysons Corner, Virginia, company. The product is a scaled-down version of existing Windows-based desktop analytics tools that it previously offered.
MicroStrategy says its new software will enable customers to detect patterns, trends, and relationships hidden in their data, and build visualizations and dashboards. Users can view, sort, pivot, drill, and apply statistical analysis
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LANSA Touts Long Relationship with German Material Supplier
October 29, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreBaustoff Union, a provider of building materials, equipment, and construction services in the German state of Bavaria, implemented an AS/400-based ERP system in the late 1990s. Since then, the ERP system has been extended and modernized in multiple ways using tools from LANSA under a partnership that continues to this day.
LANSA recently revisited its Baustoff Union (BU) relationship with a case study posted to its website. It all started in 1997 when BU implemented the RPG-based ERP suite from S.M. Hartmann (SMH) GmbH, a German software company. “The choice that we made over 15 years ago still proves
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Rocket Revs iCluster HA Tool
October 29, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreRocket Software this month issued a minor update to its iCluster IBM i high availability (HA) software, which it bought from IBM last year.
iCluster 7.1 Interim Fix 3 (IF3) adds support for SQL functions and procedures and gives iCluster customers the capability to replicate those SQL creations using the HA software. It has added two new object specifiers–*SQLFUNC and *SQLPROC–to support this capability, which was also enabled with its TR1 release, the company says.
The move was made primarily in response to Rocket customers who also use its Aldon LifeCycle Manager for i (LMi) change management software, the company
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Mobile Security a Top Priority for CISOs, IBM Finds
October 29, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreAn IBM survey of chief information security officers found that mobile security is the top initiative at the moment, with 25 percent of CISOs having deployed some mobile security solutions in the last year. IBM also rolled out a new security service, based in part on partner Akamai‘s technology, that’s aimed at dealing with distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks.
While mobile security may be on the minds of CISOs, there’s still a lot to be done. According to IBM’s survey, less than 40 percent of organizations have security policies in place to deal with the bring your own
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ManH Reports 17 Percent Revenue Increase
October 29, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreManhattan Associates brought in a total of nearly $108 million in revenue during the third quarter ended September 30, a 17 percent increase over the same quarter a year ago. The provider of supply chain and warehouse management software for IBM i and other platforms also recorded a 43 percent increase in net income, with more than $19 million profit.
“We’re pleased with our third quarter performance in a generally tepid macro environment,” Eddie Capel, Manhattan Associates’ president and CEO, said in a statement. “The financial results and operating metrics were solid and our competitive win rate remains strong.”
While
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‘Puffery’ Claim Leads to Another Delay in Maxava-Vision Trial
October 28, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreThe judge overseeing the legal dispute between IBM i high availability software vendors Maxava and Vision Solutions last month delayed the trial, which was scheduled to begin October 22. The judge decided to continue the pretrial conference until Halloween to give him time to respond to Vision’s request to restrict Maxava’s ability to introduce evidence of alleged statements by the defendants that were “mere puffery” and not violations of the law.
At the September 23 pretrial conference, Judge George Wu rejected the Vision and Sirius “motion in limine” for an entry of judgment. That was one of two filings that
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Raz-Lee Supports IPv6 with IBM i Security Software
October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreRaz-Lee Security last week announced it’s now supporting IPv6 addresses with its IBM i network security software suite. The change, which the company says involved extensive development work on three related products, should address concerns of IBM i shops that IPv6 connected devices won’t be properly interrogated by their IBM i network security software, and could create a vulnerability in the network protection scheme.
Raz-Lee can now support the 128-bit hexadecimal IP addresses that are used in the IPv6 scheme within three components of its iSecurity suite, including: Firewall, its network security and exit point monitoring solution; Audit, which is