Alex Woodie
-
Maxava Customer Installs HA Software Just In Time
July 30, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreIt didn’t take long for Smith Brothers Stores to realize a return on its investment in Maxava‘s high availability (HA) software. Just two weeks after going live on Maxava Enterprise+, the UK-based industrial supply company leaned heavily on the software to save it from a potentially devastating situation.
Smith Brothers Stores sells a range of products to construction firms in the UK, including pipes, fittings, valves, HVAC equipment, tools, and other items. The 116-year-old company sells its products from nine locations across the country, as well as through an e-commerce website. Supporting the 100-person business is the IBM i-based
-
Focus on Network Security Overlooks Importance of Protecting Data, Oracle Study Finds
July 30, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreIn a new study commissioned by Oracle, researchers found that more than two-thirds of a typical organization’s IT security resources are allocated to protecting the network layer, leaving less than one-quarter of the resources to address the security needs of core infrastructure components, such as servers, applications, and databases.
The study involved more than 110 companies that were contacted by CSO Custom Solutions Group on behalf of Oracle. The study asked the companies how they allocate their resources, including money and staff time, to address security concerns.
Despite the fact that a breach of a database would be potentially
-
SafeNet Claims Usage-Based Licensing Breakthrough For On-Premise ISVs
July 30, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreFor the last several years, the software licensing experts at SafeNet have helped software as a service (SaaS) vendors sell their stuff based on what features their customers use and how often they use them. With a recent update to its Sentinel Cloud license management and software monetization offering for software publishers, SafeNet says it can now provide on-premise software vendors with access to the same usage-based licensing and pricing capabilities as their SaaS cohorts have enjoyed.
Sentinel Cloud was originally developed for SaaS vendors, but the need for a usage-based pricing model for ISVs who sell on-premise software was
-
Curbstone Revamps Card Payment Software to Avoid PCI Exposure
July 16, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreCurbstone, a developer of credit card payment software for the IBM i server, is rolling out a new software as a service (SaaS) credit card payment solution, called Curbstone CorrectConnect (C3) that will shield customers from the most onerous requirements of the PCI DSS security standard. The new offering, which Curbstone customers are already using, features additional options for Web-based merchants, as well as organizations that take payment information over the phone.
We are still in the first decade of PCI DSS compliance, but it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier for merchants. Besides the upfront costs of
-
Infor Gives BI Tool the 10x Treatment
July 16, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreInfor last week unveiled the 10x release of Infor BI, a business intelligence suite that includes an in-memory OLAP database. The new release brings all of the apparatus associated with Infor 10x, including a shiny new SoHo user interface, mobile capabilities, and hooks into the Ming.le social platform. The company is also close to announcing integration of Infor BI into SkyVault.
Infor BI is based on the MIS product formerly sold by Systems Union, a German software company that Infor acquired in 2006 for about $200 million. Infor has about 3,000 customers for MIS (also called Decision Ware), mostly small
-
IEC Protects Internal Systems with Valid Authentication
July 16, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreWhen it comes to security, there are few groups who take it quite as seriously as the Israelis. And when it came to protecting the systems that control the country’s electric grid, it’s notable that the Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) is using Valid Technologies IBM i-based VSSA technology to provide strong biometric authentication.
The principals were not willing to part with much information about the IEC implementation, which Valid Tech announced back in 2009. That’s not surprising, as secrecy is one of the primary tenants of security. “Loose lips sink ships,” after all. But what has been disclosed paints a
-
Spinnaker Nabs More JD Edwards Customers, Unveils Siebel Support Service
July 16, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreSpinnaker Support recently announced two new customers for its third-party support service for JD Edwards World, including D+M Group, a manufacturer of speakers and stereos, and an unnamed Las Vegas casino. The Denver, Colorado, company also announced the launch of a new support program for Siebel CRM customers.
Spinnaker continues to capitalize on the pushback against the expensive fees that Oracle and SAP charge for maintenance and technical support. Oracle charges customers an annual fee of about 22 percent to get support and upgrades, while SAP recently jacked its annual fee to 19 percent.
Oracle has given JD Edwards World
-
Townsend Gets VMware Certification for Encryption Key Manager
July 16, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreTownsend Security has achieved VMware Ready status for Alliance Key Manager, its encryption and key management product that works with all major operating systems, including IBM i. The certification should give Townsend customers the confidence to use hybrid deployment techniques for their key management software.
Alliance Key Manager is a FIPS 140-2 certified encryption key management solution that is used to create, manage, and distribute 128-bit, 192-bit, and 256-bit AES keys for any application or databases. Townsend provides sample code for implementing key retrieval routines into RPG, COBOL, .NET, C, and Java applications running across a range of operating systems,
-
Brooks Revs RPM to Bolster Production Printing
July 16, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreOrganizations that print files through the latest release of Brooks Internet Software‘s Remote Print Manager (RPM) will benefit from higher load tolerances, more detailed logging, better scheduling, and the capability to allow third-party apps to control RPM processing and configuration, the Idaho Falls, Idaho, company announced this month.
RPM is a Line Printer Daemon (LPD) print server that provides flexibility in the management and handling of the print output of IBM i, mainframe, HP3000, OpenVMS, Unix, and Linux servers. The Windows-based software is commonly used to convert print output from native formats, such as SCS or AFPDS, to more
-
Wayne Madden Hooks Up with iFD to Sell TEMBO Database Tools
July 16, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreWayne Madden, the longtime publisher of Penton’s IBM i publications, will be working with inFORM Decisions to help it market and sell TEMBO Technology Lab‘s DDS-to-SQL database modernization tools for DB2/400, the Southern California company announced last week.
Madden left Penton earlier this year after 23 years with Penton and Duke Communications, the News/400 publisher that Penton bought in 2000. In March, he formed a consulting company, called Madden Business Development.
Madden will work with iFD through his consulting company to help sell TEMBO’s AO Foundation and other tools. TEMBO signed iFD as its master distributor for the