Alex Woodie

Alex Woodie is Senior Editor at IT Jungle. He was previously editor of two of IT Jungle's main newsletters, Four Hundred Stuff and The Windows Observer. Prior to joining Midrange Server (as Guild Companies was formerly called) in October 2001, Alex was a products editor at now defunct publisher Midrange Computing, where he was first introduced to the AS/400 and covered hardware, software, and services for Midrange Technology SHOWCASE magazine. Before joining Midrange Computing, Alex was a staff writer for The Insurance Journal and a reporter and columnist with The Paradise Post newspaper. Woodie obtained his Bachelors of Arts degree in journalism from Humboldt State University in 1997. Upon graduation, Alex intended to make his way onto a major daily newspaper, but in 1999 he found himself drawn to the high-technology industry, where his background in science and engineering has suited him well. He lives in Northern San Diego County. When he is not writing next week's newsletters, Alex can be found in his favorite chair reading the day's paper, in the kitchen, or at the beach.

• Oracle Debuts StorageTek LTO 6 drives

  January 15, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Oracle last week debuted new LTO 6 drives, as well as the capability to hook the new drives into StorageTek libraries via Fibre Channel. Oracle sells four StorageTek LTO 6 tape drives, full-height and half-height drives with either SAS or Fibre Channel interfaces. The drives can be implemented as stand-alone devices, or installed in an autoloader or tape library configuration. The drives can be used with the full range of supported servers, including those running IBM i, mainframe, Unix, Linux and Windows operating systems. LTO 6 drives offer a maximum data transfer rate of 160 MB/sec, up from 140 MB/sec

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• Raz-Lee Gains PureSystems Cert

  January 15, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Raz-Lee Security last week announced that its iSecurity suite of security software has been certified to run on IBM‘s PureSystems. The Nanuet, New York, company also received certifications in Security Intelligence, Tivoli, and Power Systems. IBM last year launched its new PureSystems line of “expert-integrated” systems, which combine servers, storage, networking, virtualization, and management into a single box (sort of like a “magic box”). The PureSystems lineup consists of three servers, including PureFlex, PureApplication, and PureData. In addition to rethinking the hardware, IBM rethought how software will run on the systems. Instead of applications or tools, software is considered

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• Dell Wyse Unveils Thin Client of Last Resort

  January 15, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Dell‘s Wyse group last week took the wraps off Project Ophelia, a new thin client computer that’s about the size of a USB memory stick. The device is designed to allow consumers and employees who don’t have a smartphone, tablet, or laptop to still access to their computing environments by plugging into monitors and keyboards they stumble across in the wild. Project Ophelia is the latest brainchild of Dell’s “cloud client computing” group, which is composed in part of the Wyse organization that the Round Rock, Texas, company bought last spring. The idea behind the project, which will

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• SAP Puts In-Memory Database At The Heart Of Its BusinessSuite ERP

  January 14, 2013 Alex Woodie

  SAP last week made the major leap of officially supporting the use of its HANA in-memory database to power SAP BusinessSuite, its flagship enterprise software. Putting HANA in charge of managing analytical and transactional applications and their data simultaneously marks a huge architectural change for the German ERP giant, and it shows that the company is not afraid to take chances. Breaking the barrier between transactional and analytical data will pay off, SAP says, because it will allow businesses to “analyze and predict instantly.” Ever since IBM invented it and Oracle popularized it 30-plus years ago, the relational database management

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• Top 10 IBM i Tech Trends for 2013

  January 8, 2013 Alex Woodie

  This is a great time to be an IBM i shop. Whether your shop is hands-on with the latest technology or prefers to “set it and forget it,” there’s an abundance of new products and services available that will help your organization run smarter and with more efficiency. Check out Four Hundred Stuff‘s take on the top 10 IBM i technology trends for the new year. 1. Cloud Computing The number one IBM i trend for 2013 is cloud computing. IBM may have been late to the cloud party with its midrange platform, but Big Blue is now coming

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• Data Storage Spins Up an IBM i Cloud

  January 8, 2013 Alex Woodie

  You can add one more name to the growing list of companies providing cloud infrastructure services to IBM i shops. Aegis Technology Services, a joint venture between Data Storage Corp. and ABC Services, is gearing up to run production IBM i and Windows environments through the infrastructure as a service (IAAS) cloud model. The company is expected to be one of the first cloud service providers to run its business with the new IBM PureSystems machines. Data Storage Corp. (DSC) is no stranger to the cloud, but the move into production cloud services is a sizable one. The

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• Tax Changes Spur Big Payroll Modifications

  January 8, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Congress suddenly sprang into action last week, handing down dozens of “Fiscal Cliff” tax changes that affect everything from Medicare and payroll withholding to federal tax rates and inheritance taxes. ERP vendors and third-party maintenance firms, such as HarrisData, Spinnaker Support, and Rimini Street, are taking the changes in stride, and staying on the lookout for more changes that will affect customers. None of the changes that Congress made with last week’s vote will have an impact on 2012 taxes, although some forward-looking states, such as California, enacted new progressive tax rates that are retroactive to 2012.

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• IBM i Security Expert John Earl Passes On

  January 8, 2013 Alex Woodie

  John Earl, an IBM i security expert who was recently the CEO of Townsend Security, passed away last week after a battle with cancer. Earl will be missed by the midrange community, which is encouraged to support his family by donating to a memorial fund in his name. Earl was many things, including an IBM i security expert, a product developer, an IT business executive, a school volunteer, a poker and wrestling enthusiast, and above all a husband and father. His professional passion was security–specifically, IBM i security. He had the intellect to understand complex security concepts, and the

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• Lamps Plus Goes Lights Out with IBM i Automation from Help/Systems

  January 8, 2013 Alex Woodie

  If you’ve ever walked into a Lamps Plus store, you may have found yourself donning sunglasses to help shield your eyes from the massive amount of light shining from lamps of every size and type imaginable. But if you were to find yourself in one of Lamps Plus’ server rooms, you may find yourself searching for the light switch, because the company has gone “lights out” during off hours thanks to IBM i automation software from Help/Systems. Lamps Plus is the largest retailer of specialty lighting in the country. The privately held company sells about 40,000 products through 40

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• Top 10 Best and/or Worst Top 10 Lists

  January 8, 2013 Alex Woodie

  The beginning of the year is a great time to reminisce on the past 12 months, think ahead to the next 12 months, make a resolution or two, and, of course, ponder the seeming endless top 10 lists generated at this time of year. We’ve saved you the effort of looking at the best and the worst top 10 lists of the New Year with our first top 10 list of the best and worst top 10 lists. We’ll start with the top five best Top 10 lists: Number One: “Top Ten Predictions for the Global ERP Industry in 2013,”

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