Dan Burger
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Agilysys Adjusts Annual Revenue Growth Downward
February 10, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe third quarter financial report from Agilysys showed pretty much as-expected results with a growth in recurring support revenue not being strong enough to combat an overall reduction in revenue. Management painted the outcome as demonstrating growth in higher-margin recurring revenue while continuing to focus on solutions and customer support to clients across the hospitality industry, but it also revised the company’s fiscal 2014 outlook to predict lower than expected annual growth.
Agilysys officials attributed the steep decline in product revenue to a decrease in “lower-margin, remarketed product sales in the third quarter of fiscal 2013 that did not repeat
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Software Change Management Designed For Small IBM i Shops
February 4, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreThrough years of experience, small IBM i development shops that need software change management tools for their RPG, RPG ILE, and/or Java development have learned they have two options to consider: slim and none. Make that three options now that Remain Software has introduced an affordable version of its enterprise change management product known as TD/OMS Compact, which adds reliability and productivity to the application development process with an overview of software components and configuration.
Like any software change management system, TD/OMS is designed to improve software development, testing, and deployment efficiencies, streamline processes, reduce software defects, and ultimately enhance
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Software Change Management Designed For Small IBM i Shops
February 4, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreThrough years of experience, small IBM i development shops that need software change management tools for their RPG, RPG ILE, and/or Java development have learned they have two options to consider: slim and none. Make that three options now that Remain Software has introduced an affordable version of its enterprise change management product known as TD/OMS Compact, which adds reliability and productivity to the application development process with an overview of software components and configuration.
Like any software change management system, TD/OMS is designed to improve software development, testing, and deployment efficiencies, streamline processes, reduce software defects, and ultimately enhance
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IBM’s X86 Exit Strategy: Arguing The Good And Bad
February 3, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe news that IBM is selling its X86 business travelled like a flash of lightning. Then comes the thunder, which lasts longer and speaks louder. The thunder is the interpretation, the explanation, and the ramifications of the X86 decision. IBM, no doubt, puts considerable effort into making major business decisions like this one and then an equal amount of effort into making the decisions sound good to as many people as possible.
And why not? We’d all be happier if we saw only good in everything, right? What good can come from questioning the decisions of IBM executives? The cards
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Cloud Migration Service Shifts From IBM i To Linux
February 3, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreEven though we don’t talk about it much, there are companies throwing in the towel and looking for IT solutions that do not include IBM i, Power Systems, or IBM. One of the companies with a track record of working in the IBM i migration business is Infinite Corporation, which last week introduced a new cloud-based migration plan called Infinite i. It will compete head-to-head with IBM i-based clouds.
Infinite has built its business on IBM i migrations and the integration of legacy applications with other platforms. In the past, this has involved existing on-premise systems, but cloud
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Energy Consumption Bites IT Budgets; IBM Responds
February 3, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreA smarter planet begins with energy management, whether it is measured throughout a data center or on a single server and all of its peripherals. Shocking electric bills are bringing this to the attention of the accounting department on a monthly basis. The utility companies are getting a 12 percent raise this year, based on a national average, and you probably aren’t. So add this to your list of reasons why it is a bad business decision to compare servers and all your IT gear simply on out-of-the-box pricing.
There have been significant improvements in processor energy efficiency, and certain
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RPG OA: Open Opportunity, Open To Interpretation
January 27, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreIf Tim Rowe, the business architect for application development at IBM, had one wish it might be that application modernization would flourish in the IBM i community. Last week, he was the guest speaker at OCEAN user group meeting in Orange County, California. He agreed to talk with me on the topic of RPG Open Access, a technology that was introduced with much fanfare with the IBM i 7.1 release of the operating system. That was in 2010.
Rowe is a vocal proponent of modernizing RPG applications. He believes RPG OA will play an important role in application modernization
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Cognitive Computing Is Knocking On The Door
January 27, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read morePowerful cognitive computer systems are on the doorstep. You have to decide whether or not to let them in. These are computers modeled on the human brain, so there’s the possibility they will come in whether you invite them or not.
Sorry for the Fright Night introduction. This isn’t a Stanley Kubrick Space Odyssey. It’s IBM‘s annual innovation thriller titled Five in Five. If you’ve not heard of it before, it’s a made for media prediction of what will come to pass during the next five-year span. But before we get to that, let me introduce the star
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OCEAN User Group Milestone: 25 Years of Educational Endurance
January 27, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreThere ought to be a degree program, a certification, or a lifetime achievement award for user group members. This form of continuing education is undervalued. Maybe it’s because there’s no graduation and no diploma to hang on the wall. But if you think of all the knowledge gained and the professional contacts made, the value proposition looks pretty good. The IT business is an exciting, fast-paced profession. Ask anyone who has been associated with the OCEAN user group for all or even a part of its 25-year run. It’s been a continuing education experience, a valuable lesson in collaboration, and
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Key Info Unlocks Its Cloud
January 20, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreKey Information Systems, the IBM midrange platform reseller and systems integrator, has flipped the switch on its new data center featuring Power Systems as the key component in an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering. This is a natural progression from the acquisition of ISWest in August. The Key Cloud is designed to assist current and prospective customers, particularly those with Power System iron with hosted options and managed services for at least some of their enterprise IT requirements.
The idea that many organizations no longer require the physical, on-premise presence of computer hardware, at least not to the