Dan Burger
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Magic Software Continues On The Comeback Trail
August 13, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM i development tool maker Magic Software Enterprises turned over some good-looking cards last week when it announced its first half of 2012 financial results. From a product standpoint, the company was most pleased with the extension of its mobile development offerings to include support for Apple iOS and Google Android platforms for both smartphones and tablets. But the emphasis was clearly on improved financial footing.
Revenues for the first half of 2012 increased 10 percent to $58.1 million compared to $52.9 million in the same period last year. Operating income for the same six month period increased 23 percent
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BCD Tweaks IBM i Development Tool
August 8, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreThere’s nothing wrong with the green screen, but you better ask the people who use those applications if they believe that or not. While the old school display kicks butt in plenty of modern organizations from banking to manufacturing and from Omaha to Okinawa, there are bazillions of 5250 apps that need to be converted and brand new Web apps that need to be written. WebSmart ILE is one of the tools for doing that, and Business Computer Design, Intl. (BCD) has just updated that tool.
Developers have been using WebSmart ILE to produce CGI-based Web applications since 2001, and
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Midsize IBM i Shops Find BI in Document Distribution
August 6, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreSuccessful IT is judged by putting the needed information into the hands of the right person at the right time. If you can do that and create additional business process efficiencies along the way, you’re going to get along nicely in this business. Think of this as business intelligence at the report generation and distribution level. You can also think of it as business intelligence that’s not disruptive, complex, or costly.
You may have noticed there’s a tendency in the IT business to over-promise the results of technologies that have yet to prove reliability, ease of deployment, or return on
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Avnet Schools Partners On Pushing Innovation
August 6, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreAlthough it may sometimes seem as futile as a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest, there are companies that are proving IT innovation not only exists, but can be achieved along with reducing complexity and costs. Some will find it on their own. Others will need help. Avnet and its IBM business partners in the United States and Canada are preparing to be your helpers.
The most likely gardens for growing innovation are the general categories of analytics, cloud computing, and expert integrated systems. If you follow IBM news and analysis in the pages of The Four Hundred, you’ve
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Jumping Hurdles From Green Screen to Graphical
July 24, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreIt’s 2012 and application development that is reliant on tools and techniques from 10 years ago or more no longer fit into the present of future business plans of organizations that consider it important to adapt to a changing IT environment. In the community we refer to by the platform-specific name IBM i, where IT entanglements often are tied to systems known as the iSeries and AS/400, graphical application development has become much more common, primarily because it’s become a whole lot easier.
A good example of this is 21st Mortgage Corporation, a midsize company that underwrites, originates, and services
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Another Look At .NET Apps Accessing IBM i
July 23, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreBeauty and ease of multi-platform integration are in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes it’s the same vision. For instance, if you are a Microsoft .NET application developer and you are able to grab data residing on the DB2 for i database with the greatest of ease, it’s a beautiful thing. But it’s certainly no guarantee. Subject matter experts like Craig Pelkie and Derek Maciak find people lost in this integration wilderness on a pretty regular basis.
Not everyone is happy with the .NET and IBM i matchup. I wrote an article on this topic about six weeks ago, and
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SkyView Security Now Monitoring Vision Portal
July 23, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreProminent high availability vendor Vision Solutions has teamed with SkyView Partners, an influential player in the IBM midrange security arena, to tighten the screws on Vision’s portal offering and place more control and manageability within the view of one console.
The integration takes place on Vision Solutions Portal (VSP), a single, browser-based, point of control for monitoring and managing alerts and notifications on Power Systems servers running IBM i as well as AIX through Vision’s MIMIX Global, which manages MIMIX clusters and hybrid IBM i disk-based clustering environments. It is also integrated into Vision’s iOptimize system utilization console on
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IBM i Tech Conference Keeps Education Light Burning
July 23, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreIt is plain to see when you walk into any IT department when there is a learning environment in place. People are much more motivated to take on the challenges that constantly come their way. Compare this to organizations that make little or no effort to keep a sharp edge on IT. The wasted resources in those instances should be enough to choke a horse, or a CEO, depending on who was the first to pay attention to it.
In many cases, IT training and education doesn’t come cheap. Travel expenses plus food and lodging can be equal to or
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IBM i Mobile Native Apps Coming On Strong
July 16, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreYou know you have business apps and data running on the IBM i operating system that needs to be mobilized. The business case for this is obvious. It solves a common business problem. That is, if you don’t have slick-running business apps for a mobile device, you have a problem. Real time access to information for your mobile workforce is a revenue boosting tool that is too powerful to ignore. But there’s still a decision to be made: Do you want apps running native on the mobile device or do you tweak Web apps for mobile uses?
In the early
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Scott Klement Joins Profound Logic Staff
July 16, 2012 Dan Burger
… Read moreLike the Dos Equis beer commercials featuring “the most interesting man in the world,” Scott Klement just might be “the most interesting man in the RPG world.” At the end of the beer commercials, the star always says, “Stay thirsty, my friends.” I picture Klement wrapping up his COMMON conference sessions or webinars by saying “Stay thirsty, my RPG friends.” Makes sense given his personal thirst for RPG.
That thirst for expanding his knowledge and experience has led him to joining the staff of Profound Logic, the IBM i application development and modernization tool vendor based in Dayton, Ohio.