Dan Burger
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Tape Can Still Close The Backup Window
December 12, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreEvery aspect of your business is bombarded by the message that modernization is the key to happiness. IT is just one piece of the puzzle. And even that puzzle has dozens of pieces that require decisions on whether to replace or refurbish. Replacing may result in the biggest benefits, but often there are no guarantees, particularly if what’s in place is working. Finding what’s not working is the first step and then deciding if you can improve what you have without replacing investments in hardware and infrastructure is the next step. Let’s take storage for example.
Disk-based backup is one
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Michigan PHP Program Progressing Nicely
December 12, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe inventive PHP training project at the Southeast Michigan iSeries User Group (SEMiUG), reported in this newsletter in September, is nearly completed according to SEMiUG president Laura Ubelhor. The idea for the training project began with Ubelhor, who saw a great learning opportunity for local user group members by enlisting the support of a nearby company where the PHP programming could be put into use.
Not quite two months ago, 28 members of the local user group signed up to participate in this project and four teams were created. Ubelhor took the role of project manager and DEXTECH, an
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Blade Servers Barely Nick IBM i Market
December 6, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreAfter nearly four years of sales, IBM finds itself with a blade server for the IBM i-based Power Systems midmarket that is unwanted and as yet unable to build a following. Adjustments have been made, incentives have been provided, but this product still seems destined to be ignored by a large majority of users. Why? The answer is complex. This product is too complex compared to the servers the community is familiar with and has come to count on.
I don’t believe this is simply a case of not enough IBM i shops with a forward-thinking approach to IT. There
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Business Strategy Bumps Into Database Deficiency
November 28, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreMost IBM i-based companies do not have a well documented database. It’s likely to go unnoticed until new business requirements uncover the rat’s nest as plans to extract more information from data through business intelligence or advanced queries run smack into database policies that are haphazard or relics of the past. The IBM i operating system includes a modern database management system, but it is limited by data that is poorly defined. To one degree or another, everyone is having this problem.
The solution lies between two extremes. On one end is not understanding how to solve the problem and
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Linoma: DMZ Gateway Tightens File Transfer Security
November 15, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreFile sharing among business partners is a common practice. Unfortunately, being careless about it is also a common practice. Security is often imagined to be better than it really is and sometimes not thought of at all. Even companies that are paying attention to this topic–perhaps because it is mandated by one of the regulatory compliance laws–may not have discovered the best practices for secure transfers.
Linoma Software recently released a white paper report on the topic of DMZ gateways that provides solid advice on file transfer security.
The DMZ (demilitarized zone), also known as a perimeter network, is found
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Soltis: We Could Learn From Japan
November 14, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreWhen Frank Soltis retired from IBM three years ago, he wasn’t looking for a rocking chair, a fireplace, and a membership in the Nerdy Book of the Month Club. He’s ridden in too many rodeos to hang up his saddle. The IBM i running on Power Systems is his arena. Soltis continues to travel around the world advocating for the platform and listening to what users and IBM business partners tell him about life on the Smarter Planet.
Ever the optimist, Soltis is as reliable and dependable as the midrange servers he helped develop from the days of the System/38
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ASNA Readies Wings Update For Next ‘palooza
November 14, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreHaving application development tools at your disposal is all well and good, but having the skills to make use of them in a big way is what really makes the boat float. That’s why a company like ASNA came up with the idea 11 years ago to host a tech conference for the users of its products.
If you are admittedly not one of the sharpest knives in the drawer when it comes to developing and modernizing applications the ASNA way, the ASNApalooza conference is a wise choice to hone your skills with hands-on lab sessions, meetings with the big
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JD Edwards Solution Edition Fights Oracle
November 7, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreDavid Ziolkowski has a unique view of the IBM i installed base. He works almost exclusively with companies running the JD Edwards ERP software. His employer, Sirius Computer Solutions, is IBM‘s largest business partner in the reseller channel. His clients are deeply entrenched in their IBM i environments, but because of Oracle‘s ownership of JD Edwards, they are caught in the crossfire of two competitors trying to some extent to be cooperative.
To hear Ziolkowski tell it, Oracle’s chances of making inroads to the IBM i users he works with are slim. His confidence is rooted in
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TUG Night School Matches Enthusiasm with Capability
November 7, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreAt the end of another grind-it-out day in the IT department, several of the RPG programmers were having a conversation. One mentioned that he had to go to school that evening and he wasn’t really looking forward to it.
The others, sensing an opportunity to give him a hard time, asked why he dreaded going to school.
“Well, I’m tired and I’d much rather go home and crash,” the nearly truant night school student said.
“Those aren’t good reasons,” the others shot back.
“So why don’t you guys give me some good reasons why I should go?” the first guy
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IBM To Unchain RPG Open Access?
October 31, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreIt’s unconfirmed, but I have to give IBM credit for correcting its course and making the best use of RPG Open Access anyway. Last week, the company let a few people know (the press was not included) that it was no longer going to charge for Rational Open Access: RPG Edition. It’s expected this will significantly boost the visibility and use of this product and the products of third-party vendors that have incorporated ROA. It’s a smart move.
Just last week in The Four Hundred, I wrote an article that noted how the ISVs using ROA had sequentially contracted