Dan Burger
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Public Sector IBM i Users Living in the Cloud
September 27, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreA lot of people would say that government organizations lag behind private industry when it comes to efficiency. But here is some evidence that in the IT arena that may not be true. It also goes to show that the IBM midrange community is not necessarily mired in the past. Let’s take a quick look at one of the largest IBM i-based clouds in North America, where governmental organizations using SunGard Public Sector’s NaviLine software is being protected by Maxava disaster recovery and high availability software.
SunGard has a specific division referred to as SunGard Public Sector that serves primarily
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Reality-Based PHP Training on IBM i in Michigan
September 26, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreSome people never lose their natural desire to explore, create, share, and learn. That’s even true for RPG programmers, although it’s widely called into question by folks who have never met any RPG programmers. Imagination is often limited by environment and Laura Ubelhor has an idea that she thinks will foster the imaginations of RPG programmers. She’s leading a project based at the Southeast Michigan iSeries User Group (SEMiUG) that connects programmers willing to learn new a new skill with companies open to innovation.
Here’s the plan: Ubelhor, who is the president of the SEMiUG, put out the call for
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Modern RPG, App Dev, and DB Topics Popular at Omni Conference
September 26, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreJust a couple weeks ago, the Omni User group, based in Chicago, presented its annual one-day technical conference. So I checked in with Jerome Hughes, an Omni User board member, for a quick review of how things went.
From an attendee standpoint, speakers and topics are what put people in the seats and in Hughes’ judgment there were several top speakers. This included Scott Klement, one of the best-known and best-liked presenters on RPG topics. “There are always a lot of meat and potatoes RPGers attending our conferences and they pick up a lot of information from Scott,” Hughes says.
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IBM Refocuses Its Application Reputation
September 19, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe question is often asked, “What is IBM doing for the small to midsize businesses that run on the IBM i platform?” From a numbers standpoint, this is the largest segment of customers Big Blue can claim under a single brand, with 95 percent of the IBM i installed base being SMBs. IBM built the System/3X and AS/400 business over three decades, and it did so with application software. It has been in maintenance mode for more than a decade, and now the company has seen that to keep and expand this business, it needs application software.
With this strategy,
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Looking For i In All The Wrong Places
September 19, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreFor those of you who seldom find your way to the IBM i homepage, here’s a peek at an archived webinar you can find there under the title of Optimizing on Power Systems for Superior Economics. It co-stars Ian Jarman, IBM’s program director of global marketing for Power Systems, and Brad Day, an IT industry analyst and president of Enterprise Computing Advisors.
I visit the IBM i site from time to time in search of new resources and information to pass along to IT Jungle readers. Last week, I decided to check out the Power Systems webinar.
This
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Appreciation Rising for Web Serving on IBM i
September 12, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreWeb serving using the IBM i platform is uncharted territory for most of the companies running their core applications on this often under utilized box. They don’t go there. They don’t think to go there. Or they think they don’t want to go there. No one knows how many shops are serving Web apps on their i boxes, but it’s likely the number is growing. It’s also likely the number is less than 20 percent of the installed base.
That number is a stab in the dark. I’ve heard guesses from members of the independent software vendors’ community as low
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Field-Level Encryption Handles Security Compliance for Collections Firm
September 6, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreData encryption has taken on a much larger role in IT departments ever since the protection of sensitive and confidential information became a high priority for so many companies. We hear a lot of complaints about regulatory compliance, but without it your personal information is an easy target for those with criminal intentions. For many IBM i companies, the question is not about whether to encrypt data, it’s how to encrypt data. A good example is Bass & Associates P.C., a law firm providing national debt recovery services.
Financial institutions have really felt the heat of regulatory compliance. They handle
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looksoftware Wants it Rich and Thin
September 6, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreSometimes we all get tired of people telling us we can’t have it both ways. It has to be one or the other. A good example is the comparison between thin client and rich client. Thin client is popular because it’s convenient. Rich clients are a really graphical, really responsive interface. looksoftware believes they have narrowed the gap between those two with its introduction of lookserver 9.
This latest version of looksoftware’s server-based tool that delivers IBM i applications as HTML Web pages and published Web services has put its emphasis on being fast and easy and good looking. Is
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Services Power Jack Henry to Record Revenues in Fiscal 2011
August 22, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreA strong showing on the services side of business has propelled Jack Henry and Associates to impressive gains in its Q4 of fiscal 2011 ended in July. This comes despite a weak economy and much turmoil in the banking industry as a result of bank failures and a stormy season of mergers and acquisitions in the credit union sector. JHA has long been a major contributor to the IBM i ecosystem.
JHA president Tony Wormington, in a prepared document, stated, “We ended fiscal 2011 with record levels of revenue, gross profit and net income. Our company continues to prosper in
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Application Modernization Priorities Meet Simple Solutions
August 16, 2011 Dan Burger
… Read moreComplex problems are not always solved by complex solutions. To think otherwise is setting a trap for ourselves. Application modernization is a great example. Most times it’s not as intimidating as it’s made out to be. For instance, Valley Power Systems, a $180 million distribution company, was handcuffed with a business to business gateway that relied on Telnet sessions. Its modernization project, using looksoftware, took off the cuffs and took advantage of the Internet, smartphones and tablet devices.
Valley Power Systems is a dealer and distributor for engine, transmission, and equipment manufacturers. Its customers are in industries such as