Dan Burger
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Top Concerns Survey Is Ready for IBM Eyes
June 28, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreHow busy does your IT department have to get before it makes the one-armed paper hanger look like a slacker? That’s the kind of pandemonium that makes it to the highest rung on the COMMON Top Concerns ladder. For the second consecutive year, keeping up internal demands is what has the IBM i platform crew awake at night and keeps the sweat on their brows all week long.
The pressure is on and the gauge is rising.
Top Concerns number two and number three are related to this high pressure zone. Number two is a concern that skills for the
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SCM Market Finds SaaS Beneficial in Otherwise Flat 2009
June 28, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreThere’s little argument that supply chain and operations management has been a focal point in cost-cutting measures at companies in the past several years. Process efficiency is tied to supply chain visibility. Again, little argument can be made. So why has the worldwide supply chain management (SCM) software market slipped when comparing revenue from 2008 with 2009?
Oh, yeah, that economic crisis thing. Company budgets were tighter than the handcuffs that should have been on some of the financial industry’s best and brightest.
Overall, SCM software revenue (including services and support) was $6.2 billion in 2009, a drop of 0.7
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SaaS Surfs the Cash Conservation Wave
June 21, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreSure, the software as a service (SaaS) sales model makes a lot of sense if you’re talking about simple and quick to implement applications like Salesforce.com. But how does it look when it’s a complex set of ERP applications that a manufacturer might find useful? More often than not, a SaaS deal like this would be considered by an SMB with a sharp financial eye and an awareness of industry-specific apps running on an IBM Power System i.
Smaller companies are always more creative when it comes to doing more with less, a lesson that was learned like never
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Another Indicator Says the IT Job Market Is Improving
June 21, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreAt IT Jungle, we like to pass along as much good news as possible when it comes to the job market. So here’s a little something that should make you happier than a tick on a fat dog. Geez, I hope that doesn’t turn out to be an overstatement, because I’m going to stick with it. If you have an issue with it, voice your complaints to the people at Monster Worldwide. You probably know them as monster.com. They’re the ones who came up with the data. I’m just the messenger.
Technisource, a North American superpower in the
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Which Way to HA? Hardware, Software, or Both?
June 14, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe availability of data and applications is hyper-critical for many organizations. Therefore, the decisions that are made when architecting a HA strategy become hyper-critical as well. The goal of minimizing downtime to the skinniest possible margin is the challenge for the top global corporations, but the pathways to reaching recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) are being closely watched by all companies concerned with business process management. In the IBM Power Systems community, this is particularly interesting.
“The business requirements come down to RPO and RTO,” says Ron Peterson, senior product strategist at Vision Solutions. Peterson
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Consultant Says: I See i on Blade Servers
June 7, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreBlade servers running the IBM i operating system are few and far between. Why is that? Shouldn’t this technology be slashing into data centers big and small? Apparently not. Or not yet anyway. Just because there’s no rush to get on a blade server doesn’t mean the idea should be written off. But the slow adoption of blades makes me wonder if Zorro would even want one of these.
Zorro, the blade-wielding, masked outlaw, was out of the country, so last week I had a chat with Brad Ford, a blade-wielding, unmasked consultant. I found Ford while perusing the session
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Modern i Platform Relies on Skills as Much as Technology
June 7, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe wise learn to adapt and adapt to learning. The hottest skills from 10 years ago, in many instances, are only lukewarm today. And 20-year-old skills are pretty stale in a technology-intensive career. Some survive while avoiding technological changes and continuous learning, but that’s like walking instead of taking the bus–you’ll likely get where you want to go, but most everyone else will have been there and moved on by then.
The capabilities of the IBM Power Systems running i/OS far exceed the capabilities of the IBM AS/400 running OS/400. The technology has evolved. So the question becomes: Have your
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Security and Auditing Breakthrough Gives Cilasoft Compliance Advantage
May 25, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreUnderestimating security issues and being unaware of the technology that makes systems more secure can be the dog you never thought would bite you until it did. The loss of sensitive data can hurt in many different ways. Regulatory compliance mandates have forced some IBM i-based companies to think about this, and software companies like Cilasoft are crafting new technology that can help. Cilasoft’s database monitoring software is a good example.
The IBM i is not as secure as most people think. It’s a bank vault compared to some well-known and more vulnerable systems, but the system and its operators
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IBM Emphasizes ‘Deeper Skills’ in New Business Partner Program
May 24, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreBecause complex issues intertwine business goals and IT capabilities, established companies struggle to keep pace with the modern world. Knowing exactly how to integrate systems, undertake virtualization projects, and implement new hardware and software can exceed the speed many companies can handle, so they seek providers with the expertise to get companies over business barriers. And that’s why IBM and its business partners are increasing their emphasis on skills, education, and certification.
More than ever, companies are focused on IT providers who can demonstrate experience and credibility when it comes to architecting systems as opposed to having an aptitude for
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BCD Invigorates Software for Application Development, Portal, and Query
May 18, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreAmong the various ways of creating modern applications that support the IBM i operating system, the methodology employed by BCD has been a good match for many midrange shops. BCD’s RPG CGI- and PHP-based development options have a 10-year history of continual upgrades that parallel the company’s long-term investments in query and report software, document distribution software, and more recently in multi-platform portal and 5250 Web enablement software. Timing for its most recent batch of software upgrades coincided with the COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition.
BCD has produced software for IBM’s midrange computers–including the AS/400, iSeries, System i, and now