Profound Logic, one of three ISVs committed to delivering “handler” solutions that enable i/OS shops to take advantage of the new Open Access for RPG technology IBM is shipping with i/OS version 7.1, tomorrow will begin delivery of the industry’s first handler solution with a new product called Profound UI.

Now that Open Access for RPG is officially out of the bag, the System i community can begin discussing its merits. If the early comments are any indication, IBM has scored major points with anybody who is committed to writing business applications in RPG. Considering that RPG is by

The future of RPG got a lot brighter with IBM‘s announcement of Open Access for RPG, and looksoftware looks to play a key role in that future. The Australian software developer has been working with the new technology for the last 12 months, and last week it unveiled the fruit of that labor in lookserver for i, a new piece of i/OS software that will serve as the “handler” that allows RPG applications to bypass 5250 as they natively communicate with a range of new devices and interfaces.

Marcus Dee, the managing director of looksoftware, doesn’t mince words when

System i shops that are looking to get compliant with government and industry regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley, PCI, Basel II, HIPAA, ISO, and COBIT were given another tool last week when Safestone Technologies unveiled Compliance Center for i. The new software takes the grunt work out of sifting through i/OS logs and configuration settings, gathering the pertinent data, and arranging it into an acceptable report format.

Safestone is no stranger to the regulatory demands placed on System i shops by new laws and industry guidelines. For years the company has developed tools, such as the Security Audit & Detection and Risk

System i shops that have adopted the AnyNet protocol to provide a lifeline for older twinax devices are facing a decision with i/OS 7.1, which becomes available at the end of the week. The AnyNet protocol, which allowed SNA traffic to flow over older IP networks, is no longer supported starting with i/OS 7.1. One option for these customers–besides finally moving to a pure IP network–is provided by 10ZiG Technology, which continues to deliver IP connectivity for twinax devices with its e-Twinax Controller network bridge.

The e-Twinax Controller was unveiled more than 10 years ago to provide TCP/IP compatibility

The consortium of companies behind the LTO tape specification released its roadmap for the next three generations last week. After hitting a performance wall with LTO Generation 5, the final specifications for which were released earlier this year, the next three generations of LTO tape technology will–if everything goes as planned–offer the same level of performance increases from generation to generation that customers had come to expect with the first four LTO releases.

According to the Ultrium LTO Program, the next three generations of LTO Ultrium tape will offer these performance characteristics:

• LTO Gen 6: native capacity of

VAI customers were given another way to obtain mobile access to their ERP applications and data last week when VAI announced a partnership with Xpedium. The partnership is expected to yield a direct integration between S2K, VAI’s suite of ERP software, and xMobility, the suite of .NET-based software for executing certain business processes on mobile phones.

The rush to mobile devices is in full swing, for consumers and businesses alike. As people flock to devices like the iPhone, Android, and Windows Mobile phones, they are discovering a world of new useful applications that are un-tethered from their PCs. Businesses,

Magic Software Enterprises last week unveiled a new release of uniPaaS, its platform as a service for developing client-server and rich Internet applications (RIAs) that can be deployed on i/OS, Windows, and Linux, or deployed over the Internet via the software as a service (SaaS) model.

uniPaaS, which was first unveiled in early 2008 as G5, is the name of Magic’s current flagship application development environment. The offering borrows heavily from the rapid application development expertise of Magic’s old eDeveloper product (which targeted Windows and System i platforms), and delivers a customizable .NET-based rich client, as well as options for

International Business Systems (IBS), the Swedish developer of ERP software that runs on IBM Power Systems and X64 platforms, last week announced it has signed deals with three Caterpillar dealers in Latin America.

IBS announced three dealers have selected its IBS Distribution Financials, including TRACSA, which serves Mexico from 15 locations; MATRA, which serves Costa Rica from seven locations; and NIMAC, which serves Nicaragua from its central location. Each of the dealerships provides a range of Caterpillar equipment for use in construction, mining, agriculture, forestry, and road building and maintenance.

IBS employees from the U.S., Mexico, and Columbia assisted the

Customer relationship management software developer SugarCRM announced the next version of its SugarCRM application last week at its annual SugarCon user conference. New features in Sugar 6–a PHP application that can run under i/OS–include a revamped GUI, easier installation, and better integration with mobile devices.

SugarCRM was one of the most heavily anticipated enterprise applications to arrive on the System i server when SugarCRM announced support for the platform three years ago. While it’s difficult to determine how many System i shops have adopted PHP or SugarCRM, it’s safe to say that the open source CRM application (which deploys on

Talend recently unveiled a major update to its collection of data management software. With version 4 of its eponymous suite, Talend is delivering what it claims is the industry’s first integrated platform that unites data integration, data quality, and master data management (MDM) capabilities under a single product.

Talend got its start seven years ago developing extract, transform, and load (ETL) software that it distributed under an open source license. The goal of its two founders, Bertrand Diard and Fabrice Bonan, was to do for ETL tools what JBoss , MySQL, and SugarCRM were doing for Web application middleware,