Along with new POWER 7 servers and new POWER 7 operating systems, IBM has delivered new development tools for the platform it calls “i for Business.” Tucked into IBM’s big April 13 announcement that introduced i/OS 7.1 to the world were new application development tools, new compilers for the POWER 7 hardware, new Web-enablement tools, and new change management tools.

IBM has changed the names of its products again with the i/OS 7.1 release (although not to the extent that it did with the V6R1 release, thank goodness). So first let’s lay out the names of the current crop of

Linoma Software last week announced that its i/OS encryption software, called Crypto Complete, is now available to support the new SQL Field Procedures encryption mechanism that IBM built into i/OS 7.1. Linoma is one of only two third-party software vendors that have committed to supporting the new feature, which is expected to eliminate the need to modify application source code to enable encryption in DB2/400.

Support for column-level encryption via the new SQL Field Procedures exit point is one of the biggest enhancements to DB2/400 with i/OS 7.1, the other being native support for XML. Industry regulations like PCI are

The SEQUEL Software subsidiary of Help/Systems unveiled a new release of the SEQUEL business intelligence software earlier this month. SEQUEL 10 will give System i customers faster connections to DB2/400, as well as the capability to create longer and more complex queries that execute against DB2/400 or other databases, among other enhancements.

SEQUEL is a multi-purpose i/OS utility that excels at executing queries and generating reports from DB2/400 as well as other relational databases, like SQL Server and MySQL. The software uses a special version of the SQL syntax that its owners say is more familiar to users and easier

System i and System z shops that are looking for a relatively quick and easy way to deliver application interfaces to the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch mobile devices may want to check out IBM‘s latest version 7.5.1 release of Rational Host Access Transformation Services, or HATS. Support for Web services, Lotus Notes rich clients, and AJAX capabilities have also been enhanced.

HATS version 7.5.1–or IBM Rational Host Access Transformation Services for Multiplatforms and 5250 Applications V7.5.1 if you prefer formal IBM product names–was announced on April 13 along with i/OS 7.1, and becomes available via electronic delivery on

Lawson Software yesterday unveiled Internal Cloud Services, a collection of software designed to allow customers to more efficiently run and manage their Lawson products on their own X64- and VMware-based clouds. The software, which ships next month, uses the same cloud management console that Lawson unveiled last month with its Amazon-based External Cloud Services offering, and will eventually work with the vendor’s full line of ERP products.

One of the key benefits of cloud computing is the capability to quickly provision a server with all the operating systems, middleware, and application software that is needed. Hypervisors like VMware’s

As one of only three i/OS software vendors to commit to supporting the new Open Access: RPG Edition technology that IBM added to i/OS 7.1, VAI is part of an exclusive club. And when you consider that VAI is the only application vendor in the group, you understand the strong commitment VAI has to the i/OS platform.

According to VAI CIO Kevin Beasley, the company will begin offering the RPG Open Access “handler” with its S2K suite of ERP software sometime in the fourth quarter of 2010 or the first quarter of 2011. The handler is necessary to enable the

nuBridges‘ line of managed file transfer and encryption software works as advertised on the new version of i/OS released by IBM, the company announced last week. Users of nuBridges Exchange i and nuBridges Protect can upgrade to i/OS 7.1 without worrying too much over compatibility issues.

Security is not something that users want to risk not working properly during a major platform upgrade. Since nuBridges’ software is used by hundreds, if not thousands, of System i shops around the world to protect their data while it’s moving across the wire or just sitting happily in DB2/400, the company

When Microsoft developed its Data Protection Manager (DPM) software, it was intended to serve Windows-only environments. That will change as the result of the new EVault for DPM appliance announced last week by the i365 (formerly EVault) subsidiary of Seagate. The device will enable organizations to use the new version of Microsoft’s DPM to not only protect data residing on Windows servers, but also System i, Unix, Linux, and VMware servers, or even data residing in the cloud.

EVault for DPM is an all-in-one backup and recovery appliance that combines Microsoft’s DPM 2010 software and i365’s backup agents on

Approximately 550 Infor employees will work at a new Center of Excellence that Infor is building in Hyderabad, India, the software vendor announced last week. Infor says the multi-million dollar investment showcases the importance of the Asia-Pacific region to its business strategy.

The Asia Pacific region only accounts for about 9 percent of Infor’s $2 billion or so in annual revenue, but it’s one of the company’s fastest growing regions. In a recent quarter, the company (which is privately held and not required to disclose its financial results) says it enjoyed 37 percent growth in Asia Pacific sales. That was

Royal Caribbean Cruises has successfully upgraded its ERP system to the latest release of JD Edwards EntepriseOne, Oracle announced yesterday. The company, which owns Royal Caribbean International and several other cruise lines, remained on the IBM Power Systems platform, and runs EnterpriseOne on i/OS using what Oracle calls the “blue stack” configuration.

Royal Caribbean worked with SYSTIME, a large JD Edwards consultancy that’s a subsidiary of the CMS Group, to upgrade the company’s implementation of OneWorld Xe to a current release of EnterpriseOne.

The cruise line, which is a Norwegian/American company with headquarters in Miami, Florida, needed an ERP