The new version of Rational Business Developer (RBD) that shipped Friday will have developers dragging and dropping their way to creating rich, Web 2.0-style user interfaces in new ways. With RBD version 8.0.1, IBM introduces a range of new code generation capabilities that are heavily dependent on developers arranging Web 2.0 widgets on a visual canvas, and conceal much of the underlying complexity.

IBM introduced its so-called Rich UI functionality to RBD two years ago with the launch of RBD 7.5.1. With support for JavaScript libraries like Dojo and a small collection of pre-built Web 2.0 screens called “widgets,”

Aldon is going all in for agile development. The creator of lifecycle management tools for development teams recently introduced agile features in two products, include Agile Manager, a brand new Web-based tool designed to help teams organize the backlog of feature requests, and Community Manager, its IT service desk product. The company is also undertaking an interesting experiment with the free Agile Manager, which uses agile techniques to guide the evolution of the new product.

Agile has become a popular approach to software development that proponents say yields software that is more pertinent to the changing demands of the real

Users who lack the proper authority to view sensitive IBM i data that’s been encrypted with the latest release of Linoma Software‘s Crypto Complete will instead be shown masked values when they try to access it. What’s more, this nifty security trick can be accomplished without fancy programming, in part because it’s based on the new DB2 Field Procedures functionality that IBM introduced with IBM i 7.1.

When IBM announced IBM i 7.1 earlier this year, Linoma was one of only two vendors that supported the new Field Procedures functionality, which was developed to eliminate the need to modify

A misunderstanding of the disaster recovery benefits that virtualized servers and applications provide underscores the threat of a downturn in DR preparedness this year, according to executives at Vision Solutions, which unveiled its third annual IT resiliency study today. While Vision says organizations may mistakenly believe that hypervisors possess some inherent data protection properties (it’s actually more like high availability), the study identified some positive trends too, such as an increase in the uptake of logical replication and failover capabilities.

Organizations are not as sure about their DR preparedness as they were a year ago, according to Vision’s latest

Users will be able to add a digital signature to IBM i spool file documents by simply entering the correct PIN code with the new release of RJS Software Systems‘ SignHere product, which was unveiled last week. Support for a broader array of back-end systems, as well as a simplified signature capture process, are also now available in a new release of SignHere.

RJS unveiled SignHere earlier this year at the COMMON conference in Orlando, Florida. The software addresses one of the vexing problems stemming from the transition to electronic documents–namely, how to gather people’s signatures without endless cycles

Attachmate recently unveiled a new release of FileXpress, its managed file transfer (MFT) offering that supports moving files among IBM i-, mainframe-, Unix-, and X86-based computer systems. Support for the latest release of Microsoft Windows Server heads the list of improvements in version 7.0.

FileXpress Platform Server is an Attachmate-branded version of the CyberFusion Integration (CFI) product that was developed by Proginet, which was acquired by TIBCO Software earlier this year. CFI (and therefore FileXpress) uses a proprietary protocol to move files between source and target locations.

Proginet’s proprietary protocol, proponents say, provides better automation capabilities than can typically be

IBM i ERP giant Infor has agreed to make available to its customers the IBM i utilities of Utilities 400 (UTI 400), the British developer announced last month. The deal puts a seal of approval on multiple UTI 400 utilities, including document management, reporting, and data integration products.

Just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, UTI 400 announced a “special promotional offer” that will see Infor distributing one or more of UTI 400’s products. The companies, which both have offices in Chicago, had previously partnered with RouteOne, a data transfer tool that streamlines the distribution of IBM i files and data

So-called “legacy” applications developed in languages like RPG, COBOL, and PL/1 have traditionally been the target of modernization efforts, and Micro Focus supports all of these with its Modernization Workbench. But with last week’s launch of Modernization Workbench version 3.2, the company has added support for Microsoft C#, demonstrating that applications built with supposedly modern languages can benefit from remodeling as well.

Modernization Workbench is an IT analysis tool that helps users untangle undocumented (or under-documented) programs in preparation for modernizing the application using newer technology, or migrating it to a different platform. In addition to “mining” business logic written

Tupperware Australia recently unwrapped an early Christmas present it bought for itself: a pair of brand new Power Systems Model 750 servers running the IBM i operating system. The shiny new IBM gear will allow the company to process twice as many orders on the Internet, and provide headroom for future growth.

Tupperware Australia is in charge of distributing the popular food-preserving products through its own direct-sales force of 6,000, plus 32 other Tupperware distributors in Australia and New Zealand. The company has long been a customer of IBM’s midrange gear, and recent demands placed on its Web-based ordering systems

The Dutch software conglomerate UNIT4 recently unveiled its new hybrid cloud computing division, which will offer its IBM i-friendly CODA Financials stack and the Agresso ERP product line. UNIT 4 also announced the acquisition of Teta S.A., one of the largest developers of ERP and human resources software in Poland.

UNIT4 says its new Hybrid Computing division will offer customers a choice of running applications in a mix of on-premise, private, and shared cloud applications. The new division will carry products owned by two other UNIT4 divisions, including the CODA Financials, which develops a best-in-class package of Java-based financials that