IT decision makers who wonder how well a particular security product actually works in the real world may want to check out the website of Security Scoreboard, where crowd-sourced product reviews of commercial security products are on display for all to read. The Silicon Valley startup took a step up last week when it announced a new CEO, venture capital investment, and the addition of analytic capabilities designed to provide more tailored user recommendations.

Security Scoreboard (www.securityscoreboard.com) debuted in late January 2010 with plans to become a clearinghouse of product information and reviews for security software and

IBM i shops looking for a virtual tape library (VTL) and data de-duplication solution can add Data Domain to their list of vendors to research following the EMC subsidiary’s announcement last week that it has added native support for the IBM i operating system. The news eliminated Data Domain as one of the last major VTL and data de-duplication vendors to not support the IBM i operating system.

IBM i servers can now support many of the capabilities that Data Domain storage devices can offer, including continuous disk-based backup, in-line data de-duplication, encryption, and off-site data replication facilities. Considering Data

Oracle may have cut the cord between MySQL and the IBM i operating system. But that doesn’t mean customers should be ditching the database immediately. While IBM has not announced whether there will be another formal technical support organization put in place to support customers who want to run MySQL on IBM i, the fact that the database is an open source product leaves many options on the table.

Oracle surprised and even angered the IBM i community in December when it stopped supporting the IBM i operating system with its MySQL database. Despite evidence that the open source database

It will be easier to incorporate Java and database-driven applications with the latest release of Advanced Systems Concepts‘ ActiveBatch job scheduler. With version 8, ASCI has added the capability to directly invoke J2EE applications without the need for wrappers. Similarly, new adapters enable customers to tap into SQL Server and Oracle stored procedures without the need for scripts.

ActiveBatch is an enterprise job scheduler that lets organizations manage workloads across various platforms, including IBM i, Windows, Linux, Unix, mainframe, OpenVMS, and even Mac OS. The product gives administrators flexibility in how they set up their schedules (they can be

Organizations that are concerned with what’s going on within their WebSphere MQ implementation may want to consider an affordable MQ auditing tool unveiled recently by Capitalware. MQ Auditor, which was unveiled in November, supports IBM i and other platforms, and starts at $229 per queue.

MQ Auditor (MQA) enables an organization to track all MQ API calls performed by MQ applications that are connected to a queue manager, according to Capitalware, which specializes in creating WebSphere MQ utilities. The software converts into a human-readable format all the details of more than 30 different API calls in WebSphere MQ versions

Alliance Storage Technologies, which bought the rights to Plasmon’s Ultra Density Optical (UDO) technology in a fire sale about two years ago, is working on its “next generation” of storage technologies. ASTI isn’t revealing much about the new product, except to say to expect it in 2012.

ASTI made its mysterious announcement in October at a storage event in London. The only specifics the company would release was that the new product would increase library capacity by 800 percent, that beta tests would start in the fourth quarter of 2011, and that deliveries would begin in 2012.

The company

Lawson Software has completed testing its M3 Supplier Portal application running on the Apple Safari Web browser, which means it is ready to run on the iPad. The move, announced last week, is designed to make it even easier for Lawson customers to review and update orders.

Lawson’s M3 Supplier Portal is an optional component of the M3 ERP suite that’s aimed at enabling more effective communication between suppliers and their customers, primarily those in the fashion industry. The Web-based application provides a quick and easy way for either party to view and confirm key details of an order, such

Gumbo Software recently unveiled a new release of Dumpster, a free utility that helps programmers understand the inner workings of IBM i spool files so that they can track down errors, tweak program behavior, or boost the throughput of print jobs. With Dumpster V1R7, Gumbo has delivered support for IBM i 7.1, among other new features.

By generating formatted “dumps” of IBM i spool files, Gumbo’s Dumpster enables users to dissect and parse spooled files, and thereby gain a better understanding of exactly what’s going on in there. The software inputs most print data streams, including SCS, IPDS, and AFPDS,

Budget systems management software provider SolarWinds last week rolled out its Application Performance Monitor (APM), a new piece of software that tracks the behavior of Windows and Linux applications and some of the resources they touch.

APM is a new version of SolarWind’s application and server monitoring system. The software features more than 50 pre-developed monitors to track popular applications like Exchange, SQL Server, Active Directory, and IIS, as well as operating systems like Windows and Linux. Users can also create their own custom monitors, and monitor server and application performance through iPhone, Blackberry, and Android apps.

APM also lets

Companies that are concerned about keeping their EDI systems up to date may want to check out the latest results from the Drummond Group‘s third-quarter interoperability testing of AS2 products. Several IBM i products are in the list.

About twice a year, Drummond runs very detailed tests with a group of EDI vendors to determine whether their products send and receive information correctly. Drummond often throws in an extra test to determine if the products can successfully complete a special task. This time around, the vendor had several extra tasks to choose from, including AS2 reliability, AS2 restart, certificate