During software testing, it can be a daunting task to generate a separate test script for each type of data that needs to be tested against the application. To satisfy the need for more productive and precise testing, Original Software recently introduced a new product called TestSmart that automatically populates a single test script with different real-world data on each test run. The English testing specialist has also added regulatory compliance to the testing fold with a new release of TestPlan.

Announced last month at its annual user conference in Chicago, Original’s new TestSmart module is a plug-in for the

It seems counterintuitive at first. Given the choice of building a solution on an iSeries server or building one on a less expensive Intel-based server, the iSeries solution costs less in the end. But that is what’s happening across the state of Kansas, where a reseller by the name of InfiniTec is keeping county governments running lean and mean, year after year, with RPG software, technical services, and iSeries hardware.

There used to be several software vendors that developed and sold iSeries-based software packages to county governments in Kansas, says Sonny Sagar, director of marketing at InfiniTec, based in

Devon IT recently launched NTAVO 5.0 Appliance, a new IBM eServer-based device designed to provide remote users with secure and easy-to-use access to applications running on OS/400, mainframe, Unix, Linux, and Windows servers. As a main application proxy, the NTAVO Appliance has advantages over other remote access techniques, such as virtual private networks and Citrix, the company claims.

Devon IT’s NTAVO Appliances are rack-mountable, Linux-based IBM xSeries servers (or IBM eServer BladeCenter systems on the high-end model) that use Tarantella‘s remote access technology to provide thin clients with secure access to host applications. On the back end, the

Patrick Townsend & Associates is now shipping Alliance AES/400, a data security utility that provides an OS/400 implementation of the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm. Previously provided as an optional component of Pat Townsend’s FTP Manager product, AES/400 has been broken out as a stand-alone utility to give OS/400 shops an easy way to encrypt their sensitive DB2/400 and IFS fields and files, and to share encrypted files with Windows clients.

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: the OS/400 server, out of the box, is one of the most computer secure platforms in use.