• T.L. Ashford Rolls Out New RFID Software for OS/400

  April 27, 2004 Alex Woodie

  T.L. Ashford & Associates is now shipping a new module that allows its Barcode400 software and OS/400 applications to generate “smart labels” encoded with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. Manufacturers and distributors in the retail, consumer processed goods, and hardline goods supply chains are under pressure to include RFID tags on shipments and to meet the RFID deadlines set by Wal-Mart, The Home Depot, the Department of Defense, and other supply chain leaders. Barcode400 is a native OS/400 label-generation application that integrates with users’ RPG, COBOL, and CL applications. The software works by merging product data from the core OS/400

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• IBM Brings Rack-Mounted UPS to iSeries

  April 27, 2004 Alex Woodie

  IBM Global Services last week introduced a rack-mounted Uninterruptible Power Systems (UPS) for iSeries servers. The 2.7 kW 9910 Model P33, which was first made available to pSeries customers in August 2001, was brought to the pSeries twin server, the iSeries, on April 20. IBM also announced four other new UPS systems for iSeries and pSeries servers in its 9910 line of power protection devices, which is an OEM model from Powerware. IBM said it brought the 9910 Model P33 UPS to the iSeries because of customer demand for rack-mounted UPS for iSeries servers. While, several years ago, IBM

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• ‘On-Access’ Virus Scanning to Debut with OS/400 V5R3

  April 20, 2004 Alex Woodie

  One of the new features iSeries shops can look forward to in OS/400 V5R3 is the capability to detect and clean viruses at the moment a user attempts to open a file that’s been infected with a virus, or the file is otherwise accessed. This so-called “on access” virus scanning capability will debut with OS/400 V5R3, which IBM is preparing to announce. On-access scanning will require an OS/400 antivirus scanning engine, such as Bytware‘s StandGuard Anti-Virus. Bytware launched the industry’s first–and still the only–OS/400-based virus scanning and removal tool in the summer of 2003 (see “Bytware Launches OS/400 Antivirus

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• BAI Offers Tax Payment over the Web with ASNA’s AVR for .NET

  April 20, 2004 Robert Boyd

  Annie Powell’s real estate taxes were due. The county tax assessor’s office was just outside of Richmond, Virginia, so on her lunch break she sped there to pay them. When she arrived, eight people were lined up in front of her. Sullen, she got in her car and returned to work. What Powell didn’t know was that two developers for a municipal software house in nearby Jonesborough, Tennessee, had just started a project that would have let Powell pay her taxes online. For 20 years, software developer BAI Municipal Software has written RPG-based applications to manage revenue-centric activities for municipalities,

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• Expand Plugs In with New IP Acceleration Options

  April 20, 2004 Alex Woodie

  OS/400 shops looking to Expand Networks to alleviate bandwidth problems with their data replication environments have new options available from the Roseland, New Jersey, company. Yesterday, Expand announced a new modular architecture that includes specific plug-ins designed to speed certain types of traffic. The company is also packaging its IP accelerations capabilities as a software product for the first time and has launched new appliances. Several OS/400 shops have reported exceptional compression rates–up to 500 percent and higher–on the 5250 datastreams of their high availability environments using Expand Networks’ line of IP Accelerators. The news led to the formation of

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• Cleo Enhances Automation with AS2 Software for OS/400

  April 20, 2004 Alex Woodie

  One of the software vendors now writing OS/400 communications software for newer transaction protocols, such as the AS2 standard used for sending EDI documents over the Internet, is Cleo Communications. The established emulation and communication tools vendor from Loves Park, Illinois, entered the OS/400 software market last March, with Version 2.1 of its LexiCom AS2 software. Last week, Cleo updated the technology underlying LexiCom, which it calls VersaLex, with several new automation features. Cleo’s LexiCom AS/400 software extends traditional EDI systems to the Internet by enabling users to send and receive documents, such as purchase orders or advanced shipping

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• IBM Announces New Baby ‘Shark’ Array

  April 13, 2004 Alex Woodie

  Companies that have looked for a storage area network (SAN) disk array but were turned off by the high price of IBM‘s Enterprise Storage System (ESS) Model 800 “Shark” array now have another option from Big Blue. Last week the company launched the ESS Model 750, a scaled-down Shark array that features fewer processors, disk drives, and bus adapters than the Shark 800, but starts at only $150,000 for 1.1TB of storage. The baby Shark 750 is based on the same architecture as the ESS Model 800, and includes much of the same replication and disaster recovery software as

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• Kronos Welcomed Customer Input for iSeries Central 5

  April 13, 2004 Alex Woodie

  A new version of Kronos‘ time and labor management software for OS/400 should make it easier for both employees and managers to interface with the system. iSeries Central 5, which was announced last week, contains several new features–such as a new HTML interface, navigation “genies,” and a new graphical scheduling system–that are the result of requests made by a new iSeries Central customer advisory board that was formed earlier this year. iSeries Central is an industrial-strength suite of time and labor management applications that run exclusively on OS/400 servers. Its core module, iSeries Timekeeper, replaces manual timecard systems, while

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• IBM to Support BPEL-Based Web Services on iSeries in Q3

  April 13, 2004 Alex Woodie

  Last week, IBM shuffled its WebSphere deck and issued new releases of its core Web services development and delivery platform. The newly named product, WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation (WBISF) version 5.1, allows companies to implement and deliver “services-oriented” applications assembled in Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) using WebSphere Studio Application Developer (AD) Integration Edition V5.1, which was also announced and shipped last week. IBM issued a statement of direction to support WBISF on OS/400 this summer. Before we get into the details, let’s get the WebSphere names straight. IBM has done a little spring cleaning with its WebSphere product

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• Ricoh Printers Get Better iSeries Connectivity with WCO

  April 13, 2004 Alex Woodie

  Ricoh and IBM have teamed to provide AS/400 and iSeries users with greater control over their Ricoh printers and multi-function printers (MFPs). Ricoh last month announced that, as the result of a new Workstation Customization Object (WCO) for Ricoh printers available with OS/400, users are now able to customize their print jobs to fit their needs. For years, Ricoh has supported OS/400 servers with its line of printers and MFPs. Just last fall, the Japanese owned electronics giant announced new software that supported direct OS/400-based AFP and IPDS printing on its line of printers and MFPs. The company also offers

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