FHS Volume: 4 Archives - Page 18 of 20

ICS Bolsters FormSprint with Topaz Signature Capture

February 17, 2004 Alex Woodie

Collecting signatures has long been a thorn in the sides of IT managers struggling to reduce paper use. While forms software has digitized pre-printed forms, and electronic fax and e-mail add-ons distribute those forms over phone lines, getting that good old John Hancock has remained a barrier to eliminating paper entirely. Among several other enhancements in the new version of Integrated Custom Software‘s FormSprint OS/400 document management software is support for Topaz Systems‘ electronic signature pads.

ICS has formed a partnership with Topaz Systems to enable its FormSprint software to work with Topaz’s line of electronic signature capture

…

WRQ Verastream 5.5 Delivers Better Integration with Microsoft

February 17, 2004 Alex Woodie

OS/400 shops looking to modernize their 5250 applications with Microsoft‘s .NET technologies may want to check out the latest release of WRQ‘s Verastream integration software. With the general availability of Verastream Version 5.5, which WRQ announced last week, the Seattle company delivered support for Microsoft’s BizTalk Server 2004, as well as closer integration with Visual Studio .NET. WRQ and Verastream also received kudos for leadership in the market for programmatic application modernization tools by IT analyst Gartner.

Verastream allows companies to build Java or .NET wrappers around existing host application datastreams, such as 5250 or 3270, thereby

…

Stonesoft to Launch Firewall and VPN for iSeries

February 10, 2004 Alex Woodie

iSeries shops waiting for a firewall that installs on their iSeries should get one soon. Stonesoft, a Finnish developer of security software and hardware, recently announced that its Linux-based StoneGate firewall and virtual private network (VPN) software will be available for iSeries early in the second quarter.

First available on Intel-based xSeries servers, and then on zSeries mainframes, the StoneGate Firewall and VPN software suite provides integrated firewall and VPN capabilities from a “hardened” Linux partition. Officials with Stonesoft, based in Helsinki, Finland, say IBM approached it to develop a version of the StoneGate product for the iSeries

…

iSeries Software Vendors Looking to Open Source Advantage

February 10, 2004 Dan Burger

One of the main drivers in IBM‘s high-intensity push toward open source systems is a program called the ISV Advantage. By working directly with the independent software vendors, or ISVs, IBM is taking the open source mantra to the users, through the trusted application providers. This is particularly true in the small and midsized arena, where companies are showing greater interest in technology. In so doing, IBM expects to increase its own revenue, market share, and development of the on-demand operating environment.

The ISV Advantage initiative debuted at IBM’s PartnerWorld conference one year ago. More than 100 members worldwide

…

MyDoom Puts iSeries IFS in the Virus Spotlight

February 10, 2004 Alex Woodie

As the tidal wave of e-mails infected with the MyDoom virus continued to circulate across the Internet last week, OS/400 security software vendors emphasized the importance of checking the iSeries Integrated File System (IFS) for Windows viruses. Bytware, which launched the first native OS/400 virus scanner last year, reported that some of its customers found MyDoom on their IFS systems, while Kisco announced a new deal with Symantec to distribute Norton AntiVirus 2004 with Kisco’s OS/400 security software, for PC-based IFS scanning.

By some experts’ estimates, MyDoom became the most prolific Windows virus to date when it hit the

…

AmNet Ditches Intel Server Farm for iSeries Scalability

February 10, 2004 Alex Woodie

Randy Myres’ story about the travails of running an Intel-based server farm are not unusual. Frequent crashes, memory leaks, and troublesome integration drove the chief information officer to check the state of American Mortgage Network’s xSeries servers at 1:00 many mornings. But now that the quickly growing wholesale mortgage bank has moved its core lending, e-mail, and Web server applications to a three-way iSeries Model 825, AmNet has room to grow and Myres is sleeping much better.

From its headquarters in San Diego, AmNet manages a wholesale loan business that wrote $10.2 billion in loans last year. The company

…

TriAWorks Aims to Simplify Single Sign-On with EIM Utility

February 3, 2004 Alex Woodie

A new company named TriAWorks was formed last month and has already released its first software product, called TriAWorks Identity Manager for Single Sign-On, or TIM SSO. The software utility is designed to simplify using IBM‘s Enterprise Identity Mapping framework, and therefore to make it easier for iSeries and Windows shops to provide their users with the much vaunted–but seldom obtained–single sign-on capability.

In a nutshell, Enterprise Identity Mapping is a framework for creating “associations” among the different user IDs a person uses to access a variety of computer systems. When combined with Kerberos authentication, Enterprise Identity Mapping provides

…

Stampede to Expand Web App Performance Product Line

February 3, 2004 Dan Burger

Last week at Lotusphere, Notes/Domino fans saw and heard much more from IBM Lotus about taking Domino applications to the Web. IBM’s resolve toward Web-based applications built on Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), running on WebSphere and used in a portal, was anything but understated. As this Web tide sweeps over Lotus, Stampede Technologies, a long-time provider of performance enhancing products for the Lotus market, has announced a new product that fits right in with IBM’s initiative.

Stampede officials say this new Web application optimization software, called WebRider, will not only increase performance but also reduce network, bandwidth, and

…

Symtrax Improves iSeries Report Access with WebReports

February 3, 2004 Alex Woodie

Companies looking for a centralized, Web-based repository to house spool file reports from OS/400 servers and other systems may want to check out the latest software from Symtrax. This month the company is launching WebReports, an improved version of its Symtrax Portal software, which, among other new features, provides improved integration with other Symtrax products, such as Compleo.

The role of WebReports, like its predecessor, is to capture data and documents from a variety of different computer systems, to index the information, then to provide Web-based access to that information. But WebReports builds upon Symtrax Portal in a few

…

Quadrant Updates Fax Server for OS/400, Other Platforms

February 3, 2004 Alex Woodie

The facsimile has come a long way since it was first invented by Scotsman Alexander Bain in 1843. Standardized in the 1960s, and hit hard by the rise of the Internet and e-mail in the late 1990s, fax volume is on the rebound today, and being able to send and receive faxes is still a requirement for companies of all sizes. It’s a good bet that the new inbound routing capabilities that Quadrant Software introduced in its FastFax solution would have impressed Bain.