Global Software, a developer of an Excel-based reporting tool for ERP systems, is aiming to change how it interacts with its customers and its partners. Last week the company announced the launch of a new Web site, www.myspreadsheetserver.com, and the hiring of a new manager of strategic accounts, Bjorn Beer.

Spencer Kupferman, vice president of corporate affairs for Global Software, says the company launched www.myspreadsheetserver.com to give more attention to Spreadsheet Server, which is Global’s most popular product. “We felt our flagship Spreadsheet Server product was worthy of its own website based on the demand for the product

For years, J.D. Edwards World was the best-selling ERP system for the AS/400, the gold standard of the platform IBM built specifically to run business applications. Then Y2K hit, IT spending tanked, and J.D. Edwards landed in the hands of competitor Oracle, leading people to wonder if the end of World was near. While it won’t likely regain its seat at the head of the class, Oracle took steps this week with the delivery of World A9.1 to infuse new life into the aging application and reward loyal users with much-needed new capabilities.

The roots of J.D. Edwards World

Shield Advanced Solutions last week unveiled a new disaster recovery (DR) solution for the i5/OS server, called Receiver Apply Program/400 (RAP/400). The new product is based on the remote journaling technology IBM developed years ago, primarily for ensuring high availability (HA) of AS/400s. But instead of high availability, Shield is using remote journaling as a way to bring high-speed data replication and next-generation DR to the i5/OS masses.

There is no question that remote journaling has had a very large impact on IBM’s AS/400-iSeries-System i business over the last seven years. Before remote journaling was available, providers of high availability

You have choices in how you implement security on your i5/OS server. Data-centric security implemented at the folder or object level is the most rigorous type of security you can implement, but it is also the toughest to deploy and maintain. To address this challenge, IBM last week unveiled Secure Perspective for System i, a new tool that uses natural language processing to make it easier to secure i5/OS machines at the object or folder level.

Object-level security is powerful stuff on the i5/OS server. It gives administrators the ability to say what objects will be available to which users

As part of the latest round of System i announcements last week, IBM provided more details on the new Web-based query tool that it’s developing with OEM partner Information Builders as a replacement to Query/400. The new product will be called DB2 Web Query for System i, and it should ship later this year, IBM says.

In March, IBM and business intelligence software developer Information Builders announced plans for IBM to sell a version of Info Builder’s WebFOCUS software to buyers of new i5/OS servers and upgrades. The software would be bundled with the increasingly outdated (but still popular) Query/400

LogLogic has overhauled its cross-platform log monitoring and reporting solution, called LogLogic. With LogLogic version 4.0, the company has added a new engine for processing data from logs and queues and added the capability for users to consume reports generated from that data via the Web, among other new features.

LogLogic sells rack-mounted X86 servers preloaded with its log management and reporting software. The San Jose, California, company sells two appliances: a frontline LX series that collects log data from a range of platforms and applications, generates reports from short-term data, and performs real-time alerting and access control; and the

BOSaNOVA is getting the security bug. Once focused primarily on System i terminals and emulation, the company broke into the security business with the introduction of its Q3 data encryption appliance earlier this year. Now, BOSaNOVA is hooking up with Raz-Lee Security in a new partnership to sell Raz-Lee’s i5/OS security software, the companies announced last week.

As part of the deal, BOSaNOVA will resell iSecurity, Raz-Lee’s suite of security software for i5/OS. iSecurity is composed of 13 related products providing network security, audits, antivirus, password management, user profile management, and security assessment capabilities, through green screens or a Java-based

Terminal emulation software developer Ericom last week announced the general availability of PowerTerm WebConnect 5.5.1, a new release of its Web-based emulation software that adds support for Microsoft‘s Windows Vista clients, among other new features benefiting Windows terminal environments.

Ericom is unique among terminal emulation software vendors in that users can access traditional hosts, such as iSeries, mainframes, VMS, and Unix machines, as well as Windows servers from the same product: PowerTerm WebConnect Enterprise. In this respect, Ericom competes with traditional terminal emulation vendors, as well as with Citrix and Microsoft for Windows Terminal Services emulation, which gives it

As IBM unveiled the new System i Express models 515 and 525 “Windows killers” last week, EDI software developer EXTOL capitalized on the announcement with the introduction of a new EDI appliance, which is based on the new low-end System i Express Model 515.

As the communication method used to transmit orders in industrial supply chains, EDI is a critical business application. If the capability to send, receive, and process EDI messages is reduced, it will likely have a substantial impact on the user’s business. This is one argument for putting EDI workloads on the i5/OS server, which is marked

You’ve undoubtedly heard of services oriented architecture (SOA), the new “loosely coupled” Web services development model that is sweeping the IT nation. While there have been boatloads of hype surrounding SOA, it also appears that the SOA technique is finding its share of participants, according to a new Evans Data survey that finds that enterprise-level SOA deployments will double over the next two years.

According to a survey of more than 300 developers at enterprise-size companies, nearly 25 percent of organizations already have an SOA in place. What’s more, over the next 24 months, another 28 percent of respondents plan