IBM last week announced pricing and availability details for its DB2 Web Query for System i business intelligence product. Users will be able to get started with the new product, which is based on technology developed by Information Builders, in September for as little as $1,600. IBM also detailed the OLAP, Active Reports, and Developer Workbench add-ons that expand the product’s functionality, and made its best case for keeping business intelligence workloads on the venerable platform.

For a supposedly advanced, integrated server with a built-in relational database, IBM’s System i server lacked a reporting tool that could be considered

Among the various System i announcements that IBM made last week was IBM Software Announcement 207-172, which details the various support programs that customers can purchase to run the MySQL database on the System i platform. IBM also announced which database engines would be supported with MySQL Enterprise for i5/OS (hint: DB2/400 isn’t one of them).

Ever since IBM and PHP development tool maker Zend Technologies partnered to bring PHP to the i5/OS server more than two years ago, there has been a need to run MySQL on the System i platform. While Zend’s tools are useful for

Organizations that purchase CCSS‘ QSystem Monitor version 12 to monitor the real-time performance of their iSeries and System i servers received a little bonus last month. That’s when the i5/OS software specialist announced the inclusion of a new feature to V12 that shows what the future holds across a variety of i-server performance metrics, from disk and CPU usage to transactions per minute and new orders.

QSystem Monitor is a client/server application that shows system administrators how their System i and iSeries servers are using system resources. Server-side agents monitor specific resources, while the results are displayed on the

The IT department at Hercules Corporation, among other things, bears the weight of inventory control. It’s critical to the success of this service-oriented business that depends on mobile technicians and repair parts. While most of the goods are warehoused at the company’s headquarters in Hicksville, New York, there are tens of thousands of dollars worth of parts riding around in service vehicles and in staging areas near job sites. Keeping repair parts in the hands of the technicians means keeping tight control over inventory.

Hercules operates more than 5,000 squeaky clean laundry machines in dozens of condominium, co-op, dorm, and

Hoping to speed the build out of WebSphere Portal implementations, IBM has released the second in a series of accelerator products, which are designed to demonstrate some of the features available through portal technology and provide code that developers can use to build in their own customized portals.

This particular accelerator was created specifically for companies with SAP ERP and human resources applications. SAP is one of the leaders in human resource management systems and is found in numerous companies that are under way with portal projects that want to give employees self-service applications because of their efficiencies. HR service

Companies in the distribution, manufacturing, retail, and service industries aren’t the only organizations that find it difficult to deal with complex process of state sales tax management. However, they are the only industries that have reason to take note of an alliance between VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.) and Independent Systems, an Illinois-based provider of tax software for businesses.

VAI is a well-known System i software vendor with a track record of helping companies lower inventory levels, streamline business operations, reduce costs, and improve customer service. Its lead product, S2K Enterprise, is a popular choice for small to mid size

OneNeck IT Services, a leading ERP outsourcing services provider to the mid-size businesses in the manufacturing and distribution fields, has been hired to take over the ERP administration, System i administration, network management, Exchange administration, and hosting responsibilities for the chemical and materials technology company, Lewcott. Officials at Lewcott say the decision was based on investing the company’s technical resources in activities directly related to its product portfolio.

“Choosing a cost-effective, flexible solution from OneNeck allows us to focus on strategic IT initiatives and business processes, while OneNeck maintains and supports our systems for long-term performance,” said Lewcott’s vice

Infinite Software (formerly California Software), a provider of tools for migrating i5/OS applications to Windows, Unix, and Linux, has released its latest version of its Infinite iSeries Suite of rehosting tools that includes compilers, utilities, and a deployment environment.

The enhancements included in what is referred to as Version 4.00.05 provide expanded support for complex date and time functions; basing pointers and pointer arithmetic; improvements in the handling of large files, including database files and larger database keys; plus support for Oracle‘s 10g and newly released 11g databases.

The company is also touting improved and extended support for embedded

Because of rampant data leaks and losses of confidential information, e-mail security continues to be a top priority for many organizations and news of new products in this field are met with great expectations. IBM is in the game with a new virtual e-mail security product that has the capability to inspect both inbound and outbound communication.

Based on the Proventia Network Mail Security System from the IBM Internet Security Systems division, it is designed to block the full realm of malicious code affecting e-mail systems. The enemies include spam, phishing attacks, viruses, worms, and other malcode. It also takes

A preview version of Cape Clear Software’s Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) platform version 7.5 is available on a limited basis, with general availability expected in September. The ESB platform was designed so that users can connect any content, services, or software across the Internet using Web services.

The latest release will allow users to access, segment, and share SOA applications or integrations. It also brings support for both SOAP-based and RESTful integration styles; message replay; and support for exposing stored procedures as first-class SOA artifacts.

According to Cape Clear marketing claims, its enterprise service bus is “fully integrated and optimized”