When Help/Systems set out 15 years ago to develop a suite of systems management tools for the AS/400, the company always intended for a security tool to be part of the mix. Now, the Minneapolis-area company is making good on that commitment with this week’s launch of Robot/SECURITY, a collection of five security modules that help protect System i servers from internal as well as external threats.

For a version 1.0 release, Robot/SECURITY offers a surprisingly comprehensive array of i5/OS security capabilities. The product offers the obligatory network security through server exit point monitoring, while the audit reporting feature enables

Remember when the IT version of the snipe hunt was sending the new kid looking for the AS/400 database administrator? That was back when the rookies didn’t realize the AS/400 needed a DBA like a fish needs a bicycle. Ever since SQL and SQL-based applications took root in iSeries shops, things have changed, and the trend toward increasing database performance shows no sign of diminishing. And companies like Centerfield Technology are designing software specifically for database performance and simplification.

Most companies that rely on the System i still don’t employ a person dedicated to database administration, but they do need

SkyView Partners is now shipping a new release of Policy Minder, a product it launched in 2005 to analyze and enforce security policies on i5/OS systems. With version 1.3, SkyView published an API that makes it easier for customers and other software vendors to hook into Policy Minder’s capabilities. And customers can now use Policy Minder to monitor and enforce nearly all i5/OS system settings, not just those related to security.

SkyView Partners first launched Policy Minder in the fall of 2005 to serve the growing need for tools that simplify and automate the setup and ongoing management of i5/OS

At the heart of business intelligence solutions is the capability to easily and quickly take care of query and report-writing tasks. In the IBM native System i, iSeries, and AS/400 environment, such tasks have been the primarily confined to green-screen development. Well, guess what? It’s time for graphical point-and-click, drag-and-drop query and report writing courtesy of New Generation Software, which earlier this month introduced IQ Client, a new query development module within the NGS business intelligence product suite.

IQ Client will likely surprise many veteran green-screen developers and power uses with its query-building functionality. This is not a watered-down

iSeries and System i shops can now use Leb Shama‘s Ahsay Online Backup Suite to protect their OS/400 and i5/OS servers, the company announced recently. With Ahsay Online Backup Server (OBS) version 5.2.2.5, the Hong Kong company added the System i to a long list of supported servers.

The Ahsay Online Backup Suite Provider Edition is a collection of utilities designed for use by Internet and application service providers (XSPs). The suite includes the core Ahsay OBS engine, which supports Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac OSX, NetWare, and all other Java-supported operating systems. Other components of the suite include the

Valid Technologies, which develops a fingerprint authentication solution that supports i5/OS, this month unveiled a new release of its Valid Secure System Authentication (VSSA) solution that supports Microsoft Windows Terminal Servers.

Valid Tech delivered one of the IBM midrange server’s first biometric authentication systems in 2005, when it launched VSSA version 1.4. The Boca Raton, Florida, company’s development kit included the code necessary for embedding VSSA into existing applications developed in RPG, COBOL, C++, Java, and Visual Basic. VSSA itself runs on i5/OS V5R3 or higher.

With VSSA version 2.3, the company has expanded the product to support applications

InfoPrint Solutions Company, the joint venture between IBM and Ricoh formed earlier this year following the sale of IBM’s printing division to Ricoh, announced the launch of two new color multi-function printers (MFPs) last week.

Like all MFPs, the new InfoPrint Color 1759 MFP and 1769 MFP allow users to copy, scan, fax, and print from a single device. And while the new products offer both color and monochrome capabilities, they offer only “light production” color capabilities, which means it shouldn’t be your everyday color production printer.

The InfoPrint 1759 prints black-and-white jobs at the rate of 40 pages

Northdoor has launched a System i application modernization service, the London System i consultancy announced last week. The company plans to use LANSA‘s Rapid Application Modernization Process (RAMP) product and methodology to speed the integration of RPG logic with Java and Microsoft .NET.

“Despite the limitations of System i applications, many companies are rightly reluctant to replace them, as they are reliable and encapsulate extensive and proven business logic,” says David Ballard, Northdoor’s director.

“But there is a way to extend the life of these investments for many years to come. System i applications can now be modernized to

Maronda Homes, a homebuilder that does business across the Midwest and the southern states, has installed a lead management system, based on LANSA‘s Windows and System i application development technology, to help it sell new houses, LANSA announced last week.

Maronda uses a unique approach to sell houses that involves marketing its homes by using directories and Web sites. However, this approach generated leads that the company sometimes had a difficult time utilizing to its full potential, according to LANSA. That is what led the company to ask LANSA to build the Active Lead Management (ALM) system to organize

Infor last week launched a new version of ERP A+, an i5/OS-based application designed for companies in the distribution business. With the new version, Infor has integrated ERP A+ with some of its other products.

According to Infor’s A+ announcement, the new version of A+ delivers two new features: integration with other Infor products, including Infor SCM Demand Planning and “document management,” and a new interface that is so easy to use that employees will learn it “in record time,” the company says.

Customers purchasing the new version of A+ and using it with SCM Demand Planning can expect to