When the folks at the major credit card companies created the Payment Card Industry (PCI) a few years back, they defined the information security specifications using terms and architectures they were most familiar with. As it turned out, that meant Windows and Unix. After some analysis by customers of IBM and IBM engineers, the PCI specification was updated to reflect two other architectures prevalent among retailers: System i and System z.

Before he left IBM to found Group8 Security last month, Pat Botz worked with several groups involved in security, including a stint as security architect for i5/OS (formerly OS/400),

Above Security, a Canadian provider of security software and managed security services, recently announced that it now supports the System i with its flagship product, CSC2, or Center of Surveillance, Command, and Control. In fact, company officials report they were so impressed with the order and the level of detail in the i5/OS audit journal that they standardized their log collection and aggregation techniques for other platforms on the multi-user business server from IBM.

Based near Montreal, Quebec, Above Security has been providing customers with IT security services since it was founded in 1999. In 2002, it launched

Shield Advanced Solutions last month launched a new version of Receiver Apply Program (RAP), a low-cost disaster recovery (DR) solution for i5/OS that is largely based on the remote journaling technology IBM built into the system software of the System i. With RAP V2R1, the company has introduced new features that should make it easier for customers to get back on their feet following a disaster, as well as making the product available to a broader audience.

Shield first introduced RAP earlier this year to provide an alternative to i5/OS high availability software, which the company feels is too feature

System i security software developer Patrick Townsend & Associates will resell open system log management software from BalaBit IT Security as part of an expanded partnership announced last week. By pairing BalaBit’s log management software with its own i5/OS product, it will bring a greater degree of coverage of system events for the increasingly open System i server, Pat Townsend says.

Earlier this year, Pat Townsend launched Alliance LogAgent, a piece of i5/OS software that translates critical messages that hit the QUADJRN and system operator message queue into the syslog format. By supporting this standard, Pat Townsend was enabling its

Companies that use mrc‘s m-Power development tool to create reports can be assured that all reports generated by their m-Power applications, whether they’re in PDF, Excel, or HTML format, will have the same look and feel, mrc announced last week.

m-Power is collection of development tools mrc rolled out several years ago for creating Web applications, reports and queries, dashboard interfaces, and business intelligence apps on top of existing databases. The software relies heavily on JavaScript and works on System i and other major server platforms.

One of the key components of m-Power is m-Painter, a WYSIWYG editor for

Agilysys and Oracle unveiled an agreement last week that will see Agilysys reselling several of Oracle’s enterprise software products, including the J.D. Edwards EnterpriseOne and World and PeopleSoft Enterprise ERP suites, Siebel CRM, and Hyperion business intelligence software.

Agilysys, which used to be one of three distributors for the IBM System i server, is in the midst of a shift in its business strategy as it moves to develop closer relationships with the consumers of business IT. In January, Agilysys sold its distribution business to Arrow Electronics for $485 million, leaving Arrow and Avnet as the only System i distributors.

IBM last week announced that the WebSphere Dashboard Framework, a tool for creating composite application screens that are delivered as Web-based dashboards, is soon to gain support for i5/OS V5R4 running on the iSeries server, in addition to the mainframe running Linux.

The WebSphere Dashboard Framework is an extension of IBM’s WebSphere Portlet Factory that’s designed to allow developers to rapidly build and deploy pattern-based interfaces to existing business processes. Once these dashboards are deployed, employees and other users are able to record transactions, update customer information, or make other changes to applications residing on a bevy of back-end servers

Group 1 Software, the Pitney-Bowes subsidiary that specializes in helping organizations get the best postal rates, introduced a new product called e-Messaging last week that’s aimed at helping companies conduct e-mail marketing campaigns.

e-Messaging is designed to be used by call centers that are transitioning to become multi-channel contact centers that also handle customer communication via e-mail and short messaging service (SMS). Customers that already use Group 1’s DOC1 and e2 products to produce and send paper-based communication can use e-Messaging to transition the documents to electronic formats, without the need to redesign the documents for electronic delivery.

The

System i shops looking to boost the security of their data through the use of encryption can feel good about going with BOSaNOVA‘s Q3 encryption appliance now that the product has received the Storage Proven certification from IBM.

Q3 is a rack-mounted appliance that BOSaNOVA introduced earlier this year to help companies protect their sensitive data. The product, which sits between the server being backed up and the backup device or devices performing backups, uses dual-interlaced 3DES encryption engines that split the data into two streams that are encrypted separately using 112-bit keys.

Obtaining Storage Proven status for

Hurricane season is over, but that doesn’t mean businesses should stop thinking about their disaster recovery (DR) plans. Last week availability services provider SunGard laid out a list of steps companies can take to keep their business continuity programs in “exceptional fitness,” all year long.

When hurricane season approaches in the spring, it’s natural for companies to start thinking about their business continuity plans, says William DiMartini, senior vice president of professional services for SunGard Availability Services. “Yet, we see a general sense of complacency grow as we move into the fall months, particularly following a slower than usual storm