It would be a huge understatement to say it’s a challenge to get .NET and RPG programs–let alone .NET or RPG programmers–to play by the same set of rules. For companies that rely on a mix of IBM i (AS/400) and Microsoft Windows servers to run their business applications, it’s a problem faced on a daily basis. But thanks to a new data integrity tool launched last week, LANSA‘s Open for .NET, users can share DB2/400 data and enforce IBM i business rules upon Windows .NET applications, in real time.

The development of different and unique “silos” of data,

AS/400 shops interested in starting fresh with a customizable, Web-based application framework–including programs such as accounts payable, business intelligence, CRM, and document management–may want to check out the new iJungle suite that AdventureTech Group announced earlier this month. The software is built on AdventureTech’s sockets-based Web-enablement software, called iSafari, and can take much of the grunt work out of developing such applications from scratch.

AdventureTech has been selling iSafari and a related message management product called iConga since they were formally introduced in early 2007. The company found, as many software vendors do, that customers are often looking for

Zend Technologies announced the immediate availability of a new release of Zend Core for IBM i last week at its ZendCon 2008 user conference. With version 2.6 of the product, PHP developers will be able to access DB2/400 data directly from the Zend Framework running on the i OS. The PHP company also unveiled partnerships with Adobe and Dojo Foundation to hook those organizations’ Web 2.0 developer tools into Zend’s PHP development environments.

Zend has done an exceptional job supporting i5/OS and, now, i OS, ever since PHP support was brought to the i5/OS platform more than two years ago

It used to be that the collection of data security and interoperability standards known as the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) was used primarily by companies holding contracts with the federal government. Not anymore. According to host emulation and integration software provider Attachmate, which recently obtained FIPS validation for a new release of its Verastream Host Integration product, private enterprises without government contracts are also looking for the FIPS seal of approval.

The federal government created the FIPS program in the late 1960s to ensure that governmental agencies and contractors doing business with the government adhere to a set

Interested in buying some clustering software for your i OS server? In years past, the buying process would likely have stretched out into weeks or months, as you sent out requests for proposals to multiple vendors and analyzed the quotes you received. But now, thanks to the industry consolidation work by Vision Solutions and IBM‘s regimented product announcement process, you can know right up front exactly how much the clustering software is going to cost.

Two weeks ago, IBM included an announcement for Vision Solution’s i OS cluster management software, called Vision Cluster1, in its weekly announcement roundup, which

Sterling Commerce last week unveiled two new solutions aimed at easing the transfer of business information among trading partners. The first is File Gateway, a new component of Sterling’s Managed File Transfer (MFT) suite designed to consolidate the various methods of managing file transfers within the context of a service oriented architecture (SOA), and File Accelerator, another new MFT component that provides a UDP-based alternative to traditional FTP.

Many AS/400 shops are familiar with Sterling for its Gentran suite of EDI and B2B integration products. In recent years, the AT&T subsidiary has been looking to broaden its offerings, which it

BlueZone Software, a subsidiary of Rocket Software, last week rolled out BlueZone Mobile, a 3270/5250 terminal emulator for touchscreen smartphones running the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system.

BlueZone Mobile is the latest client interface designed to work with BlueZone Access Server, the company’s three-tier terminal emulation suite for accessing AS/400s, mainframes, and Unix hosts over the HTTP and HTTPS protocols. Because of that three-tier architecture, BlueZone Mobile users moving between cell phone towers or WiFi access points will be able to tolerate poor or intermittent connectivity without losing their emulation session, which would ordinarily plague a standard Telnet

Inovis announced last week plans to support a new SEC mandate requiring public companies to file financial data and EDGAR filings using Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). The Atlanta, Georgia, company plans to support all of its BizManager products, including BizManager400, by the SEC’s deadlines for XBRL compliance in 2009 and 2010.

The entire financial information supply chain is expected to benefit by the standardization of SEC filings via XBRL. According to Inovis, whose B2B software supports EDI standards, including AS2 and ebXML, users would benefit from improved efficiency in preparation and submission of SEC filings; increased transparency of filings;

Countrywide Financial, the mortgage loan giant based in Simi Valley, California, has long been regarded as one of the largest users of IBM Power Systems technology. When it was time to modernize the applications and begin the transition to a service oriented architecture (SOA), Countrywide brought in UST Global, an IT outsourcing firm that recently launched a new IT consulting division.

When it was founded in Laguna Hills, California, in 1998, UST Global was known as US Technology, and focused largely on the market for business process outsourcing (BPO) among the Global 2000 companies. Today, UST Global still maintains

What’s in a name? Apparently not much, if you’re IBM, which now seems intent on rewriting history by eliminating some references to the i5/OS operating system from its Web site.

In recent months, IBM has modified its Global Solutions Directory Web page to align with the company’s latest naming strategy for the server product from Rochester, Minnesota.

It used to be that you could see which third-party applications were certified to run on i5/OS V5R4, which was the release of the operating system before i 6.1 was launched earlier this year, and the only operating system to ever be