• Bally Technologies Bets on Quadrant for Document Management

  April 29, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Bally Technologies, a developer of gaming machines and casino management software, will install document management software from Quadrant Software to transition certain paper-based business processes from its System i-based ERP system into paperless processes, the software vendor announced last week. From its headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bally Technologies is well positioned to serve the multi-billion dollar gambling industry with its collection of slot machines and gaming management systems. Much of Bally’s management software runs on i OS (formerly i5/OS), the gaming industry’s preferred server. Bally knows a good thing when it sees it, and so it, too, runs its

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• Decline In Vulnerabilities Belies Threat Increase, Microsoft Says in New Security Report

  April 29, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Despite a 15 percent decline in new security vulnerability disclosures during the second half of 2007, cybercriminals continued to successfully mine the Internet for profit, primarily by planting Trojan horses and other pieces of malicious code that steal people’s identities and perform other works of unpleasantness. These are the conclusions of Microsoft‘s latest Security Intelligence Report (SIR), which it released at the Infosecurity Europe 2008 conference in London yesterday. Since late 2006, Microsoft has been collecting security-related data it pulls from 450 million computers around the world–perhaps yours–and compiling it into a comprehensive view of IT security, with a

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• Industrial Strength Software Debuts DB2/400 Optimization Tools

  April 22, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Industrial Strength Software, a provider of programmer utilities and change management tools based in Illinois, recently introduced two tools designed to help System i shops get the most performance out of DB2/400. The new tools, called the DBAnalyzer (DBA) and DBOptimizer (DBO), work together to identify inefficient database structures and to automatically optimize them for peak performance, thereby reclaiming disk space and processor turns. DB2/400–officially known as DB2 for i5/OS (IBM hasn’t gotten around to renaming it yet)–is a very robust database, and is the core engine powering many i5/OS (i) applications. While it can be very powerful

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• Turning a System i into a Time Machine: Nippon Express and CCSS Show How It’s Done

  April 22, 2008 Greer Hahn

  As the spectre of recession begins its inevitable and indiscriminate creep into boardrooms across the world, the attentions of CEOs begin to scan the body of the organization, looking for areas in which to trim the fat that might sustain them through the tough times. So how do IT managers justify and protect their existing budgets and prove their System i environment can punch above its weight? Simple–they turn their System i into a time machine. Within the heart of any logistics organization beats a ticking clock–to say it was a time sensitive industry would be an understatement. Nippon Express

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• United Computer Group Sailing Smooth Through Rough Water

  April 22, 2008 Dan Burger

  “Protecting Data for the SMB” could be the title of a book written by Jim Kandrac, president of UnitedComputer Group. The Brecksville, Ohio, company is doing quite well. According to Kandrac, its revenue for the first quarter of 2008 was up 198 percent compared to the same quarter in 2007. That’s pretty explosive stuff. When most companies are happy with status quo or small gains, where do numbers like 198 percent growth come from? The key to this, Kandrac says, was the launch of Vault400 in September of 2006. Vault400 is an online backup and disaster recovery managed service.

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• Enterprise Features Gain Focus as MySQL 5.1 Nears Release

  April 22, 2008 Alex Woodie

  The transformation of the MySQL database from open source curiosity to production-level workhorse continued this month with version 5.1, which adds several enterprise-level features. While MySQL 5.1–which is expected to ship before the end of June–has seen good reviews, the open source database’s owner, Sun Microsystems, has created controversy over its decision to make a new online backup feature available only to customers who pay for the enterprise version of the software. With more than 200 million downloads, MySQL is the most popular open source database on the market. The company, which was acquired by Sun in January for

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• Drummond Submits AS4 Requirements to OASIS

  April 22, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Buoyed by the success of AS2 and the need to streamline business document exchange via Web services, EXTOL International, Sterling Commerce, Cisco Systems, and the interoperability testing firm Drummond Group submitted a list of functional requirements to the standards body OASIS last week for the creation of a new B2B protocol, called AS4, that would adopt AS2 for use with Web services. With the acceptance of the ebXML Messaging Services (ebMS) 3.0 as a full standard last fall, the OASIS Messaging Services Technical Committee approved the creation of a subcommittee to develop a “profile” of ebMS 3.0

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• IBM Incorporates DataMirror Into InfoSphere Software

  April 22, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Users of DataMirror’s old data integration tools, including the popular Transformation Server, were finally given an upgrade last week when IBM delivered InfoSphere Change Data Capture version 6.2. The software giant also launched InfoSphere Change Data Capture for Oracle Replication version 3.1, an update on DataMirror’s old iReflect integration tool specifically for Oracle database environments. When IBM bought DataMirror last year, it primarily did so to get its hands on Transformation Server, which had built up a solid following for its strong showing in the field of real-time data integration and transformation. While DataMirror also had a large base

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• Alpharma Expands Use of iQ4bis BI Solution

  April 22, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Alpharma has decided to expand the use of iQ4bis‘ Windows-based business intelligence tools to pull more actionable information out of its back-office systems, including the System i-based JD Edwards World ERP system, iQ4bis announced recently. Based in Bridgewater, New Jersey, Alpharma develops, markets, and manufactures drugs for humans and animals, including morphine-based pain pills and anti-inflammatory patches for humans, and medicated feed additives and water soluble therapeutics for farm animals. Supporting this global operation is a collection of back office ERP systems, including JD Edwards World, which is used at company headquarters, as well as JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, which

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• Island Pacific to Continue Selling Help/Systems BI Tools

  April 22, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Island Pacific will continue to market and sell an OEM version of Help/Systems‘ SEQUEL business intelligence software to users of its i5/OS-based Merchandising suite, the companies announced last week. The deal could also be extended to include Help/System’s Robot suite of systems management tools. Island Pacific has been selling its own branded version of SEQUEL called Island Pacific Viewpoint for some time. Following the sale of the division that developed the Merchandising suite to Australia’s 3Q Holdings last year, that relationship was up in the air for a bit. But the companies eventually found each other again and renewed

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