MySQL and IBM last week started a public beta for the new DB2 for i (IBMDB2i) Storage Engine for the MySQL database, a long-awaited product that will allow System i shops to care and feed for their MySQL-based PHP applications running on their i OS server just as they do for ordinary DB2 for i (DB2/400) applications. The Storage Engine will be available for customers at V5R4 and i 6.1 versions of the operating system, but they must install several PTFs first.

System i shops have been eagerly waiting for IBM and MySQL (now owned by Sun Microsystems) to

A $1.7 billion construction company has saved millions of dollars in license fees and years of time by refurbishing a 30-year-old RPG-based ERP system with Zend Technology‘s PHP development tools rather than buying a new, brand-name ERP package in the seven figures. The two-year programming effort for APi Group of Minnesota paid off when its IT staff replaced all of the old 5250 green screens with Web interfaces, at a fraction of the cost, time frame, and pain of a full-scale ERP migration.

The APi Group was founded in 1926 as A.P.I. Inc, a small insulation contracting company that

ManageEngine recently announced a beta test for OpManager OnDemand, a software as a service (SaaS) version of its systems management tools for monitoring servers and networks. The new offering gives customers a Web-based console to monitor a wide swath of their IT infrastructure, while eliminating the need to install software, provision servers, and pay big upfront license fees. Over the coming months, the company plans to deliver more of its IT management tools via SaaS, including possibly its relatively deep System i monitoring capabilities.

ManageEngine is one of three related companies that have quietly built an impressive roster of software

RSA yesterday unveiled a new version of its security information and event management (SIEM) software, enVision 4.0. With the new release, the EMC subsidiary has introduced several new features aimed at making it easier to correlate and make sense of the security-related log and vulnerability data that is inundating organizations. And in a bid to show enVision is not just for big enterprises, RSA unveiled two new appliances for medium size companies.

RSA bills enVision, which it obtained with its 2006 acquisition of Network Intelligence, as a three-in-one SIEM platform aimed at solving the three interrelated problems of network visibility,

System i shops that need to send faxes from their AS/400 but don’t want to install a dedicated line were given another option last week when Kisco Information Systems announced that the latest release of its WebReport/400 product now bears an integrated connection to MetroFax‘s Internet-based fax service, enabling users to quickly and easily send spool files as faxes.

WebReport/400 is a versatile utility that allows AS/400 and IBM i shops to make more effective use of the spool files and reports generated by their applications. The software can be used interactively to e-mail or FTP spool files that

Mixing creative and strategic and then applying it to the delivery of information is important in the communication business. People want to feel welcome and comfortable with the places they go for information. And, they want that information to be valuable, insightful, and entertaining. Beyond all that, there’s an increased desire to be interactive. For all these reasons, and others that apply to individual software companies and their relationships with their customers, ASNA has recently raised the curtain on RPGDevNet, the company’s new road to two-way conversations with its customers and prospects.

What you’ll find at RPGDevNet is basically

Looking to avoid the time and expense of connecting System i and Windows .NET systems by hand, two System i shops in the transportation business, Seaboard Marine and Morgan Corporation, have utilized a HiT Software data provider called Ritmo to do the heavy lifting for them, the software company announced last week.

It can be a tricky thing to write and debug a Windows .NET application that utilizes DB2 for i (DB2/400) data, according to HiT Software. Unless you have oodles of System i database experience and plenty of time allotted to the exercise, it can end up consuming more

An expanded version of tips and techniques for users of IBM‘s Remote System Explorer (RSE) and WebSphere Development Studio (WDSc) is available from System i Developer (SiD), the group of IBM i development experts who are also the organizers of the RPG & DB2 Summit. The quick reference guide, Favorite Keyboard Shortcuts for RSE (WDSC/RDi), contains 46 keyboard shortcuts and presents them on a single page. The flip side includes tips on customizing RSE that improve productivity. All of the shortcuts and tips work with Version 7 of RSE in both WDSc and the RDi development environment.

System

PlanetJ recently updated its Web Object Wizard (WOW) product line, which can Web-enable a 5250 application in as little as four minutes, the company claims. With WOW version 6.5.05, customers will find new AJAX-style user interface features, in addition to several enhancements and fixes.

PlanetJ built WOW to be a flexible framework for quickly creating Web applications on the System i server. The Java-based development tool suite allows users to tap into existing RPG, COBOL, or CL functionality by generating SQL for accessing DB2/400. It also generates HTML and CSS to present the data in a Web browser.

With WOW

Attachmate recently commissioned The Tolly Group to see how its Reflection 2008 emulation suite stacks up to three big competitors. According to Tolly’s results, the former WRQ product delivered a broader feature set, better administrative functions, closer integration with Windows Vista and Office 2007, and overall better user productivity than the competing programs.

Reflection 2008, which became generally available in January, is Attachmate’s flagship emulator and the preferred migration destination for its EXTRA! and InfoConnect emulator lines. It’s no surprise, then, that Attachmate paid Tolly last year to test Reflection 2008 against three other emulation suites–including IBM Personal Communications