One of the great things about the Internet is it makes it exceptionally easy to distribute computer files. Within minutes, users can be up and running with free FTP and e-mail utilities, and begin sending files around the globe. However, as is the case with many things about the Internet, decentralized file transfer opens the door to security problems and inefficiencies that businesses should not tolerate. The solution advocated by many is a relatively new class of software product called managed file transfer, or MFT.

If you’re wondering what this new term managed file transfer, or MFT, refers to and

IBM today is expected to formally announce EGL Community Edition, new free version of its Eclipse-based EGL development tools for creating Web 2.0 applications on the System i server. The product should be available starting next week, an IBM product manager confirmed.

Barring an unexpected delay, the EGL Community Edition product will be formally announced today, said Will Smythe, IBM’s product line manager for the Rational Business Developer and EGL development tools.

“Nothing is set in stone until the official announcement comes out, however,” Smythe wrote last week via e-mail. “But I do not expect any delays now.”

Smythe and

Linoma Software last week unveiled GoAnywhere Services, a new addition to its flagship managed file transfer (MFT) software designed to make it easier for organizations to exchange data externally with their partners and customers. GoAnywhere Services, which runs under i OS, also introduces a new Web client that can create a defacto data storefront for external communications.

Linoma is no newbie to the MFT business. While the Nebraska company has been marketing its GoAnywhere product line under the header of “MFT product” for a short time, that’s more a result of the relative newness of the MFT product category and

Need to simulate dates or do time-zone shifting in i OS without using LPAR? Then you might want to check out a new release of the AnyDate utility. Developed by SEQUEL Software–the former Advanced Systems Concepts business that was recently spun out into its own entity by Help/Systems–provides a safe and easy way to change the system time and date values for the purposes of application testing, re-running reports, or shifting time zones at service bureaus. And with version 2.0, it no longer violates security level 40.

As an enterprise server that’s used to run the primary businesses

Cosyn recently rolled out a new collection of software and services called AP Minder that’s designed to streamline the accounts payable process at companies that use BPCS, and soon JD Edwards. AP Minder Lite provides secure off-site archiving for copies of scanned invoices a customer sends to Cosyn, while the full AP Minder product delivers a fully outsourced invoice entry and processing system, all for less than $65,000.

Based in New Zealand, Cosyn has been working in the BPCS arena for more than two decades, and has provided BPCS consulting and development services for some of the regions largest BPCS

For many years, the biggest trucking outfits in the United States relied on IBM AS/400 technology to run their critical dispatching workloads. Like the casino business, the stability and ease of use of the AS/400 just seemed tailor made for managing trucking companies. But benchmark tests recently performed by TMW Systems at an IBM Innovation Center shows that its Windows-based dispatching software, TruckMate, is beginning to handle the heavy dispatching workloads usually attempted only on the System i.

Tests at the IBM Innovation Center in San Mateo, California, centered around System x servers running the Windows Server operating system and

As you noodle the idea of how and why IBM‘s Blade Center S can work to your advantage, one topic you may be working through concerns virtualization and high availability. If not now, then soon. Ron Peterson, senior product strategist for Vision Solutions, points out that a virtualization strategy improves hardware resource utilization by reducing the overall system footprint and lowering energy consumption through multiplatform server consolidation. He mentions this because Vision specializes in the availability of virtualized environments.

This kind of thinking used to only take place exclusively in the high-end AS/400 shops where the loss of

International Business Systems, the Swedish ERP software company that is transitioning from an RPG-based i OS strategy to develop on Java and Windows, announced a partnership with rfXcel this summer that will yield new electronic pedigree (e-pedigree) tracking capabilities for IBS Enterprise customers in the pharmaceutical industry.

The partnership with rfXcel will give IBS customers the opportunity to replace paper-based tracking processes with a computerized approach that’s fully integrated with i OS-based IBS Enterprise ERP systems.

rfXcel’s software, called Active ePedigree Management, allows manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to track the movement of prescription drugs everywhere they go in the

Maybe the relentless pressure to carve IT budgets and get more for less will cause more organizations to give high performance thin client computing a side-by-side comparison with their current desktop circumstances or plans for desktop virtualization. If small and powerful work stations are high on your priority list, and resource-intensive applications are an integral part of the game plan, you could come away looking like a budgeting genius by giving this idea some attention.

For those willing to look at head-to-head comparisons, take note that 10ZiG Technology, formerly known as BOSaNOVA, has introduced a substantial performance boost to

New software unveiled by IBM last week is aimed at helping JD Edwards EnterpriseOne shops archive their data, create data subsets for testing, and mask data for privacy. However, the new Optim “starter edition” packages are aimed primarily at EnterpriseOne shops running on Linux, Unix, or Windows (even z/OS is supported for all those mainframe-JDE shops). i OS-based EnterpriseOne environments are, to use IBM’s words, barely “tolerated.”

The two new Optim products carry these catchy and easy-to-remember names: IBM Optim Data Growth Solution Starter Edition for JD Edwards Applications version 3.0.2 and IBM Optim Test Data Management Solution Starter Edition