While the recession has forced many major ERP software companies to retrench their operations, open source ERP software makers such as xTuple (formerly OpenMFG) are reporting an explosion of new business. The new momentum, xTuple says, is the result of organizations increasingly questioning the value of existing ERP contracts while simultaneously overcoming their reluctance to bet their operations on the community development approach.

Since the dot-com bust of 2000-2001, open source software has made inroads across nearly every aspect of information technology. Up and down the stack, from operating systems and databases to programming tools and Web app servers, traditional

Backups are critical to ensuring the integrity of your data, but they can take a lot of time. System i shops that use the LaserVault Backup solution have a new option available that can reduce the size of their backups by up to a factor of 50, or even more. The reduction is the result of a partnership LaserVault formed with data de-duplication specialists Data Domain and the subsequent work the companies did to integrate LaserVault Backup with Data Domain’s Restorer.

LaserVault Backup was launched in 2006 to provide System i shops with a less expensive alternative to virtual tape

When Paglo unveiled its new search service for IT departments last year, it put an entirely new spin on drearisome tasks, such as counting the number of PCs on a LAN or checking routers for software updates. With the launch of Paglo’s new NetFlow application last week, the IT search service company has delivered another compelling feature: graphical depictions of bandwidth use.

Paglo is an IT search site that was released last May. The offering consists of three components, including a crawler, a search index, and a Web 2.0-style user interface. Once downloaded, the crawler automatically discovers all servers,

Vision Solutions today announced a series of “PowerPacks,” or bundles of software, hardware, and services aimed at specific high availability and systems management requirements for IBM i and AIX Power Systems customers. Besides having a cool name, PowerPacks are meant to reinforce the notion that high availability isn’t a shrink-wrapped piece of software, and that it requires several elements coming together in the proper amounts to make it successful.

The Vision PowerPacks are generalized soft bundles that include all the pieces that may be needed around a specific solution in a given geographic region, but which can be configured to

WIS:DOM Information Systems, a Nevada-based developer of warehouse and transportation management systems for the System i, has joined the ACOM Solutions reseller program and will soon offer ACOM’s document management software as an integrated option alongside its own products, the companies announced last week.

WIS:DOM Information Systems has been developing logistics software for distributors for the last 30 years. Over that period, the company’s WIS:DOM suite, which was developed in LANSA, has evolved to give customers the option of green-screen or Web interfaces.

Now, as a result of the partnership with ACOM, WIS:DOM Information Systems is looking to

Jack Henry & Associates last month announced the general availability of Gladiator Enterprise Security Monitoring (ESM), a real-time security monitoring solution for customers of its i OS-based SilverLake and CIF 20/20 banking applications that looks for, and alerts administrators to, security threats inside and outside the firewall.

Gladiator ESM, which first debuted in October, is a hosted security system that’s designed to track security and performance events that might impact the operations of SilverLake and CIF 20/20 applications. As a fully integrated IBM i OS security solution, the offering provides deep coverage of the host operating system, including the

Quadrant Software‘s IntelliChief document management software will be integrated with Mincron Software Systems‘ i OS ERP system, the companies announced last week.

As part of the deal, the paperless processing and automated workflow functions of Quadrant’s IntelliChief is now integrated with the latest release of Mincron’s MSS/HD Hardgoods Distribution ERP software. Mincron’s ERP software had already been integrated with older Quadrant products, including the Formtastic and FastFax forms, fax, and e-mail products.

The addition of IntelliChief to Mincron’s ERP software will allow MSS/HD users to accomplish several functions directly from their ERP screens, including capturing, retrieving, managing, and

Partners ADC Austin and Websydian last month shipped the first service pack for a jointly developed Web 2.0-style interface for CA‘s 4GL for System i and Windows, CA Plex. Service pack 1 brings various features, including Unicode support, new AJAX templates, and a Wiki-based developer portal.

ADC Austin and Websydian have been providing expert training and add-on products for the CA Plex and CA 2E advanced application development frameworks for many years. Over the last couple of years, the two partners have been working on a new Web product that allows Plex customers to deploy their client-server applications to

Fairfield Medical Center, a 222-bed hospital in central Ohio, has deployed the OneSign single sign-on (SSO) solution from Imprivata to help it address the difficulty that doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers had logging onto various computer systems, including McKesson applications and the AS/400, Imprivata announced last month.

Prior to the implementation of OneSign SSO, Fairfield Medical Center workers had to remember six to eight different passwords to access critical applications used daily, including McKesson, the AS/400, the Fuji Picture Archiving Communications System (PACS), Healthcare Management Systems‘ Clinical View, and the hospital’s own physicians’ portal.

Not surprisingly, the workers

IBM is urging companies to take steps now to deal with the instability of supply chains in the years to come. The recommendations–including more widespread use of RFID and GPS sensors, deeper B2B integration, and better predictive analytics–were included in the Global Chief Supply Chain Officer Study, which details the results of interviews with 400 supply chain executives, and which was released last week.

While globalization brings the promise of greater revenue for the manufactures, distributors, and retailers that operate supply chains, increased cash flow comes with a substantial risk of disruption that didn’t exist before. This abstract risk becomes