• IBM Updates Tivoli Job Scheduler

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  IBM last week announced a new release of Tivoli Workload Scheduler, its enterprise job scheduler for applications running on i OS, z/OS, Windows, Unix, and Linux operating systems. With version 8.5.1, IBM has added new dynamic scheduling capabilities for virtualized servers, as well as new graphical views designed to eliminate distractions and help administrators better understand the scheduling environment. System i shops may not be aware that, in Tivoli Workload Scheduler, IBM offers a cross-platform enterprise-strength job scheduler that can help to manage application workloads running across different servers. Tivoli Workload Scheduler doesn’t actually run on i OS- and i5/OS-based

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• Inovis and GXS To Merge, Create B2B Behemoth

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  i OS EDI and B2B e-commerce software provider Inovis and GXS, one of Inovis’ largest competitors, have decided to merge their businesses, the companies announced last week. The resulting company will easily be the largest B2B e-commerce services provider in the industry–and Forrester says it will help customers. Due to the need for regulatory approval, the marriage of Inovis, a privately held company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and GXS, a privately held company based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, won’t be culminated for several months, at the earliest. When the deal does go through–and nobody seems to be saying the government

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• Barcode Printing From a Blackberry? Zebra’s Got You Covered

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  We are all impressed that you can play Sudoko on your iPhone, or find the nearest Starbuck’s in a matter of seconds. But can your precious iPhone help you crank out a barcode for specimen tracking, or generate a receipt in the field? No, and that’s why the new Smart Phone utility unveiled last week by Zebra Technologies is sure to be the killer app for all the field personnel on your Christmas list this year. As the result of the new Smart Phone utility for its software development kit, Zebra is enabling Blackberry users to control barcode printing jobs

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• SafeData Moves Data Center to SAS Type II Facility

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  SafeData, a provider of managed high availability and online backup and recovery solutions for System i servers, yesterday announced that it has moved its data center from Boston to Waltham, Massachusetts. SafeData president Peter Briggs says major factors influencing his decision to move to the Savvis data center in Waltham were the site’s electricity and communications infrastructure and its SAS70 type II designation. “The center also offers 100 percent power redundancy, protection against environmental elements, and fire detection and suppression systems,” Briggs states in a press release. “Additionally, we feel confident that as we continue to grow our client

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• Data Masking Tool from Camouflage Now Supports DB2/400

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  System i shops that are concerned about the security of their sensitive data when it’s in the hands of outside developers should take a look at a data masking tool that recently became available from Camouflage Software. With the version 3.6 release of Camouflage Enterprise, the Canadian company is now able to obscure data stored in DB2/400, giving System i shops another weapon in their battle to protect personally identifiable customer data, and avoid the wrath of regulators. If IBM‘s recent acquisition of Guardium is any indication, database security is a big concern for Fortune 500 companies. While

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• Manhattan Keeps Commitment Strong to System i Products

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Companies that use Manhattan Associates‘ popular Warehouse Management System (WMS) for the IBM i OS will soon be able to expose RPG-based business logic to customers and suppliers over the Web. While the batch of 30 or so Web services in the 2010 release marks the introduction of the new technology in WMi, Manhattan has aggressive plans to continue imbuing the supply chain product with cutting-edge technology well into the future. When it comes to managing the flow of inventory in and out of warehouses and distribution centers, few products have a reputation as solid as Manhattan Associates’ original

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• Apptio Tailors BI Software for the IT Department

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  One of the problems with the way IT is managed at many shops is the lack of clarity into how much is spent, on everything from servers and software to salaries and electricity. While IT is very good at analyzing company-wide spending, when it comes to IT, things are usually tracked on messy spreadsheets or an in-house product somebody hacked together. (Cue comparisons to the cobbler’s kids.) SaaS startup Apptio is hoping to change that with its line of IT Cost Transparency software, which this week got new budgeting and forecasting capabilities. Apptio was founded in late 2007 by several

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• Micro Focus Emulation Software Brings Windows 7 Support, New Interface

  December 15, 2009 Dan Burger

  The latest terminal emulation suite from Micro Focus was introduced last week with support for Microsoft Windows 7 being the showcased prize that comes with RUMBA 8. The popular software that connects PC-based users to applications running on IBM i-based Power Systems servers (AS/400, iSeries, and System i) is also being touted for its redesigned user interface and productivity upgrades. Along with the new RUMBA, Micro Focus announced the availability of Web-to-Host 6, its newest browser-based terminal emulator. When dealing with terminal emulation customers where processing speed is a priority, Windows 7 support will bring back-end diagnostics that will speed

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• Property Tax Records Kept Safe, Thanks to i365

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  From his office 20 miles north of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Denton County Tax Assessor/Collector Steve Mossman has pondered potential disasters. “We could have a tornado, a hurricane, or an airplane that lands prematurely,” he says. “A 747 would make a real mess to try and recover records.” Thanks to the use of i365‘s online backup and recovery service, the county’s property tax records would survive a calamity, even if the iSeries server on which they’re stored does not. By population, Denton County is the eighth largest county in Texas, and one of the fastest growing counties in the

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• IBM Delivers Rational Migration Extension for Rich UI

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  System i and System z shops that are modernizing their 5250 and 3270 green-screen applications using IBM‘s Rational Business Developer (RBD) development tool and Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) may want to check out a new plug-in released last week by IBM. With the new Rational Migration Extension for Rich UI, IBM is helping customers ensure that the Web GUIs they create with RBD 7.5.1 are generated correctly as JavaScript and execute as expected. Ever since IBM shipped the 7.5.1 release of RBD last fall that added “rich user interface” generation capabilities, Big Blue’s development tool programmers have been

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