• State of the System i: What’s Going On in the Market?

  October 1, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The System i market has had to absorb a lot of changes in 2007 so far and is coping with other changes that are on the horizon. IBM has announced user-based pricing on entry System i5 models, has introduced a Power6-based machine with a new pricing model, and i5/OS V6R1 and a more complete Power6 line–including a blade server, finally–are on the way. In addition, there is no System i division any more, with the line being split into Business Systems at the low end and merged into the Unix business as Power Systems at the high end. The economy

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• Software and Services Gauge Business Performance

  October 1, 2007 Dan Burger

  Maybe the “fish story” method of measuring business performance is your preferred cocktail party answer to the question of “How’s business?” In the executive conference room, however, stretching the truth tends to get people in hot water. As an alternative, it might be nice to have confidence in your ability to measure and track business goals and more effectively manage businesses processes. If you believe IT can help achieve better business performance and that better business performance leads to success against your competitors, take a closer look at this package of software and services from IBM. It is called

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• IDC Says Storage Software Sales Keep Booming

  October 1, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you wonder sometimes why the major disk array makers stay in that cut-throat hardware market, all you need to do is look at the portfolio of expensive and profitable storage software that they sell as part of their arrays or as part of the servers that their arrays store data for. According to recent statistics compiled by IDC, during the second quarter of 2007, storage software sales rose for the 15th consecutive quarter, going up by 10.4 percent to hit $2.8 billion. IBM had the fastest growth in the storage software market in the quarter, rising by 19

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• Vision Solutions Makes Its Web Site More Resourceful

  October 1, 2007 Dan Burger

  Citing the constant competitive pressure within technology markets and the pressure on IT professionals to research products and develop solutions while working under tight deadlines, Vision Solutions has renovated its corporate Web site and added a blog. Vision has become the dominant supplier of high availability software for the System i platform since being acquired by the private equity firm Thoma Cressey Bravo and then acquiring its chief rivals Lakeview Technology and iTera during the past 12 months. The new company Web site features an expanded collection of online resources for researching high availability and disaster recovery, as well as

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• 3Com Taken Over by Private Equity Firm Bain Capital

  October 1, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  3Com, which is IBM‘s biggest partner for bringing Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony software to the System i platform, has been acquired by Bain Capital Partners, one of the powerhouses of private equity and venture funding. Bain Capital and its partner on deal, a Chinese networking equipment manufacturing giant named Huawei Technologies, are together ponying up $2.2 billion for 3Com, which represents a 44 percent premium over the value Wall Street had placed on the company before the deal was announced last Friday morning. Bain Capital is apparently taking an 80 percent stake, and Huawei Technologies will

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• Enterprises to Drive Hosted VoIP Adoption, Study Says

  October 1, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  IBM and its reseller partners in the System i market are putting a lot of energy into pushing Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony as a means of bolstering the product line and making it more relevant in the modern data center. Convergence of computing and telecommunications is happening on a lot of fronts, and this makes a certain amount of sense. But it is not necessarily a foregone conclusion that companies will deploy their VoIP internally. As is the case with other kinds of computing, companies may decide to use a hosted model to provide VoIP services to their end

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• What Are IT Employees Up To? Sleeping and Kissing, Apparently

  October 1, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In an effort to get real handle on what is going on in the workplace, CareerBuilder.com, the job search site, has commissioned polling company Harris Interactive to do a regular survey of the professional workforce called “Workplace Taboos.” And the results of the survey, if they are representative, are sure to give you a chuckle. And if you work from a home office, like I have done for the past 11 years and as all of the employees at IT Jungle have done for the past six years, the CareerBuilder.com survey may make you yearn for a little of

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• IBM Helps Users Migrate to Power6-Based System i Boxes

  October 1, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Last week, IBM‘s Global Services group announced a new service for selected System i customers that may not only help Big Blue get some extra services dough, but may also grease the skids a little bit to help the company sell more of its Power6-based System i 570 servers, which were announced on July 24 and which started shipping on September 14. With the Migration Services for System i offering, which was announced on September 25 and which is available worldwide beginning that day, IBM is offering customers with Power4, Power4+, Power5, and Power5+ machines some assistance in moving

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• Reader Feedback on EGL: At Least It’s Not Java, But It Ain’t RPG, Either

  October 1, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Well, as you might have expected, Brian Kelly has once again struck a chord with some of the RPG faithful. Several readers who are unhappy about IBM‘s plan to use its Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) as a bridge between legacy RPG applications on i5/OS and OS/400 and the Web took the time to respond, at length, to Kelly’s article that appeared in last week’s issue. And, if the past is an indicator, then it is also reasonable to assume that Big Blue was none too happy about his criticism of the plan to promote the use of EGL

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• Summit Partners Sells Help/Systems to Audax Group

  October 1, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Help/Systems, one of the old-time software tool makers in the System/3X and AS/400 market based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, has been acquired by a private equity firm based in Boston and New York named Audax Group. Help/Systems was formerly owned by another private equity and venture capital firm, Summit Partners, which has offices in New York, London, and Palo Alto. The financial terms of the acquisition by Audax of Help/Systems were not disclosed, since all companies involved in the matter are private. It may come as a surprise to many of you that Help/Systems was owned by

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