Well, you could probably see this one coming from about a zillion light years away. Last week, IBM warned customers that it was going to raise monthly and annual maintenance fees on a slew of hardware, including a raft of vintage AS/400 and RS/600 machines as well as more recent iSeries and pSeries gear, System i and System p iron, and even some earlier generations of the Power Systems lineup.

Basically, the message is exactly what you would expect it to be: move up to Power7-based machines and save a bunch of money on hardware maintenance fees.

In announcement letter

Here’s some welcome good news for the IBM i marketplace: Big Blue has closed its best quarter ever in the history of doing Solution Edition bundles for iSeries, System i, and Power Systems machines running OS/400 and i operating systems. The uptick was no doubt enabled by the better price/performance that the Power7-based machines offer, the price breaks IBM is offering for Solution Edition software licenses and hardware configurations, and wider participation of and enthusiasm from ISV partners.

As IT Jungle previously reported in our Four Hundred Stuff newsletter back in January, the fourth quarter was expected to be a

Risky business. Is there really any other kind of business? Show me someone who eliminates risk, and I’ll show you smoke and mirrors. Executives are supposed to run their firms by minimizing risk. Those with their hand on the throttle of IT development, particularly in the IBM i environments you know so well, sometimes back off on application modernization projects because they are not sure how to manage risk. Ask Paul Conte if he agrees with this knee-jerk reaction.

Conte is a consultant, a one-man shop. He’s been around the IBM midrange long enough to remember the debut of the

If you’ve ever been an active member of a gym or health club, you’ve probably witnessed the annual fitness migration. Every January, the facility gets unbearably crowded as flocks of newbies, swaddled in spandex, stumble about solving the mysteries of the Nautilus. The regulars look at each other and shrug. They’ve seen this before. It’s the New Year’s resolution crowd, and they’ll all be gone by March.

Well, it’s March, a good time to revisit those New Year’s resolutions. Did you make any this year? If so, how’s it going? If you’re like me, probably not so well. More often

I went up to IBM‘s annual Investor Day two weeks ago not only to spend some time with the people who created the Watson question-answer system, whom I have spoken to a number of times on the phone over the past several years, but also in the hopes of getting some insight into IBM’s plans for future x64, Power, and mainframe systems. Big Blue didn’t show too many of its cards, but did reveal a few things about what we can expect from the Software and Systems Group in 2011 and beyond.

First and foremost, Rod Adkins, the senior

The federal judge overseeing the legal battle between Maxava and Vision Solutions issued a protective order in February that will keep certain court filings out of the public realm. Meanwhile, the discovery process has erupted into a tug-of-war over documents, including 34,000 emails sent by Vision employees. The wrangling has caused the deadline for discovery to be extended, as a July trial date looms.

As lawsuits are prone to do, the legal battle between Maxava and Vision Solutions has turned into a knock-down, drag-out slugfest between two proud parties that won’t back down. Maxava’s original allegation that its main competitor

A covert meeting in a deserted parking lot. A shopping bag stuffed with nearly $20,000 in cash is exchanged. A quick handshake to seal the deal and the two parties head off in different directions.

It sounds like a scene straight out of the movies. It’s also a description from a complaint recently filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to activities by employees of IBM-Korea, LG IBM PC Co., Ltd., a joint venture in which IBM held a majority interest, IBM (China) Investment Company Limited, and IBM-China.

The complaint, which you can see here, alleges

There’s still a spark in the IBM i Manifest EMEA organization. It’s been a while since any news on this organization has surfaced, but a call for participation Webcast is penciled in for April 12. Perhaps this is a step in the direction of getting a program in place to bring together business partners (in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the U.S.) for the purpose of marketing the IBM i as well as promote business partner software.

The ever-popular Frank Soltis, pioneer of many IBM technologies and father of the System/38 and grandfather to the AS/400, is one of

Master IT and electronic components distributor Avnet has promoted an insider to take over the day-to-day running of the company.

Roy Vallee, who is currently Avnet’s chief executive officer and chairman, will step away from the CEO position on July 4, yielding it to long-time Avnet insider Rick Hamada, who is currently the company’s president and chief operating officer. Vallee is sticking around to be executive chairman, and Hamada has been appointed to the Avnet board of directors.

Avnet said that the move was the culmination of a multi-year CEO succession plan. It is not clear if the company considered

Clone server memory maker and storage upstart Dataram has been tightening its belt and moving closer to profitability in its third quarter of fiscal 2011 ended January 31.

In the quarter, Dataram’s overall sales fell by 3.3 percent, to $11.9 million. With research and development, stock compensation, and amortization costs all radically cut back, the company was able to cut losses in the quarter back to $839,000, which was a whole lot better than the $6.54 million loss it had in the year-ago period.

For the nine months of fiscal 2011 ended in January, Dataram’s revenues are up by 10.6