If you thought it was tough to get your hands on an Power 520 or Power 550 server using one of IBM‘s older dual core Power6 or Power6+ processors in the fourth quarter, then it is going to get a whole lot harder to get one of these machines very soon. That is because Big Blue has pulled the plug on these and other Power Systems machines in the same generation and will stop selling them in the coming months.

With exceptions in the Greater China Group, which is something I have never seen before in an IBM announcement

For the past couple of quarters, I have been refining my model of IBM‘s server business, and I think with the incarnation I built to analyze the company’s fourth quarter and full year results for 2010, I have something that is closer to reality than I have ever put together before. And it shows just how much Big Blue is, despite all of its jaw-boning about services and Smarter Planet, dependent on good, old-fashion systems.

You know, systems. What the System/360 and the System/38 were, and what the Application System/400 was. A collection of integrated server platforms with operating

Does the iSeries have a victim mentality? Does the whole IT industry have one? I am actually beginning to think the whole i community, which owns one of the most world’s most advanced computers, is its own worst enemy.

The IT victim mentality was hammered home to me by Barbra Cooper, group vice president and CIO for Toyota Motor Sales USA. I was reading a review of a book called The CIO Edge, which was published last November, where she asked the question “You know why the perception of IT has suffered for 30 years?” Cooper rhetorically answered, “It’s

Like poker players, addicts also have a tell that betrays their addiction. The red nose and veined cheeks of the alcoholic; the yellow teeth of the smoker; and the soft, rotting teeth of the meth user. But technology addiction is a little different. Being a higher-order addiction (far superior to substance abuse), it has certain unique attributes. For one thing, it has spawned its own sub-species: Nerdus Americanus.

Pasty and lacking muscle tone, but chock full of brains and inventiveness, the image of the self-directed, slightly odd, programming virtuoso has become a cliché popularized by the media. Nerds have

There’s a new IBM i high availability (HA) software player in town. Preferred Image Technologies has signed up to resell the Quick-EDD HA software developed by the French company Trader’s. Preferred Image plans to start selling the software to IBM i shops in the Phoenix area and eventually widen its delivery area to include the entire country.

Preferred Image Tech was founded by Jim Chenoweth, a long-time RPG programmer and businessman who was looking to expand into a line of business that didn’t involve, as he puts it, “writing code all day.” Chenoweth was contacted by iSamBlue, the

IBM is out to prove itself a champion of enterprise social media, also known as social business. In what we used to call the “eat your own dog food” test, IBM is a chow hound. Its internal use of social media is widespread. And its enthusiasm for making its Lotus software division increasingly social has not been half-hearted. Big Blue’s next move is to increase its efforts through initiatives in its PartnerWorld and Academic Initiative programs.

Transforming traditional businesses into social businesses doesn’t come from a CEO having an epiphany while updating his Facebook account. Executives want some demonstrable evidence

It looks like German software giant SAP is not quite ready to hand over the $1.3 billion in damages that a California jury awarded rival Oracle in the TomorrowNow lawsuit.

On February 3, SAP filed a motion with the court contesting the amount of the damages awarded to Oracle, which was the same day that the court entered the judgment awarded by the jury last November 23.

“Today the Court entered judgment in the Oracle v. SAP/TomorrowNow litigation, which is a procedural matter that occurs after a jury verdict,” SAP explained in a statement. “As stated before, we have

Last week, the White House launched “Startup America,” a national campaign to help America promote high-growth entrepreneurship by encouraging the private sector to invest in nurturing small businesses to create the jobs and industries of the future.

IBM heard the call and immediately announced plans to invest $150 million in 2011 to fund its Global Entrepreneur program, which it created last year to promote entrepreneurs and new business opportunities in the United States.

“The investment will help us greatly expand the work we’re doing to build business skills and provide market opportunities for the most innovative new companies in the

JDA Software, which sells retailing and supply chain application software, has successfully integrated its i2 Technologies acquisition and is showing good financial results in 2010 thanks to that deal.

In the fourth quarter ended on December 31, JDA posted $168,8 million in aggregate revenues, up 57.5 percent and driven primarily from the acquisition of i2. However, higher costs on most fronts plus $14 million in litigation costs relating to a lawsuit that has been going on for years with i2 cut into profits. Net income fell by 31.2 percent, to $5.8 million. Had it not been for the lawsuit,

Financial software and services provider Jack Henry and Associates has done well in its most recent quarter, pumping up both revenues and profits. As a dominant vendor in its financial niche, and one that is a big player in the IBM i ecosystem, the company is a good bellwether for the overall i ecosystem.

In the second quarter of fiscal 2011 ended December 31, Jack Henry had revenues of $242.6 million, up 15 percent. Software license fees grew 29 percent to $15.5 million, including some products that run on the OS/400 and i operating systems. Hardware sales, which include Power