People are unlike computers in a lot of different ways, but one of the similarities is that both machines and members of the Homo sapiens species like to mark time. Computers need to mark time to function properly, and people, well, we do it to get in rhythm with and to push against our environments and, I sometimes think, just to give us a little drama in our lives. I don’t know about you, but I have had plenty of drama in the past decade and I would like to declare 2012 a No Drama Zone.

Such a declaration

The high availability software market in the IBM i space is getting off to an interesting start in 2012 now that Rocket Software has bought the iCluster software business from IBM. The deal was announced on January 4, but was actually closed by Rocket Software and IBM on December 31 for an undisclosed sum, and it puts iCluster logical replication software in the hands of a third party that plans to invest in the product and grow the business.

Rocket Software has been on an acquisition tear in the IBM space for the past couple of years, having snapped

IBM in December announced the release of Eclipse EGL Web Developer Tools (EWDT) version 0.7, the first open source version of its EGL development tool. The new tool builds on the free EGL Community Edition software that IBM put out in 2008 and gives IBM i shops another option for developing rich Web applications that run on the IBM i operating system and can access RPG logic.

IBM’s decision to make much (but not all) of its EGL tooling open source should not come as a big surprise to anybody who has followed IBM’s activities over the last few years

If you were the kind of kid who plotted the ignition point of ants frying under a magnifying glass, or dreamed of creating artificial intelligence because your family didn’t understand you, then growing up to be an IBM researcher is not unlike winning the lottery. Eccentricity is not a barrier. If you’re brilliant enough and have a compelling idea–even an idea that may not find practical application for decades–the vault will open, cash will come pouring out, and you can play with house money for years.

IBM invests billions in R&D, much of which remains closely guarded. But each year

Richard Schoen has been doing presentations on using Microsoft .NET technology in conjunction with IBM i on Power Systems at COMMON for several years. At a recent Omni User meeting in Chicago, Schoen was speaking again on this subject and it certainly seemed to be a topic of interest as a larger than normal attendance was recorded.

This is not exactly a mainstream topic because Microsoft and IBM don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things . . . running Windows natively on Power Systems machines being a perfect example. This is a constantly festering wound that won’t

As you know from listening to the news, the European economy is not exactly roaring at the moment, so Big Blue is kicking off 2012 by trying to scare up a little Power Systems business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa with a new cash incentive program that is over and above the deals the company currently has in place.

Under the 2012 Power ISV Solution Connection Program, in announcement letter ZA12-1004, business partners that work with ISVs to find and close Power Systems deals involving the IBM i, AIX, or Linux operating systems will get an additional

We have been warning you that in the wake of the tragic flooding in Thailand, where about a quarter of the world’s disk drives and many of the components used in units made elsewhere are manufactured that you should expect price rises for disk drives due to shortages. Interestingly, IBM both raised and lowered disk prices in selected models of its DS series of external disk arrays last week.

As it turns out, as you can see in announcement letter 312-005, some of the price cuts are very deep and some of the price increases are fairly modest on

Document management meets cloud computing in this partnership of IBM i vendors that came to light last week. The two participants are inFORM Decisions on the doc management and automation side, and Data Storage Corporation on the cloud storage, data protection, disaster recovery, and business continuity side.

inFORM Decisions has been in the IBM midrange market since the days when the platform was known as the AS/400. DSC came into the IBM i market in 2010 when it acquired SafeData, a provider of hosted backup, recovery, and high availability solutions for the IBM i operating system. At that time, DSC

IBM‘s first female CEO in its 100-year history, Ginni Rometty, got right to work after officially taking the helm on January 1, announcing changes to Big Blue’s senior leadership team.

The first order of business was to replace herself as the general manager of IBM’s sales and marketing group with Bruno Di Leo, who becomes senior vice president, sales and distribution. Di Leo most recently served as the general manager for IBM’s Growth Markets Unit, which increased revenues 19 percent last year, with 40 countries growing by double digits. Di Leo began his career at IBM in 1975 as

IBM is eager for customers to use its IBM Forms electronic forms software, and is so eager that it got the red pen out as the new year started and started marking down prices bigtime.

In announcement letter 312-003, IBM announced a special promotion that runs until March 15 that cuts the price of IBM Forms by 60 percent when purchased through IBM’s Passport Advantage e-commerce site.

This deal, which is being offered in the United States and Canada, covers Forms Designer, which does exactly what the name suggests and plugs into Eclipse-based integrated development environments. The discount is