• Control Your Code, Control Your Costs And Destiny

  January 16, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  After decades of reading this newsletter, you know a thing or two about me. One of them, which may not be immediately obvious, is that I can be something of a control freak. (Just saying that in a sentence is difficult, and I want to deny it. But there it is.) And guess what? So were AS/400 shops back in the day, and a fair argument could be made that they were better off, technically and economically, when they freaked out (in a good way) and controlled their application code. Maybe I have been around too long, but I am

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• AURA Launches Alternative PHP Server Stack for IBM i

  January 16, 2012 Alex Woodie

  AURA Equipments today launched iAMP Server, a free collection of software for running PHP workloads on the IBM i server. iAMP is composed of binaries for several products, including PHP, the standard Apache Web server, and the MySQL database. AURA says it developed iAMP, which runs primarily in the PASE AIX runtime, to provide IBM i shops with a standards-based alternative to Zend Technologies‘ PHP solutions for the platform. iAMP Server is a collection of mostly open source software that includes Apache’s HTTP server version 2.2.21, MySQL version 5.1.59, and PHP version 5.3.8. AURA’s proprietary Easycom software is also

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• IBM’s Move On Up To Power7 Upgrade Math

  January 16, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you are using an old PowerPC, Power4, Power5, or Power5+ system, you have no doubt long since paid for the machine. And I would even go so far as to guess that you have created your own applications to run on OS/400 or i5/OS–and perhaps even IBM i–on these old machines, or maybe you have some third-party apps that do what you tell them to and, more importantly, don’t do things you don’t tell them to do, like crash all the time. So with the economy not exactly exuding exuberance, rational or any other kind, you are probably feeling

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• Mad Dog 21/21: Jumping The Shark

  January 16, 2012 Hesh Wiener

  IBM just finished a banner year. It recorded the highest revenue in its history and impressive profit. But if you depend on IBM’s proprietary systems, the IBM i and the System z platforms, don’t let the headlines fool you. You (and IBM) have a strategic problem. When it comes to computer hardware, IBM jumped the shark years ago. Jumped the shark? When Fonzie jumped the shark, five years into Happy Days, it marked a zenith, an irreversible turning point although the show lasted another five years. IBM jumped the shark in 1981, as it introduced the PC. In

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• SaaS ERP Is Getting A Closer Look

  January 16, 2012 Dan Burger

  What do Dog the Bounty Hunter and Nick Castellina have in common? Both make their living by tracking. DBH, the star of a reality show, tracks the scum of the Earth, and Castellina, a lead analyst at Aberdeen Group, goes after IT trends. Specifically, he hunts software as a service, which gets the shortened handle of SaaS. It’s one of the big blips on the IT radar screen and enjoys Super Bowl quality hype. Last month, Aberdeen released its latest SaaS ERP report based on survey results collected in the second half of 2011. Castellina is the lead analyst

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• IBM Gets Down to Social Business

  January 16, 2012 Jenny Thomas

  I’m just as sick of hearing the words “social business” as anyone else. But I have come to accept there’s no escaping it so I better figure out how to adapt or risk becoming a social outcast. IBM must also have decided it had better get on this bus, as Big Blue recently announced it is expanding its initiatives to help organizations get on board with the hottest computing trend. If all the talk is right, there is a lot of business to be had in the social market. Forrester Research recently reported that the market opportunity for social enterprise

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• Flash Storage Gets Cheaper, Disk Storage Gets More Expensive

  January 16, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Here’s a confluence of events that is sure to make IT shops interested in high performance data subsystems happy. Flash storage, which is at the beginning of its adoption cycle in the enterprise, is getting less expensive by the week just as disk shortages due to the flooding in Thailand, where about a quarter of the world’s disk drives are made, are causing disk vendors to raise their prices. For now, the disk shortages have mostly centered on drives aimed at desktop and laptop PCs, but some drive component manufacturers are under water (literally, not just financially) and the issue

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• Subscription Revenue Decline Mars JDA Financial Report

  January 16, 2012 Dan Burger

  JDA Software powered its way through 2011 to post decent financial numbers despite the legal battles it fought with Oracle over patent infringements and a lawsuit it inherited with the acquisition of i2 in August 2010. Revenue increased slightly in Q4, and overall 2011 was a good year for the retail and supply chain software pillar. JDA has not finalized its financial results for Q4 2011, but because it had a downtick in software license sales, it decided to put out preliminary financial results to give Wall Street the head’s up. JDA estimates it will have approximately $173 million in

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• On the Sunny Side of the Rimini Street

  January 16, 2012 Dan Burger

  When you’re hot, you’re hot. Rimini Street, the prominent third-party maintenance and support alternative for enterprise software from companies such as Oracle, SAP, and others, is once again showing that business is good for a company that provides reduced costs on services, which many software customers believe to be overpriced to the point of being gouged. Last week, a Rimini press release announcing fourth quarter and fiscal year financial results brimming with fiscal accomplishments–its highest ever quarterly sales bookings, a 42 percent increase in bookings compared to the third quarter of 2011, and record revenue for the

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• IBM Rules The Patent Roost Again, But Samsung Is A-Coming

  January 16, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In an extraordinary run that probably shows a commitment to research and development as much as it shows that companies are building up their patent portfolios as defensive and offensive weaponry, the U.S. Patent and Trade Office has awarded a record-breaking 224,505 utility patents to companies and independent inventors from all over the world in 2011. That’s a 2 percent increase over 2010, the former top patent count year. “Global companies, and especially Asian ones, are collecting U.S patents at a dizzying pace, and now Asian firms hold eight of the top 10 slots in the 2011 ranking,” explained Mike

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