The gap between what is needed and what is provided has been growing and growing for years, and we don’t talk about that very much in the IBM i base. As someone who loves big iron with lots of horsepower, I tend to look on each new Power chip rollout as a chance for the IBM i platform to capture more and more work. While this happens at a number of shops that mix IBM i and Linux workloads–and sometimes AIX, too–for the most part, the IBM i platform is a silo in the datacenter even if other applications tickle

A fish discovers it needs water when it is no longer in it. A business discovers it needs data when it can’t get it. Or, in many cases, it can’t get the data it wants, when it’s wanted, and how it’s wanted. In the IBM midrange, the term “operational reporting” has been around forever. Because we have a habit of changing the names of old things to make them sound new, the term “business intelligence” is more favored. What matters is getting information in a timely manner and in a friendly format.

The underlying infrastructure doesn’t matter. Operational reporting is

At some point during the move to the all-digital office, customers discovered they’re missing something that’s little, yellow, and slightly sticky. Since 3M launched the humble Post-it note 35 years ago, it has grown to become an irreplaceable component of the American corporate machine. In fact, it’s so ingrained in how we work that IntelliChief recently added Post-it note-like functionality to its workflow management software.

“What we found was it’s really a Post-it note world,” IntelliChief marketing manager Tim Nissen tells IT Jungle. “It’s amazing how everybody understands the value of the mighty Post-it note. We thought, hey, if

“It can seem scary when you look at all the different mobile devices and wonder how to develop something that works for everything.” Those are the words of mobile application developer Nick Hampson. Fear of the unknown is a powerful preventative. It’s not a happy place, especially if your job is to create mobile business applications for an IBM i-centric organization. Rid yourself of this anxiety right away.

“I think the real stumbling block for IBM i people–if they are coming from SEU and PDM–is that there are completely new skills. It’s quite muddy for people to see. I talk

Hot on the heels of its announcement of enhancements to an in-memory data grid for its Magic xpa application development environment that will eventually support the IBM i platform, Magic Software turned in pretty good numbers in its most recent quarter despite the compressing effects of current fluctuations that are affecting all global IT suppliers.

In the second quarter ended in June, Magic said that it had increased revenues by 4.6 percent to $42.5 million. Gross profits were down 4.4 percent to $15 million, but the revenue bump was large enough to cover the gap and net income actually rose