• Virtual Servers Keep On A Rollin’, Thanks to uptime software

  June 24, 2008 Alex Woodie

  A side effect of employing virtualization software to cram multiple virtual servers into a single physical server is a lack of visibility into what’s happening inside those virtual environments, which can lead to downtime. This is creating an opportunity for a new class of systems monitoring and management software vendors to make names for themselves. One of those vendors, uptime software, recently updated its software to provide more sophisticated SLA and transaction monitoring, as well as support for IBM‘s POWER 6 virtual environment. From its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, uptime software (the company uses all lower case letters

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• Quadrant Supports i 6.1 with FastFax

  June 24, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Quadrant Software last week announced a new release of its FastFax software, version 4.7.4, which brings support for i 6.1 (formerly i5/OS V6R1), among other new features, such as improved support for IBM Domino and Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers, easier configuration, and faster recovery from network outages. Quadrant’s FastFax suite of products enable users to distribute i5/OS spool file output as either a fax or an e-mail, and also allows users to receive faxes and manage them from their favorite e-mail environment. The offering includes a “black box” fax processor that hooks fax cards into the network (fax workloads are

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• Inovis Gains SAP Certification for EDI Software

  June 24, 2008 Alex Woodie

  The TrustedLink EDI offerings from Inovis have been re-certified to work with SAP ERP applications and its NetWeaver middleware framework, the Atlanta, Georgia, company announced last week. Inovis has a long but winding claim to the IBM AS/400 (now Power Systems) marketplace for EDI software. About 20 years ago, a company by the name of Premenos started developing EDI translators for OS/400. Premenos was acquired by Harbinger in 1997 for $200 million; Harbinger was acquired by Peregrine Systems for the eye-popping sum of $2 billion in June 2000; and, following the accounting scandal at Peregrine and the resulting implosion, three

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• A.O. Smith Wins Award for Service Management Software

  June 24, 2008 Alex Woodie

  An implementation of Vertical Solutions‘ PowerHelp service management software has garnered an award for A. O. Smith Water Products Company. The capability to pull information from multiple data sources, including an i5/OS-based server, enabled the manufacturer to dramatically boost the efficiency of its call center. Based in Ashland City, Tennessee, A. O. Smith Water Products Company manufactures several brands of gas and electric water heaters for commercial and residential use. The company, which is a division of the publicly traded A.O. Smith Corp. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, runs ERP software from Logility on its i5/OS server, as well as replenishment

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• SolarWinds Improves Network Management for British Insurer

  June 24, 2008 Alex Woodie

  The English insurance company BGL Group has deployed SolarWinds‘ systems management software, called Orion, to help the company keep on top of its global IT network. BGL Group is a privately held company that was founded in 1992 and is made up of six subsidiaries spanning life and home insurance, competitive insurance pricing Web sites, and claims and loss-recovery operations. Today, the company insures more than two million people and employs more than 2,255 people, making it one of Britain’s largest insurance companies. With plans to grow the company by more than 50 percent by 2009, BGL would have

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• LTO Tape Drive Sales Increased 15 Percent in 2007

  June 24, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Total shipments of LTO drives increased 15 percent last year compared to 2006 and accounted for more than $883 million in sales, according to recent data released by IDC. The solid year of sales boosted LTO’s lead over other competing tape technologies, although 2007 was a good year for all midrange technologies, according to the group. The LTO Consortium was founded in 2000 when IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Seagate Technology‘s Certance division partnered on the first generation of LTO gear. IBM, HP, and Quantum (which acquired Certance in 2005), pushed the capacity and the speed of LTO

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• The AS/400’s Grandfather Talks Past, Present, and Future

  June 23, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  When Frank Soltis, the chief scientist for the i platform, is introduced these says as the Father of the AS/400, he sometimes likes to point out that this is not exactly a correct title for him. Technically speaking, Soltis says, he is the grandfather of the AS/400, and in fact is a man who is celebrating many anniversaries relating to the computing platform this year–not just the 20th birthday of the AS/400, which happened on Saturday but which IBM is celebrating throughout the month of June around the world. As I told you would happen in my own homage to

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• IBM Offers Modest Discounts on i 525 and M25 Entry Boxes

  June 23, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The second quarter must be working out alright for the i platform, if the relative dearth of deals from IBM is any indication. Maybe Big Blue, its resellers, and its customers all agree that the new Power 520, 550, and 570 machines are all priced pretty much where they need to be, so there is no need to wheel and deal. But, some customers always need a little sweetener, and that is why IBM announced a rebate deal on the new and older generations of entry i platforms. The Power 520 Model M25 and System i Model 525 Express Introductory

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• Consistent Change Offers Adjunct Services for SoftLanding Tools

  June 23, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  As all of us who grew up in the late 1960s and early 1970s can tell you, three is the magic number. And as many of you know, while working alone as an IT consultant and having the freedom to set your own work schedule, build your own client base, and do the kind of work you find rewarding is a beautiful thing, sometimes it would be very useful if we could get cloned and thereby cover more customers and leave less money on the table. That is, of course, why professionals form partnerships, and often they form limited liability

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• As I See It: Flights of Fancy

  June 23, 2008 Victor Rozek

  On December 7, 2005, the Air Force released its new mission statement: “The Mission of the United States Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests–to fly and fight in air, space, and cyberspace.” Besides noting that the Air Force should expand its mission to include hiring an English major to fix that tortured bit of writing, it is worth observing that the Air Force has taken an active interest in cyberspace. It’s all part of the NeoCon dream of world domination through a process of global militarization

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