• FalconStor Debuts New VTL Release

  January 29, 2008 Alex Woodie

  FalconStor Software last week unveiled a new release of its virtual tape library (VTL) offering, FalconStor VTL Enterprise Edition version 5. With the new VTL, FalconStor has bolstered its support for data de-duplication, a critical feature for minimizing the amount of data backed up, and added other new features. FalconStor’s VTL offerings streamline customers’ backups by moving data directly to disk arrays instead of backing it up directly to tapes, which are notoriously unreliable. The company sells this capability through its flagship VTL software product, called IPStor, as well as through its VTL Enterprise Edition hardware-based offerings. All of its

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• IBM to Buy AMD? Seems Unlikely, But an Interesting Idea

  January 28, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  A few weeks ago, when I was complaining that Big Blue needed to rationalize its product names, I quipped that IBM could start making its own Opteron processors just so it could call its X64-based servers the System/x6 line and then make it match the System/p6 Power servers and System/z6 mainframes. I was joking, but a report in the Financial Times last week suggested that IBM and Advanced Micro Devices might be thinking of merging their processor businesses. These kinds of rumors come around the IT industry as much out of speculation and idleness on the part of the

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• i5/OS V6R1: It Must Be Getting Close, Since People Are Talking

  January 28, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  IBM‘s next generation of operating system for the System i platform, i5/OS V6R1, must be getting closer to its launch date. You can usually tell when an IBM operating system is getting close to launch because all at once, some people are aware of and talking about features in the future operating system that were not part of the official statements of direction and product previews we get from Big Blue. Two weeks ago, the chatter started about a whole laundry list of features for i5/OS V6R1, and the noise is getting louder. The full details are obviously not

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• Microsoft Rains on IBM’s Lotusphere Parade

  January 28, 2008 Alex Woodie

  The war for unified communications (UC) supremacy continued to unfold last week, as IBM made the pitch at its annual Lotusphere conference that companies are better off choosing its new Linux-based Notes and Domino platform for their e-mail, messaging, voice over IP (VoIP), and collaboration needs. Not content to let Big Blue hog the spotlight, Microsoft unveiled a new release of its Transporter Suite for migrating Notes and Domino customers over to its UC software. IBM is challenging Microsoft offerings for small and mid size businesses (SMBs) with Lotus Foundations, a new line of Linux-based server offerings designed to go

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• As I See It: Avatar Nation

  January 28, 2008 Victor Rozek

  Let’s say that you want to attend COMMON. But this year, COMMON is being held in Nashville, or Dallas, or Boston, or Seattle, or Chicago, or San Diego, or anywhere except where you are. First, you’d have to budget for the trip a year ahead, or there would be no money for travel. Next, you’d have to grovel for permission from management. Then you’d have to book a flight, make your hotel reservations, and rent a car. On your travel day, you would probably get up at some ungodly hour to get to the airport early, leave your car in

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• Readers Pipe Up On the STG Reorg and System i Wish List

  January 28, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Last week’s issue featured a story about IBM‘s plans for its Systems and Technology Group in 2008 as well as reader feedback on the “Official 2008 TPM System i Wish List.” Three weeks ago, as our 2008 publishing year was getting under way, we reported on the reorganization Big Blue did in its STG organization in early January. The feedback on these issues keeps coming in, and if you have something you want to say, don’t be shy. This is the AS/400 community, and no matter what name you give it, it is still a community. It’s deja Blue,

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• IBM Tweaks Prices on BladeCenter H and Power Blade Networking Gear

  January 28, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Support for the i5/OS V6R1 operating system on the JS22 Power6-based blade server is expected some time soon, and so is the general availability of the new BladeCenter S blade server chassis that is aimed at small and medium business customers–the kind who like the i5/OS platform but who also have Windows and sometimes Linux and AIX in their shops. To help spur a little business with its current product line, IBM last week rejiggered prices on networking components used in the Power blades and the BladeCenter H chassis. IBM did, however, increase some prices, too. Specifically, IBM raised the

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• IBM Buys AptSoft, Bringing Yet Another Twist to the SOA Story

  January 28, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Last week, IBM bought yet another small, esoteric supplier of software–this one called AptSoft–that is being billed as yet another piece of the SOA software empire that the company is trying to build as hardware becomes less relevant in the IT market. AptSoft, which is based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a provider of software that does complex event processing, or CEP, which is a kind of functionality that we used to call mid-level manager. You know–the living, breathing one who was given access to computers over the past several decades and who made decisions about the raw materials,

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• The Model 270: Of Course It Runs V5R4, But Now What?

  January 28, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The AS/400 and iSeries Model 270 entry servers are historically part of the same AS/400 line that was called the Model 8XX series. The Model 270s were the kickers to the “Invader” Model 170 machines that helped provide a significant boost in entry AS/400 sales in the late 1990s. And the Model 270s indeed run i5/OS V5R4, contrary to what I said in in a recent story. That said, they are long in the tooth and have been replaced many times in the past eight years. The Model 270s came out in the third quarter of 2000 and were

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• System i Recruiter Nate Viall Does NBC Nightly News

  January 28, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Hey, if you were watching the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams on January 17, you might have seen a familiar System i personality on the broadcast. Nate Viall, a long-time recruiter and compensation expert from the AS/400, iSeries, and System i market based in Des Moines, Iowa, was interviewed for a segment of the newscast that talked about the gender pay gap. This theme is one that Viall has discussed from time to time, and it is somewhat controversial to suggest that there is no gender pay gap in the IT marketplace. Back in May 2007, Viall did an

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