• Microsoft Rises to Sixth on Patent List for 2007

  January 21, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Microsoft was awarded more than 1,600 patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2007, placing it sixth on the list of biggest patent performers, according to IFI Patent Intelligence, which tracks patent awards. IBM, which tried but failed to patent outsourcing last year, won the patent count for the 16th straight year, with more than 3,100 patents. One way to gauge the level of innovation occurring in the IT industry is to count the number of patents awarded to companies. Since the organizations getting the most patents year after year tend to be developers of

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• BEA Systems Finally Says Yes to an Oracle Buy

  January 21, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Smaller or beleaguered software companies of all kinds and stripes are coming in from the rain like drenched animals into a warm barn with the economy in the United States still wobbly. In a maturing market, as that for information technology certainly is, consolidation is the inevitable consequence of the maturity of a product, and this process gets accelerated when smart companies think they can’t go it alone any more. Such is the case with middleware software maker BEA Systems, which last week accepted a takeover offer of $8.5 billion from database and application software giant Oracle. Oracle

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• Gartner Predicts Strong Outsourcing, Weakening Business Intelligence Markets

  January 21, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  I don’t know what is more disconcerting: the large number of predictions and prognostications that we usually see being publicly made about the forthcoming IT spending year as one year ends and a new one begins, or the lack of such auguries–at least publicly–from the usual suspects in the IT consulting racket. But at least some of the analysts at Gartner have the itch to predict, and they made some calls recently about the outsourcing and the business intelligence software markets. The amount of money that companies worldwide spend on outsourcing is just staggering. In 2007, the global outsourcing market

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• Bringing i5/OS Resources to the Web

  January 16, 2008 Erwin Earley

  This is the fourth article in a PHP on i5/OS series and it continues our discussion of the API toolkit included with the Zend Core product. In my previous article Use PHP to Bring i5/OS Resources to the Web, I explained that the API toolkit is a collection of APIs for accessing i5/OS resources from PHP applications. The Zend Core product splits functions for accessing i5/OS resources into two broad categories: a collection of functions for accessing db2 resources, and a collection of functions for accessing all other i5/OS resources. The following diagram provides an overview of the structure

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• Another Way to Sort a File

  January 16, 2008 Ted Holt

  I’ve been in the information business for almost 27 years, and sometimes it seems that I’ve spent half that time sorting data. Without question, putting data into proper sequence is a big part of our jobs. Card sorters are ancient history. Sort utilities (e.g., #GSORT and FMTDTA) still run, but hopefully not in new development. These days, logical files and SQL are the iSeries methods of choice for placing data into a certain order. Here’s another sorting method you may not be aware of. The Reorganize Physical File (RGZPFM) command’s KEYFILE parameter provides a way to physically order records in

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• Admin Alert: Before You Buy That New System i, Part 1

  January 16, 2008 Joe Hertvik

  It’s not unusual for some companies to upgrade their System i servers every three years, which means that an upgrade may be in your near future. To help navigate the upgrade process, this week and next I’ll present a list of upgrade pitfalls to avoid. These pitfalls can cause delays, compatibility issues, and budget overruns. For your sanity and job security, watch for these costly mistakes when upgrading to a new machine. Pitfall #1: Forgetting About Software License Transfer Fees As you create your upgrade budget, find out what license transfer fees are associated with any third-party i5/OS software that

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• ACOM Expands Content Manager with New Search, Blackberry Options

  January 15, 2008 Alex Woodie

  It has recently become easier to access business documents stored in ACOM Solutions EZContentManager, the affordable Windows-based archival system designed to work with i5/OS applications and data. In December, the Southern California company announced two new capabilities for EZContentManager, including the new EZRetrieve module for searching the document store from Windows or 5250 screens, and a new module for managing the store from Blackberry smart phones. Long Beach, California-based ACOM Solutions has been involved in document management technology for the AS/400, iSeries, and System i servers for a long time, primarily with its EZeDocs/400 and EZPayManager/400 line of software, which

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• Linoma Tidies Up with New ‘Clean RPG’ Function

  January 15, 2008 Alex Woodie

  You’ve lugged them around for years, dragging them with you when you move, even though they don’t serve much of a purpose anymore. No, we’re not talking about old luggage here, but unused pieces of RPG source code. While it’s not the scourge of the universe, having unneeded RPG code in your programs slows down recompiles and makes general maintenance more time consuming. Now, Linoma Software is helping you clean up your act with a new Clean RPG Source command in its RPG Toolbox. Originally released by Linoma in September 2001, the RPG Toolbox gathers several of Linoma’s RPG programmer

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• Aldon Delivers New Plug-Ins for WDSc, Eclipse

  January 15, 2008 Alex Woodie

  System i developers should gain better control over their development environments as a result of new utilities revealed by Aldon last week. The change management software vendor unveiled new plug-ins that connect its Lifecycle Manager software with the Eclipse and WebSphere Development Studio Client (WDSc) development tools, and which bring new compare and merge capabilities, promotion of code functionality, and better navigation, among other enhancements. Over the last few years, developers of programmer utilities have evolved their product packaging to take advantage of the new Eclipse-based integrated development environment (IDE) that has become predominant on the platform. In the case

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• Raz-Lee Repackages i5/OS Security Software

  January 15, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Raz-Lee Security has re-jiggered the packaging of its collection of i5/OS security products into two main suites, the vendor disclosed recently. System i shops looking to clamp down on their server’s exposure to network-based threats will be pointed to the new Prevention Package, while Raz-Lee will sell the Compliance Package to customers needing to prove compliance with SOX, HIPAA, PCI, and other government and industry regulations. Over the years, Raz-Lee, which is headquartered in Israel and has U.S. headquarters outside of New York City, has put together a comprehensive collection of more than a dozen i5/OS security modules that address

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