• IBM i Security Assessment: How About Now?

  June 17, 2014 Alex Woodie

  Ignorance is no longer an excuse. In this day and age, after so many mega-breaches like Target’s and so many warnings, you can no longer honestly claim that you didn’t know your IBM i server was so vulnerable–especially with the availability of free security assessment tools, like the one that PowerTech recently updated. PowerTech has probably done more than any other IBM i vendor to pop the bubble that so many organizations live in when it comes to security on the platform. Its annual State of IBM i Security reports regularly showcase the amazing lack of awareness that most professionals

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• Linoma Gets a Handle on Complex Workflows with MFT

  June 17, 2014 Alex Woodie

  Do you remember when people talked about “e-business” and the huge impact the Internet would have? Well, the predictions came true, and today the Internet is deeply embedded into almost everything companies do. In this new e-business world, managed file transfer (MFT) products have become the go-to tools for getting stuff done. With a recent update, Linoma Software‘s MFT offering can do even more. MFT tools have always been FTP tools on steroids. In addition to simply moving files, the products often can trigger processes on remote machines, such as kicking off a batch reporting job on a Windows

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• CloudFax/400 Licenses Free Through End of Month

  June 17, 2014 Alex Woodie

  International Presence is giving away copies of its CloudFax/400 offering to IBM i customers as part of a promotional deal that ends June 30. The software, which normally costs $2,500 for a P05 machine, is a fax over IP (FoIP) offering that allows customers to eliminate fax servers, cards, and telephone lines, and instead pay a fee for access to the FoIP service. International Presence, the original developers of the TeleFax/400 software sold by IBM for many years, announced its hosted CloudFax/400 offering two years ago. The FoIP offering allows IBM i shops to maintain business processes and application

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• Formtastic Learns New Barcode Tricks

  June 17, 2014 Alex Woodie

  Quadrant Software says it added support for two new barcode formats and one new automated payment format to Formtastic, its document management software for IBM i. Support for QR and 2D DataMatrix barcodes and the ACH CCD+ data format in Formtastic version 5.4.5 will help customers address requirements. Formtastic is a suite of IBM i and Windows software designed to merge variable print stream data originating from IBM i servers with pre-defined document templates, enabling customers to use standard laser printers to generate custom forms, labels, and checks, and to eliminate pre-printed forms. In addition to generating forms and barcodes,

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• Managing IBM i by Exception: Entering a World of Help

  June 17, 2014 Alex Woodie

  How are IT services managed in your organization? If you work at a smaller company, you might be able to get away with running a single layer of management software, according to a recent white paper by HelpSystems. But if you work at a larger outfit, you’ll need multiple levels of software to manage services. Stitching those levels of service together is not always easy. In an April whitepaper titled “ITSM by Exception–It’s Just the Ticket!,” HelpSystems lays down the basics for managing the gaps between various levels of management tools. According to the 11-page paper, large companies rely

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• MSP SIaS Waves a Magic Xand

  June 17, 2014 Alex Woodie

  Secure Infrastructure & Services (SIaS), a managed services provider (MSP) based in New York, has selected Xand as one of its new data center operators. Melville, New York-based SIaS manages Power and X86 servers for clients as part of its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) business, including IBM i, AIX, Linux, and Windows environments. On the Power platform, SIaS provides cloud hosting as well as high availability and disaster recovery as a service. It utilizes logical mirroring software from Maxava and Vision Solutions as well as IBM‘s PowerHA as the backbones for its HA and DR services. Earlier this spring, SIaS announced

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• Oracle Brings Big In-Memory Speedup to JD Edwards Apps

  June 17, 2014 Alex Woodie

  Oracle says the new column-oriented in-memory capabilities of its 12c relational database will make JD Edwards and other compatible ERP applications run 100 to 1,000 times faster compared to using the traditional row-oriented version of the database. The new in-memory options that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison unveiled last week are geared not only toward online analytic processing (OLAP) workloads but also online transaction processing (OLTP) that are the bread and butter of ERP workhorses. Oracle says it clocked 100x to 1,000x speedups while it was testing its new Database In-Memory capability against certain modules of its E-Business Suite, JD Edwards,

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• Quadrant and BCD Re-Align Partner Programs

  June 17, 2014 Alex Woodie

  Quadrant Software and its new subsidiary BCD Software last month rolled out a new business partner program that’s aimed at re-aligning the two companies’ formerly separate reseller programs into a single program. One of the benefits that Quadrant cited in its February acquisition of BCD was access to a broader product portfolio for both companies’ reseller channels. Quadrant has a big presence in the document management and fax routing business, with its Formtastic and QuadraDocV offerings, while BCD’s claim to fame is developing IBM i-based Web and mobile apps with its WebSmart platform (although it offers a number of point

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• Four-Core Power8 Box For Entry IBM i Shops Ships Early

  June 16, 2014 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The hardware resellers, software peddlers, and IBM i shops that have modest processing needs and generally modest system budgets have all been waiting for it. And IBM did not say a word about it when the initial Power8 systems were launched back in April. But, all of us in the IBM i community knew, without a doubt, that Big Blue would have to put out a four-core machine with an IBM i P05 software tier. The reason is simple: More than 95 percent of the IBM i installed base has workloads that can easily fit into an entry P05 system,

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• Your Next Big Tech Job Is. . . Freelancing

  June 16, 2014 Alex Woodie

  Businesses are increasingly turning toward freelancers and independent contractors to get the expertise needed to complete many jobs, including IT-related tasks. The trend toward a more itinerant workforce will have repercussions for IBM i shops, including those that are struggling to fill jobs left by retiring Baby Boomers as well as those faced with a flood of applicants for a handful of jobs. The world around us is looking more temporary by the day. Instead of buying a car, people get a ride via Uber. Just about anything you can think of–a guitar, a bike, the comfort of a dog–is

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