• IBM Adds Power7+ Iron To Virtual Loaner Program

  May 13, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you are a business partner who can’t get access to a new Power7+ machine but you want to compile and test your code on some shiny new iron, then IBM has a slice of iron it wants you to take for free. On April 24, the developerWorks web site aimed at application developers announced that the Virtual Loaner Program, a long-running service that Big Blue set up when it decided to go cloudy for developers instead of giving them cut-priced Power Systems on which to code their apps, had been updated with Power7+ machines. IBM does not say what

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• Corus360 Builds Power Systems Cloud In Atlanta

  May 13, 2013 Dan Burger

  Corus360, an Atlanta, Georgia-based value added reseller (VAR) with a 30,000-square-foot data center, is expanding its services with an application hosting business for companies using IBM i, AIX, and Linux apps. It calls its new, on-demand, allocation of resources venture PowerCloud360. Companies looking to reduce IT capital expenditures and expenses are the target market. Behind the PowerCloud360 name is IBM Power Systems’ proven virtualization capabilities–virtualized processors, memory, network, and storage. Of course, disaster recovery and high availability are part of the design. More than likely it will be the biggest portion of the business. And in true, cloud-like fashion,

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• Take COMMON Europe’s Top Concerns 2013 Survey

  May 13, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It’s that time of the year again. If you have a suggestion for IBM or just a helpful suggestion on how it might improve the Power Systems platform running the IBM i operating systems, now is your chance to do something about it. For the past seven years, COMMON Europe has done its part to poll the IBM i user base and try to figure out what they are worried about. And now the eighth annual Top Concerns survey is open for you to speak your mind and help shape the future of this platform. The 2013 Top Concerns survey

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• That Old AS/400 Gets Some Love at Inforum 2013

  May 7, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Infor is arguably the biggest provider of business applications for the IBM i server (formerly AS/400), so it was good to see the old black box getting some love and respect at Infor’s recent user conference, Inforum 2013, held in late April in Orlando, Florida–even if most of the love and respect was coming from customers, and not Infor. It’s tough to tell exactly how many of Infor’s customers run their applications on the IBM i platform, in large part because Infor’s IBM i products are spread out across different divisions. Robert Russell, the vice president in charge of development

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• SQL Protection: Grief Relief from ProData

  May 7, 2013 Dan Burger

  More and more people are talking about using SQL. The number of classes at conferences continues to rise and the interest level remains on an upward swing. Along with that comes an interest in monitoring and evaluating SQL environments. ProData Computer Services recognized this need, and the result was a product called SQL Audit, which was announced at the COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition last month in Austin, Texas. SQL Audit tracks and monitors modifications made to any IBM i database, whether the modifications are made using ProData’s SQL/Pro or DBU, as well as IBM‘s standard SQL functions. All

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• Infor CEO Throws Down on ERP Competitors with New SoHo UI

  May 7, 2013 Alex Woodie

  ERP software has never been “cool” or “fun” to use. But if Infor CEO Charles Phillips had his way, enterprise software would be as enjoyable to use as the latest social networking tools from Facebook and Twitter. SoHo is the name of the new HTML5-based user interface that Infor is adopting across its various enterprise applications, including its premiere IBM i-based products. We gave you the lowdown SoHo, which was unveiled last month at Inforum 2013, in the story “Infor Exudes Total Confidence at Annual User Confab” in yesterday’s The Four Hundred. What was clear from Phillips’ comments

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• BCD Refines Its Palette with Presto 4.7

  May 7, 2013 Alex Woodie

  It’s true that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. But it’s also true that ugly websites can be spotted a mile away. To that end, Business Computer Design Int’l. has updated its Presto Web enablement tool to make it easier for customers to generate good-looking Web interfaces for their IBM i applications. Version 4.7 also adds a new spool-file-to-PDF conversion feature. Many of the Web-related enhancements BCD delivered with Presto 4.7 were made to the Palette component of the Visual Editor. The Palette, which debuted in March 5, makes it easier to design Web interfaces by allowing

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• MPG Supports Latest POWER Hardware with Performance Tool

  May 7, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Midrange Performance Group last month unveiled updates to its Navigator family of performance management and capacity planning tools. Performance Navigator version 16 gives IBM i shops the capability to see how their applications will run on the latest Power7+ chips from IBM, and also has better modeling for SSDs and specific applications. Performance Navigator has been used for many years by IBM i shops and resellers to help match IBM i application workloads to IBM hardware. In more recent years, MPG has expanded the Windows-based product to support Unix and Linux environments on Power Systems via its Power Navigator

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• VAI Expands EDI Capabilities with S2K Integrator

  May 7, 2013 Dan Burger

  VAI, the ERP software company known for its IBM i customer base of small and midsize manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, has announced the availability of S2K Integrator, which advances traditional EDI integration to include such items as XML files, flat files, and spreadsheets. S2K Integrator is based on technology derived from a business partnership with EXTOL International, which is OEM-ing its EXTOL Business Integrator (EBI). As a result, companies using S2K Enterprise, VAI’s IBM i-based ERP software, will gain the capability to connect, share and synchronize data with third parties. It opens the door to such documents as

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• Infor Acquisition of TDCI Would Include MAC-PAC

  May 7, 2013 Alex Woodie

  It’s been a few years since Infor made an IBM i-related acquisition, but that will likely change as the result of the pending acquisition of TDCI, the Columbus, Ohio-developer of two products, including the Windows-based BuyDesign product configurator and MAC-PAC, an IBM i-based ERP system. Infor announced its intent to buy TDCI in late April at the company’s annual Inforum user conference in Orlando, Florida. Infor says it entered into a non-binding agreement to buy TDCI for an undisclosed amount of money. The company says it expects the deal to close within 30 days. It is clear that Infor

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