• Mad Dog 21/21: Server Makers Shift Shape, Stressing Legacy Customers

  April 1, 2013 Hesh Wiener

  Server vendors are doing a lot these days, but one thing they are doing less of is making servers. IBM, the biggest, richest, and smartest of the bunch has long since become a services and software supplier; hardware is a diminishing part of its trade. Dell is on a similar path, and trying to extract itself from public ownership to duck the requisite transparency and restrictive rules of conduct. Hewlett-Packard? Oracle? Who can say what’s going on in those madhouses? Still, it is safe to guess change is underway. Where does all this leave customers? No place

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• Avnet Describes IBM i Server Market Trends

  April 1, 2013 Dan Burger

  IBM i business is not the easiest thing to track these days. IBM and its business partners in the sales channel only want to talk in terms of Power Systems, so instead of having numbers to compare from one year to the next, we have estimations and best guesses based on the old finger-in-the-wind method. Some of our insights come from ISVs, IBM i shops, and consultants. Last week, I talked with several ranking members from Avnet, one of the master resellers in the IBM business channel. Mark Martin is the vice president of marketing and business development for

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• IT Spending Higher Than Expected In 2012, And Will Accelerate In Years Ahead

  April 1, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The prognosticators at Gartner have got out the soft cloth and polished up their crystal balls to gaze into the next two years of IT spending. And they have also rejiggered how much they think the companies of the world blew on IT and telecom hardware, software, and services now that earnings season for the fourth quarter financial results are over. At the beginning of the year, as we previously reported, Gartner figured that aggregate IT spending globally would come in at $3,588 billion, up 1.2 percent compared to 2011. (We’ll speak in terms of billions because rounding up

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• Women With Skills Earn Equal Pay To Male Counterparts

  April 1, 2013 Jenny Thomas

  The IT marketplace should be on the frontline of innovation and business leadership amongst all other industries. Entrusted with caring for one of an organization’s most valuable assets–data–the IT department is charged not only with the daily tasks of network administration, software development and installation, and maintaining, upgrading, and replacing hardware and software, it also sets the pace for success with the adoption of new technologies and finding better and faster ways to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data. So it seems natural that IT would be a leader in closing the gap in compensation between the sexes. And the

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• New IBM Software Aims to Predict Mechanical Failures

  April 1, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Companies in the manufacturing, distribution, energy and utility, and oil and gas industries may be interested in a new analytics package recently introduced by IBM. The software and services offering, called Predictive Asset Optimization, aims to forecast when assets in the field–such as trucks, water pipes, or robotic machines–are likely to fail, so that preventive maintenance or preemptive engineering changes can be made, saving the customer millions of dollars. Well-run companies have always paid attention to maintenance. But the fact is, in this physical world, stuff happens. Cogs in the wheels of industry get gummed up. Engines will get

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• Scott Klement: Happy To Be On The Rebound

  April 1, 2013 Dan Burger

  You never know how good or how bad you’ll be at overcoming obstacles until you’re face to face with one of these hairy monsters with no place to run, no place to hide. You may already know the story of Scott Klement, one of the most robust RPG minds on the planet, an IBM Power Systems Champion, and a guy who is on a quest to overcome adversity. Back in early January, Klement encountered some unplanned downtime. An illness left him tired and weak, but the unexpected swiftness of his deteriorating health that spiraled downward into something life threatening was

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• COMMON And Academic Initiative Polish Partnership

  April 1, 2013 Dan Burger

  Growing your own talent and developing a motivated, skilled, and qualified workforce should be on the minds of managers of every organization from multi-national corporations to multi-employee small businesses. It is not uncommon for IT managers in IBM midrange shops to wonder out loud where the next generation of business computing whiz kids will come from. What is uncommon is finding IBM midrange shops growing their own talent through partnerships with local tech schools and community colleges. Instead of searching for talent in all the wrong places, there should be a greater emphasis on developing it locally. Another step in

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• Midrange Power7+ Servers: Scaling Up Means Bring Your Checkbook

  March 25, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  We have spent several weeks walking you through the salient technical and economic characteristics of the new entry Power Systems machines using the new Power7+ processors from IBM. This week, it is time to take a run at those midrange Power 750+ and Power 760+ boxes that are based on the double-stuffed dual-chip modules, or DCMs, that are used to put more cores and threads in these boxes than Big Blue might otherwise not be able to deliver using regular single-chip module, or SCM, units that are used on the entry machines. If you want to review the feeds

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• One MSP’s Clear View Of The Future Of Cloud ERP

  March 25, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Tom Bruno understands cloud ERP better than you. After all, as the president and CEO of Velocity Technology Solutions, a managed service provider (MSP) based in New York City, it is his job to make sure his customers’ JD Edwards, Lawson, Kronos, and Hyperion applications run safely and securely in his private cloud. Bruno recently got on the telephone with IT Jungle to share his view of the future of private clouds and enterprise software’s place in them. Velocity runs ERP and other critical systems for more than 250 midsize to large companies out of five data centers

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• Doin’ A Land Office Power7 Business Down In Texas

  March 25, 2013 Dan Burger

  It’s good to know when business is good. But you usually hear about it quicker (and louder and more often) when it’s not. Fortunately, when I want to know a little something about the IBM i business, there’s a guy in Texas I call. He always starts off by saying “my view of the world is pretty narrow.” And that’s a fact. But I always say something to the effect of “if the crumbs are good, chances are the cake is, too.” A lot of you folks know the Texan I’m talking about. His name is Doug Fulmer and he

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