• IBM Buys Varicent for Cloud-Based Sales Performance Management

  April 17, 2012 Alex Woodie

  The big gold rush in the cloud is on, and the latest outfit to strike it rich is Varicent, a developer of compensation and sales performance management software. It was snapped up last week by a cloud- and analytics-hungry IBM for an undisclosed sum. Varicent’s compensation and sales performance software is used by companies that use salespeople to drive much of their revenue. By more effectively managing the sales-related data–which is often spread across PCs and spreadsheets–Varicent can drive more profits from sales, and ensure that the variable rate of compensation for the salespeople is “aligned with strategic business

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• IBM Launches Hybrid, Flexible Systems Into The Data Center

  April 16, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It takes a little time and a lot of money to roll out a new server architecture, and even a company as large as IBM can’t do it very often. The System/360 in 1964. The System/38 in 1979 and its follow-on, the AS/400, in 1988. The RS/6000 in 1990. The BladeCenter in 2002, and the Sequent-inspired clustered server nodes in the xSeries and pSeries in the mid-2000s. iDataplex in 2008. And now the PureSystem converged infrastructure launched last week, in 2012. IBM started designing the BladeCenter blade server back in 1999, when some enterprise-class companies were pretty fed up with

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• A Closer Look At The Flex System Iron

  April 16, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In the lead story in this issue of The Four Hundred, I walked you through the basic structure and the high-level sales pitch for the new PureSystem family of converged platforms announced by IBM last Wednesday. That gives you the view from 30,000 feet with a couple of buzz dives down but still well above the tree tops. Now it is time to take a good hard look at the new iron. We’ll start with the Flex System chassis at the heart of the PureFlex and PureApplication machines and the three server nodes that slide into its bays. But

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• IBM Rolls Out iTunes-Like Store For Enterprise Apps

  April 16, 2012 Alex Woodie

  Part of the IBM PureSystems launch last week was something called PureSystems Centre, an iTunes-like portal where people can browse various enterprise applications that have been vetted to run on the PureFlex and PureApplications systems. You can even click on a “Get it now” button for a quick download and install, just like getting Angry Birds on your iPhone or iPad. While the mobile app store concept doesn’t quite translate to the enterprise space, PureSystems Centre forecasts a more intuitive enterprise app shopping experience, and serves as a vehicle for giving ISVs a seat on IBM’s SmartCloud. Angry Birds Space

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• Some Carrots To Get i5/OS V5 Shops To Move Forward

  April 16, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  IT vendors generally use a carrot-and-stick approach to coax customers to move ahead with hardware and software technologies. They don’t do this because they like giving negative reinforcement–not any more than our parents did or we do as parents–but because this is how human beings are resistant to change and need some encouragement to act. IBM has been carrotting and sticking the i5/OS V5R4 customer base for years now, and it is dangling some more carrots. The latest stick, of course, was two months ago when IBM announced that support on i5/OS V5R4, sometimes called IBM i 5.4 by Big

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• Businesses Optimistic About Second Quarter IT Hiring

  April 16, 2012 Jenny Thomas

  As the United States continues to push through these tough economic times, one of the often cited indicators of recovery, or lack thereof, is how many people are searching for jobs. Whether or not you believe the latest unemployment statistics, which are hanging a shade over 8 percent, there is a glimmer of good news for those looking for work in IT, at least according to the latest Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report. While the numbers do indicate a slower pace than three months ago, the fact is RHT expects continued IT hiring in the

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• IBM Cuts Deals To Get IBM i, AIX Shops Back On Maintenance

  April 16, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you let you the Software Maintenance, or SWMA (pronounced “swamma” in IBMese), lapse on your IBM i or AIX operating system licenses, you have to pay a big fee to get them back under support at IBM. IBM wants to cut customers a little slack, and recently modified a long-running deal from November 2008 that now allows them to finance the maintenance after-license fees. If you extract the Software Maintenance fees from an IBM i license, then the software itself costs from $1,945 per core on a P05 machine to $53,000 per core on a P50 machine. The

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• IBM Honors Its Top Technologists With Fellow Status

  April 16, 2012 Dan Burger

  Sadly, science and technology creates few celebrities. The occasional Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Mark Zuckerberg breaks into the limelight, but they are known more for being successful business people than scientists and technologists. Almost all the incredible innovators in the IT world remain anonymous on the worldwide stage. But excellence does not go unrewarded. Each year since 1962, IBM selects a handful of employees to receive its most prestigious technical honor. It’s a rare club, the IBM Fellows, made up of individuals who have played a leading role in developing some of the world’s most important technologies; the Fellow

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• Companies Still Bullish On Business Intelligence Spending

  April 16, 2012 Dan Burger

  Researchers at Gartner have launched another revenue rocket. Last week at its Business Intelligence Summit in Los Angeles, the company reported the combination of business intelligence and analytic applications and performance management software soared to $12.2 billion in 2011. Compared to the $10.5 billion that 2010 generated and the $9.3 billion that fell into this column in 2009, it’s a pretty impressive trajectory. Gartner ranked it the second-fastest growing sector in the overall worldwide enterprise software market in 2011. Gartner analyst Dan Sommer described the interest in BI as not being defined decisions based on either a build or buy.

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• JDA To Restate Financials From 2008 Through 2011

  April 16, 2012 Dan Burger

  Based on the ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission review of its revenue recognition policies, JDA Software Group will be restating its annual and quarterly financial results during fiscal years 2008 through 2011. Previously issued financial statements from that time period should no longer be relied upon. JDA provides supply chain management software for the retail industry. The company’s software runs on machines equipped with IBM i as well as other operating systems. The audit committee of JDA’s board of directors signed off on the plan to restate the company’s financial results. According to JDA, the anticipated adjustments center on two

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