• IBS Finally Goes GA with Version 7 of ERP Suite

  March 13, 2012 Alex Woodie

  IBS announced the general availability of IBS Enterprise version 7, the latest version of its distribution-focused ERP system that runs on IBM i and Windows servers. The new version, which has been officially unveiled at least two times over the past two years, brings enhancements in the areas of mobility, cloud computing, and business intelligence. IBS Enterprise version 7, which the embattled software company first unveiled in October 2010 and then again in October 2011, is now available for new and existing customers, the company announced in late February. The new Distribution Cloud Solutions runs on a mix of

  …

  Read more

• Lawson Updates Software for Healthcare Industry

  March 13, 2012 Alex Woodie

  Lawson Software recently unveiled several software updates for its customers in the healthcare industry, including new releases of its Cloverleaf data integration engine and its Lawson Healthcare Revenue Management system. Lawson, which is an affiliate of Infor, recently updated its Cloverleaf system with the goal of streamlining the integration of systems in clinical healthcare settings. Specifically, the vendor unveiled an enhanced version of its Cloverleaf Secure Courier (CSC), which is used to share patient data. The new release of CSC enables the core Cloverleaf engine to be installed remotely at hospitals and doctors’ offices. The new release of Cloverleaf

  …

  Read more

• IBM Does March Madness Rebate On Power 770s

  March 12, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It looks like IBM is a bit eager to peddle some relatively big Power Systems iron to put the finishing touches on its first quarter. And it is no surprise, with a number of long-running promotions getting mothballed in recent weeks. If there is any rule of marketing, it is that you need to keep constantly changing things up to hit the hot buttons of different customers, so IBM is trying a rebate deal with an extremely short time window, and only on one machine: The Power 770. There have been two generations of Power 770 boxes. The original ones

  …

  Read more

• Database Neglect and IBM i Inuendo

  March 12, 2012 Dan Burger

  The future is tied to the past. It’s just not tied too tightly. Understanding that change occurs and better things come as a result is a pretty healthy attitude. Much better than forbidding change or refusing to acknowledge it exists. Change happens. But it’s almost always evolutionary rather than revolutionary. People prefer the level of disruption to be minimal–smooth transitions being far better than unexpected jolts. The row IBM hoed from AS/400 to IBM i is an example of both. This isn’t a history lesson on the IBM midrange. It’s an example of what can happen when innovative thinking is

  …

  Read more

• Where Did The Midrange Go?

  March 12, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  There’s not much of a midrange server business left, if the latest numbers from IDC are any indication. If you were thinking that the server business was shaped like a multi-layer cake, with each layer representing the revenues from small, midrange, and high-end machines, that is not the case any more. The midrange–or what we used to think of as the midrange–is being pulled apart by Moore’s Law. By IDC’s definition, a midrange box is one that costs somewhere between $25,000 and $250,000, including a server with base memory and disk capacity and an operating system. In the fourth quarter,

  …

  Read more

• Mad Dog 21/21: Kenya Hear Me Now

  March 12, 2012 Hesh Wiener

  How do you win a war no matter how it turns out? You sell weapons to all sides. That is what IBM is doing in Kenya, where Vodafone’s Safaricom runs the fabulous M-Pesa mobile payment system. M-Pesa’s transaction volume dwarfs that of Kenya’s banks, five of which have now hired IBM to help them get a piece of the action. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel, also powered by IBM, has similar ambitions in mobile telephony and micropayment. M-Pesa is an offspring of Islamic hawala funds transfer; this worries Interpol as it fascinates the Gates Foundation and cheers IBM. Everyone in

  …

  Read more

• The Abacus IBM i Test Drive Gains Renewed Relevance

  March 12, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Catching product transitions to conduct a little bit of new business is a tricky thing, and it is particularly difficult when the product transition that you are trying to take advantage of moves suddenly and unexpectedly. Just ask Abacus Solutions, which launched a virtual test drive service for IBM i 6.1 at the end of 2009 just as IBM was getting ready to stop selling i5/OS V5R4. And then Big Blue, at the request of customers facing the Great Recession, changed its mind and kept selling V5R4 a little longer. The idea behind the test drive service was simple

  …

  Read more

• Judge Tentatively Rules For Vision In Maxava False Advertising Suit

  March 12, 2012 Alex Woodie

  As the false advertising lawsuit brought by Maxava against Vision Solutions slogs into its third year, the Federal judge overseeing the case has issued a tentative ruling on a preliminary matter. Judge George Wu in December rejected Maxava’s summary judgment motion, and stated he remained open to Vision’s summary judgment arguments. The jury trial originally scheduled to begin last November was delayed, and there’s no trial date currently on the docket. IBM i high availability software maker Maximum Availability (as the company was then called) filed a civil lawsuit against its larger rival Vision Solutions in December 2009, alleging that

  …

  Read more

• Take The 20i2, Year Of IBM i Un-i-ty, Survey

  March 12, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  As The Four Hundred explained three weeks ago, Trevor Perry, IBM i advocate extraordinaire, is once again trying to shepherd the IBM i community for its own good, and is on a mission to understand how people talk about the platform formerly known as the AS/400. And he needs you to take a survey, so why don’t you help out? Several weeks ago, Perry has launched www.ibmi2.com, a site that has a mission of building unity in the IBM i community. Just like you and me, Perry wants to help the IBM i community, and he’s one of

  …

  Read more

• SUSE Linux 11 SP2 Tuned For Power And System z

  March 12, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you are a Linux user on IBM‘s Power Systems or System z mainframe servers, then you might want to take a gander at the latest Enterprise Server release from SUSE Linux, the commercial Linux distributor owned by software conglomerate Attachmate since last year. SUSE Linux has puts out Service Pack 2 for its Enterprise Server 11 variant of Linux, basing it on the new Linux 3.0.10 kernel, as you can read in the release notes for SP2. The update to the new Linux kernel also includes updates to the key portions of the open source stack,

  …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles