• Helzberg Diamonds Expands Use of Original Testing Tools

  July 12, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Helzberg Diamond Shops has been using testing tools from Original Software since Y2K. More recently, the Kansas City-based chain of jewelry stores has expanded its use of the tools to help ensure the smooth operation of additional applications, including a new ERP system, a point of sale (POS) system, and an ecommerce website. With the iconic “I Am Loved” buttons that accompany each piece of jewelry, Helzberg has become one of the most recognized chains of jewelry stores in the country. The company, which was founded 96 years ago, is now owned by Berkshire Hathaway, and counts 234 stores in

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• PostgreSQL, Progress DB Now Supported on mrc’s m-Power

  July 12, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Users of mrc‘s m-Power application development tool can now deploy their creations atop the PostgreSQL or Progress OpenEdge databases, the vendor announced last week. The tool already supported most other major databases, including DB2/400. The capability to support PostgreSQL is a major milestone for m-Power, a template-based Web application development tool that generates J2EE. While m-Power already supported the capability to run on and access a slew of popular databases, including DB2/400, DB2 for LUW, SQL Server, MySQL, the Oracle database, IMS, Access, and Informix, the addition of PostgreSQL support will give mrc more play in the open

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• Business Is IBM’s Middle Name

  July 11, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  IBM did not for one second like being criticized for not doing enough for its midmarket independent software vendors, resellers, and other partners to help them peddle hardware, software, and services to midrange shops. But Andy Monshaw, who is general manager for the cross-group Midmarket Division at Big Blue, which sits inside of its Sales and Distribution organization, has been at the company for 27 years and he knows how to handle such a situation. Monshaw picked up the phone and talked to The Four Hundred to explain what IBM is, in fact, doing for the midmarket and how it

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• Lennox Takes CMO Job as Zend Plans for Growth

  July 11, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Elaine Lennox, the former IBM vice president of marketing for the System i platform, has been hired as the chief marketing officer of PHP tool vendor Zend Technologies, it was announced while IT Jungle was on hiatus for the holiday. The hiring of Lennox, along with appointment of a new CFO, sends a signal that Zend is getting ready for a growth spurt, particularly as it pertains to the two hottest growth areas in IT: cloud and mobile computing. It’s no great secret that IBM i shops have a love/hate relationship with IBM. While IBM i types absolutely adore

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• Gartner, IDC Boost IT Spending Outlooks For 2011

  July 11, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Contrary to how you might be feeling personally or what your boss might be telling you about there being no money for raises and bonuses or all that shiny new hardware you want for the data center, it looks like the IT departments of the world are going to be given a little bit more money to play with, according to the latest forecasts from Gartner. And IT spending growth in the United States, says IDC, is set to double-time the rate of change for gross domestic product this year, too. Gartner upped its forecast for IT spending

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• As I See It: An Icy Place Apart

  July 11, 2011 Victor Rozek

  Over the years, I’ve learned to avoid locations with life-threatening names. There’s a reason why places like Death Valley, Cardiac Ridge, and Hammerhead Bay sound dangerous. Survival rates decline for people who frequent them. So, what am I doing pounding across a body of water known as Icy Straight in an open skiff? The craft is little more than a glorified rowboat with a large outboard motor. There’s freezing wind blowing off the 45 degree ocean and rain is pelting my face, while I huddle in an orange Gumby survival suit made of rubber and foam. All things considered, I’m

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• iManifest EMEA Plans Webcast, IBM i Collateral

  July 11, 2011 Dan Burger

  The iManifest EMEA group is ringing the bell once again and hoping to bring together a more comprehensive cluster of like-minded IBM i enthusiasts willing to put effort into promoting the strengths and benefits of the platform to an audience that is largely ignorant or misinformed about IBM‘s midrange system. A webcast to present collective and collaborative ideas, as well as to solicit feedback, is scheduled for July 29 at 10 a.m. EDT. Andrew Nicholson, sales and marketing manager at Utilities 400, an IBM i vendor based in the United Kingdom, serves as the group’s lightning rod and

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• Reader Feedback on Building a Legacy

  July 11, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Timothy: Great article!!! In your statement about “Windows server variants” being almost 20 years old, does that include Microsoft SQL Server? Just wondering if that is considered “legacy” nowadays. But, since you define one of the characteristics of legacy as being “stable,” maybe SQL Server is really not legacy. Thank you again for a great article. –Doug Er, I suppose SQL Server is legacy, especially when you consider it is actually derived from Sybase‘s Sybase System and later SQL Server, which date from the late 1980s and early 1990s, respectively. TPM, it is always a privilege to read your

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• IBM Revives BladeCenter Chassis Giveaway

  July 11, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It’s baaaaaaack. . . . IBM‘s BladeCenter chassis first-in-location giveaway deal, I mean. Not aliens from the other side in the television. Last week, in announcement letter 311-087, Big Blue revived an on-again, off-again freebie BladeCenter chassis deal, which gives customers a freebie enclosure when installing blade servers for the first time in a location inside their company. The intent is to cushion the blow on moving from tower or rack servers to blades, which offer all kinds of integration and management benefits but which are also more expensive than tower or rack servers of equivalent oomph and

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• PostgreSQL Database On Power Systems-IBM i? Why Not?

  July 11, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The profile of the open source PostgreSQL database has been rising in recent months, and you can run it on an IBM i platform if you have a Web application that requires that database. PostgreSQL got an immediate boost the minute that Oracle closed its $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems in January 2010. That’s because Sun owned the popular MySQL database at that point, and companies that did not want to be beholden to Oracle, which owns a slew of databases after many acquisitions and much internal databases. A heavily modified PostgreSQL database is embedded in IBM‘s Netezza

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