• Micro Focus Emulation Software Brings Windows 7 Support, New Interface

  December 15, 2009 Dan Burger

  The latest terminal emulation suite from Micro Focus was introduced last week with support for Microsoft Windows 7 being the showcased prize that comes with RUMBA 8. The popular software that connects PC-based users to applications running on IBM i-based Power Systems servers (AS/400, iSeries, and System i) is also being touted for its redesigned user interface and productivity upgrades. Along with the new RUMBA, Micro Focus announced the availability of Web-to-Host 6, its newest browser-based terminal emulator. When dealing with terminal emulation customers where processing speed is a priority, Windows 7 support will bring back-end diagnostics that will speed

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• Property Tax Records Kept Safe, Thanks to i365

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  From his office 20 miles north of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Denton County Tax Assessor/Collector Steve Mossman has pondered potential disasters. “We could have a tornado, a hurricane, or an airplane that lands prematurely,” he says. “A 747 would make a real mess to try and recover records.” Thanks to the use of i365‘s online backup and recovery service, the county’s property tax records would survive a calamity, even if the iSeries server on which they’re stored does not. By population, Denton County is the eighth largest county in Texas, and one of the fastest growing counties in the

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• IBM Delivers Rational Migration Extension for Rich UI

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  System i and System z shops that are modernizing their 5250 and 3270 green-screen applications using IBM‘s Rational Business Developer (RBD) development tool and Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) may want to check out a new plug-in released last week by IBM. With the new Rational Migration Extension for Rich UI, IBM is helping customers ensure that the Web GUIs they create with RBD 7.5.1 are generated correctly as JavaScript and execute as expected. Ever since IBM shipped the 7.5.1 release of RBD last fall that added “rich user interface” generation capabilities, Big Blue’s development tool programmers have been

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• IBM Updates Tivoli Job Scheduler

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  IBM last week announced a new release of Tivoli Workload Scheduler, its enterprise job scheduler for applications running on i OS, z/OS, Windows, Unix, and Linux operating systems. With version 8.5.1, IBM has added new dynamic scheduling capabilities for virtualized servers, as well as new graphical views designed to eliminate distractions and help administrators better understand the scheduling environment. System i shops may not be aware that, in Tivoli Workload Scheduler, IBM offers a cross-platform enterprise-strength job scheduler that can help to manage application workloads running across different servers. Tivoli Workload Scheduler doesn’t actually run on i OS- and i5/OS-based

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• Inovis and GXS To Merge, Create B2B Behemoth

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  i OS EDI and B2B e-commerce software provider Inovis and GXS, one of Inovis’ largest competitors, have decided to merge their businesses, the companies announced last week. The resulting company will easily be the largest B2B e-commerce services provider in the industry–and Forrester says it will help customers. Due to the need for regulatory approval, the marriage of Inovis, a privately held company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and GXS, a privately held company based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, won’t be culminated for several months, at the earliest. When the deal does go through–and nobody seems to be saying the government

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• Barcode Printing From a Blackberry? Zebra’s Got You Covered

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  We are all impressed that you can play Sudoko on your iPhone, or find the nearest Starbuck’s in a matter of seconds. But can your precious iPhone help you crank out a barcode for specimen tracking, or generate a receipt in the field? No, and that’s why the new Smart Phone utility unveiled last week by Zebra Technologies is sure to be the killer app for all the field personnel on your Christmas list this year. As the result of the new Smart Phone utility for its software development kit, Zebra is enabling Blackberry users to control barcode printing jobs

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• SafeData Moves Data Center to SAS Type II Facility

  December 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  SafeData, a provider of managed high availability and online backup and recovery solutions for System i servers, yesterday announced that it has moved its data center from Boston to Waltham, Massachusetts. SafeData president Peter Briggs says major factors influencing his decision to move to the Savvis data center in Waltham were the site’s electricity and communications infrastructure and its SAS70 type II designation. “The center also offers 100 percent power redundancy, protection against environmental elements, and fire detection and suppression systems,” Briggs states in a press release. “Additionally, we feel confident that as we continue to grow our client

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• Power Systems i: Serve’s Up

  December 14, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If anything is clear about the upcoming eight-core Power7 processors from IBM due in the first half of next year, it is that these processors are going to have a pretty big chunk of processing capacity. And as I am spending a few weeks in the lead story of The Four Hundred going over the problems and possibilities of the Power Systems i line, it seems appropriate to continue to talk about the issues facing the platform and then, in the new year, set about designing a new and revised AS/400 product line, complete with new pricing and packaging to

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• Abacus Offers i 6.1 Upgrade Virtual Test Drive Service

  December 14, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  I was grousing in last week’s issue of The Four Hundred that the program conversion process that IBM is forcing customers to go through to move to the i 6.1 operating system was Big Blue’s breaking of the covenant between itself and AS/400 shops that they would not have to recompile their applications to move to new hardware and operating system releases. I suggested that IBM do something about it, like give away free servers or porting services to get customers on modern hardware and software. As it turns out, Abacus Solutions has beaten IBM to the punch. Patrick Schutz,

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• The Server Market Sees Some Stability

  December 14, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  While the box counters at Gartner and IDC carve up the server racket slightly differently, they came to basically the same conclusion about sales and shipments in the third quarter: things are still bad, but the situation is stabilizing. This will bring good cheer to those who believe that server spending is a leading indicator for the IT economy. The Four Hundred told you all about Gartner’s analysis of Q3 in last week’s issue, where I did the math and showed how average selling prices are on the rise in different sectors of the server market, thanks in large part

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