• Let’s Take a Look Under the Hood of IBM’s Servers in Q3

  November 9, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Public companies sure give the appearance of telling you lots of things about their business, but they rarely cough up any specific information about what it is selling, how much it is selling, and why. But, as companies go, IBM has some of the most detailed information available about its many products lines and businesses. Which is a good thing. But actual hard information is still lacking in many cases. Which is why I have to go through the trouble of trying to convert IBM’s somewhat limited server, storage, and chip sales results, in terms of percent change, into actual

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• Another Power Systems Deal, and Some Feedback

  November 9, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  I have been a bit surprised by the lack of public wheeling and dealing in this economic downturn as far as server sales go. There has been no “cash for clunkers” equivalent deal that IBM has used to try to get companies to move ahead. Perhaps there are deals going on behind the scenes, on a one-on-one basis, but this takes time and is an inefficient way of selling because sales reps and channel partners end up doing what they want to move gear. For all I know, IBM is so content with the price/performance of the Power Systems line,

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• As I See It: The Great American Recovery

  November 9, 2009 Victor Rozek

  How kindly the new year will treat IT professionals depends on the elusive recovery. But did we have one or didn’t we? Unlike experiencing a migraine, you can actually be in the middle of a recovery and apparently not even know it. Just ask the 15.7 million people looking for work, and the millions more who stopped looking. A jobless recovery they’re calling it, which is like a joyless orgasm. Whoop-tee-do. The term “jobless recovery” is a telling oxymoron. It is a measure of the contempt in which the elites hold the rest of us. Once the banks and brokerage

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• IT Spending Key to Competitive Gains During Recession

  November 9, 2009 Alex Woodie

  While it is true that companies have sharply curtailed spending on IT during the recession, top financial executives still view IT as a strategic investment for obtaining a competitive advantage, according to a study of CFOs commissioned by Micro Focus. The study, released last week, found the recession has focused companies’ efforts more on improving existing systems than implementing new ones, and has brought the side benefit of boosting collaboration between management and the IT department. There is no sugar-coating the huge impact that the recession has had on overall IT spending. The server business–the most visible part of

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• iManifest U.S. Adds BCD to List of ISV Supporters

  November 9, 2009 Dan Burger

  A good start is great, but it’s follow through that buys the bacon. When Business Computer Design, better known simply as BCD, joined the iManifest U.S. membership last week, I asked Eric Figura, director of sales and marketing at BCD, how iManifest compares to programs IBM has attempted in the past. Although we were talking on the phone, I could imagine his head shaking as he said, “iManifest is a commitment to marketing our platform that has been gone for some time at IBM.” There was a time when IBM had a good track record, Figura recalled. The company

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• COMMON Africa is Back on the Map, Joined by YiPs

  November 9, 2009 Dan Burger

  COMMON is back in business in Africa. It’s been 14 years since the world’s largest user group dedicated to the IBM Power System platform (at that time referred to as the AS/400) had an organized presence on the continent. Tuesday, a new chapter will be written as COMMON Africa is re-launched along with a new branch of the Young i Professionals (YiPs). Marking the occasion will be a meeting at the IBM offices in Sandton, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. Sandton is the financial center of South Africa, which makes it a magnet for IBM i computing. Wherever financial

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• IBM Launches Upgraded, Rack-Mounted HMC for Partition Control

  November 9, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  You might be thinking that IBM doesn’t make PCs or workstations any more, after selling off that business to Lenovo a few years back. But there is still one workstation you can get from IBM, and for many i shops, it is a necessary part of the day-to-day running of their System i and Power Systems i boxes: the Hardware Management Console, or HMC for short. IBM has a new rack-mounted workstation that it has packaged up as a better, stronger, faster–and more expensive–HMC. The new HMC, which goes by the product number 7042-CR5, is a workstation based on Intel’s

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• Jack Henry Holds Steady in Fiscal Q1, Boosts Profits

  November 9, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Banking software and hardware provider Jack Henry and Associates closed out its first quarter of fiscal 2010 in September, and it managed to boost profits while holding revenues steady–a neat trick given how much of a mess the banking industry has been in for the past year. For the quarter ended September 30, the company posted sales of $182.3 million, down a smidgen from the year ago quarter, while net income rose 17 percent to $26.3 million. Software license sales at Jack Henry, as at most software makers these days, fell in the quarter, in this case by 14 percent,

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• Yet Another Tech Insider Trading Scandal in New York

  November 9, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The lawyers at the Department of Justice and G-men at the FBI have sure been busy in the past three weeks. Last week, yet another insider trading scandal erupted in New York. This time another 14 people, including hedge fund managers, lawyers, and an analyst at Moody’s Investor Service have been charged with participating in an insider trading ring that has allowed yet another group of people to profit to the tune of $20 million. The initial insider trading scam, which centered around the Galleon Group and New Castle Group hedge funds, came to light when six people were arrested

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• Enhancing CGIDEV2

  November 4, 2009 Paul Tuohy

  Maybe “enhancing” is too strong a word, but “Add-Ons for CGIDEV2” doesn’t have the same ring to it. I have always been (and still am) a big fan of CGIDEV2. A tool, such as CGIDDEV2, must be flexible enough to cater for all tastes. But when you have nailed down your own standards and working methods it is sometimes easier to have add-on procedures to implement those standards and working methods. With that in mind, I want to share a few of the subprocedures I have written that make CGIDEV2 a little easier to use in my development environment. All

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