• Data Control Issues Bring vLegaci QuickerApps to Market

  August 18, 2009 Dan Burger

  Without plans to control your data, your plans for controlling your business are going to suffer. Studies by consulting and analyst firms such as IDC and Strategic Research Corporation estimate that one half to three-quarters of corporate data is managed by users with little or no policy attuned to data quality or any kind of IT standards. This seems like an odd way to run a business when operations and decision-making processes are likely based on bad data. The chances of data being bad certainly increase when a business has dozens, if not hundreds, of user-created databases scattered across many

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• Oracle Gives JDE More Supply Chain Planning Brains

  August 18, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Oracle announced last week that its complete set of supply chain planning solutions, called the Value Chain Planning suite, can now be hooked up to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne through a new automated integration mechanism. The VCP suite, which runs on Windows or Linux and require the Oracle database, is aimed at helping manufacturers and distributors to optimize various facets of supply chain activities, including demand planning, inventory management, production scheduling, and sourcing. In an ideal world, manufacturers and distributors would make or buy as much product as they could, and worry about moving it later. But, of course, we don’t

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• Infor Snaps Up SoftBrands, Gets i OS-Based Hotel Suite

  August 18, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Infor and its equity partner, Gold Gate Capital, last week announced the acquisition of SoftBrands, an enterprise software developer based in Minneapolis. The deal nets Infor two main business lines, including FourthShift, an ERP package for mid size manufacturers, and a suite of i OS-based property management applications that is used by some of the world’s largest casinos. The pending acquisition of SoftBrands by Infor was previously announced by the two companies in June, and it closed this month. The deal calls for Infor and Golden Gate to pay $.92 per common share of SoftBrands stock, which was traded

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• AES-256 Attacks Get More Sophisticated, But Security is Maintained

  August 18, 2009 Alex Woodie

  A group of respected cryptographers recently publicized details of a new attack on the AES-256 encryption algorithm that appears to be quite sophisticated. For years, hackers have used blunt-force attacks to try and crack AES-256–the strongest of the U.S. Government-sanctioned Advanced Encryption Standards–with no major progress. The new approach appears to be easy enough to use that it’s making security experts worried, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on AES-256 for your enterprise security needs just yet. Security expert Bruce Schneier, one of the first to alert the industry to the new cryptographic research, dubbed the attack “very

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• IdF in Reseller Deal with Dewpoint for Identity Management Software

  August 18, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Identity Forge (IdF), a developer of adapters that allow i OS and z/OS identity credentials to work in the wider LDAP and Windows world, has inked a deal with Dewpoint that will see the IT consultancy reselling the IdF adapters. IdF sells two main products, including the IdF Gateway, which functions as a proxy server that translates LDAP protocol commands from identity management systems running on Windows, Unix, and Linux into i OS and mainframe commands, and the Advanced Adapter series, which provides native security connectivity for i OS, RACF, ACF2, and Top Secret security, including. Together, the IdF products

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• Bsafe Adds AIX Support to Auditing and SIEM Product

  August 18, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Organizations that audit their Power Systems servers using software from Bsafe Information Security can now audit their AIX environments, in addition to i OS and Linux, thanks to a new release of the Bsafe/CPA product unveiled this summer. The company also overhauled the Linux auditing function. Bsafe/CPA is one of about 19 components of the Bsafe/Enterprise Security for IBM i suite. The software, which runs on Windows and the SQL Server database, helps organizations manage their security and regulatory compliance initiatives by collecting, consolidating, and presenting security-related log data from multiple systems in one centrally accessible program that features a

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• Open Source Software Growing Faster Than Expected: IDC

  August 18, 2009 Alex Woodie

  A short time ago, the words “open source software” conjured images of disheveled tech enthusiasts writing geeky utilities from their parents’ basements while slurping Diet Coke by the liter. That image has changed dramatically, and today open source software has become a profitable industry that’s populated by businessmen wearing Armani suits. In fact, open source software is growing faster than previously expected, according to a new report from the IDC. The IDC forecast concluded that, from 2009 to 2013, worldwide revenue from open source software will grow at a 22 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach $8.1

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• Original Software Teams with AppLabs for Software Testing

  August 18, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Software testing specialists Original Software and AppLabs have teamed up to sell each other’s products and services, the companies announced last week. The deal brings Original access to AppLabs’ suite of testing services, while it brings AppLabs access to Original’s products, including IBM i application testing software. Original has strived to help customers move from manual testing processes, which are error-prone and time consuming, to automated solutions that can deliver better software quality. The British company supports all forms of i OS applications, although testing on Web and Windows platforms accounts for a bigger slice of its business. The automated

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• RPG: A Great Language with a Greater History

  August 17, 2009 Brian Kelly

  The RPG programming language is the favorite still of many young and old who toil in the IBM i environment. Amazingly, this language is pushing 50 years old. Though the IT world believes that RPG began with RPG I, there really was an RPG 0 in the pre-1960 era called FARGO, also known as 1401 (Fourteen-o-one) Automatic Report Generation Operation, and this was the immediate predecessor to RPG. So FARGO was really RPG with a bad name and it was really RPG 0. IBM got the name wrong the first time out–as it seems it often does. The intention of

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• IBM Tweaks Power 570, 595 Deals Yet Again

  August 17, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you can keep track of the constantly modifying and remodifying trade-in and rebate deals that IBM is offering to customers of various Power Systems iron, you are probably doing a lot better than IBM’s own sales reps and its reseller channel, and you are definitely doing a lot better than me. There are several deals that all have the same basic shape that are running right now, and they are all aimed at giving customers who get new Power-based servers (or upgrade to them) some kind of deal. These deals keep getting tweaked, making it all that more confusing

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