• IBM Boosts Power Rewards Points for Sun Takeouts

  May 4, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Now that IBM is no longer interested in acquiring Sun Microsystems, and Oracle is sweeping in like an angel (or a vulture, we’ll see which), it is back to business as normal between IBM and Sun. So Big Blue wasted little time jacking up the dollar value of its Power Rewards program for trying to dislodge Sun iron from IT shops, pushing the value up to $8,000 per UltraSparc or Sparc64 core in servers that are taken out of the shop and replaced with Power Systems machinery. IBM doesn’t give customers money, but rather points that are good for

  …

  Read more

• Good-Bye BOSaNOVA, Hello 10ZiG Technology

  May 4, 2009 Dan Burger

  Climbing the world’s tallest mountain is first a quest and then an achievement. The first to reach the summit of Mt. Everest were a pair of explorers in 1953. One name you are likely to recognize is Edmund Hillary. The second name is the lesser known Tenzig Norgay. Knowledgeable sources say Norgay, a Tibetan Sherpa who had been near the summit on several previous climbs, was chiefly responsible for the amazing accomplishment. Don’t thank me for this short trip into mountain climbing history. Thank Martin Pladgeman, who just renamed his company 10ZiG Technology. You are probably familiar with this

  …

  Read more

• Twitter from an AS/400? Kisco Lets You Do It

  April 28, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Think Twitter is just for tweens and people without enough real work to do? Think again. Kisco Information Systems last week unveiled a new product that turns Twitter into a communications and systems management tool for the IBM Power Systems server (AS/400). Kisco’s new product, called SNDTWEET, introduces several practical real-world business uses for the new social networking service that is sweeping the nation like a nasty virus. If you’ve watched the news lately, you’ve noticed that everybody seems to be all atwitter over Twitter. For those uninitiated or over 30, Twitter is all about answering the question “What are

  …

  Read more

• nuBridges Pushes ‘Tokenization’ with New Encryption Tool

  April 28, 2009 Alex Woodie

  System i security software vendor nuBridges last week unveiled a new product called nuBridges Protect Token Manager that puts a different spin on the problem of encryption in dispersed corporate environments. Instead of encrypting data as it rests in a company’s various databases and applications, the product replaces the critical data values with a token that points back to a single database, thereby providing a more secure repository for sensitive data, as well as preserving data formats. nuBridges is well versed in the field of encryption. The Atlanta, Georgia, software company, which targets the IBM Power Systems server as well

  …

  Read more

• BCD Adds Features Throughout App Modernization Suite

  April 28, 2009 Dan Burger

  Some people would have you believe they just can’t wait until tomorrow because IT technology gets better looking every day. But it’s not the leaps and bounds type of advancements that it’s often made out to be. It’s a process of continual, but gradual, enhancements. Because BCD is trumpeting improvements in its IBM i application modernization suite this week at the COMMON Conference in Reno, Nevada, it makes for a good example. BCD’s modernization suite includes products that can instantly Web enable 5250 RPG and COBOL applications without coding; develop Web application in either RPG CGI or PHP; and build

  …

  Read more

• Guardium Adds DB2/400 Support to Database Security Tool

  April 28, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Guardium has added support for DB2/400 (DB2 for i) with its database security software, the company announced this month. Guardium’s software monitors all major database management systems in real time for signs of unauthorized or malicious activity from internal and external threats, such as malevolent DBAs and SQL injection attacks. The software does not affect database performance and provides another layer of protection for critical business systems on top of traditional network security tools, the company says. As a follower of strong IT security practices, you know that nothing can protect you from all threats, and therefore you must build

  …

  Read more

• Lawson Retrenches as it Reconnects with Customers

  April 28, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Things seemed a bit slower for Lawson Software last week at its annual conference and user exchange, CUE 2009, which was held near IT Jungle‘s West Coast headquarters in sunny San Diego, California. Chalk it up to the record-breaking heat wave and the recession, which caused attendance to drop by about half. But instead of lying down in a shady spot and waiting for better times, Lawson executives outlined a multi-pronged plan for driving the company forward and reconnecting with customers. Compared to past years, when Lawson would take over entire blocks in the nearby Gaslamp District to hold

  …

  Read more

• LANSA Acquires aXes Products; Customers Likely Candidates for RAMP

  April 28, 2009 Dan Burger

  Two IBM i programmers can be given the same task and see the steps that need to be taken in entirely different ways. Add IT management, other departmental management, and executive management to a discussion about application development, application modernization, or application integration and the degree of difficulty shoots through the roof. You need options from simple refacing to more complex composite apps. That seems to be why LANSA acquired the intellectual property of the aXes suite of products from Arterial Software. The aXes product suite is a set of native IBM i software solutions that Webfaces existing 5250 business

  …

  Read more

• i OS Spool Files Go In, Structured XML Comes Out

  April 28, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Symtrax this month announced the availability of a new product called Compleo for XML that’s designed to take spool files from i OS applications and convert them into structured XML documents that can be used elsewhere. The French company originally announced Compleo for XML last year, but it is just now being introduced to the North American market through Symtrax offices in Boston and Los Angeles. Compleo is a suite of output management tools that is well-established in the AS/400, iSeries, and System i community. The software has traditionally been used to convert spool files from IBM i, i5/OS, and

  …

  Read more

• CCSS Cracks Down on Long-Running Jobs

  April 28, 2009 Alex Woodie

  When System i batch jobs run longer than they’re supposed to, there can be serious consequences. Users may not be able to log in. Backups may not run. Industry regulations may not be followed. Last week, CCSS announced a new run time monitor in its i OS systems management tool, QSystem Monitor, that alerts administrators and operators to long-running jobs before they can cause these problems. According to CCSS, System i shops that use job scheduling software are the most susceptible to rouge jobs that run too long. The complexity of modern job schedulers means that jobs can run at

  …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles