• CYBRA Updates MarkMagic for i 6.1

  September 16, 2008 Alex Woodie

  CYBRA last week announced MarkMagic version 6.5, a new release of its package of software for creating and consuming barcodes and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in an AS/400 environment. With the new release, CYBRA is now supporting IBM i 6.1, the operating system formerly known as i5/OS V6R1. MarkMagic version 6.5 is largely based on the last major release of the product, version 6.1, which CYBRA announced about 10 months ago. Besides support for i 6.1, the only other major feature mentioned by CYBRA was the inclusion of the new Print Manager functionality, which gives users more options

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• Unaka Goes ‘Global’ for Spreadsheet Automation

  September 16, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Tennessee-based Unaka Company has licensed the whole group of Excel-based analysis tools from Global Software. With Spreadsheet Server, Executive DASH, and Budget Manager in place, Unaka managers have another avenue for accessing and analyzing data stored in their ERP systems. Unaka is a group of companies that includes a manufacturing and import company, an office space company, and an international food supply company. Managing this diverse set of properties are a collection of ERP products from Infor and Ross Systems, including Infor ERP XA (formerly MAPICS) and iRenaissance, which runs on open systems platforms. Like many organizations, Unaka

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• BOSaNOVA Launches New Line of Thin Clients with 2X

  September 16, 2008 Alex Woodie

  BOSaNOVA has teamed up with 2X to launch a new line of thin client computers. The new thin clients, the 732x and 762x series, feature 2X’s software for deploying and managing a Windows- or Linux-based thin client computing infrastructure. 2X was founded in 2004 with the goal of developing terminal services software for server-based computing. In 2005, 2X bolstered its existing Linux product when it acquired Terminal-Services.NET, which developed Windows-based terminal services software. Today, 2X develops and supports several products as part of its ThinClientServer suite, including LoadBalancer for Terminal Services/Citrix, ApplicationServer for Windows Terminal Services, and VitualDesktopServer. 2X sells

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• Look for an Interim i Release Next Year, and i 6.2 in Early 2010

  September 15, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  As some of you know, IBM hosted two Power Systems Technical Universities in Chicago last week–one for i nerds and the other for AIX and Linux techies. As we went to press with this issue of the newsletter, some news was beginning to filter back into the cosmic ether–OK, really my email and my telephone, nothing cosmic about it–about what IBM is telling the i crowd. There’s nothing earth shattering so far, but some interesting points. First, the Virtual I/O Server that, as the name suggests, virtualizes disk, tape, and networking I/O for JS12 and JS22 blade servers running the

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• Power 550 i Edition Versus Windows: Get Big Discounts on i Software

  September 15, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In last week’s issue of The Four Hundred, I did the first in a series of articles comparing the Power Systems i Edition platform to other competitive platforms. In that case, I compared entry Power 520 rack servers and JS12 blade servers in the new BladeCenter S chassis to ProLiant alternatives running Windows from Hewlett-Packard. I was gratified to see that the i platforms were absolutely competitive with the Windows iron, at least when comparing machines with system software suitable for online transaction processing. This week, I am not as happy, since the Power 550 M50 machines, thanks

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• Forrester Says IT Spending Is Choppy Across Industries and Geographies

  September 15, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Like many of you who have been in the IT industry for a few decades, I watch the ebb and flow of IT spending as IT budgets meet the hard realities or thrilling exuberance of the business environments in particular industries and geographies. With the steady stream of bad economic news–I do not need to get into the litany, since I know all readers of The Four Hundred are informed citizens of the world–it is no surprise we are as jumpy as the economies we participate in. And, IT spending, according to a recent study from Forrester Research, reflects

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• As I See It: Get Ready to ROWE

  September 15, 2008 Victor Rozek

  Each generation holds beliefs about work that are forged by time and place. Some are accepted without question, others are repeated with sufficient frequency that they become hard-coded in the collective consciousness. For example, people who lived through the Great Depression believed that nothing could be more important than having a job. As the Depression gave way to the post war economic ramp-up, people were able to secure a single job that spanned an entire career. But when the pace of prosperity quickened, people came to believe that job-hopping was the way to accelerate their earning potential. By the time

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• IBM Rolls Out WebSphere and Web Enablement for i V7.0

  September 15, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Big Blue last week put a new version of its WebSphere Application Server middleware, V7.0 to be specific, into the field for its various server platforms and for those of several of its competitors. In addition to the updated WebSphere middleware, which has a cornucopia of Java enhancements and all the Web 2.0 buzzwords you can stomach, IBM announced its companion set of freebie extensions for WebSphere, called Web Enablement for i, at the V7.0 level as well. With WebSphere Application Server V7.0, IBM is delivering full support for the Java EE 5 standard and has certified that it has

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• Survive, Adapt, Repeat: IT Jungle Shutting Down Non-AS/400 Newsletters

  September 15, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Some stories are harder to write than others, and this one will go down as one of the most difficult stories that I have had to do in a long time. No life, no career, and no company is without its risks and challenges, and every person or organization has to continually assess what is going on around them and deal with what is while keeping an eye on whatever dreams and plans they might have. And so it has been for myself and my team with regard to the IT Jungle. My team and I came together in our

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• Arrow and IBM to Chase Deals Together in Poland

  September 15, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Server maker IBM and one of its two key master resellers, Arrow Electronics, have joined forces to try to take a concerted effort to push servers and storage into SMB shops into Poland. The deal, which involves the Enterprise Computing Solutions group at Arrow and IBM’s Power Systems division, allows Arrow ESC to peddle the full Power Systems i Edition and AIX and Linux Edition machines, as well as their System i and System p predecessors (which is important for upgrade deals) into Poland through a reseller channel. Arrow, you will remember, significantly expanded its presence in Europe back

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