• IBM Ditches i and AIX in U.S. Open Systems for Linux

  September 2, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  There was a time when IBM took a lot of pride in supporting the IT needs of big sporting events like the Olympic Games and the U.S. Open, and it also used to try to showcase all of its key information systems as part of the overall solutions. IBM walked away from the Olympics IT sponsorship after the Barcelona games, but it still hosts the infrastructure for the U.S. Open tennis competition. The one big change at this year’s tennis tournament is that IBM is not only consolidating servers, but has ported all the applications, which do scoring and provide

  …

  Read more

• Automatic or Static Storage?

  August 27, 2008 Susan Gantner

  If you write RPG subprocedures, you should know about the differences between automatic and static storage. (If you don’t write subprocedures, shame on you!) I’ve found that many writers and/or users of subprocedures don’t fully understand the differences. So let’s start at the beginning. By default, fields (i.e., stand-alone fields, data structures, arrays, etc.) defined inside a subprocedure (a.k.a. local fields) use automatic storage. This means that the storage doesn’t exist until the procedure is called and it is cleaned up when the procedure returns to its caller. Of course, since the storage goes away between calls to the procedure,

  …

  Read more

• Jetty: An Efficient, Easy to Manage Alternative to WebSphere

  August 27, 2008 Mike Brown

  Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. In the past couple of years, I have talked with colleagues and read articles about the complexity of WebSphere and the resources it uses. There are alternatives to WebSphere when you need a Servlet or JSP container. Apache Tomcat is probably one of the better known competitors to WebSphere. However, I would like to introduce you to another one that is smaller, easier to manage, and just plain works: Jetty. Introduction to Jetty Jetty is an open source Web server–implemented in Java–that provides Servlet and JSP support,

  …

  Read more

• Admin Alert: Giving Auditors What They Want

  August 27, 2008 Joe Hertvik

  Many i5/OS administrators hate system audits the way dental patients hate getting their teeth filled: they despise it with all their might, but realize the process might be somewhat healthy and beneficial for their system. This week, I’m going to look at some common system auditor requests for i5/OS configurations and show you how to retrieve that information from a Power i, System i, iSeries, or AS/400 machine. Default Passwords Your auditor may request a list of all users who use default passwords. Default passwords occur when the user’s password is the same as his or her user ID name

  …

  Read more

• A Bumblebee for BI–Now That’s Just ‘Smart’

  August 26, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Domino got one (the original “Bumblebee”). JD Edwards, Linux, and the high availability vendors got theirs, too. We’re talking about dedicated System i hardware–or appliances, if you will. So why isn’t there a pre-integrated i OS bundle for business intelligence, one of the fastest growing application segments in IT? For whatever reason, that’s about to change, thanks to a group of IBM business partners in Southern California, who have teamed up to create the “Smart i.” The idea of a dedicated server is not new at IBM, which has offered various flavors of the Power Systems server geared for different

  …

  Read more

• Curbstone Gains PCI Compliance for i OS Payment System

  August 26, 2008 Alex Woodie

  While the Payment Cardholder Industry (PCI) has been congratulated for publishing clear and concise rules (especially compared to the muddy mess that was Sarbanes-Oxley), the 12-part Data Security Standards (DSS) regulations actually could have made a little more sense. According to Ira Chandler, president of i OS payment software provider Curbstone Software, following the letter of the PCI law is just not practical on some points. To address these concerns, the company launched a new dedicated communication module for its i operating system (i OS) payment software that keeps System i servers off the dangerous Internet. Make no mistake

  …

  Read more

• Life is Easy for iPhone Apps on the Morph Labs Cloud

  August 26, 2008 Alex Woodie

  From the consumers’ point of view, the Apple iPhone epitomizes the ultimate in style and sophistication for handheld devices. For the sum of $200–plus a two-year service commitment to your local telegraph company (AT&T)–a consumer can gain entry to this exclusive club. For software companies developing applications for the iPhone, the equivalent mark of Web 2.0 sophistication may be Morph Labs, a cloud computing provider that ensures iPhone applications scale to meet demand. Since Apple launched its new iPhone 3G and updated iPod Touch last month, the IT industry has been agog at the sheer coolness of the sleek

  …

  Read more

• WebClient for CA Plex 1.4 Now Available

  August 26, 2008 Alex Woodie

  ADC Austin and WebSydian last week released a new version of WebClient for CA Plex, a tool for generating user interfaces for ca Plex and 2E development environments. With WebClient version 1.4, the partners have given developers more controls for creating AJAX-style interfaces for 2E and Plex applications running on i OS or Windows. ADC Austin and WebSydian have partnered for years to provide tools, training, and solutions for thousands of 2E and Plex customers around the world. ADC, which is based in Austin, Texas, has provided the ADC Modernization Studio for helping 2E (pure i OS) shops migrate to

  …

  Read more

• Avnet to Resell VDoc Content Management Suite in U.S.

  August 26, 2008 Alex Woodie

  Avnet, one of two distributors atop IBM‘s System i reseller channel, announced plans to sell in the United States an integrated suite of content management software developed by the French company VDoc Software. The VDoc suite spans several disciplines, including content management, document management, business process management, and Web-based collaboration, and runs on i OS, Linux, Windows, and Unix operating systems, Avnet says. VDoc got into the software business in 1997, when it launched its first document management offering to its European customer base. Over the years, the company gradually added additional functionality, including business process management

  …

  Read more

• SNMP Software from COMTEK Gives Up Lock on QSYSOPR

  August 26, 2008 Alex Woodie

  COMTEK Services, a New Hampshire consultancy and developer of software for i OS and other operating systems, recently launched a new release of its simple network management protocol (SNMP) software for i OS, called NMServer for AS/400. NMServer for AS/400 is software that augments the native SNMP trap supplied by IBM with a series of SNMP “subagents” that extend the system monitoring capabilities on the server. The software enables users to set thresholds or view performance-related data for more than 75 categories, such as CPU utilization, disk usage, and job status, via standard SNMP consoles, such as Hewlett-Packard‘s

  …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles