• Attachmate Emulators Run Natively on iOS and Android

  November 4, 2014 Alex Woodie

  Attachmate yesterday unveiled a new release of its Reflection terminal emulation software that allows users to access servers from mobile devices using an SSH client that runs natively on the Android and iOS operating systems. The new iOS and Android editions of the Attachmate Reflection for UNIX suite are targeted at IT administrators who need to access to Unix and Linux servers from smartphones and tablets. The apps, which are available on the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, provide VT emulation and uses SSH to secure sessions. According to Attachmate product manager Kris Lall, the apps have several

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• Halcyon Tackles IBM i Security with New Products

  November 4, 2014 Alex Woodie

  Halcyon Software moved further into the IBM i security business last month with the release of two new products, including Exit Point Manager and Password Reset Manager. The new software will help organizations secure their IBM i environments, while giving Halcyon additional products to sell to its customer base. Halcyon’s new Exit Point Manager helps protect the exit points that IBM provides to enable applications to access external resources, such as FTP, ODBC, and TCP/IP that didn’t exist (or weren’t in widespread use) when the AS/400 was invented way back at the dawn of time in 1988. However, when a

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• Homebuilder Repels the Tape Monkey with Crossroads VTL

  November 4, 2014 Alex Woodie

  A new virtual tape library (VTL) from Crosssroads Systems is helping to keep the tape monkey at bay for Meritage Homes, a $1.8 billion homebuilder headquartered in Arizona. While the company hasn’t totally eliminated tape from its data protection scheme, the introduction of a 20 TB SPHiNX appliance has reduced the incidence of failed backups, increased data retention, and shortened backup times. Meritage Homes is a growing company that has built more than 84,000 upscale homes since it was founded in 1985, mainly across the southern swath of the country. The publicly traded company relies on the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne

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• ARCAD Software Takes On Database Modernization

  November 4, 2014 Dan Burger

  If you’ve seen IBM‘s Redbook on modernization for i-centric customers, it’s clear the direction Big Blue recommends includes the DB2 for i database as an integral part of the modernization process. In application-first environments, which dominate in IBM i shops, database modernization is, at most, an afterthought. That’s changing, and ARCAD Software, known for its application change management software, is changing, too. Its latest release covers DDS to DDL conversion, data integrity checking, and field renaming. Philippe Magne, CEO and chairman of ARCAD, explains the rationale behind this extension of enterprise modernization capabilities. “It is the DB2 database

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• Vision Gets Serious About Hosted HA with MIMIX 8

  November 4, 2014 Alex Woodie

  Hosted high availability (HA) has been one of the top solutions that managed service providers (MSPs) have sold to IBM i shops over the past five years. But the HA market’s leader, Vision Solutions, has largely sat on the sidelines due to overly complicated licensing. The company hopes that starts to change with today’s launch of MIMIX 8.0, which introduces metered billing designed specifically for cloud HA. The new metered billing feature in MIMIX 8.0 should make it easier for MSPs that are Vision’s business partners to sell hosted HA, says Becky Hjellming, senior manager of product strategy for

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• Green Screen Replacement Beats The Clock

  November 3, 2014 Dan Burger

  Even the prettiest green-screen application is not going to win many, if any, admirers these days. The truth is that a green-screen app is going to cost money by not being used. This is particularly true if you are creating commercial software. Put a green screen on one monitor next to a GUI on another monitor and ask people to vote on their favorite. And the winner is . . . not the green screen. Paragon Consulting Services saw software sales dry up on its 5250 application for the metals industry. Guess where the blame rested? Yep, the interface. The

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• IBM Offers Storwize Virtualization Software Freebie Deal

  November 3, 2014 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In case you haven’t noticed it, IBM thinks that its Storwize disk and sometimes disk/flash hybrid arrays are a pretty hot commodity. If Big Blue had its way, IBM i shops would adopt Storwize arrays as their primary or “tier one” storage and pay for lots of extra software goodies on them, such as compression or automatic data tiering, to make them a lot more useful, and importantly, to help IBM make some extra money on software with a recurring subscription. The deal in question is at the moment only available in Australia and New Zealand as far as I

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• IBM Gooses FlashSystem V840 Flash Arrays, Cuts Prices

  November 3, 2014 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The FlashSystem 840 is a lot of machine for most IBM i shops, but the potent combination of the Storage Virtualization Controller (SVC) that IBM has been using to front-end disk arrays to provide them with snapshotting, deduplication, and other advanced features for many years is something that many enterprise-class IBM i shops should be taking a look at for their storage capacity and I/O needs. In a series of announcements last week, IBM made some tweaks to the FlashSystem hardware and the software stack that runs atop it. In announcement letter 114-179, IBM is expanding the connectivity options

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• Say Hello To Your New IT Hire

  November 3, 2014 Dan Burger

  The COMMON Education Foundation and the IBM Power Systems Academic Initiative, along with a group of IBM i ISVs and members of the IBM i community combined efforts to bring 24 college students to the Fall COMMON Conference in Indianapolis last week. That’s the most students that have ever attended a COMMON conference and a trend that should continue. COMMON and the IBM i community in general benefit from increased participation from a decidedly youthful audience. It makes a noticeable difference at the conference, which is good for everyone involved, but the greater good is accomplished by bringing together

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• Arrow Sees Mixed Results For Proprietary Systems

  November 3, 2014 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  As we reported in last week’s issue, Avnet saw a rebound in sales of proprietary systems in the most recent quarter ended in September. And thankfully for those of us who are in the Power Systems community, rival Arrow Electronics, which has a similar-sized business as a master distributor of electronics components and IT wares, also server a systems bounce. But the company also showed how small a portion of its business comes from systems, which is a bit striking. In the third quarter ended in September, Arrow’s overall revenues rose by 11 percent to $5.61 billion, and

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