• Halcyon Goes GUI with Job Scheduler

  September 17, 2013 Alex Woodie

  To outsiders, the IBM i server is a mysterious machine with a cryptic green user interface that is best left to specialists skilled in the black arts of the proprietary machine. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and Halcyon Software is doing something about it with a new Web-based graphical user interface (GUI) in its Advanced Job Scheduler that’s designed to lower the bar of entry to working with the machine. Of course, one should still have the requisite operational skills before logging onto an IBM i job scheduler and making changes that affect production jobs running on

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• LANSA Adds Goodies to LongRange Mobile App

  September 17, 2013 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops have a growing number of mobile application tools to choose from, which is a good thing considering the accelerating pace of smartphone adoption and increased use of tablets in the workplace. One of the more mature mobile packages available for the IBM i market can be found from LANSA in the form of LongRange, which was recently bolstered with several nifty features in LongRange RV14. LongRange is a mobile application development and runtime environment designed to give IBM i shops the capability to extend their existing RPG, DDS, and COBOL applications to mobile devices without learning HTML5,

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• IBM Patches Multiple Java Security Vulnerabilities in IBM i

  September 17, 2013 Alex Woodie

  IBM last week acknowledged that it quietly patched a number of potentially critical security vulnerabilities in IBM i that could enable hackers to compromise, spoof, and gain privileged access to an affected system. The problems stem mostly from flaws in Java that Oracle disclosed in June, and which impact the Java Runtime and Java Software Development Kit (JRE/JDK) for all supported releases of the OS, from i5/OS V5R4 through IBM i 7.1. On Friday, Secunia issued an advisory that disclosed the existence of multiple security vulnerabilities in IBM i, as recorded by official CVE reference numbers. The security organization stated:

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• PSGi Offers Help for Neglected IBM i Servers

  September 17, 2013 Alex Woodie

  As the redheaded stepchild of the server world, the IBM i server is used to being unseen and unappreciated. That’s fine, because it doesn’t require a lot of babysitting (like that Windows server over there). But when the situation escalates to the level of neglect, it crosses a red line. For organizations that need a little help with IBM i, signing up for a managed service offering, such as the one that PSGi launched last month, might be a good investment. IBM i servers have a well-deserved reputation for stability and reliability. Many organizations have gone years without an abnormal

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• IBM Sells Off BPO Services Biz To Synnex For $505 Million

  September 16, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Big Blue is always rebalancing its workforce, which is a euphemism for layoffs at the company, and it is also looking to add to its portfolio of products through acquisitions or internal development as well as divesting itself of products it no longer feels are core to its business. Last week, IBM’s Global Services did a divestiture, something we don’t see very often. Specifically, IBM sold off its business process outsourcing services business to a company called Concentrix, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Synnex. According to Synnex, this business generates more than $1.2 billion providing customer

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• Some Tweaks On Deals And Flex System Price Changes

  September 16, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It is the fall, and IBM is trying to wrap up its third quarter in two weeks. So don’t expect a lot of wheeling and dealing through formal announcements. Depending on how the third quarter goes, IBM could keep the dealing more informal, but if it has specific goals and wants to rein in both its salespeople and resellers from getting too carried away, it will do some formal deals in the fourth quarter. In the meantime, you need to be aware of some tweaks to existing deals and price changes on Flex System iron. First up, in announcement letter

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• Help/Systems Takes Power7 Trends And Tech Tour On The Road

  September 16, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  IBM and the major user groups like COMMON are not the only ones that bring together experts and users to talk about technology and business trends as they relate to shops who use Power Systems iron. Help/Systems, which is very likely the largest independent software vendor in the IBM i marketplace and which has been expanding into Unix and Linux in recent years, is taking its Power7 Trends and Tech show on the road, possibly to a city near you. Tom Huntington, who is vice president of technical services at Help/Systems, will be hosting four events to go over

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• Intel’s New Xeon E5s Push Back Against Power7+ Processors

  September 16, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The tug of war between the Xeon and Power processor lines from Intel and IBM continued last week as the largest chip maker in the world got its “Ivy Bridge-EP” Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors into the field. IBM, of course, has just finished rolling out its eight-core Power7+ chips across the Power Systems and Flex Systems lines, and only last month was previewing the capabilities of the future 12-core Power8 chips due maybe in the middle of next year. Now it is Intel’s turn, and it is starting with the rollout of chips for the workhorse two-socket servers that dominate

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• Stalled Budgets Stand In The Way Of IT Hiring

  September 16, 2013 Jenny Thomas

  After years of cutbacks and doing more with less, there is no doubt that IT departments around the United States are ready to start growing again. But it seems many companies are still reluctant to start throwing money into IT as they wait and see whether the economy is truly stabilizing. The analysts at Janco Associates have been deciphering the latest numbers in the IT slice of the job market, and although August did see a modest gain of 7,000 new IT jobs, many companies continue to wait for the green light from executive management to increase spending. Victor Janulaitis,

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• Key CIO Confab Uncovers Concerns

  September 16, 2013 Dan Burger

  You’re not alone. CIOs, CTOs, IT department managers, and other executives wrestling with decisions affecting business strategies are increasingly turning to peers and partners to plan and implement their IT tactical strategies. At the Key Information Systems Summit last week, the core dump on topics–from cloud computing to business analytics to executive development facilitated by subject matter experts and IT industry thought leaders–was impressive. The format for the summit was round-table discussion groups of 12 to 15 people with expert facilitators, and is a far better method for strategy discussions, exchanging lessons learned, and displaying battle scars. The participants include

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