The IT Jungle

Remain Software Adds to Multi-Platform Choices

October 2, 2012 Dan Burger

Application lifecycle management vendor Remain Software has broadened the scope of its change management software known as TD/OMS. The software, which has been rewritten in Java, now supports Solaris and Mac OS application development environments along with the IBM i, Windows, Linux, and Unix environments supported by the previous release.

As before, it also supports popular fourth-generation languages (4GLs) for the IBM i platform, including LANSA‘s RDML, CA‘s 2E and Plex, AS/SET, and Magic Software‘s 4GL. And Remain Software provides support for automatic deployment to the Tomcat and Websphere application servers.

The latest piece for the TD/OMS

Android or iOS: Which Mobile OS Fits Best with IBM i?

October 2, 2012 Joe Pluta and Shannon O'Donnell

The Web may be on every desktop, but smartphones are in everyone’s pockets, from truck drivers to forklift operators. If you’re not already developing Web and mobile applications, chances are you will soon. Joe Pluta (Pluta Brothers Design) and Shannon O’Donnell (IBM i App Store) take you through the benefits of developing applications from IBM i on either the Android and iOS platforms. (Editor’s note: Joe and Shannon, by the way, are speaking on Android and iOS development, respectively, at the upcoming IBM i DevCon conference.)

Android and (IBM) i: A Match Made in Development Heaven

Infor Rolls Out Cloud for Heavy Equipment Biz

October 2, 2012 Alex Woodie

Infor is launching a cloud version of its Lawson M3 ERP system targeted at companies that track and manage pieces of heavy equipment. The new cloud, called Infor Equipment, is the product of Infor partnerships with IBM and Velocity Technology Solutions, an established cloud hosting provider with lots of experience running and managing IBM i ERP systems.

Infor is relying on standard cloud math to help attract new and existing M3 customers to the Infor Equipment cloud. Standard cloud math says that CFOs and CEOs dislike the big upfront capital outlays, long timeframes, and risks that are inherent in

Coglin Mill Reaches Out to Salesforce.com with ETL Connector

October 2, 2012 Alex Woodie

Coglin Mill is close to shipping a new release of its RODIN extract, transform, and load (ETL) tool for building data warehouses on the IBM i server. With the upcoming release of RODIN version 7.2, the company will include a connector for loading customers’ Salesforce.com data into their IBM i analytics engines. Coglin Mill has also improved the product in the areas of slowly changing dimensions, user defined functions, and real-time ETL.

Coglin Mill already supports the most widely used databases with its RPG-based RODIN tool, including DB2/400, DB2 for LUW, Sybase, SQL Server, and Oracle‘s 11g and

IBM Gives A Deal To Online Software Buyers

October 1, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Sending people around to make the sales pitch and then take orders for product sales is expensive and inefficient even if it is more personable, and IBM wants you to try something new and buy software online.

In a deal running on IBM’s website, Big Blue is opening up its online software catalog in the United States and Canada and sweetening the deal a bit if customers buy online. IBM is not offering discounts on the software, so it is reasonable to expect that big ticket items like operating systems and middleware will be bought this way. But the

IBM Fishes For Managed Service Providers; Nice Bait

October 1, 2012 Dan Burger

Managed service providers (MSPs) are lined up like suitcases at the baggage claim. Their destination is the small to midsize market. For years, IBM and the rest of the IT giants have searched for ways to crack that market, without a great deal of success. Managed services, via the cloud, are their best opportunity to date. Another indicator that managed service providers are gearing up for a coming change in IT buying behavior is IBM latest program designed for expanding its MSP network. Central to this program are two of Big Blue’s favorite topics: SmartCloud and PureSystems.

IBM claims there

Trial Date Set in Vision-Maxava Case

October 1, 2012 Alex Woodie

An April trial date has been set in the false advertising and trade libel case that IBM i high availability software maker Maxava brought against its rival Vision Solutions and the reseller Sirius Computer Solutions. A jury in a Los Angeles courtroom will decide the case next spring–unless the two sides agree to a settlement or the trial is delayed once more.

Maxava and Vision have been going at it since December 2009, when Maxava filed its false advertising lawsuit in U.S. District Court Central District of California Western Division, based in Los Angeles. Maxava (which at that time

External Disk Array Sales Slow Down A Bit

October 1, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

The use of internal disk arrays inside of database, data warehousing, and Hadoop data munching clusters seems to be having an effect on sales of external disk array sales. Maybe.

In the second quarter, according to Gartner, external controller-based disk arrays (meaning they have their own brains instead of relying on controllers under the skins of the servers that the arrays attach to) accounted for $5.5 billion in revenues, up 6.7 percent and marking the eleventh quarter in a row that external disk array sales have gone up. However, Gartner was expecting for 7.9 percent growth and around $62

Jack Henry Busts Through $1 Billion Barrier In Fiscal 2012

October 1, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Banking software and payment processing service Jack Henry and Associates has pumped up its sales to above $1 billion for the latest fiscal year just ended, the first time the company has hit that sales level and almost assuring that someone–Oracle, Infor, or even Microsoft–is going to try to try to buy the company.

But Jack Henry has done just fine on its own, thank you very much. In the fiscal 2012 year ended on June 30, the software and service provider that specializes in sales to small and regional banks, booked $1.03 billion in sales,

IBM’s Rometty Takes Over As Chairman Of The Board

October 1, 2012 Jenny Thomas

It hasn’t quite been a year since IBM tapped Virginia M. Rometty as president and chief executive officer, and now comes the announcement from IBM’s board of directors that Rometty will take over as chairman of the board, effective October 1, 2012. Rometty succeeds Sam Palmisano, who will stay on as a senior adviser to the company until he retires on December 1, 2012. So as of today, Rometty is driving the Big Blue bus.