• Rocket Software Buys iCluster HA Biz From IBM

  January 9, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The high availability software market in the IBM i space is getting off to an interesting start in 2012 now that Rocket Software has bought the iCluster software business from IBM. The deal was announced on January 4, but was actually closed by Rocket Software and IBM on December 31 for an undisclosed sum, and it puts iCluster logical replication software in the hands of a third party that plans to invest in the product and grow the business. Rocket Software has been on an acquisition tear in the IBM space for the past couple of years, having snapped

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• The World Is Not Going To End In 2012

  January 9, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  People are unlike computers in a lot of different ways, but one of the similarities is that both machines and members of the Homo sapiens species like to mark time. Computers need to mark time to function properly, and people, well, we do it to get in rhythm with and to push against our environments and, I sometimes think, just to give us a little drama in our lives. I don’t know about you, but I have had plenty of drama in the past decade and I would like to declare 2012 a No Drama Zone. Such a declaration

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• Admin Alert: Hidden Parameters of the Submit Job Command

  December 14, 2011 Joe Hertvik

  Power i operating system commands are like old friends. You think you know everything about them, then one day they surprise you by displaying a different side of themselves. This week, let’s look at a few hidden parameters available with the i OS Submit Job (SBMJOB) command. These parameters can help you perform some new tricks you may not have thought of. Non-Obvious Candidates Everyone knows the standard SBMJOB parameters such as Job Name (JOB), Job Description (JOBD), and Job Queue (JOBQ). But if you search the Additional Parameters section of the Submit Job command (available by pressing F10 from

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• End-of-Year Odds and Ends

  December 14, 2011 Ted Holt

  Dear Colleagues: It’s hard to believe that another year is coming to an end, but it’s happening yet again. Let’s wind up 2012 with some odds and ends. I hope you find something useful. In response to Message Received, But Not Understood, Michael wrote: I have used the CMPDTA parameter on the MONMSG command to provide this filter. See CPF2817. Here is an illustration of Michael’s suggestion: CPYF FROMFILE(&FRLIB/&FRFILE) + TOFILE(&TOLIB/&TOFILE) FROMMBR(&FRMBR) + TOMBR(&TOMBR) MBROPT(*REPLACE) CRTFILE(*NO) MONMSG MSGID(CPF2817) CMPDTA(CPF2861) EXEC(DO) /* to-file doesn't exist */ /* do something */ ENDDO MONMSG MSGID(CPF2817) CMPDTA(CPF2869) EXEC(DO) /* from-file is empty */

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• I Was Just Wondering. . .

  December 14, 2011 Hey, Ted

  Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. I was wondering if you have come across any techniques using subprocedures to simulate associative arrays in RPG IV. I’ve just started experimenting with the idea. I’d like to create dynamic associative arrays using service programs and user indexes. –Steve As a matter of fact, I had thought about implementing associative arrays in RPG, Steve. I’ll share my thoughts on that topic. But first, let me talk about wondering. I do a lot of wondering. You’ve seen the results of many of my wonderings in previous issues of

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• Santa Faces Daunting Supply Chain Challenge

  December 13, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Your friendly neighborhood UPS driver works extra hard during the holidays, especially the week before Christmas, during which UPS expects to deliver 120 million packages. Big Brown may love and excel at logistics, but frankly it doesn’t have anything on Santa Claus, as the old elf is self-tasked with delivering a supply chain miracle this year–delivering presents to 1.9 billion children, in a single night. The legend of Santa Claus is well-documented in hundreds of books and stories, but thanks to some numerical figuring by the ERP experts at Sciquest, we can put Santa’s work into the proper logistical

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• MDS Adds New Fraud Detection Features to Lavastorm Analytics

  December 13, 2011 Alex Woodie

  The growing prevalence of fraud in the telecommunications space, such as identity spoofing and cloned SIM cards, has prompted MDS Lavastorm Analytics to beef up its analytic power tool with new fraud-fighting capabilities. Lavastorm is a powerful analytic application that allows users to model, understand, and control how business processes and data flow through disparate systems in corporate environments. It’s commonly used in the telecommunications space, including by its sister company, Martin Dawes Systems, which runs a major IBM i billing system in an outsourced manner for clients in Europe. While Lavastorm has long been used to detect the

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• Infor Reaches Out to SAP with ION Connector

  December 13, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Infor yesterday unveiled a software connector that integrates its Infor10 ION middleware with ERP systems from SAP. It also revealed plans to support Oracle applications with Infor10 ION during 2012. With dozens of acquisitions under its belt, Infor has had to get proficient at enterprise application integration just to allow its own applications to communicate with each other. Now it’s expanding the work it’s done internally, with ION, to third-party applications. Infor says that its new SAP connector (officially called the Infor10 ION Connector for SAP) will soon be available. Initially, it will work with three Infor10 offerings, including

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• ACOM Launches EZPaySuite

  December 13, 2011 Alex Woodie

  ACOM Solutions this month began shipping EZPaySuite, a new collection of software that helps organizations implement electronic payment processing across the automated clearinghouse (ACH) network. The software incorporates a self-service Web portal, includes the capability to print MICR checks, supports positive pay, and works across multiple platforms. ACOM is no stranger to electronic payment processing. For years, the Long Beach, California, company has developed EZPayManager, a Windows-based software product that provides an onramp to ACH processing, supports payee self-service registration, and integrates with ACOM’s line of document and content management tools for organizations using IBM i servers and other platforms.

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• Profound Touts Native Modernization Chops in Code Shoot Out

  December 13, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Profound Logic was one of six vendors of IBM i application modernization tools that participated in the recent Application Modernisation Code Shoot-Out, which took place at a user group conference in the U.K. What made Profound’s solution stand out was the capability to completely modernize the UI screens in HTML, and to do so using “native” IBM i technologies, the company says. The Shoot Out, which was hosted last month at the COMMON GB event put on by National iSystems User Group (NiSUG), pitted six vendors and their application modernization tools against one very tired 5250 application that was in

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