• Continued U.S. Investments In IT Pay Off

  October 3, 2011 Dan Burger

  If you have noticed that short-term business planning and financial performance is replacing long-term value creation, then you might well have some concerns when the topic of U.S. competitiveness in the global markets is debated. Pocketing short-term profits while manipulating earnings and blaming a lack of investments on the wobbly economy has been known to happen within individual companies. You might even know some examples in the IBM i community. However, entire industry segments, such as the information technology sector, seem to be built for the long haul–at least that’s true in nations interested in revving their economic engines with

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• IBM’s Market Value Passes Microsoft After 15 Years

  October 3, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Well, it only took a decade and a half, but as far as Wall Street is concerned, IBM is now as valuable as Microsoft. On late Friday, as I was putting together this newsletter, IBM’s stock was hovering around $178 a share, giving Big Blue a market capitalization of $212 billion. That’s a little bit off from the $185.63 high that IBM set back on July 22, but with Microsoft’s shares falling (for a variety of reasons), IBM has pulled slightly ahead of Big Bill at the Thursday close. Microsoft had recovered a little to a $215 billion valuation

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• Top 10 Ways to Reduce IT CapEx and OpEx Costs

  October 3, 2011 Jenny Thomas

  “Without reducing headcount” would be the best way for that headline to end. And although the analysts at Gartner, who just released a report with this cost cutting action list, don’t come right out and say that, most of us would associate reducing costs with the possibility of rolling heads. But keep your chin up, because most of the 10 actions that Gartner has identified for reducing IT infrastructure and operations (I&O) expenses by 10 percent in 12 months, and as much as 25 percent in three years have nothing to do with personnel. (Why did Gartner have to

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• IBM Invests Nearly $4 Billion In Next-Gen Chip Tech

  October 3, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It looks like IBM is going to stay in the chip manufacturing business for at least a few more years, which is good news for Power Systems-IBM i shops. New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced last week that it was kicking in $400 million into various high-tech campuses of the State University of New York (SUNY) relating to the development of future chip technologies while at the same time IBM agreed to pump $3.6 billion into its chip research facilities in Yorktown Heights, New York, and in its chip manufacturing facilities in nearby East Fishkill. Cuomo also announced that a

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• Reader Feedback on New Systems and QuickTransit Emulator

  October 3, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Timothy: Thumbs up on the lead-off article Start Planning For New Systems Now. Thorough but useful at every turn, practical rather than a tech spew of speeds and feeds, and a great bit of tactical advice regarding negotiation on a Power7 in light of the upcoming Power7+. Just wanted to let you know I enjoyed it and will be referencing it where relevant in some LinkedIn groups I participate in. –MB That’s why you keep me around. Glad to be of use. –TPM So did Transitive decide to quietly escape IBM’s wrath by being absorbed by them? It really

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• Great People With Good Tools

  October 3, 2011 Martin Fincham

  I don’t think I’m the only one who tires of the constant drumming that comes from so-called mainstream IT media articles and Internet discussion threads that couch the future of RPG developers and the IBM i platform in simplistic black or white terms that belie the real issues and options. In the black hat camp, we have the doomsayers who advocate “get the hell off the platform right now and get your hands dirty with something that has a future.” On the other side, the Big Blue proponents are tarred with being the “make do and mend” brigade, with a

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• Mad Dog 21/21: Bier Or Hospice, That Persistent Thirst For Legacy

  October 3, 2011 Hesh Wiener

  There aren’t many places where you can sell old real or virtual machinery for more than new, but it can be done in the computer business. Legacy technology sold at a premium price prevails in IBM’s proprietary i and z lines. Still, just because IBM has worked its magic in the past and even though Big Blue promises to do it again in the immediate future, there really is no assurance of perpetual success. Here are three and a half threats to the status quo: Amazon, Apple, and Google, and Wintel. In the case of the IBM

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• Velocity Buys JD Edwards App Hoster WTS

  October 3, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Velocity Technology Services, an application hosting provider with a specialty in Lawson M3 and S3 ERP suites and Kronos time keeping and employee management software, got together a bundle of cash earlier this year and is now using that money to expand its business. Last week, Velocity announced that it acquired WTS, an application hoster and disaster recovery provider that specializes in JD Edwards ERP suites and has more than a passing interest in the Power Systems-IBM i platform. There are a couple of different Oracle connections in here. (We are not looking for Oracle news that is

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• Business Risk Analysis: The New ‘Alba’-rithm

  October 3, 2011 Alex Woodie

  How big of a threat does Jessica Alba pose to your business? Consider this: the Hollywood starlet is credited with helping to bring down the Target.com website three weeks ago after she tweeted about how excited she was with one of Target’s new Missoni products. The event reveals the previously unforeseen impact that new social networking, mobile, and cloud technologies can have on businesses, and poses a wake-up call for executives to reevaluate their business risk strategies. In early September, Target prepared for the launch of its new Missoni product line. The $67 billion retailer had hyped the colorful new

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• Oracle Takes The Midrange Fight To IBM

  October 3, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  I’ve said it before and I will say it again: IBM may come to rue the day in the spring of 2009 when it let the former Sun Microsystems slip from its hands and fall into the loving arms of Oracle co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison. The company owns JD Edwards, one of the biggest ERP suites still on the IBM i platform, and it now, with the Sparc T4 announced last week, has a decent processor for entry and midrange systems on which to run that software. The Oracle Database Appliance that Oracle announced two weeks ago and that

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