• DR Testing an Integral Part of RES-Q’s Services

  July 12, 2011 Alex Woodie

  When it comes to disaster recovery, preparation is everything. Most organizations realize that a disaster could happen, which leads them to adopt a tape-based backup solution, at the very least. But a failure to regularly practice the disaster scenario and perform recovery drills will usually result in glitches and gotchas if the real thing were to happen. One IT vendor that is putting a strong emphasis on DR testing and preparation is the RES-Q division of Corus360, which recently expanded its recovery center near Atlanta. Corus360 is a value added reseller (VAR) for all the big tier-one systems manufacturers,

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• Silvon Re-Emerges with Update to Stratum BI

  July 12, 2011 Alex Woodie

  It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Silvon, the Chicago, Illinois, software company that has a long history in the AS/400 market. While the company’s CEO, Mike Hennel, says Silvon never wavered from product development and support commitments, he says it’s now putting more focus on marketing and press relations. This is how we found out about the recently shipped version of its BI product, Stratum version 6, which brings improvements in the areas of user interaction, performance, and advanced analytics for manufacturers and distributors. Silvon didn’t exactly go into stealth mode the last few years, but it’s

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• Lawson Stockholders Approve Infor Merger. What’s Next?

  July 11, 2011 Dan Burger

  The fat lady has sung. The curtain closed last week on the IT opera featuring ERP software companies Infor and Lawson Software after Lawson stockholders voted to approve the merger with GGC Software Holdings, an affiliate of Golden Gate Capital, the money watchers that direct the moves for Infor. The merger agreement was approved by approximately 69 percent of the total number of shares outstanding and by more than 98 percent of the shares voted. The merger-related executive compensation package was approved by more than 93 percent of the shares voted. Previously, the Lawson board of directors unanimously approved

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• Public Clouds Like Cheap Iron, Private Clouds Like the Expensive Stuff

  July 11, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If there is a bright lining to the advent of cloud computing–virtualized and highly automated server, storage, and networking capacity–it is that not every application can or should be on a public cloud and that the kind of machine embodied by a Power Systems server running the IBM i operating system is, in fact, what one might build a private cloud upon. The wizards at IDC have been polishing their crystal balls lately, as we report elsewhere in this issue referring to IT spending growth projections in the United States. But the people who live and breathe servers also put

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• PostgreSQL Database On Power Systems-IBM i? Why Not?

  July 11, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The profile of the open source PostgreSQL database has been rising in recent months, and you can run it on an IBM i platform if you have a Web application that requires that database. PostgreSQL got an immediate boost the minute that Oracle closed its $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems in January 2010. That’s because Sun owned the popular MySQL database at that point, and companies that did not want to be beholden to Oracle, which owns a slew of databases after many acquisitions and much internal databases. A heavily modified PostgreSQL database is embedded in IBM‘s Netezza

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• IBM Revives BladeCenter Chassis Giveaway

  July 11, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It’s baaaaaaack. . . . IBM‘s BladeCenter chassis first-in-location giveaway deal, I mean. Not aliens from the other side in the television. Last week, in announcement letter 311-087, Big Blue revived an on-again, off-again freebie BladeCenter chassis deal, which gives customers a freebie enclosure when installing blade servers for the first time in a location inside their company. The intent is to cushion the blow on moving from tower or rack servers to blades, which offer all kinds of integration and management benefits but which are also more expensive than tower or rack servers of equivalent oomph and

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• Reader Feedback on Building a Legacy

  July 11, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Timothy: Great article!!! In your statement about “Windows server variants” being almost 20 years old, does that include Microsoft SQL Server? Just wondering if that is considered “legacy” nowadays. But, since you define one of the characteristics of legacy as being “stable,” maybe SQL Server is really not legacy. Thank you again for a great article. –Doug Er, I suppose SQL Server is legacy, especially when you consider it is actually derived from Sybase‘s Sybase System and later SQL Server, which date from the late 1980s and early 1990s, respectively. TPM, it is always a privilege to read your

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• iManifest EMEA Plans Webcast, IBM i Collateral

  July 11, 2011 Dan Burger

  The iManifest EMEA group is ringing the bell once again and hoping to bring together a more comprehensive cluster of like-minded IBM i enthusiasts willing to put effort into promoting the strengths and benefits of the platform to an audience that is largely ignorant or misinformed about IBM‘s midrange system. A webcast to present collective and collaborative ideas, as well as to solicit feedback, is scheduled for July 29 at 10 a.m. EDT. Andrew Nicholson, sales and marketing manager at Utilities 400, an IBM i vendor based in the United Kingdom, serves as the group’s lightning rod and

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• As I See It: An Icy Place Apart

  July 11, 2011 Victor Rozek

  Over the years, I’ve learned to avoid locations with life-threatening names. There’s a reason why places like Death Valley, Cardiac Ridge, and Hammerhead Bay sound dangerous. Survival rates decline for people who frequent them. So, what am I doing pounding across a body of water known as Icy Straight in an open skiff? The craft is little more than a glorified rowboat with a large outboard motor. There’s freezing wind blowing off the 45 degree ocean and rain is pelting my face, while I huddle in an orange Gumby survival suit made of rubber and foam. All things considered, I’m

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• Gartner, IDC Boost IT Spending Outlooks For 2011

  July 11, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Contrary to how you might be feeling personally or what your boss might be telling you about there being no money for raises and bonuses or all that shiny new hardware you want for the data center, it looks like the IT departments of the world are going to be given a little bit more money to play with, according to the latest forecasts from Gartner. And IT spending growth in the United States, says IDC, is set to double-time the rate of change for gross domestic product this year, too. Gartner upped its forecast for IT spending

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