• A Database By Any Other Name Is Still DB2/400–For Now

  August 27, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Like many of you out there in i5/OS and OS/400 Land, the writers and gurus at IT Jungle refer to the integrated relational database that comes with these operating systems as “DB2/400.” IBM doesn’t like this, and contacted us recently, asking us to please call it by its correct name. If it were only that easy. Which one? Every time the marketeers are done with it, we get yet another name that does not exactly roll off the tongue. IBM itself is not consistent in its documentation and its speech when using the AS/400-iSeries-System i names, much less product names

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• IBM Buys Web Conferencing Firm to Bolster Sametime IM

  August 27, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Hot on the heels of the launch of the new Notes/Domino 8 groupware and its associated Sametime 8 instant messaging extensions, IBM has reached into its bank account to acquire WebDialogs, a privately held service provider that specializes in Web conferencing services. WebDialogs was founded in 1998, and is located in the Boston tech corridor in the town of Billerica, Massachusetts. The company’s Unyte+ conferencing software can be used to do Web-based voice conferencing as well as chat; the company also distributes a freebie service called Unyte Lyte for one-to-one conferencing. The latter product can be used in a standalone

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• DB2/400 Support for Domino 8 is Missing in Action

  August 27, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  As we reported in our Four Hundred Stuff newsletter last week, IBM is now shipping Version 8 of its Notes/Domino groupware stack. The software, which is a kicker to the Domino 7 software that IBM delivered in September 2005, offers the usual improvements in scalability, reliability, performance, and new gadgetry. But apparently what it will not offer is the ability to store Notes and Domino data natively in the DB2/400 database on i5/OS and OS/400 servers. The capability of storing Notes and Domino data in DB2 databases was first delivered with Domino 7, but only DB2 Universal Data Base, the

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• Java Is Catching Up to .NET for SOA Deployments

  August 27, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Evans Data is one of the market research companies that focuses on what tools developers are using to produce applications. According to a recent survey of application developers, the use of Java in development projects using a services oriented architecture (SOA) approach is on the rise, but those using .NET is slumping. Specifically, the Evans Data survey, which compares results with the recent poll to a similar poll of developers from six months ago, shows that those companies deploying SOA-style applications were choosing .NET 28 percent less frequently. In the current poll, 28 percent of developers said their SOA projects

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• Server Sales in Q2 Reach Heights Not Seen Since 2000

  August 27, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The box counters at both IDC and Gartner have taken the pulse and blood pressure of the server market for the second quarter of 2007, and as far as they can tell, their patient hasn’t been this healthy since the peak of the dot-com boom seven years ago. Server revenues are matching levels not seen since 2000, and shipments are continuing to grow, even if more slowly than in past quarters. According to IDC’s estimates, worldwide server sales rose by 6.3 percent to $13.1 billion in the second quarter of the year, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of quarter-to-quarter revenue

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• Sales and Profits Up at Jack Henry in Fiscal Q4

  August 27, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Jack Henry & Associates, a hardware and software supplier to banks, credit unions, and other financial organizations that has a sizable presence in the i5/OS and OS/400 ecosystem, last week reported its financial results for its year end and fourth quarter of fiscal 2007. As has been the case for a number of years, Jack Henry continues to be a bright spot. For the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30, Jack Henry reported sales of $181.3 million, up 12 percent, with net income of $78.2 million, up 15 percent. Software license sales fell by 5 percent in the quarter,

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• VMware ESX Server Support for the System i Is Imminent

  August 27, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  A month ago, I told you that IBM had initiated a Redbook Residency program to solicit volunteers to help Big Blue write up documentation on forthcoming support for VMware‘s popular ESX Server virtual machine hypervisor on System x and BladeCenter servers configured as a hybrid combination with System i servers. As it turns out, IBM sort of announced this capability on July 24, and will be delivering it on September 14, the same date that the new Power6-based System i 570 and the i5/OS V5R4M5 patched operating system for that box is also available. The announcement that IBM would

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• The Turnaround Continues at Magic Software

  August 27, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Application development tool maker Magic Software continues to reap the benefits of the restructuring it underwent last year and a revamped product line. In its second quarter ended June 30, the Or Yehuda, Israel, software company reported sales of $16.8 million, up 11 percent from the year ago quarter, and better still, the company reported net income of $816,000, a swing into the black. In the second quarter of 2006, Magic Software lost $1.3 million. Software sales in the second quarter came to $3.5 million, down 12 percent, while end user application sales came to $1.6 million, down 9 percent.

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• The X Factor: Economic Recession Is the IT Innovator’s Ally

  August 27, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  With the private equity markets drying up and the stock markets suffering from a bad case of jitters thanks to a financial crisis brought about by the writing of heaven knows how many bad home mortgages in the world, it is natural enough for everyone in the working world, as well as those who are retired, to be worried about economic recession. But not everyone will be worried. IT vendors looking to take on entrenched incumbents will, if history is any guide, do pretty well if a recession results from these financial shenanigans. While it is difficult to establish a

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• SAP Gets Ready to Launch A1S Online Apps on September 19

  August 27, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Imagine if you could use ERP software from an industry giant, but you never had to cope with the installation and maintenance of the systems involved in the use of those applications? SAP is sure hoping that medium-sized businesses the world over are looking to move to a different way of consuming software–one that uses the Internet for connectivity and that deploys software as a service. At least that is what all of the chatter is about concerning SAP’s “A1S” SaaS-style offering, which will be launched on September 19 for delivery perhaps in 2008. The product that SAP will talk

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