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Old Code Meets New Ideas in Latest App Modernization Projects
System i Automation from RevSoft is 'FAB'ulous
IBM Cuts Prices for Upgrades to Power 595s
Profound Simplifies Screen Design in Genie Web-Enablement Tool
Power 750 Servers Running i Get SAP Benchmarks
Legacy' Integration Blossoms During Recession, Seagull Says
Internal Disk Arrays Prop Up Storage Sales in Q4
Jack Henry Shop Adopts Banking Framework from IBM
IBM Wins Kudos for Work in Security
Stonebranch Updates Job Scheduling and MFT Software for SAP Apps
Google Jumps Into Business Apps
The State of the UNION
QlikTech Ships BI Client for Google Android Phones
A Good Use for Global Variables
IBM Debuts New Half Rack and BladeCenter E Chassis
Does An IPL Really Help Improve System Performance?


TPM at The Register

Fake servers even less secure than real ones

Server makers prepping for Opteron 6100s

Windows Server to get dynamic memory with R2 SP1

IBM chops high-end Power6 server tags

VMware cuts entry vSphere prices

Cisco beefs up fixed port Ethernet switches

Novell, Ingres partner for appliances

AMD: OEMs primed for Opteron 6100s

IBM taps Red Hat KVM virt for dev cloud

SGI punts baby Xeon blade box

Intel wants vintage x64 servers on rubbish heap

Intel pushes workhorse Xeons to six cores


Hit this link to see a full chronological listing of TPM @ The Register stories.


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Old Code Meets New Ideas in Latest App Modernization Projects

IBM Cuts Prices for Upgrades to Power 595s

Power 750 Servers Running i Get SAP Benchmarks

Mad Dog 21/21: The Teahad Pilot, the Sycophant Senator, and IBM

Internal Disk Arrays Prop Up Storage Sales in Q4

But Wait, There's More:

Reader Feedback on IBM Starts Cutting U.S. Jobs Again . . . IBM Wins Kudos for Work in Security . . . Google Jumps Into Business Apps . . . IBM Debuts New Half Rack and BladeCenter E Chassis . . . The Top Brass at Big Blue Do Pretty Okay in 2009 . . .

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Four Hundred Stuff
System i Automation from RevSoft is 'FAB'ulous

Profound Simplifies Screen Design in Genie Web-Enablement Tool

'Legacy' Integration Blossoms During Recession, Seagull Says

Jack Henry Shop Adopts Banking Framework from IBM

Spinnaker Adds JDE Consulting to 3rd Party Maintenance Business

News Briefs and Product Shorts:

MVP Updates JAMS Job Scheduler . . . SunGard Taps DataDomain for DR Appliances . . . Stonebranch Updates Job Scheduling and MFT Software for SAP Apps . . . QlikTech Ships BI Client for Google Android Phones . . . Cast Iron Unveils New Cloud Integration Platform . . .

Four Hundred Guru

Four Hundred Guru
The State of the UNION

A Good Use for Global Variables

Does An IPL Really Help Improve System Performance?

System i PTF Guide
March 13, 2010: Volume 12, Number 11

March 6, 2010: Volume 12, Number 10

February 27, 2010: Volume 12, Number 09

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February 13, 2010: Volume 12, Number 07

February 6, 2010: Volume 12, Number 06

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The heat is on. For all the talk about IT integration and innovation, words that get casually tossed around as if saying them was doing something, there is progress being made in the area of application modernization. The time for talk is turning into the time for action in the IBM AS/400 community, which IBM has renamed the iSeries, the System i, and now just IBM i. The lower case i, IBM used to be fond of saying, is for integration and innovation.
Keeping data in synch across Windows and System i applications used to be a largely manual chore for First American Bank (FAB), a mid-sized community bank located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. However, after installing RevSoft's suite of systems management tools--including job scheduler, file transfer, and message management software--errors have been reduced, and operators can administer on an exception basis.
The big iron boxes in IBM's Power-based server lineup have always tended to come to market later than midrange and entry boxes. With the AS/400 and its progeny being predominantly a midrange platform, and the RS/6000 and its progeny proliferating in the low-end and only gradually coming to be known as a big iron box, it stands to reason that Big Blue would start the Power7 launch in the middle, with the Power 750, 770, and 780 servers.
A new release of Profound Logic's on-the-fly Web enablement tool, called Genie, will make it easier for customers to customize their i/OS applications just to their liking. With Genie 4.0, customers gain access to more than 150 "widgets" that allow them to quickly add screen elements such as images and drop-down boxes to converted applications. Better session handling, DBCS support, and new integration capabilities round out the new release.
Comparisons are odious, the old saying goes. But, that's what we do whenever we are buying any kind of electronics, and servers are no exception. IBM, like every other server maker with a new product, wants to show off the performance and scalability of its new Power7-based servers. But it doesn't want to make the comparisons too easy between the i and AIX platforms, or between the i versions of the boxes and other machines like X64 servers running Windows, as has been the case for many years.
While the recession has hammered overall IT spending during the last 18 months, some sectors of the industry are doing quite well. Rocket Software and its Seagull Software subsidiary, for instance, say they are experiencing a surge in demand for integration and modernization tools, as System i and mainframe users seek to eek more life out of their "legacy" applications as a result of the recession. Seagull hopes a new release of its LegaSuite Integration software unveiled last week will help it to capitalize on the trend.
The way disk array storage vendors have been talking for two decades, you would think that the day would never come when storage revenues would cease growing. Well, the economic meltdown last year sure saw that trend come to an end. But spending has taken off again as 2009 came to a close, and while it is too early to call this a recovery, much less a return to high growth, there certainly is more optimism in the storage racket now than a year ago.
Whitney National Bank, which recently installed the Silverlake core banking system from Jack Henry & Associates, is adopting IBM's Banking Industry Framework, IBM announced earlier this month. By adopting the framework, Whitney National will get access to decades-worth of IBM experience in the banking sector, which will better prepare the bank to adapt to existing and expected regulation, as well as customers' evolving expectations.
IBM is doing its best to foster a new company saying: "Nobody gets fired for buying IBM security." After being named the best security company by a leading security magazine, Big Blue confirmed why it's among the leading security research, consulting, and product development organizations when it unveiled a slew of new SIEM and network security tools, completed another security-related acquisition, and announced the formation of the IBM Institute for Advanced Security. Not bad for a week's work.
Stonebranch this month unveiled new releases of Infitran and Indesca, its respective managed file transfer (MFT) and suite of job scheduling agents for i/OS, z/OS, Unix, and Windows platforms. With the new version 4.1 releases of the products, Stonebranch has bolstered its capability for automating SAP environments, among other enhancements.
Maybe we should just call it Google/400 and get on with it?
DB2 for i supports the concept of union, which creates or derives a single result set table by combining two other result set tables, each of which was derived from a SELECT statement or another UNION. (See the discussion on cascading unions at the end of this article). A union is very useful when an SQL query must operate on two or more tables where JOIN cannot be used to produce the desired result set table.
System i shops that adopt QlikTech's Windows-based business intelligence software now have a new way to consume information, dashboards, and reports from their i/OS ERP systems: via mobile phones running Google's mobile phone operating system, Android.
Using global data (fields, variables and constants) is generally considered to be poor programming practice. One reason is that a subroutine or subprocedure that uses global data is not easily placed into service elsewhere. Another reason is that undesirable side effects may occur when one routine changes a variable that another routine uses. However, in some situations global data makes sense. I would like to provide one example.
If you are one of the avant garde of the i customer base that is using a mix of BladeCenter Power-based blade servers to run i 6.1 applications, or if you have some rack-based Power Systems machines mixed with System x boxes, then IBM has a new half rack for you.
My i/OS system performance hasn't been very good lately and my storage usage is starting to shoot up. I'm thinking I should IPL my System i 550 box to reset the system. Will an IPL help me regain storage and improve performance?