A UK company called CoralTree Systems is quietly building out its Renaissance Framework, an open source toolkit designed to help RPG developers create CGIDEV2-based Web applications that run under i/OS. Under development for four years, the toolkit generates Web 2.0 screens that feature all the reliability and security of their green-screen brethren, but without the skills and investment required to replicate enterprise-level functions on the Web. This month Coral Tree added support for jQuery, a popular collection of JavaScript libraries that expands the framework’s functionality.

The Renaissance Framework story begins in late 2004, when the folks at CoralTree–a System i

Information Builders last week shipped a new release of its Performance Management Framework (PMF), a suite of software for developing and deploying Web-based dashboards, scorecards, and other analytical programs from i/OS and other servers. With version 5.2, IBI made it easier to customize dashboards, and added support for third-party content to create dashboard mash-ups with Web 2.0-style collaboration capabilities. This release also gets certified key risk indicators (KRIs) to go along with existing key performance indicators (KPIs).

PMF is a suite of products designed to allow organizations to quickly roll out BI applications that help understand how their operations are

Unitrends, a provider of backup and recovery appliances for i/OS and other platforms, last week announced the launch of Vault2Cloud, a new cloud-based storage service that gives customers another layer of data protection and disaster preparedness. With prices starting at less than $.50 per gigabyte, the new offering could be a low-cost way for existing customers to insulate themselves from the effects of a disaster.

Unitrends has quietly amassed an impressive installed base of more than 1,500 customers with its line of Data Protection Vaults and Cross Vaults, which are purpose-built backup/recovery and archive appliances built on a standard

HiT Software next quarter will begin delivery of DBMoto version 7, a new release of its database synchronization tool that supports DB2/400, Oracle, SQL Server, and other major RDBMSs. With version 7, HiT added a number of new management and auditing capabilities that should make it easier to replicate data among multiple databases, while support for DB2/400’s minimized journal data capability should boost data replication performance in System i environments.

DBMoto is a Windows-based data replication tool that enables organizations to share data among more than 20 different relational database management systems (RDBMS), including IBM‘s DB2/400, DB2 for LUW,

More than 3 million LTO Ultrium tape drives have shipped since the LTO-1 tape standard was first released nearly a decade ago, the consortium of companies behind the Linear Tape-Open (LTO) format announced this week. The LTO syndicate expects demand for LTO gear to continue at a healthy pace. However, lower than expected performance capabilities of the latest LTO-5 spec, which was unveiled earlier this year, along with adoption of “cloud” storage alternatives, could dampen the LTO enthusiasm.

More than 3.3 million LTO drives have shipped since the first LTO-1 drive was introduced 9.5 years ago, according to a new

Esker last week unveiled a new release of FlyDoc, its software as a service (SaaS) offering that allows users to upload business correspondence through the www.flydoc.com Web site, and have Esker deliver them via regular mail or fax. The new version allows regular users to customize their setup for faster submission and adds security features, among other enhancements.

While the world’s business is moving quickly to the Web, there is no denying that sometimes it’s more appropriate to send a paper letter through the regular mail, or to send a fax. After all, not everybody is on the Web yet,

The Taiwan subsidiary of New York Life Insurance has achieved substantial savings and eliminated much manual programming by using Attunity‘s log-based changed data capture (CDC) software to replicate data from an i/OS server to the Windows applications used by its customer service representatives, the software vendor announced last week.

With assets of almost $1.9 billion and more than 300,000 policyholders, New York Life Insurance Taiwan Corporation (NYLITC) is one of the largest life insurance companies in Taiwan. Like many large insurance companies, NYLITC’s IT department uses a mix of different platforms and databases to keep the business running.

However,

If you’ve ever called a 1-800 number for a company and been frustrated because you have to repeat yourself over and over as you explain why you’re calling to each new customer service representative (CSR) who has the distinct privilege of speaking with you this fine day, then you’re probably wishing the company would install the new Real-Time Analytics Matching Platform (RAMP) appliance jointly unveiled by IBM and Assurant Solutions last week.

Created through the joint collaboration between IBM and Assurant, a developer of risk management solutions for the insurance industry, RAMP is a Unix-based application pre-loaded onto a System

Tony’s Fine Foods, a food distributor in Sacramento, California, has installed high availability software to protect its i/OS and AIX applications running on IBM Power servers, Vision Solutions announced last week. The installation included a combination of Vision’s MIMIX, EchoCluster, and EchoStream software installed on a Power Systems Model 570.

Every day, Tony’s Fine Foods delivers $1 million-worth of perishable deli and bakery items, prepared salads, pastas, meats, and cheeses to thousands of customers in the Western United States. The time-sensitive nature of Tony’s business requires operations to continue 24 hours per day–a requirement that extends from the warehouse to

Computer Guidance Corp. (CGC) last week unveiled a new Web portal for its i/OS-based construction management system (CMS). According to CGC, the portal will provide customers with access to other Web sites and Web-based applications, including Web cams, and make customers more efficient and profitable.

CGC’s flagship application provides mid- to large-size contractors and other companies in the construction industry with an integrated platform for a range of activities, including financial accounting, project management, and bidding. With the addition of the portal application (which CGC refers to simply as the “Portal”), the suite features a total of 28 integrated modules.