Programmers who are frustrated with accessing DB2/400 from a green screen may want to check out a brand new product called neuEdit from neuObjects. The tool, which is available for a free 60-day download, gives users direct access to database records from a Windows GUI environment, enabling users to navigate DB2/400 with a mouse. neuEdit also brings reporting and printing capabilities that its developers found lacking in other tools.

The developers of neuEdit created the software after being frustrated with the database editor from IBM and editors from third-party tools developers. While DB2/400 has a reputation as a very

Surround Technologies comes from the AS/400 and LANSA worlds, and understands the tremendous value the platform holds for business. But the company also understands that green-screen 5250 interfaces do not cut it anymore, and that Microsoft .NET has a lot to offer IBM i shops when it comes to the user experience and Web service integration layers, which is the focus of its recently updated Accelerator for .NET product.

A good way to begin understanding Surround Tech’s Accelerator for .NET product may be to think of it as a rapid application development (RAD) tool for the .NET developer. The software,

The low-cost IBM i high availability solution from Shield Advanced Solutions has gotten more advanced. The latest PTF for HA4i–which became available again last week after an initial delay–introduces new features, such as an enhanced file synchronization process, a new audit process, better handling of object and spool file locks, role swap enhancements, and better management of job logs.

HA4i (formerly named RAP) is a budget-minded high availability solution based on IBM‘s remote journaling technology. The software allows customers to replicate their data and select IBM i objects from a source to a target system, and to conduct role

IBM yesterday announced a Power Systems-based e-commerce bundle that’s designed to help retailers drive efficiencies into their business processes, utilize Web analytics effectively, increase fulfillment, and take advantage of cross-channel selling opportunities. Called Smarter Commerce on Power Systems, the new offering is highlighted by IBM’s Power7-based hardware and WebSphere 7 e-commerce server, and gives customers the choice of IBM i, Linux, or AIX operating systems.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you’ve heard about IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative, a “big thinking” program in which Big Blue puts forward solutions that address some of the

In two weeks, Infor will be holding its 2011 System i User Conference at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. The three-day show will feature educational sessions for users of BPCS, MAPICS, and System21, as well as a solutions expo and networking opportunities for Infor customers. Also, Infor is hosting a user conference for its Infinium customers this week.

The focus of 2011 System i User Conference (Infor deliciously refuses to abide by IBM’s 2009 name change) is providing education for Infor’s three primary IBM i-based suites. These include Infor10 ERP iEnterprise (LX) (formerly called Infor ERP LX and

iWay Software last week unveiled enhancements to its data management products aimed at helping customers get the most out of their big stores of data.

At the heart of iWay’s “big data” push is Data Quality Center, a Java-based tool designed to cleanse, standardize, and validate data as it sits in transactional and analytical applications, and when it’s pulled out for use in integration projects and system migrations.

iWay has updated DQC to be able to handle the rigors fixing data quality problems in real time. The company redesigned the tool’s database layer and enhanced its matching engine, which improved

IBM last week unveiled a new release of its flagship Cognos Business Intelligence software. Version 10.1.1 delivers several small enhancements, including support for iPad clients, better integration with third-party OLAP tools, and more setup options in the Cognos visualization and authoring tools.

IBM’s Cognos BI is a sprawling suite of BI tools with dozens of components that run the gamut from reporting and dashboards to scorecards, what-if analysis, predictive analytics, statistical analysis, and online analytical processing (OLAP). The software doesn’t run on the IBM i server (its server components require Unix, Linux, or Windows), but plenty of IBM i shops

The German software company SEEBURGER AG last week unveiled a new release of its managed file transfer (MFT) solution. The company says it’s made SEE MFT an integrated component of its Business Integration Suite, thereby giving customers a single product for sharing supply chain data, such as EDI and AS2 files, alongside file types not used to transmit supply chain data, such as PDF or PowerPoint.

SEEBURGER has a long history in the EDI field, having launched its first EDI offering for the automotive industry in 1986. Over the years, the company developed a close relationship with German ERP powerhouse

IBM last week announced a new release of Service Delivery Manager for Power Systems, a PowerVM-based product that helps Power Systems and X86 customers provision and manage virtual operating system instances. With version 7.2.2, the offering gets enhancements in the area of monitoring and usage metering.

IBM bills Service Delivery Manager as a cloud management system that’s geared toward helping customers squeeze the most virtual bang for their physical buck. The primary task of the software (which is available in Power Systems and X86 flavors) is automating the provisioning and de-provisioning of AIX, Linux, and Windows (sorry, no IBM i)

Independent contractors have been an intrinsic part of the IT industry since the IT industry was invented. But according to a recent survey of CompTIA members by tech staffing firm OnForce, nearly 70 percent of companies in the IT business use independent contractors when they don’t have enough full-time staff to do the work.

While the country as a whole suffers through economic stagnation and a high unemployment rate, the situation is a bit brighter in the IT industry, where the unemployment rate is 4.5 percent, according to a recent blog post by CompTIA’s Jim Staats, who counted 856,000