• Mirifex Delivers a BlackBerry Interface for Legacy Apps

  February 22, 2005 Alex Woodie

  Mirifex, an Ohio technology consulting firm, is ramping up development of its Mobile Business Access (MBA) solution, which gives users access to enterprise data and applications from BlackBerries, PocketPCs, and other handheld devices. The forms-based application, which relies on a mix of Java and XML, has already enabled several OS/400 shops to replace manual processes and become more lean in their operations. Mirifex started writing MBA several years ago when one of its customers, a “fractional” airline called Flight Options that offers 2,000 high-profile customers partial ownership in its fleet of 200 aircraft, asked Mirifex to help eliminate some

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• New SSH Options Make Their Way to iSeries

  February 22, 2005 Alex Woodie

  iSeries users have two new ways to implement Secure Shell (SSH) authentication and encrypted remote access in their network environment. At LinuxWorld last week, SSH Communications Security, the original developer of SSH, announced that its SSH Tectia platform now supports Linux running on IBM‘s entire eServer line. IBM also recently unveiled a new implementation of the Open SSH protocol that will execute in OS/400’s PASE AIX runtime environment. SSH enables two computers to communicate securely over TCP/IP without exposing access passwords or worrying about eavesdropping, connection hijacking, or exposure to other dangers such as denial of service (DoS)

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• IBM Introduces New LTO 3 Drives and Libraries

  February 22, 2005 Alex Woodie

  IBM unveiled an array of new LTO 3 gear last week, following the delivery of the first LTO 3 drive late last year. To ship on March 4 are several new LTO 3 drives, two 3581 autoloaders, the 3584 library, and various LTO 3 media. IBM also made a statement of direction concerning its support for write once, read many (WORM) capability on LTO 3, which is important for regulatory compliance initiatives. IBM made its initial LTO 3 announcement back in November, when the first drives based on the LTO 3 specification started shipping (see “LTO 3 Tape Makes Its

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• Aldon Opens Up to Linux and AIX with Lifecycle Manager 5.0

  February 22, 2005 Alex Woodie

  At LinuxWorld last week, Aldon unveiled Lifecycle Manager 5.0, a new version of its flagship change management system for cross-platform development. Expected to ship during the second quarter, Lifecycle Manager 5.0 brings the benefit of enabling organizations to run their source code repository on any Linux or AIX server, instead of requiring an iSeries server. Cross-platform support is nothing new for Aldon. Since the Northern California software company first rolled out its Affiniti product several years ago, Aldon has enabled the management and tracking of development occurring on a variety of operating systems with its change management software. Linux, Unix,

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• Service Packs Put a Crimp in Third Party Maintenance Plans

  February 15, 2005 Alex Woodie

  Jack Crouch, chief technology officer at diesel equipment manufacturer Stewart & Stevenson, says he would buy third party maintenance for his company’s OneWorld XE application “in a heartbeat.” He hasn’t, however, for one reason: service packs. “No one but Oracle owns source to the J.D. Edwards kernel,” he says. So when IBM changes to OS/400 hurt compatibility with his ERP implementation, such as it did with i5/OS, Crouch relies on his ERP vendor to issue a service pack. JDE customers like Crouch are increasingly looking to third party maintenance providers to keep their ERP systems up-to-date with things like tax

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• Neartek’s Virtual Storage Engine Certified for Use with iSeries

  February 15, 2005 Alex Woodie

  Now iSeries shops looking to replace their tape-based backups with a new disk-to-disk, or a disk-to-disk-to-tape, back-up solution may want to check out Neartek‘s Virtual Storage Engine. VSE2 was granted TotalStorage Proven certification from IBM for its eServer range last month. With its capability to emulate practically any type of tape drive, as well as wide cross-platform support, the VSE2 software is designed to speed back-up times while reducing costs in heterogeneous IT environments. New federal laws like HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley are driving the need for information lifecycle management policies at many companies these days. Neartek says VSE2 can

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• Gumbo Software Adds File Splitting to Spool Tools

  February 15, 2005 Alex Woodie

  Gumbo Software is making it easier for customers to distribute their spool files, with recent updates to its spool file tools for OS/400. In January, the Seattle software company started shipping new releases of two products, SpoolMail V2R1 and Spool-a-Matic V1R8, which both gained the capability to split OS/400 spool files, among other enhancements. Spool-a-Matic is a utility for converting OS/400 spool files into PC formats that can be more easily distributed and read by an OS/400 shop’s customers and business partners. After converting the spool file into PDF, RTF, HTML, or TIFF format, the product places the file in

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• Cybele Software Updates Legacy Modernization Tools

  February 15, 2005 Alex Woodie

  Cybele Software recently launched a new version of its TN Bridge Integration Pack product that allows organizations to Web-enable and reuse their legacy 5250 and 3270 applications as Web services. TN Bridge Integration Pack Version 3.0, which the Delaware software company officially introduced in December, adds new components for Web-enabling legacy applications using the latest Microsoft .NET and Borland Delphi development tools. Cybele Software was founded in 2002 and is based in Wilmington, Delaware. It’s the North American affiliate of Team Soft S.R.L., a Buenos Aires, Argentina, software developer that has been in the AS/400 business since 1993. About 70

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• JDE Shops Have Plenty of Options for Third-Party Maintenance

  February 8, 2005 Alex Woodie

  J.D. Edwards shops cringing at the thought of writing 22 percent maintenance checks to Oracle can rest a little easier knowing there are other options, and the ranks of companies offering third-party maintenance programs for World and EnterpriseOne are growing quickly. Two weeks ago, yet another Denver, Colorado, company threw its hat into the third-party maintenance ring, joining three others that have done the same since December. The latest company to announce third-party maintenance service for J.D. Edwards shops is Conexus Partners, a startup founded by two former executives in J.D. Edwards’ support organization that is located about one

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• Products Based on New AS3 Protocol Are Ready to Go

  February 8, 2005 Alex Woodie

  The Drummond Group last week announced results of its first round of certification testing for products using Applicability Statement 3, a new communications standard that uses FTP/S to send EDI transactions over the Internet. Twelve AS3 products from 11 companies made Drummond’s cut, enabling companies to begin using the AS3 protocol, which some say offers greater security than the HTTP/S-based AS2 protocol. While the first draft specification for AS3 was submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force quite recently, in 2003, some communications products already included support for AS3. However, it wasn’t until last week that any AS3 product was

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