Getting the most performance out of your System i server should be easier when using the new release of Centerfield Technology‘s suite of SQL and DB2 optimization software. With HomeRun version 6.1, Centerfield has added more intelligence and flexibility to HomeRun’s autonomic database maintenance component, called AutoDBA, which should result in faster implementation of database index optimization. The company has also taken steps to minimize the performance impact of the HomeRun suite itself.

In 2006, CenterField consolidated its various database performance and security products into a single suite called HomeRun. The move primarily served to make it easier and

Aura Equipments, the French developer of i5/OS software utilities, has repackaged its i5/OS-Excel integration tool to make it more affordable. Launcher 400 Excel, as the product is called, allows Excel spreadsheets to be automatically updated with data from System i servers, providing a productivity boon to Excel junkies who would otherwise be rekeying data or playing with Query. Previously, the product was only available as part of a bigger, more expensive suite of products.

There are more than 500 million users of Excel around the world, according to Microsoft, making it the most successful business intelligence tool of

Regulations that affect the collection, storage, and retrieval of electronic data records have hit IT departments like a snow storm in Miami Beach. IT managers have been shivering ever since mandates such as Sarbanes Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, HIPAA, and the FDA’s 21 CFR part 11, plus a blizzard of other industry-specific compliance rules have entered their domain. Early efforts to make the grade were manual labor intensive. To get out from under that heavy load, organizations looked to technology for automated solutions. Innovatum, with its data monitoring software, has been in the thick of it.

Coupled with the cold blast

If you’ve noticed that attempts to steal your identity and your money on the Web have grown more sophisticated in recent months, you’re not alone. In its analysis of thousands of attacks, IBM‘s X-Force security group confirmed that the underground criminal economy made a lot of headway last year in its quest to exploit software and human vulnerabilities in its pursuit of ill-gotten gains off the Net.

In its annual report on the state of information security, the X-Force team at Internet Security Systems (ISS) describes the trends shaping security for 2007, and what managers, administrators, and programmers should

Organizations that use WorksRight Software‘s i5/OS-based address verification software, called PER/ZIP4, can rest easy knowing their software supports the U.S. Postal Service’s latest Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) processing requirement, known as Zip+4. The Mississippi company also launched a new product called HyPER/Sort that PER/ZIP4 customers can use to prepare their USPS documentation.

WorksRight develops geocoding and address verification software that organizations with large bulk-mailing operations can use to ensure they qualify for the lowest possible rates from the U.S. and Canadian Postal Services. The company’s flagship product, PER/ZIP4, matches addresses to the national ZIP + 4 postal database

When sporting goods distributor adidas Korea decided it was time to modernize its i5/OS-based business applications, it was hoping to create a Microsoft Office-based interface to its 5250-based ERP system. While such a setup might sound farfetched at first, it’s not only possible, but it was actually delivered by looksoftware as part of an application makeover.

B.H. Lee, team leader of adidas Korea’s IT department, was tasked with helping to improve the IT systems rollout of new products, promotions, and the processing of orders and sales. “To achieve these requirements, we investigated a number of options,” Lee says, “and newlook

Lawson Software recently announced its intention to acquire VasTech, a developer of .NET-based staffing and scheduling software for the healthcare, hospitality, and casino markets. Lawson intends to include VasTech’s products in its Lawson Human Capital Management suite, and complete the acquisition this month.

VasTech’s offering, called VasTech 24/7, is a Web-based collection of components–including DemandMapper, ShiftMaker, IntraGate, CredentialManager, CentralStaffer, and ClockWorker–designed to complement customers’ core time-and-attendance solutions with a more powerful and flexible staff scheduling system. Labor benefits from features such as online shift swapping, shift bidding, and vacation request tracking, while management can use the software to build

Atempo last week announced a new release of its backup and archive tool for System i and other platforms, Time Navigator, that should be quicker and easier to implement. Better application support and enhancements to its logs and alarms interface also distinguish Time Navigator 4.2, the first new release of the product in a year-and-a-half.

Time Navigator automates the backup, archiving, and regulatory compliance needs of companies running computers based on the i5/OS, Windows, Linux, Unix, OS X, VMS, and NetWare operating systems. The product provides continuous data protection (CDP), disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T), and virtual tape library (VTL) capabilities, and sports

Solimar Systems announced new releases of three of its products last week at the On Demand Conference & Expo in Boston. In addition to new releases of its enterprise output management products, the company received an award from Xerox.

Solimar Print Director Enterprise, or SPDE, is a collection of Windows-based products aimed at centrally managing the production print environment, including enabling practically any printer to support practically any host, including proprietary environments like IBM mainframe and midrange servers that rely on the AFP and IPDS print architectures.

Improving the function of high-speed, full-color IPDS is one of the new

In this age of e-commerce, sending and receiving orders over the phone, the mail, or fax machines is too slow, too manual, and too prone to error. Instead, companies are increasingly adopting B2B technologies like AS2 and encrypted FTP to ensure their orders are handled expeditiously. Cleo Communications, one of the unheralded developers of business communications software used by more than 10,000 companies, recently introduced a minor release of its core B2B technology, called VersaLex.

VersaLex is the core Java-based communications engine behind several products used to send and receive EDI documents over the Internet using standards such as