• Performance Choices For Power7+ Servers Could Be Complicated

  September 10, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In last week’s issue of The Four Hundred, I gave you the low-down on the forthcoming Power7+ processors from IBM, which are expected to be launched in new Power Systems machines before the end of the year. This information came from a presentation Big Blue’s chip experts made at the Hot Chips 24 conference, and it was refreshing to see IBM talk about the chips a bit before they came out in systems, giving customers some time to ponder their options. If you are an IBM i customer, you are going to need the time because the situation

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• Casualties Stack Up In The IBM i Job Wars

  September 10, 2012 Dan Burger

  The positive forecasts for the IT job market in general are not to be confused with the weather charts in IBM i-land. We have our own microclimate. Although the climate is similar, the landscape is different–the average employee’s years of experience and skills are sometimes as different as the weather in Laredo and Laramie. Also a factor is that mid-career talent gets more attention than post-mid-year talent (also known as geezers–sometimes affectionately, sometimes not). Although most surveys I’ve read indicate close to two-thirds of all companies are intending to hire IT staff this year, it is harder to find

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• Gartner Concurs: Second Quarter Server Sales Stall

  September 10, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  As we explained in last week’s issue of The Four Hundred in going over IDC‘s casing of the global server market in the second quarter, it was no big surprise to anyone that with so many server processor transitions underway and the global economy somewhat skittish that the second quarter would be a little soft in terms of sales. The box counters at Gartner concur, and present a slightly different dicing and slicing of the market. IDC counts vendor sales shipping out of the factory to large customers who buy directly and to master distributors who in turn peddle

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• As I See It: Game Changer

  September 10, 2012 Victor Rozek

  Let’s say you’re young and idealistic and still naive enough to believe what politicians tell you. And after watching one of our three-day infomercials, otherwise known as conventions, you’re feeling inspired to register voters for your favorite candidate. But you have no registration forms (which often vary from precinct to precinct), and even if you did, who knows where one precinct ends and another begins? Plus, you don’t really know what you should say, or which doors are likely to remain open once you reveal your party affiliation. But you do have something in your pocket that can solve all

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• Google’s Nexus 7: A Viable Tablet For IBM i Users

  September 10, 2012 Nick Hampson

  The mobile revolution is starting to have real impact within the IBM i community. In addition to smartphones gaining access to core applications, we are starting to see tablets being utilized to benefit users by freeing them from their desks. Apple‘s iPad has been the poster-child for tablet computing, but is getting some competition. In particular, the Nexus 7 is considered a serious contender. The Nexus 7 is Google‘s first venture into the tablet space, and it serves the dual purpose of benchmarking the design for the Android operating system, a variant of Linux controlled by Google that

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• Take The Common Europe Top Concerns 2012 Survey Now

  September 10, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The annual Top Concerns of IBM i shops survey may be done by COMMON Europe, but it is meant to cover the world and it is one of the things that COMMON Europe does on behalf of the entire community. This is the seventh year that COMMON Europe is doing the survey in an effort to balance your needs against those of the largest IBM i shops that have more or less direct access to IBM‘s Rochester Labs, and you should therefore take some time and take the survey. It’s for your own good and that of your

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• IBM Offers Summertime Deal On Power 740 Servers

  September 10, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you are in need of some new processing capacity and you can’t wait for the forthcoming Power7+ servers to come to market later this year, then Big Blue has a deal on a Power 740 Express server that it wants to make–provided you get the deal done a week before the third quarter financials close so it can ship the box and book the revenue. I don’t know why the Power 740 Summer Promotion did not come into my inbox with the other announcement letters on July 11, but in announcement letter 312-079 and subsequently modified in announcement letter

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• Big Power7 Boxes Get Fat Memory Rebates, Too

  September 10, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  IBM is not just giving system-level discounts to customers who buy Power 740 Express configurations with fairly beefy main memory configurations, as we report elsewhere in this issue. The company is also giving rebates on main memory bought for larger Power 750, 770, 780, and 795 systems. I would guess that IBM is chopping memory prices on its Power7-based midrange and high-end boxes for two reasons. First, it is charging ridiculously lower prices per gigabyte on the exact same memory modules in some cases used in its PowerLinux Linux-only machines. IBM is doing this to make the Power line more

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• App Dev Outsourcing Up, Satisfaction Down

  September 10, 2012 Dan Burger

  Contrary to what some people have been saying, outsourcing IT is on an upward trend. Indicators leading to the forecast for long-term growth in IT outsourcing can be seen in the latest report from Computer Economics. Based on outsourcing as a percentage of IT budget, the gradual climb has moved from 6.1 percent in 2009 to 8.6 percent in 2012–not exactly monumental change, but a trend nonetheless. When the topic of outsourcing is discussed, you better hold on to your hat. This is a hot button topic, particularly when the conversation centers on the high cost of application development

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• Oracle Changes Course in SAP Case, Opts for Appeal Over Retrial

  September 10, 2012 Alex Woodie

  Oracle is moving ahead with an appeal of a district court’s 2011 decision to reduce paid damages by $1 billion in its patent infringement and corporate theft case against SAP and its defunct TomorrowNow third-party ERP maintenance operation. As part of that legal maneuvering, Oracle entered into a $306 million settlement agreement with SAP in early August, and then promptly appealed it. It would seem strange, at first glance, to plan to appeal a settlement before actually signing the settlement agreement. But nothing moves linearly in the legal world, and this little case of “yes I do, no I don’t”

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