• ISV Advisory Council: Untold Secrets And Free Advice

  May 20, 2013 Dan Burger

  Being more responsive to customer needs is a common theme these days. Companies can quickly get into hot water by neglecting customers either completely or by choosing favorite segments, such as those with the biggest budgets. IBM‘s customer consciousness, as it applies to the Power Systems and IBM i community (the focus of IT Jungle newsletters), includes the independent software vendors (ISVs). The IBM i ISVs are hugely important. Big Blue must wish it had a similar vendor base for its other platforms. Responsiveness to customers depends on awareness. To improve its awareness of ISV customers, Big Blue formed

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• COMMON Europe Cancels Its June Conference

  May 20, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  COMMON Europe has given a jolt to the IBM i community, and right as we are approaching the 25th birthday–the silver anniversary, in fact–of the “Project Silverlake” machine that became the AS/400 minicomputer. After a hard look at the attendance data for its European Power Summit 2013 a month from now, COMMON Europe made the tough decision to cancel the event. In a statement published on the COMMON Europe site, the European Power Summit Organizing Committee that is organizing the pan-European and pan-platform event, said that the event in Annecy, France, near Switzerland and a positively beautiful location, was

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• As I See It: To Ad Or Not To Ad

  May 20, 2013 Victor Rozek

  I never found Leonardo DiCaprio believable as an actor. No matter the costuming or how much makeup they trowel on his face, he always comes across as being a 12-year-old playing dress up. (He’s not unlike Tobey McGuire in that regard, but at least Tobey knows enough to make movies that appeal to 12-year-olds.) So when a moving flash ad for DiCaprio’s new opus, Gatsby, darkened my computer screen, it was both annoying and amusing. It did interrupt my browsing, but it also conjured up images of a child in a tuxedo throwing fits. Not everyone finds advertising amusing,

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• The 10-Year Security Itch Needs Scratching

  May 20, 2013 Alex Woodie

  In 2004, PowerTech unveiled its first report on the state of security for the iSeries server, as the IBM i platform was then called. The report uncovered major problems at iSeries shops involving passwords, remote access, and user profiles. Fast forward to April 2013 and PowerTech’s 10th annual report, which uncovered systemic problems with–you guessed it–passwords, remote access, and powerful user profiles. If you think back to 2004, computer security issues were just beginning to grab headlines. Microsoft was under daily threat from hackers seeking to expose vulnerabilities in its products, which it would patch every month on “Patch Tuesday.”

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• IBM i Involved In Ticket Fixing

  May 20, 2013 Dan Burger

  It’s not exactly what you think. This isn’t about speeding tickets or parking tickets. It’s about tickets to sporting events and how the IBM i platform and a software vendor in the United Kingdom have teamed up to create a faster, more dependable, and much more user friendly experience for buying tickets and merchandise. It’s also about what a performance boost, courtesy of Power7 processors, and an innovation boost, thanks to the cloud, can mean for business. Talent Sport is software that runs on IBM Power Systems servers and the IBM i operating system. It has a successful record based

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• IBM Adds Power7+ Servers To Long-Running Rebate Deals

  May 20, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  With new Power7+ entry and midrange servers fully ramped and Big Blue well into its second quarter, it is time to add the new Power Systems machines to more deals, and that is precisely what IBM has done. In announcement letter 313-040, the Power 710+, Power 720+, Power 730+, and Power 740+ entry machines are now part of the Power Systems First-In-Location rebate offering, which gives customers a cash rebate if they are installing their first Power Systems machine along with pre-qualified application software from independent software vendors. Power 750+ and Power 760+ midrange boxes are also now eligible

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• Third Time A Charm For Maxava iFoundation Grants, Like Times One And Two

  May 20, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  High availability and disaster recovery software maker Maxava is throwing its money around the IBM i community again, and I mean that in the best way possible. The New Zealand company, which has become an increasingly global company over the past decade, has been generous once again and has ponied up $50,000 to fund the Maxava iFoundation, which it started three years ago. A lot of companies whine about needing to do something to support the IBM i community in direct and tangible ways, but Maxava has put $150,000 of its money where our mouths are. There have been

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• Manta Announces New RDP Training Series

  May 20, 2013 Jenny Thomas

  If you’re looking for some training for IBM‘s Rational Developer for Power Systems (RDP), you know it can be hard to come by. But the fact of the matter is there are plenty of businesses that need people to maintain programs in RDP. The good folks at Manta Technologies have some good news if you’re in that category: A new Manta series covering the most popular IDE for IBM i application development. “There has been a large demand from our customers for RDP, we have had courses on all the predecessors to it, so it was time,” said Bill

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• Learning, Problem Solving, Collaboration, and MITEC

  May 20, 2013 Dan Burger

  The Michigan IBM i and AIX Technical Education Conference (MITEC), the annual opportunity for Power Systems professionals to distinguish themselves and the companies they work for by building on their current skills, is coming up June 4. The training day is sponsored by six local user groups in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, and has 51 sessions on its agenda. MITEC is one of the top Power Systems technical conferences in the nation, with attendance topping 200. Paul Ubelhor, one of the volunteers who helps plan and organize the conference, says the forecast for the event is excellent. “Things are shaping

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• The Sweet 16 Of Mobile App Dev Tools for IBM i

  May 14, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Over the last 12 months, there has been unprecedented progress in third-party mobile development tools. Whether your shop wants to take a native or a hybrid approach, or whether it wants to use pre-built templates or to build from scratch, this is a great time to bring IBM i content to the latest iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows mobile devices. Here is a handy dandy roundup of 16 of the most well-known mobile development tools for the IBM i platform. A quick scan of the 12-year Four Hundred Stuff story archive shows a flurry of mobile activity in the last

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