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Blade Servers Barely Nick IBM i Market
December 6, 2011 Dan Burger
After nearly four years of sales, IBM finds itself with a blade server for the IBM i-based Power Systems midmarket that is unwanted and as yet unable to build a following. Adjustments have been made, incentives have been provided, but this product still seems destined to be ignored by a large majority of users. Why? The answer is complex. This product is too complex compared to the servers the community is familiar with and has come to count on.
I don’t believe this is simply a case of not enough IBM i shops with a forward-thinking approach to IT. There
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Zend Studio 9 Hits the Gym and the Cloud
November 29, 2011 Alex Woodie
A leaner, meaner version of Zend Studio is now available that will start up faster and consume fewer resources than it did before, thanks to new capabilities for turning off unneeded functions. Also, Zend Technologies has added new cloud connectors to the Eclipse-based development environment that makes it easier to run Zend Studio development workloads on a Zend cloud, or production workloads on an Amazon, Rackspace, or IBM cloud.
It wouldn’t be fair to say that Zend Studio–which supports development of PHP applications for deployment on IBM i, Windows, Linux, and other platforms–had let itself go and
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Soltis: We Could Learn From Japan
November 14, 2011 Dan Burger
When Frank Soltis retired from IBM three years ago, he wasn’t looking for a rocking chair, a fireplace, and a membership in the Nerdy Book of the Month Club. He’s ridden in too many rodeos to hang up his saddle. The IBM i running on Power Systems is his arena. Soltis continues to travel around the world advocating for the platform and listening to what users and IBM business partners tell him about life on the Smarter Planet.
Ever the optimist, Soltis is as reliable and dependable as the midrange servers he helped develop from the days of the System/38
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Admin Alert: What To Do with Vendor Profiles During an Audit, PLUS Two Other Great Features
November 2, 2011 Joe Hertvik
System auditors generally don’t like i OS vendor-supplied profiles. You know, those user profiles that vendors require for software installation, ownership, or running special jobs. Some vendors even require you to give these profiles security officer (*SECOFR) or security administrator (*SECADM) authority. This can create audit points because auditors generally don’t like excessive security officer-enabled profiles on the system. Here are two strategies for handling this situation.
What Is a Vendor-Supplied User Profile?
A vendor-supplied user profile is any profile that exists on your i OS system in order to load software objects, or run vendor programs. It may also
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AquaFold Updates Database Editor
October 4, 2011 Alex Woodie
AquaFold last week unveiled a major new version of its database query and administration software. With Aqua Data Studio version 10, the software gains enhancements in the areas of security, performance, and support for new source control systems.
Aqua Data Studio is a Java-based utility designed to provide programmers, database developers, and systems administrators with a single, consistent interface to work with all major database management systems, including DB2/400. The product’s GUI lets users administer, explore, and query their databases and create SQL scripts. It offers an entity relationship modeler; brings comparison tools for analyzing differences in files, directory structures,
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Canam Goes JSON with COBOL Integration Tool
October 4, 2011 Alex Woodie
Canam Software Labs, a developer of tools to retrofit COBOL applications with XML connectivity, recently announced that its flagship XML Thunder tool can now speak JSON, the standard language for communicating with JavaScript applications.
Mississauga, Ontario-based Canam Software created XML Thunder to simplify the task of creating new XML integration points for existing COBOL and C code running on IBM i, z/OS, Unisys, HP Nonstop, and Unix platforms. The software features a GUI design tool and wizard-based guides, and automatically generates COBOL and C code that’s mapped to XML documents or simple object access protocol (SOAP) statements.
Now, you
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Mad Dog 21/21: Bier Or Hospice, That Persistent Thirst For Legacy
October 3, 2011 Hesh Wiener
There aren’t many places where you can sell old real or virtual machinery for more than new, but it can be done in the computer business. Legacy technology sold at a premium price prevails in IBM’s proprietary i and z lines. Still, just because IBM has worked its magic in the past and even though Big Blue promises to do it again in the immediate future, there really is no assurance of perpetual success. Here are three and a half threats to the status quo: Amazon, Apple, and Google, and Wintel.
In the case of the IBM
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Reader Feedback on New Systems and QuickTransit Emulator
October 3, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan
Timothy:
Thumbs up on the lead-off article Start Planning For New Systems Now. Thorough but useful at every turn, practical rather than a tech spew of speeds and feeds, and a great bit of tactical advice regarding negotiation on a Power7 in light of the upcoming Power7+.
Just wanted to let you know I enjoyed it and will be referencing it where relevant in some LinkedIn groups I participate in.
–MB
That’s why you keep me around. Glad to be of use.
–TPM
So did Transitive decide to quietly escape IBM’s wrath by being absorbed by them? It really
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Looking For i In All The Wrong Places
September 19, 2011 Dan Burger
For those of you who seldom find your way to the IBM i homepage, here’s a peek at an archived webinar you can find there under the title of Optimizing on Power Systems for Superior Economics. It co-stars Ian Jarman, IBM’s program director of global marketing for Power Systems, and Brad Day, an IT industry analyst and president of Enterprise Computing Advisors.
I visit the IBM i site from time to time in search of new resources and information to pass along to IT Jungle readers. Last week, I decided to check out the Power Systems webinar.
This
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Bug Busters Refines HA Software
September 6, 2011 Alex Woodie
Bug Busters Software Engineering is shipping a new version of its IBM i high availability software, called Remote Software Facility (RSF). Version 9 brings several new features that should improve the running of an HA environment, including faster role swaps and more automation throughout the product. Bug Busters also included a new “change while active” capability that will reduce administrative downtime.
Bug Busters has been chasing the IBM i HA market for the last five years with RSF-HA, which debuted with RSF 7.3. Based on the core RSF product that the Seattle, Washington, company originally developed to help ISVs