When the server business was still called the systems business and there really were not commercial applications beyond basic print and file serving running on X86-based servers; when Unix and the whole open systems push was just getting going, Windows was not even a viable server platform, and Linux was not even an annoying idea in the head of a young nerd named Linus Torvalds; and when the mainframe still got the respect it deserved, even when it didn’t have an IBM label on it because there were lots of mainframe makers, it didn’t take very many machines or very

IBM has been talking up the single-socket, dual-core JS12 Power6-based blade server and its BladeCenter S wall-powered blade server chassis pretty hard in recent months, and beginning on May 30, the company will start shipping the so-called i Edition Express prebundled and discounted version of this machinery expressly for supporting the new i 6.1 operating system and its RPG and COBOL workloads.

This will be the first blade server that actually meets the needs of the vast majority of the OS/400 and i5/OS server installed base, with last fall’s two-socket, four-core JS22 blade server being wicked overkill for i shops

To say that Hewlett-Packard has wanted to be a powerhouse in IT services is a bit of an understatement. Almost straight out of the gate in 2000, then-new chief executive officer Carly Fiorina, the first non-HPer to run the company, tried to do a $17 billion deal with the IT consultancy arm of accountant PriceWaterhouse Coopers and failed, which IBM accomplished two years later with $3.5 billion just as HP had taken a left turn and acquired Compaq for $20 billion in 2001. The Compaq deal gave HP enterprise servers, storage, and some services. But nothing like the $13.9 billion

Nancy Reagan made quite a point of saying, “Just say no.” Amy Winehouse sang that she said, “No, no, no.” And “No” is what Microsoft seems to be hearing a lot of lately, too. The software giant has heard it from Yahoo, which it tried to acquire, and it heard it from a lot of prospective PC customers, to whom it wants to sell Vista rather than Windows XP. It’s not surprising when Microsoft must fight to reach its goals. But this time its struggle seems a bit different because there’s a cultural change underway in the computer industry.

A few weeks ago, I was admonished by a loyal reader of this newsletter that the rebranding of the System i and i5/OS platform was far from over. That while those of us in the i-ntelligentsia (that’s my pun, not his, and I don’t actually like it), by which I mean members of the reseller community, those in the press and analyst community, and those who sell applications for the i platform, may be up to speed with and maybe in some cases on page with what IBM has done, as for the actual customer base, this whole name game

When something bad finally happens, at least you don’t have to be anxious about it any more. But that’s about the only good thing about bad things happening. While anxiety is no fun, it is safe to say that IT managers and the bean counters who control their budgets much prefer that to the kind of panic that grips a national economy or even the global economy. When businesses are anxious, they cut IT spending back. In the case of 2008, so far that seems to mean slower growth, not actual decline.

That’s the projection that the market researchers and

The consultants at Aberdeen Group, now a division of market researcher and mail list builder Harte-Hanks, have just finished up a massive research project to put together the Annual State of the Market Report for the information technology sector. As part of the report, Aberdeen’s experts have used customer input to create a ranking of the top 100 most influential technology companies.

The 2008 edition of the report, which costs a whopping $1,995 for 161 pages of arts and charts and analysis, is available at this link, if you happen to have some extra budget money lying

When the iSeries and System i product lines were distinct from the pSeries and System p lines, IBM was perfectly happy to roll some extra goodies into 570 and 595 configurations to sweeten the deal. But the Power Systems convergence means unbundling the parts of a configuration and giving them prices, which means the i marketing folks need to roll those goodies into a separate package–because they certainly still want to sweeten the deals.

To that end, IBM has created Value Packs for the high-end Power 570 and Power 595 servers, which give customers software and vouchers good for the

As one of the few relatively large and public companies that sells lots of hardware, software, and services into OS/400 and i5/OS shops, Jack Henry & Associates is something of a bellwhether for the i ecosystem, even if it is doing business exclusively in the financial services sector. In the fiscal third quarter of 2008, Jack Henry was able to boost sales quite a bit considering the adversity right now in the financial sector, but profits came under pressure.

In the third quarter ended March 31, Jack Henry’s total revenues rose by 11 percent to $187.9 million, but gross profits

Database and enterprise application software maker Oracle continued its acquisition binge last week, acquiring a relatively unknown but important and fast-growing niche player in the insurance sector called AdminServer.

AdminServer, which is based in Chester, Pennsylvania (a suburb of Philadelphia), was a consultancy and programming services company when it was founded in 1998, and at that time it began developing a Java-based set of insurance policy and annuity management programs to take on the vast base of homegrown RPG and COBOL insurance applications running out there on midrange, mainframe, and other gear. AdminServer certified its Java applications, which is