IBM should be grateful that Linux and open source relational databases like MySQL (now from Oracle) and PostgreSQL (which is commercially supported by EnterpriseDB are about as unfamiliar as Vulcan is to those who speak Klingon but have managed a little broken English. (Yes, that was a metaphor for Unix or Linux, IBM i, and Windows.) Because as cheap as the more familiar Windows entry servers are compared to entry and midrange Power7 servers, Linux systems are even less costly.

Like crazy stupid less expensive.

The good news for IBM and its ISV partners, who still bundle software on

The IBM i job market is meat grinder these days for IT workers. The lucky ones are fighting to hang on to the jobs they have, while the unlucky are struggling to put their IT talents to work again. On either side of that great divide, there are people benefiting from having better tools in their toolboxes than the person next to them. I’m talking about specialized skills and, in particular, I’m talking about database skills where there is short supply and a growing demand.

You may have noticed that dramatic economic retardation causes only a minimal reduction in data.

Well, I took a little time last week and I found the bug in my Excel spreadsheet model of IBM‘s quarterly revenues for its systems, and that means this week I can tell you what I think happened in the server racket for Big Blue in the third quarter. You will recall that back in August I admitted that something was wacky in my model where it broke server sales down by platform type, and it turns out I had three cells in the chart that were making absolute references instead of variable ones as I cascaded the equations.

IBM was about to buy security gadget maker Fortinet, said a Bloomberg news service story published as Halloween weekend began. By the time the weekend was over, so, too, was the hypothesized acquisition. Fortinet said there was no such deal. It’s kind of a shame, because IBM could have picked up a seasoned shenanigans expert, Hong Liang Lu, improving IBM’s potential for corporate mischief, which has not yet recovered from the loss of former Systems and Technology Group GM, Bob Moffat. But don’t give up on IBM yet.

Hewlett-Packard was able to bring Leo Apotheker to its helm

I have said it before, and I will say it again. The basic concepts of the Smart Cube server appliance, launched by Big Blue without much fanfare two years ago based on Power Systems and what is now called the IBM i operating system, are correct. You want to drop an application system into SMB shops that provides an application store like iTunes and that provides a consistent support mechanism, managed by IBM and its software partners together, as well as remote, utility-style computing that integrates into the box. IBM seemed to get it, I think.

As the launch last

UNICOM Systems last month lost its appeal of a United Kingdom court’s earlier decision in favor of a former SoftLanding Systems business partner who developed components of the TurnOver change management suite. The ruling should put an end to the lawsuits between SoftLanding and KDP Software.

Disagreement over royalty payments, technical support obligations, and ownership of source code between SoftLanding and UK-based KDP began soon after UNICOM acquired SoftLanding for $17 million four years ago. In response to not being paid what they felt they were due, the owners of KDP, Jane and Kevin Passey, decided to stop providing

The tech recovery is gaining momentum at IT distributor Arrow Electronics, which saw its sales rise by 26.9 percent to $4.66 billion. The company’s net income was impacted by $14.3 million in restructuring charges–a lot lower than the $37.6 million it had in the year ago quarter. But because of that revenue boost for both components and enterprise products, Arrow was able to boost net earnings by nearly a factor of 10 to $118.5 million.

While the electronics components business accounts for the largest part of the revenue stream at Arrow, with sales of $3.44 billion (up 35.3 percent)

The early impacts of recent acquisitions by Avnet have shown up in the latest quarterly financial reports released by the enterprise IT and consumer electronics company that many of you are familiar with because of its role in the IBM Power Systems reseller channel. Although year-over-year sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 ended October 2 increased 42 percent to a record $6.18 billion, the Technology Solutions portion of the business does not compare well with the previous quarter.

Roy Vallee, chief executive officer and chairman at Avnet, prefaced the Q1 results by saying the July 2010 acquisitions of

The lawsuit between software giants Oracle and SAP got underway last week in Oakland, California, as expected, with new Hewlett-Packard CEO and former SAP CEO Leo Apotheker dodging his subpoena to testify, and new Infor and former Oracle co-president Charles Phillips taking the stand.

Early in the week, there were reports, which started at Reuters, that SAP had proposed shelling out $120 million to cover Oracle’s legal costs in the TomorrowNow lawsuit, in which Oracle has accused the former SAP unit of stealing its documentation and software patches for PeopleSoft, JDE, and Siebel software suites for its third-party

Asseco Group, the Polish holding company that is traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange that recently took control of IBM i development tool maker Magic Software Enterprises, must be feeling pretty good about its investment. Magic Software’s sales and profits have shot up like a rocket in the most recent quarter.

In the quarter ended September 30, Magic Software reported sales of $22.4 million, up 65.9 percent from the year ago period, and net income more than tripled to $2.6 million. This is the second quarter in a row of strong sales and profits from the software tool