Conserving energy is more than a slogan today; it's a way to affect the bottom line.

By Chris Smith

There seems to be some debate about whether it makes sense to develop green, or environmentally sound, business practices. I love it when I read in a competing publication, or any other computer magazine, that the writer thinks that "going green" is a fad and that savvy business leaders will make decisions based on bottom-line economics, not whether a policy saves energy or reduces a company's carbon footprint. Hello? Have you not noticed the price of oil lately? I say I love to see such articles because it means that readers of these other publications will be coming over to subscribe to our own in a couple of months when they realize the level of thinking that they are getting in their current read.

"i for Business" is attracting community and vendor support.

By Thomas M. Stockwell

The announcement on April 2, 2008, that IBM has created the new Power Server brand, combining both the System i and the System p, took few analysts by surprise. But a key question still remained: How would IBM's loyal System i community react?

Though we're aging, embracing change may be a ticket to staying young.

By Chris Smith

The System i has attracted an interesting mix of individuals, a fact brought home only too clearly last week by the death of Al Barsa Jr. and the reactions people have had to his passing. This is a tight-knit community, and the outpouring of grief that has been expressed since the loss of one of its leaders is remarkable.

What does cloud computing have to do with the System i? It may be more than you could imagine.

Have you ever noticed how a passing cloud can sometimes be nothing more than a cloud, but at other times can be the start of a significant shift in the weather? That observation is an important one to apply to a recent announcement from IBM called Blue Cloud. Considering what sources close to the computer giant are saying, this is one cloud that could turn into a climate-altering experience for System i users.

With the open-source approach to software and business models becoming so popular, what does it mean for proprietary-driven businesses?

The software industry is a completely different beast than it was just a few years ago. The open-source philosophy has forever transformed, and continues to shape, the way that proprietary vendors approach their customers.

IBM uses energy credits and server consolidation to help data centers reduce CO2 emissions.

Last year, the U.S. Congress asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to examine the impact of computer data centers on the consumption of energy. The EPA report, entitled "Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency," was issued on August 2, 2007, and contained some disturbing information.

Will it be The Joy of Six (V6, that is) or The Annoy of Six? In all likelihood, the correct answer is: it all depends.

In July, IBM announced that it would deliver a new release of i5/OS, V6R1, sometime in 2008. When in 2008 is not yet clear.

The available list of new features and enhancements is somewhat vague and likely incomplete, but they fall mainly in the areas of encryption, virtualization, integrity, Java support, and Web deployment. An attempt to read the tea leaves left after drinking in the announcement suggests that Web deployment is receiving particular attention.

Should you upgrade to V6R1 when the time comes? You'll have to decide that after the benefits are more fully fleshed out. However, if you're using a particularly old System i machine, it's not even an option unless you also invest in new hardware. V6R1 won't run on older systems. The plan is to support System i POWER5 Models 515, 520, 525, 550, 570, 595 and POWER6 Model 570. Thus, a box with an "AS/400" label slapped on it probably won't run V6R1 (unless, of course, you slapped the tag on yourself over top the "System i" label to protest against IBM's system-naming flippancy). Second-generation, but not first-generation, systems with the "iSeries" label will support the new operating system.