Data replication chores are a snap with the new MERGE T-SQL statement.

By Michael Sansoterra

Released in August 2008, SQL Server 2008 is the latest incarnation of Microsoft's flagship database platform. While there are some cool new features for developers, there is one for DB2 developers that deserves special mention: the new Transact SQL (T-SQL) MERGE statement. MERGE will be useful to any IBM i (aka AS/400, iSeries, System i) shop that needs to replicate DB2 for i (formerly known as DB2 for i5/OS and DB2/400) data to SQL Server. This includes shops that use SQL Server for reporting, data warehousing. and application data sharing.

Everyone loses data sooner or later, but preparation can serve as inexpensive insurance.

By Chris Smith

Have you ever noticed how some of the most interesting stuff winds up in your junk email folder?

Emails come in from all over the world and wind up right there in your personal email junk folder. These messages, written usually in variants of English, though I have seen some in Chinese, promise everything from great jobs, where you will have to work only two or three hours a day, to relationships with lonely women who supposedly got your name somewhere, to flawless replica watches, to human growth products designed to make you more appealing in a world where size matters.

Message automation eliminates the "noise" in managing your System i.

By Tom Huntington

Do you monitor the QSYSOPR message queue manually? Do you want to develop a list of responses to messages in your system's message queues? Do you want to consolidate your console workstations? Do you need to monitor your HA product?

The System i (iSeries) is message-driven. Application failures, security errors, system management issues, hardware problems, print errors--just about everything generates error messages to QSYSOPR.

Disparate data can inhibit value creation, but data integration best practices allow organizations to fully leverage the inherent value in their information resources.

By John Gay

Silos of disparate data plague many companies. The reasons for the data diversity vary: organizations may run best-of-breed applications on the most appropriate platform for each product; in the days of client/server computing, the responsibility for choosing applications may have been decentralized, with different departments choosing different platforms; a merged company may use a variety of different applications, keeping separate some of the formerly individual companies' activities and the software that supports those parallel activities, while choosing the best of the predecessor companies' applications to serve those business functions that are merged. And the list goes on.