By Paul Howard
For many organizations, the need to add to or introduce security in order to meet regulatory compliance is seen as a serious burden being imposed upon them with no defined advantages. This article examines security from all angles and exposes how it can be perceived as an asset and/or a burden to an organization.

First, let's outline the views on how security can be construed as either a burden or an asset, and then we'll put the integration issues into perspective.

The browser is the successor to the 5250, but the rich client is its replacement.

By Joe Pluta

The 5250 turned the midrange computer into the indispensable component of the computer world. You can reasonably argue that interactive screens transformed data processing into information technology as we know it today. Prior to that, computers were about entering data and printing reports--data processing. It wasn't until green-screens made information available instantly to users that the idea of IT came into its own. It was a revolutionary event in the history of computers. We're poised at a similar point: while Web access through thin clients using technologies like JavaServer Faces is a (much-needed) evolutionary step, a true UI revolution is simmering under the surface and is ready to leap into the IT world. The technology has various names, from Web 2.0 to rich client, but the point is not what you call it but what you can do with it and how easily you can transform your existing business logic into new applications.

Best Practice = Best Skills + Best Processes + Best Solutions + Best Resources + Continuous Improvement

By Joan McKittrick

You have just been hired at an IBM i shop. You are the new kid on the block, and they have assigned you the project of searching for a particular tool that fits in the application development realm. I am not going to be specific here; the application could be change management, help desk, security, cross reference, or any other of at least 20 different categories. The big question is where to start.

The key to efficient management is the coordinated capture, storage, use, distribution, and retention of documents.

By Mark Firmin

What do a Las Vegas resort, an international consumer products manufacturer, a rust-belt industrial conglomerate, a public utility, and a distribution company have in common? Fundamentally, they share an abiding need for documents with which to do business and a system of records to keep track of them.