Lots of great tools are available to help you evaluate and manage performance.

Written by David Tansley

This article looks at some of the popular tools available to gather information. Based on that information, you can then implement performance-related changes if required.

When looking at performance issues, I tend to group them into the following categories:

• CPU bound
• Memory bound
• Disk access
• Network
• Process monitoring

Point and modification releases to IBM i have given way to the Technology Refresh, but nothing can replace a good program-maintenance strategy.

Written by Chris Smith

The term PTF, or "program temporary fix," has been part of the IBM vernacular for many years. It goes along with the conservative image Big Blue has cultivated of assigning a dignified term to what any other software developer would call a "bug fix." In years past, customers used to say that PTF stood for "permanent temporary fix" or "probably this fixes" since the PTF would become a permanent part of the software—if it actually fixed the customer-reported problem.

It's that time again! Microsoft has a new version of the .NET framework and Visual Studio. In this article, the most promising features and tools of Visual Studio 2011 are described.

Written by Chris Peters

In September, the good folks at Microsoft released an evaluation version of Visual Studio 2011, called Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview, together with .NET Framework 4.5. It appears that this release of Microsoft's flagship development environment is moving toward a somewhat revised and smarter model. The recently released VS platform indicates Microsoft has plans to provide Windows applications that are more touch-centric, intuitive, and device-aware.

How midsize businesses can addresses inherent challenges in today's competitive market by minimizing both costs and risk.

Written by IBM 

The following article is an extract from the white paper "ITG Executive Summary: Value Proposition for IBM Power Systems Servers and IBM i: Minimizing Costs and Risks for Midsize Businesses" available for download free from the MC White Paper Center.

The challenges faced by midsize businesses remain daunting. Weak markets, competitive pressures, cost-reduction mandates, and demands for greater operating efficiency and productivity are the norm in most industries. In many, globalization continues.

Information technology has become central to meeting these challenges. Even relatively small organizations now have enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence (BI), e-commerce, and other state-of-the-art systems. The number of "must have" solutions continues to expand.

Learn to evaluate the future viability and potential challenges of IBM i on Power Systems, as well as IBM legacy midrange systems, to determine your organization's strategy for the platform.

Written by Connectria Hosting

The following article is an extract from the white paper "Assess the Appropriateness of the iSeries/IBM i in My Business" available for download free from the MC White Paper Center.

Many organizations are apprehensive about buying or staying with the IBM i (iSeries) due to a perception that it is a dying platform.

"The perception is that it is older technology," says Jeff Lutgen, vice president of IT at Delta Dental of Wisconsin. "You need to look past that when evaluating this platform. We could move to a new system that is thought to be more current, but it may be more prone to downtime, be less efficient, and cost more overall," he says.

More than just an operating system, Linux has become a movement leading the open-source charge.

Written by Chris Smith

When IBM consolidated its midrange server platform in 2008, it was perceived largely as a convergence of the System i and System p, or AIX, operating systems onto a single hardware platform. The fact that Power Systems would also run Linux appeared as a somewhat gratuitous concession to the growing worldwide interest in open-source software, a trend that was a polar opposite to IBM's traditional proprietary architectures. More than three years later, Linux has emerged as the next up-and-coming star, its presence quietly creeping into embedded systems everywhere and onto enterprise servers in the world's largest organizations.

A new computer helps, but you can upgrade from Windows XP if you take the right steps.

Written by Chris Smith

There are certain days we look forward to with dread, whether they be today—tax day April 15—the day our daughter first takes the car out on her own, or the day we lose a good friend following a long illness. Included on that list of dreads is the day we migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7.

IBM continues to gain share in the UNIX market, so what does the future hold for AIX running on Power?

Written by Chris Smith

IBM's revenue share of the UNIX market shot up in the fourth quarter of 2010 to about 50 percent, and the company reestablished itself as the world's leading provider of servers.

Both Gartner and IDC released their estimates last week of how the world's leading server providers fared during the last quarter of 2010. While the numbers from each differed, both put IBM at the top for overall server revenue as well as for UNIX server revenue.