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.

Finding the apps you want or need used to be challenging. Not anymore!

Written by Barry L. Kline

I have been writing about the benefits of Linux in business for over a decade. Web serving (simple pages and Web services), spam control, email distribution, integration with a Windows network—these are all fairly trivial to implement. UNIX and UNIX-like (e.g., Linux) operating systems have been handling infrastructure tasks since the early '80s, and for many IT managers, this long history has led to the typecasting of UNIX, in the same vein as Leonard Nimoy is typecast as his famous "Spock" character. This isn't to say that UNIX holds the same position in scientific circles, where it has historically been the operating system of choice for servers and workstations. But for the business types who typically use the iSeries in a network with Windows desktops, *nix is just part of the plumbing, much like our i5 is plumbing to the kids coming into IT who think that the world revolves around Microsoft. (Yeah, I'm old enough to call 'em kids).

It might be time to give this idea some serious consideration.

Written by Barry L. Kline

MSDOS begat Windows 1.0, which begat Windows 2.0, which begat Windows 3.0, which begat Windows 3.1, which begat Windows 95, which begat Windows 98, which begat Windows ME, which begat Windows NT, which begat Windows 2000, which begat Windows XP, which begat Windows Vista, and the list goes on.

Let's review the advantages of getting current.

Written by Jon Paris and Susan Gantner

We're not really "bleeding edge" people. Whenever a new version of one of our favorite tools comes along, we rarely update immediately. We let others suffer the "new release blues" for a month or three and then make the move once we are convinced that the release is stable and offers functionality that we want and need. Even then, Jon generally acts as the company's designated guinea pig, boldly going where Susan fears to tread. She takes the approach that when Jon has stopped swearing at something (yes, he does occasionally use words like "bother" as hard as that may be to believe) for three or four months, then it is probably safe for her to upgrade too.

It appears Microsoft has hit the PC operating system target with Windows 7. It's fast, intuitive, and secure, but what's in it for us IBM i professionals?

Written by Chris Peters

The reasoning for migration to Microsoft's latest version of its operating system is quite compelling, enough so that directors of traditional IBM i installations may decide the effort and expense of conversion is merited. This article examines the major benefits and significant limitations of migrating to Windows 7 in the IBM i environment as well as the requirements for its implementation.

What would you like to see in RPG and on the IBM i?

Written by Tom Snyder

I don't know about you, but I am very curious to see the new capabilities that will be available with the latest enhancements that will be coming on the IBM i. Here is my top 10 list of things that I would like to see in a new RPG and on the IBM i in general.

Experienced administrators who need a quick, basic introduction to AIX performance tuning will want this handy reference on their bookshelf.

Written by Barry L. Kline

For many years, the "i" and "p" platforms have been completely distinct, and as a result, those of us who spent most of our professional lives using the various incarnations of OS/400 may never have seen a pSeries running AIX. Given the recent merger of the iSeries and pSeries into the Power platform, that era may soon pass. It's just too darned easy to build an AIX partition and to migrate functions from i5/OS to a platform better suited for certain things, such as mail servers and Internet-based infrastructure. And of course, if you ever need to run Oracle, you'll have no choice but to use something other than i5, so why not leverage the hardware we've come to know and love?

PowerVM-enabled virtualization is a means to control costs, improve performance, and enhance IT flexibility.

Written by Henry Martinez

In a business environment that demands that we all find ways to do more with less, virtualization has been accurately promoted as delivering a number of benefits, including the following: