Not sure you want to buy? Take it for a test-drive!

Written by Greg Hintermeister

When evaluating systems management software, it can be very easy to focus on the low-level technical details to decide if it can provide your business with what is required to make your data center run smoothly. However, at some point, you need to ask yourself the question: "Does this software support the real-world scenarios I need to make my business better?" In this article, I describe some of the features that IBM Systems Director provides to help you decide where it fits in your data center's future.

Eliminate expensive, error-prone manual checking of system health.

Written by Martin Norman

Editor's Note: This article is extracted from the white paper "51 Things You Can Automate on Your System i (iSeries)—and Prove Return on Investment," which can be downloaded free from the MC Press White Paper Center.

When you're running busy System i (iSeries) machines, many important events can happen that do not generate a systems message on the operating system. Because a message is not generated, these things are never brought directly to your attention. More importantly, these events can lead to holdups in processing or even that cardinal sin: unscheduled downtime.

Nearly 1,500 register to hear Soltis webcast where Vision Solutions introduces upgraded Vision Director.

Written by Chris Smith

Your system is running slower than it should and you're using up DASD faster than you can afford. What to do about it? a) Throw yourself on your spear and spend hours every week cleaning and optimizing your computer; b) Hire a consultant to come in and do it for you at company expense, or c) Find a reliable tool that will run constantly in the background and automatically optimize your system for you. Let's see—that's a tough choice! 

The problem of maintaining an optimized System i or Power System was addressed last Thursday by Vision Solutions and guest speaker Dr. Frank Soltis, considered the father of the AS/400, and a member of the Vision Advisory Board. The webcast, titled "Critical Tips to Get the Most from Your System i," was held to increase awareness of the need for system optimization in advance of the company's release next month of V8 of Vision Director, a system monitoring and optimization tool that has been significantly upgraded in the forthcoming release. Nearly 1,500 viewers registered for the webcast, which is available online for replay.

IBM's new feature in PowerVM Enterprise Edition takes configuring, but once you set it, you can forget it.

By Chris Smith

One of the visions that IBM has for Power Systems within the enterprise is to maximize utilization of server resources through virtualization. One of the more interesting technology announcements to emerge from COMMON this year is support for Active Memory Sharing in PowerVM.

Getting System i Access for Web up and running in your business isn't hard. Here's how!

By Linda Hirsch

System i Access for Web enables users to access their IBM i resources and applications through a browser interface. Users can upload PC data to DB2 for IBM i, query and download database information, start a 5250 interface, work with printer output, and more. The product is running entirely on your IBM i. The only requirement on the desktop is a browser, and no applets are running in the browser. Therefore, the product has lots of appeal for administrators: best of all, you don't have to deal with the installation and maintenance of client desktop software. The product can be used from any desktop or device that has a browser, so your users with mobile devices or Mac, Linux, or other operating systems can get at IBM i resources through the Web interface.

Mobile Measurement Technology pinpoints data center energy leaks.