As the economy wanes, IBM Global Financing serves up good year-end news for the SMB sector, while jobs decline and fraud plagues H-1B.
By Maria A. DeGiglio
While the topics covered in this article could not be more disparate, they do demonstrate that we live in a global economy, in which an event or action--wherever it occurs--can have a kinetic impact upon the entire world.
Though reported revenues of older System i servers are down, the replacement Power Systems servers are doing well.
By Chris Smith
IBM announced new hardware and software offerings this month just before it released its third-quarter financial results. On all fronts, the company appears to be doing well, but there continues to be a question regarding sales of servers running IBM i, or the good old AS/400 to industry vets.
Just to recap, the company's total revenues for the quarter were up 5 percent over the same period last year to $25.3 billion....
New V4 is all about supporting better decision-making by supplying timely and more accurate information in a personalized way.
By Chris Smith
IBM Cognos last week released a new version of IBM Cognos 8 business intelligence software that is intended to help push more timely, accurate information into the hands of business users and better align the roles of the IT and finance departments to achieve a more efficiently running business.
V4 of Cognos 8 has been under development a relatively short time. V3 was released less than a year ago, but V4 has some impressive new features that allow users to determine what information they get, based on personal preferences and job requirements, thereby freeing IT from having to generate an endless stream of reports based on individual needs.
A recent survey shows limited awareness, constrained usage.
By Ron Exler
Small and midsize business (SMB) executives have significant challenges in today's economy, including finding and keeping customers, controlling costs, and positioning for growth. Technology must support those objectives if they want SMB executives to pay attention.
According to the research firm Saugatuck Technology, which focuses on emerging enterprise technologies, Software as a Service (SaaS) refers to "software provided and used in a utility computing context, where the services provider delivers the functionality of the application or utility infrastructure software over a network, through a services interface. Typically this functionality is sold via a subscription model, or on a utility-style, "pay as you go" (PAYG), or per unit, basis." Saugatuck believes SaaS is becoming ubiquitous--and is affecting nearly all solution sectors, industries, and business and IT functions. According to IDC, SaaS software revenues doubled between 2006 and 2008, with it taking as much as 5 percent of the total software market. Gartner says that by 2012 more than two-thirds of independent software vendors will offer their applications as SaaS solutions.
But it's not due to colliding protons in Switzerland.
By Chris Smith
IBM announced last week that it has been working with Microsoft, EMC Corp., and several other companies for the past two years to develop a specification using Web services and Web 2.0 interfaces that will try to allow applications to work with a variety of enterprise content management (ECM) repositories.
Development teams continue to enhance Symphony as IBM bundles it with Lotus Notes and Sametime in a move to edge Microsoft off the desktop.
By Chris Smith
IBM Lotus released V1.1 of Symphony last week, a release that runs significantly faster than the earlier V1.0 and features mail-merge functions using .nsf files.
Users had been waiting for some time for the ability to do a direct mail merge between a document and their Notes Contacts address book or other Notes database file without going through a time-consuming file conversion. This will further enhance the value of Symphony for Notes users, many of whom still switch back and forth between Notes and Microsoft Office (including this reporter). Others simply forego the Notes Contacts (Personal Name and Address Book in 7.X) altogether in favor of Microsoft Outlook.
Battle lines form around who will dominate emerging rich Internet applications.
By Chris Smith
As the 2008 Summer Olympics fade into memory and the athletes bring home the gold from what is being dubbed the "great haul of China," technophiles are noting the win that Microsoft scored at the games through its successful trial of Silverlight, which millions of users have now downloaded onto their computers.
The emerging open mobile platform promises a wealth of opportunities for developers and may quench longings for Apple's tempting touch-screen device.
By Chris Smith
Psychologists this summer have identified a new emotional syndrome spreading among IT professionals: it's called iPhone-envy.
Thankfully, both the "other" kind of envy--identified by Freud at the turn of the 20th Century as occurring among young girls when they realize they don't have the equipment that their brothers possess--and iPhone-envy are treatable! With the "other" kind of envy (which, to be honest, has today been largely discredited), the girl eventually grows up, transfers her interest from her father to an older guy with a Harley, gets married, and lives happily ever after (right!).
If your business is thinking about modernizing your legacy IBM i (also known as AS/400 or iSeries) applications, you will want to read this white paper first!
Download this paper and learn how Node.js can ensure that you:
- Modernize on-time and budget - no more lengthy, costly, disruptive app rewrites!
- Retain your IBM i systems of record
- Find and hire new development talent
- Integrate new Node.js applications with your existing RPG, Java, .Net, and PHP apps
- Extend your IBM i capabilties to include Watson API, Cloud, and Internet of Things
Read Node.js for Enterprise IBM i Modernization Now!
More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation.
Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects.
The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the companyare not aligned with the current IT environment.
Get your copy of this important guide today!
2022 marks the eighth edition of the IBM i Marketplace Survey Results. Each year, Fortra captures data on how businesses use the IBM i platform and the IT and cybersecurity initiatives it supports.
Over the years, this survey has become a true industry benchmark, revealing to readers the trends that are shaping and driving the market and providing insight into what the future may bring for this technology.
Brunswick is the leader in bowling products, services, and industry expertise for the development and renovation of new and existing bowling centers and mixed-use recreation facilities across the entertainment industry. However, the lifeblood of Brunswick’s capital equipment business was running on a 15-year-old software application written in Visual Basic 6 (VB6) with a SQL Server back-end. The application was at the end of its life and needed to be replaced.
With the help of Visual LANSA, they found an easy-to-use, long-term platform that enabled their team to collaborate, innovate, and integrate with existing systems and databases within a single platform.
Read the case study to learn how they achieved success and increased the speed of development by 30% with Visual LANSA.
When it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed.
Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:
Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.
In this white paper, you’ll learn how to think of these issues as opportunities rather than problems. We’ll explore motivations to migrate or modernize, their risks and considerations you should be aware of before embarking on a (migration or modernization) project.
Lastly, we’ll discuss how modernizing IBM i applications with optimized business workflows, integration with other technologies and new mobile and web user interfaces will enable IT – and the business – to experience time-added value and much more.
Having trouble getting management approval for modernization projects? The problem may be you're not speaking enough "business" to them.
This Developer Kit provides you study-backed data and a ready-to-use business case template to help get your very next development project approved!
IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators is small.
This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn:
Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. In Part 2, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Attend this webinar to learn:
In this session, IBM i security expert Robin Tatam provides a quick recap of IBM i security basics and guides you through some advanced cybersecurity techniques that can help you take data protection to the next level. Robin will cover:
Don't miss this chance to take your knowledge of IBM i security beyond the basics.
In today’s threat landscape, upper management is laser-focused on cybersecurity. You need to make progress in securing your systems—and make it fast.
There’s no shortage of actions you could take, but what tactics will actually deliver the results you need? And how can you find a security strategy that fits your budget and time constraints?
Join top IBM i security expert Robin Tatam as he outlines the five fastest and most impactful changes you can make to strengthen IBM i security this year.
Your system didn’t become unsecure overnight and you won’t be able to turn it around overnight either. But quick wins are possible with IBM i security, and Robin Tatam will show you how to achieve them.
Malicious programs can bring entire businesses to their knees—and IBM i shops are not immune. It’s critical to grasp the true impact malware can have on IBM i and the network that connects to it. Attend this webinar to gain a thorough understanding of the relationships between:
There are a number of ways you can minimize your exposure to viruses. IBM i security expert Sandi Moore explains the facts, including how to ensure you're fully protected and compliant with regulations such as PCI.
DB2 Field Procedures (FieldProcs) were introduced in IBM i 7.1 and have greatly simplified encryption, often without requiring any application changes. Now you can quickly encrypt sensitive data on the IBM i including PII, PCI, PHI data in your physical files and tables.
Watch this webinar to learn how you can quickly implement encryption on the IBM i. During the webinar, security expert Robin Tatam will show you how to:
Despite the many options IBM has provided to protect your systems and data, many organizations still struggle to apply appropriate security controls.
In this webinar, you'll get insight into how the criminals accessed these systems, the fallout from these attacks, and how the incidents could have been avoided by following security best practices.
You will learn the steps you can take to avoid the mistakes made in these examples, as well as other inadequate and misconfigured settings that put businesses at risk.
When it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed.
Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:
The Biggest Mistakes in IBM i Security
Here’s the harsh reality: cybersecurity pros have to get their jobs right every single day, while an attacker only has to succeed once to do incredible damage.
Whether that’s thousands of exposed records, millions of dollars in fines and legal fees, or diminished share value, it’s easy to judge organizations that fall victim.
Join this webinar to learn about the biggest errors made when securing a Power Systems server.
This knowledge is critical for ensuring integrity of your application data and preventing you from becoming the next Equifax. It’s also essential for complying with all formal regulations, including SOX, PCI, GDPR, and HIPAA
Watch Now.
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Robot automates the routine tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:
- Simplified backup procedures
- Easy data encryption
- Save media management
- Guided restoration
- Seamless product integration
Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Try the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution FREE for 30 days.
Managing messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events?
Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:
- Automated message management
- Tailored notifications and automatic escalation
- System-wide control of your IBM i partitions
- Two-way system notifications from your mobile device
- Seamless product integration
Try the Robot Message Management Solution FREE for 30 days.
Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing.
Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:
- Automated report distribution
- View online without delay
- Browser interface to make notes
- Custom retention capabilities
- Seamless product integration
Rerun another report? Never again. Try the Robot Report Management Solution FREE for 30 days.
For over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i.
Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:
- Automated batch, interactive, and cross-platform scheduling
- Event-driven dependency processing
- Centralized monitoring and reporting
- Audit log and ready-to-use reports
- Seamless product integration
Scale your software, not your staff. Try the Robot Job Scheduling Solution FREE for 30 days.
