News

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR ABOUT iNEWSWIRE UK SUBSCRIPTIONS

A historic announcement and how to ensure that you continue to receive the iNEWSWire email newsletter in 2008.

Wed, 12 Dec 2007

IBM releases “serious game” for tomorrow’s business professionals.

IBM has launched Innov8, a video game designed to help university students and young professionals develop a combination of business and IT skills.
Wed, 12 Dec 2007

NetManage upgrades entire product suite

Application modernisation specialist NetManage has upgraded its entire product suite, including OnWeb Server, OnWeb for iSeries, OnWeb Web-to-Host, RUMBA, RUMBA FTP and ViewNow X Server.
Wed, 12 Dec 2007

Everton is latest Premiership team to score with System i

Everton FC is the latest Premiership football club to install IRIS Software4Sport’s System i-driven TALENT Sport stadium management solution.
Wed, 05 Dec 2007

System i Academic Initiative continues to expand

IBM’s System i Academic Initiative, announced in 2006 with the key intention of bringing new blood to the platform through forging partnerships with educational institutions and local businesses, is going from strength to strength.
Wed, 05 Dec 2007

Tindirect sets up midrange hardware engineers service

Tindirect has formalised its growing service area by launching a division called tinservices to meet the needs of  a skills gap.
Wed, 28 Nov 2007

IBM is server revenue top dog, but HP is No. 1 in terms of shipments

IBM continued to lead the worldwide server market in terms of revenue in the third quarter according to the latest figures from Gartner.

Wed, 28 Nov 2007

Aircraft engineer replaces Intel-based apps with System i and Lawson

Lawson Software has secured a major contract for its M3 7.1 application suite to run on an i5 model 520, supplied by Business Partner Syan and replacing Intel-based systems.

Tue, 20 Nov 2007

Are you ready for “cloud” computing?

IBM has announced that it is to follow up its attempts to commercialise models such as utility and grid computing with a “cloud” computing initiative.
Tue, 20 Nov 2007

Help/Systems builds web-based access into more Robot offerings

Help/Systems has released Robot Browser Interface 2.0, its web browser-based interface for its System i system management solutions.
Tue, 20 Nov 2007

System i suits Arcadia with WebFOCUS and DB2

Arcadia has improved business intelligence (BI) capabilities through utilising WebFOCUS and DB2 on its System i 570, according to a report from IBM.
Wed, 14 Nov 2007

POWER-driven Blue Gene/L is still supercomputing top dog

IBM’s POWER processor-driven Blue Gene/L supercomputer has set a new world record by topping the official TOP500 Supercomputer Sites list for the fourth year running.

Wed, 14 Nov 2007

Mrc adds Web 2.0 capabilities to development tool

Mrc has updated m-Power, its Java-based web-application development tool with a number of what it describes as Web 2.0 abilities.

Wed, 14 Nov 2007

RPG web services reuse strategy delivers new e-commerce solution

Looksoftware’s UK partner Simply Computing, working with its customer Alexandra plc, has delivered a new web-based procurement system driven in real-time by its RPG-based System i back-end.

Wed, 07 Nov 2007

BCD revamps web application development tool

System i application development tool provider Business Computer Design (BCD) yesterday revealed details of a new version of its WebSmart ILE web application development tool. BCD’s UK distributor is SoftLanding Europe.

Wed, 07 Nov 2007

Bytware launches online System i security game

System i systems management and security-focused company Bytware has created a viral marketing campaign designed to draw attention to PHP and security issues the open scripting language might bring to the System i world.

Wed, 31 Oct 2007

Even large firms need to allow for risks, says IBM survey

It is not just smaller businesses or even middle-ranking firms that are unprepared for disruption to their systems, according to a new survey from IBM.
Wed, 31 Oct 2007

IBM revenues up, but System i sales fall

IBM revealed its third quarter trading results last week and reported that its revenue from the System i had declined by 21% compared to the same period last year.
Wed, 24 Oct 2007

Big Blue presses home its green data centre message

IBM is continuing to focus on green computing. At this month’s Power and Cooling for Data Centres Summit 2007 conference in London, John Easton, senior consulting IT specialist and technical staff member, IBM systems & technology group infrastructure innovation, gave a presentation on energy efficiency in the data centre.
Wed, 24 Oct 2007

Last call for the Rochester Roadshow

This is the last call for our readers to take advantage of a special offer on the price of attending the Rochester Roadshow, which takes place at Brighton’s Old Ship Hotel on Tuesday, October 30, and Wednesday, October 31.
Wed, 24 Oct 2007

Avnet takes over the UK System i channel

Avnet has bought the enterprise infrastructure division (EID) of Magirus Group following approval from the European Commission, giving it a monopoly over System i hardware distribution in the UK.
Wed, 17 Oct 2007

UK System i supremo to speak on platform’s future at Rochester Roadshow

Mark Batchelor, IBM’s System i director for the UK, Ireland & South Africa, has been confirmed as the keynote speaker of this month’s Rochester Roadshow in Brighton. His topic will be the “Status of the System i marketplace and is my investment safe?”.

Wed, 17 Oct 2007

EASY VIEW 8.0 exports and transfers files

Help/Systems has released a new version of its System i database file display package, EASY VIEW 8.0. The updated version offers multiple options for exporting or transferring data.
Wed, 17 Oct 2007

IBM webcast to address Domino 8 furore

IBM has succumbed to pressure to explain its decision not to support the i5/OS version of DB2 to store Domino documents in Domino 8 and is due to host a webcast on the issue on Wednesday, November 14.
Wed, 10 Oct 2007

IT Impact makes in mark in the warehouse

A South Manchester System i specialist is helping firms get more out of their System 21 software.

Wed, 10 Oct 2007

Vision Solutions upgrades Director systems management solution

Vision Solutions has released a new version 7.0 of its Vision Director systems management solution aimed at the enterprise and SMB markets.
Wed, 10 Oct 2007

Major UK System i solution provider is merged with financials specialist

UK System i powerhouse Computer Software Group (CSG) has been merged with IRIS. As of Monday, October 1, the combined business became known as IRIS, with CSG’s System i-focused sport ticketing division now known as IRIS Software4Sport.
Wed, 03 Oct 2007

Events 1: Rochester Roadshow comes to Brighton at a bargain price for our readers.

The System i Rochester Roadshow is coming to Brighton at the end of October, courtesy of hosts COMMON UK and IBM, and our readers can attend for a bargain price.
Wed, 26 Sep 2007

Events 2: ASNA explains how to code with RPG in .NET environment

Also well worth a mention is ASNA’s one-day technical seminar on iSeries application modernisation in London on October 30. The purpose of this event is to present a live showcase demonstrating how, with ASNA’s technology, you can code with RPG in the .NET environment and also automate the transformation of current RPG applications to run in .NET
Wed, 26 Sep 2007

County Council runs i5/OS, Linux and AIX on System i in huge consolidation project

Working with Premier Business Partner REAL Solutions, Flintshire County Council has consolidated 18 physical servers to logical partitions on two System i 570s, and added Linux partitions to the same systems to handle the file serving workload, according to a report from IBM.
Wed, 26 Sep 2007

BOSaNOVA announces new tape drive with built-in encryption

BOSaNOVA has launched a new security product, the Q3i, a secure tape drive with built-in encryption to protect stored data for the System i and other platforms.
Wed, 26 Sep 2007

Norwegian bank’s London branch opts for System i and BladeCenter combo for major upgrade

With a need to support branch offices in several European countries with high-performance two-tier banking software and create new infrastructure within the physical and power limits of an existing data centre, DnB NOR Group has implemented Financial Objects’ ibis s2 international banking software.
Wed, 19 Sep 2007

Big Blue composes Symphony to take on MS Office

Just a week after finally joining the OpenOffice group, as we reported last week iNEWSWire UK, IBM yesterday launched Lotus Symphony, its own suite of free desktop applications.
Wed, 19 Sep 2007

Most European data centres failing to “go green”, says survey

The majority of European organisations have no firm plans for initiating greener data centres, according to a report released yesterday.
Wed, 19 Sep 2007

Crypto Complete automates field encryption

Linoma Software has released Crypto Complete, a solution for protecting sensitive data on the System i with encryption technology and integrated key management. The new product features automated encryption of fields within System i database files.

Wed, 19 Sep 2007

Raz-Lee Security announces new auditing, reporting and compliance capabilities

Raz-Lee Security has made enhancements to its iSecurity System i security and compliance product suite.


Wed, 12 Sep 2007

IBM to donate Notes code to Microsoft-busting OpenOffice

IBM has joined the OpenOffice community, it was announced on Monday. Although it has supported the open source rival to Microsoft’s ubiquitous Office suite for some time, this will mean that it will now actively contribute to the project that was founded by Sun Microsystems seven years ago and has that has attracted nearly 100 million downloads, according to its creators.
Wed, 12 Sep 2007

Industry consortium aims to remove “barrier” to System i modernisation

A joint initiative between Premier Business Partner and System i tools vendor LANSA and Avnet Partner Solutions, IBM’s largest distributor, is intended to remove barriers to System i modernisation. Together with three UK Business Partners -- Campbell Lee, Northdoor and Quattro Consulting -- the consortium aims to give gives systems a new “Lease of Life”.
Wed, 12 Sep 2007

IBM nanotechnology breakthrough offers glimpse of things to come

The boffins at Big Blue have offered another of their tantalising glimpses into the future of computing with the announcement of two major feats in the field of nanotechnology that could one day lead to new kinds of devices and structures built from a few atoms or molecules.

Wed, 05 Sep 2007

BOS bounces back in Britain and beyond

A rejuvenated BOS -- Better Online Solutions  -- is back in the UK and mainland Europe. The company management has changed, new technologies have been acquired and new partners are joining. While System i is focused in the marketing plan, diversification strategies also figure prominently.

Wed, 05 Sep 2007

Robot/SECURITY launched for managing System i security policies.

Help/Systems has released Robot/SECURITY, a new i5/OS security monitoring and auditing package that combines five tools in one package.
Wed, 05 Sep 2007

Java and .NET neck-a-neck for SOA, says survey

According to U.S. analyst Evans Data, the number of companies planning or executing service-oriented architecture (SOA) deployments on a Java platform increased slightly during the last six months while those planning to build SOA implementations on .NET decreased by almost 20%.

Wed, 29 Aug 2007

Northdoor launches System i modernisation service

Northdoor, an IT consultancy and provider of solutions primarily to the financial services industry, has launched a System i legacy modernisation service in the UK and Ireland. The service is intended to enable firms to unlock additional value and extended life from System i applications.
Wed, 29 Aug 2007

UK and Ireland shows signs of System i sales renaissance

The UK and Ireland were System i sales hot spots in the second quarter of this year, according to analyst IDC.
Wed, 29 Aug 2007

Zend widens PHP partnership with IBM beyond System i

At LinuxWorld San Francisco earlier this month, Zend Technologies announced a broadening of its partnership with IBM intending to boost growth of production-ready PHP applications.

Wed, 22 Aug 2007

Long-time System i stalwart snapped up by mainframe specialist

ASNA, one of the oldest System i independent software vendors, has been bought by BluePhoenix Solutions, a software and services vendor with a history in the mainframe market. The letter of intent covering the merger of the two companies was announced by BluePhoenix at the beginning of August, a day after the publicly-held company reported its financial results for the second quarter. 
Wed, 22 Aug 2007

The System i switchboard

Companies globally are lowering costs with ip telephony. But, hitherto, they’ve had to invest in several servers dedicated to running the technology. Now complexity has been taken out of the equation by running ip telephony on System i. Frank Booty analyses this new departure for the platform
Fri, 17 Aug 2007

IBM previews V6R1, announces i570 with POWER6, MySQL for i5/OS, and DB2 Web Query

Big Blue has previewed a key release of i5/OS -- V6R1 -- which is not expected until 2008 but which will feature significant new security, web services and virtualisation capabilities to help businesses get the most out of their IT operations. IBM has also announced the first System i offering to feature POWER6, the i570 to be available September 14 this year; MySQL for i5/OS and DB2 Web Query.
Wed, 01 Aug 2007

IBM to buy DataMirror

The battle for the System i high availability market took yet another unexpected twist yesterday when IBM announced that it intended to purchase DataMirror for around $161 million.

Wed, 18 Jul 2007

WebSmart PHP set to take off in the UK

WebSmart PHP, BCD Software’s new software for creating web-based PHP applications that run on i5/OS and other platforms, is downloadable as a beta release. Keen interest is being seen from the iSeries community.
Wed, 18 Jul 2007

Business leaders will suffer if they don’t grasp SOA, says IBM survey.

Whether or not you and your IT team have got your heads around service-oriented architecture (SOA),  your bosses will be missing a trick if they don’t embrace the concept, according to a survey just published by IBM.
Wed, 11 Jul 2007

Adnams brews up a web store with System i.

Suffolk-based brewer Adnams has launched an online store selling its beers plus a selection of wines, kitchenware and giftware direct to the general public. Running on System i and developed by Computer Software Group, the web store processes sales and payments automatically, saving time and money on administration.

Wed, 11 Jul 2007

Auto importer keeps tabs on staff with System i-powered RFID

IBM has released the details of a cutting edge System i-powered RFID project in the UK that uses WebSphere RFID Premises Server.
Wed, 04 Jul 2007

Match point to MIMIX for Wimbledon HA

Vision Solutions has signed a new agreement with The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) to supply its high availability (HA) solution MIMIX for the club’s business continuity needs. Providing critical backup during the Wimbledon tennis championship, the software runs across two System i model 520 machines.
Wed, 04 Jul 2007

Freshcook goes cordon bleu with System i.

At ready-meal specialist Freshcook, integrating information between different systems was causing administrative overheads to rise, customer demands for product traceability were expensive to meet by using manual processes, and full disaster recovery services were lacking. Solution? Use System i to run the Complete ERP package as the strategic business management platform.
Wed, 27 Jun 2007

The Power principle – is UK IT facing an energy crisis?

Back in May, in an report about IBM’s new POWER6 processors that are due to debut on the System i next year, I said that because the UK had a robust power intrastructure, IT managers didn't have to worry too much about electricity consumpion. Put, simply, I was wrong. And here's why.
Wed, 27 Jun 2007

Key mutual fund player goes for growth with two i570s

To significantly increase the capacity and processing power available to customers of its managed service, Mutual Fund Technologies has gone live with a dual i5 model 570 system complex. The Tonbridge, Kent-based firm provides transfer agency systems and software to the global mutual fund industry.
Wed, 20 Jun 2007

Nortel teams up with IBM for second System i IP telephony solution

The story of the System i’s latest incarnation as an IP telephony server took an unexpected turn last week when IBM announced a new deal with Nortel.
Wed, 20 Jun 2007

Vision buys Lakeview to create high availability giant

The battle for the System i high availability market took a new turn today with an announcement from Vision Solutions that it has bought long-time arch-rival Lakeview Technology.
Wed, 13 Jun 2007

Kent Reliance Building Society lays OfficeVision to rest

Ever since IBM announced OS/400 V4R5 was the last release to support its OfficeVision product, companies have been searching for an alternative solution. Many decided to continue using OfficeVision until it became critical to update the OS version of their iSeries. IBM may have announced a clear migration path but many companies took the opportunity to evaluate third-party products which often offered additional features and benefits while reducing costs.
Wed, 13 Jun 2007

Infor unveils System i Centre of Excellence

Infor has launched an online System i Centre of Excellence, a community populated by application development experts from within the company.
Wed, 13 Jun 2007

EMEA server market grows, but System i sales slip, says analyst

The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) server market experienced healthy growth in sales in the first quarter of 2007, but System i sales suffered, according to analyst IDC.
Wed, 06 Jun 2007

Academic Initiative goes from strength to strength

IBM’s System i Academic Initiative, announced last year with the key intention of bringing new blood to the platform through forging partnerships with educational institutions and local businesses, is going from strength to strength.
Wed, 06 Jun 2007

Typex wins community support award at COMMON Europe.

Things at the Newcastle offices of Typex Group have been hectic since Big Blue announced it had teamed up with 3Com to deliver IP Telephony (IPT) on the System i late last year. And last week, Typex won an award for System i innovation from COMMON Europe and IBM for community services.
Wed, 30 May 2007

Lax password security means one-in-three IT workers snoop on confidential data

The parlous state of internal IT security was highlighted yesterday with the publication of a survey that revealed that one in three tech workers admits to using special privileges to peek at colleagues’ confidential data.
Wed, 30 May 2007

New System p reveals shape of things to come for System i

In a joint London/New York launch on Monday, IBM provided an insight into the future of the System i when it unveiled a new model of its sister server, the System p 570.
Wed, 23 May 2007

Insurance companies choose Profound Logic modernisation tool

Ansvar, an ethical general insurance company specialising in insuring non-profit organisations, and Fortis Insurance in Eastleigh, part of the Fortis Group, have selected Profound Logic’s rapid web development system RPGsp supplied by Logicmate of London to run on their System i installations.
Wed, 23 May 2007

QMessage Monitor enhancements ease SOX storage issues and provide audit trail

Gillingham-based CCSS says that enhancements to its QMessage Monitor solution now provide users with a range of commands to combat the storage and management challenges that come with Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) compliance.
Wed, 23 May 2007