Maxed Out

Pair of Power System Reviews Trickle In

Chris Maxcer — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:36:24 GMT

By: Chris Maxcer
Have you reviewed your IBM Power System yet? I know, I know, it seems a bit weird because it’s not like an IBM Power System is a consumer product you find on some retail outlet site. Still, might enterprise-oriented reviews become useful down the road?

LongReach iPhone App Offers Secure Mobile File Management for IBM i

Chris Maxcer — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 23:50:50 GMT

By: Chris Maxcer
LANSA has announced the availability of LongReach, an Apple iOS mobile application for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch devices. LongReach is not dependent on LANSA’s technology stack. So what is LongReach, anyway? LongReach provides file and folder creation, management, and secure data transfer between mobile devices and IBM i servers.

With ‘DECO’ Code, Trim $400 Off COMMON 2012 in Anaheim

Chris Maxcer — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:16:35 GMT

By: Chris Maxcer
COMMON’s annual meeting is May 6-9, 2012, and if you register by December 31 with discount code "DECO" you’ll save $400.

New IBM Tool Uses POWER to Crush Commodity Server Architectures

Chris Maxcer — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:01:15 GMT

By: Chris Maxcer
The IBM Smarter Computing Workload Simulator tool reveals how Power Systems with POWER-based architectures can be vastly more efficient and cost effective than commodity x86-based architectures.

IBM Wants Power Systems Reviews

Chris Maxcer — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:49:34 GMT

By: Chris Maxcer
Whoa baby, IBM is actively soliciting IBM Power Systems user reviews! Maybe you’ve actually reviewed a system before, but I doubt it -- now is your chance for a little grassroots opinion sharing. Of course, alongside the Power Systems hardware, IBM is looking for reviews on System z and its storage systems, too.

IBM: From Tech Provider to Global Leader?

Chris Maxcer — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:28:46 GMT

By: Chris Maxcer
I don’t know if outgoing IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano is a stirring speaker or if he has excellent speechwriters or what, but the keynote address he gave in Rio earlier this month at the SmarterCities forum works pretty well online in print.

IBM i Users Speak Out in New IBM Video

Chris Maxcer — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:43:52 GMT

By Chris Maxcer
IBM has posted its client experience video that it was filming at COMMON earlier this year--attendees to the conference likely remember seeing IBM filming individual attendees in a section on the Expo floor. IBM had a professional film crew on site, and it shows in the finished product--itâ€™s well worth five minutes of your time to watch it. The IBM i â€œA system designed for businessâ€ splash page describes the video and links to it on YouTube, but weâ€™ve also embedded for you below:

Ginni Rometty to Become Next IBM CEO in January

Chris Maxcer — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:46:49 GMT

By: Chris Maxcer
The IBM board of directors has elected Virginia a.k.a. â€œGinniâ€ M. Rometty president and chief executive officer of the company, effective January 1, 2012. She was also elected a member of the board of directors. Rometty is currently IBM senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy. She will succeed Sam Palmisano, who currently is IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. Palmisano will remain chairman of the board, IBM announced yesterday. â€œGinni Rometty has successfully led several of IBMâ€™s most important businesses over the past decade -- from the formation of IBM Global Business Services to the build-out of our Growth Markets Unit,â€ Palmisano noted. â€œBut she is more than a superb operational executive. With every leadership role, she has strengthened our ability to integrate IBMâ€™s capabilities for our clients. She has spurred us to keep pace with the needs and aspirations of our clients by deepening our expertise and industry knowledge. Ginniâ€™s long-term strategic thinking and client focus are seen in our growth initiatives, from cloud computing and analytics to the commercialization of Watson. She brings to the role of CEO a unique combination of vision, client focus, unrelenting drive, and passion for IBMers and the companyâ€™s future. I know the board agrees with me that Ginni is the ideal CEO to lead IBM into its second century.â€ The news hasnâ€™t seemed to surprise any industry analysts familiar with IBMâ€™s top executive leadership. A possible successor could have been Steven Mills, senior vice president and group executive of IBMâ€™s Software & Systems division. Mills, however, is 60 years old, which happens to be the traditional retirement age for IBM CEOs. As for Rometty, no doubt weâ€™ll be hearing from her a lot on in the future. Of her new role, she noted, â€œThere is no greater privilege in business than to be asked to lead IBM, especially at this moment. Sam had the courage to transfo

Perry on PHP from the 'Hard Cuts' File

Chris Maxcer — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:03:18 GMT

By: Chris Maxcer
In addition to the recent news about the new Zend DBi database for IBM i and IBMâ€™s ongoing investment in PHP, Iâ€™ve been reaching out to industry experts for their take on PHP in our industry these days. The bulk of that content will appear in the November issue of System iNEWS magazine, but whenever I work on a larger article, especially one thatâ€™s slated for print, I have to make some hard choices to leave out some good points, tips, and explanations. Fortunately, I can share online, so hereâ€™s this nugget of advice from Trevor Perry, who, incidentally, was just named an IBM Champion for Power Systems. Perry, of course, is a well-known consultant and speaker on modernization and IT strategy. Back to PHP Getting to the web has always been a question for IBM i developers, Perry told me, noting that many IBM i shops want to do it on their own, without using third-party tools. Of course, one way is by using PHP: â€œMy recommendation has always been a phased approach to using PHP. Start by delivering information using PHP accessing your IBM i DB2 database. Use this approach to replace reports and queries, and to add quicker means of accessing data from anywhere. Since PHP delivers an HTML application, companies can deliver more information outside of their 5250 applications using PHP. With the free Zend Studio for IBM i tools, programmers can code PHP applications quickly; however, take care when using third-party productivity tools--the stable of PHP tools in the IBM i world is lacking some maturity. I have seen IBM i shops develop their own frameworks and templates quicker than using specialized PHP development tools. The next phase will depend on the companyâ€™s modernization roadmap. If there are other tools or approaches to deliver the legacy IBM i applications, integrating the PHP and legacy applications will be the next step. If the desire is to reengineer or replace the legacy applications, then PHP may become the development language of choice. W

Zend, IBM Secure Future of PHP on IBM i

Chris Maxcer — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:15:07 GMT

By: Chris Maxcer
For years, IBM and Zend had been collaborating to offer all the tooling and server editions necessary to run PHP on IBM i. Now the two companies have extended their relationship and commitment, and perhaps more importantly, Zend has committed to create a new drop-in replacement for MySQL on IBM i, which is an answer to Oracleâ€™s move to freeze the MySQL code from future support. The new database, Zend DBI, will shipped with IBM i OS as well as freely available for independent download. â€œFor the past five years, IBM and Zend have collaborated successfully to deliver a PHP-based, open-source ecosystem around the IBM i platform,â€ Zend CEO Andi Gutmans says. â€œBy providing an enterprise-ready PHP technology stack, we enable IBM i users to leverage open and industry standard solutions while keeping their web and mobile workloads on existing IBM i systems where databases, business logic, and legacy applications reside. Users can modernize their business-critical applications with PHP -- and avoid the costly and time-consuming burden of having to shift workloads to an alternative platform,â€ he notes. Hereâ€™s the basic details: IBM will continue to ship Zend Server for IBM i with the IBM i operating system. Zend will continue to provide the first year of Zend Server support at no additional charge. Zend will continue to make Zend Studio for IBM i available to IBM i users, along with the first year of support, at no charge. Enhanced support subscriptions for Zend Server and Zend Studio will continue to be available through Zend. A GA release of Zend Server 5.5 for IBM i will be available by year end. This release will: offer key application deployment and IT automation features that help bridge the gap between development and operations teams support rapid application delivery and auto-scaling of enterprise PHP applications The XML Toolkit developed by IBM and Zend* will be generally available with Zend Server 5.5 for IBM i (availa