Monthly Archives: February 2012

LinkedIn Discussion: Getting a List of Power i/IBM i OS Hosting Vendors

In the IBM i Professionals group in LinkedIn Aaron Bartell has opened a discussion intended to create a list of vendors that offer IBM i OS partitions in the cloud. Or as Aaron puts it:

I was hoping we could start a list of vendors that offer IBM i OS in the cloud as a monthly lease service similar to how Amazon does its EC2 service, or how Hosting.com leases resources (i.e. hardware, OS, database, bandwidth, etc).

This is turning into a good discussion and a fair-sized list of vendors who host IBM i partitions. The discussion is now starting to turn to what happens when the thread ends and where can people go to get a compiled list of all the vendors. When I get information on the final list, I’ll try to let you know.

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BCD: New WebSmart 9.0 Client Side Update Now Available

BCD just announced that a new WebSmart 9.0 client side upgrade is available (Build r12383). Continue reading

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Partnerworld: IBM to Reward BPs and Distributors for Selling Hardware/Software Bundles

IBM announces two new programs at PartnerWorld aimed at rewarding Business Partners and Distrributors for selling bundled solutions: the Solutions Accelerator Initiative and the Solutions Accelerator Initiative for Distributors. Continue reading

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MC Press Online: 9 Tips to Implementing Advanced Barcodes

Tom Stockwell at MC Press Online has a nice article today on 9 Tips for Implementing Barcode and RF ID Systems.

Chances are good that a majority of IBM i shops have already implemented a solution for printing out standard bar code. However, just as many people also need to start thinking about advanced bar code technologies, such as Mobile Multi-Colour Composite Codes and coding for RF ID systems. This article is a good primer, if you’re just thinking about these applications.

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IT Jungle: Xerox Launches IAAS Cloud for Power Systems, Intel Servers

Per Alex Woodie at IT Jungle:

Unveiled last month, Xerox Cloud Services enables small and midsized businesses to run their IBM i, AIX, Windows, and Linux applications on servers owned and managed by Xerox and its IT services arm, formerly called ACS. The $21 billion IT services and printing giant is also allowing partners to white label the cloud offering to their own clients.

Good detail here, including Xerox’s belief that there’s a market place for more robust systems than just Intel in the cloud; other companies that provide IBM i cloud services; and why IBM itself hasn’t… Continue reading

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IT Jungle: How to Create IBM i Zip Files if You’re Not on i 7.1

In a recent column, Ted Holt of IT Jungle talked about the state of creating zip files on an IBM i machine.

First, Ted mentioned IBM’s new zip file APIs–QZipZip and QZipUnzip–that IBM added to i 7.1. While this is exciting news, many (most?) IBM i shops won’t be able to used these APIs because they aren’t on i 7.1.

So Ted did what any self-respecting IBM i programmer would do: he demonstrated a secondary way to work with zip files on IBM i 6.1 and i5/OS V5R4 systems…the Java Archive utility. Continue reading

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Steve Pitcher’s Lotus Activism Looks to Expand Collaboration Offerings on IBM i

Steve Pitcher is on a one-man campaign to bring all of IBM’s Collaborative Solutions to the IBM i platform. To that end, he’s asking as many people as possible to post the following plea on their Web sites and to register their support for bringing these products to IBM i.

Here’s Steve’s pitch. If you’re an IBM i enthusiast (and I think you know who are), read the following and go to Steve’s Web site if you agree with Steve’s pitch.

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Mochasoft Releases Mocha TN5250 Upgrade for WIndows 7.0

Mochasoft announced today that it is releasing version 2.0 of its Mocha TN5250 emulator for Windows 7.0. They twittered the announcement (@Mochasoft), but there’s no easily found press release on their Web site. The new release was also tweeted as a major bug fixing update.

This follows on the heels of the company releasing Mocha TN5250 for Mac OS X and Mocha TN5250 v1.9 for iPhone/iPad in January.

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IBM Releases Refreshed IBM i Presentations on the Web

Steve Will, the Chief Architect for IBM i, released some refreshed IBM i sales presentation slides that can be viewed (and downloaded) here. There are a lot of nice customer stories here as well as a lot of good informational … Continue reading

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IBM’s V5R4 End of Life Date…Too Long, Too Short, or Just Right?

After the exultation over IBM announcing end of life for V5R4 comes one dissenting voice:

In an article published today called IBM i V5R4 Deadline Still Too Soon, Mel Beckman of the System i Network argues that there are a fair number of customers who still can’t upgrade to V6R1 before September 30, 2013. When compared with these other long-lived products that are still supported, Mel says… Continue reading

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