System iNetwork

January 8, 2008

2007 Showed System i Market is Lively, Part I

As we head into 2008, we can definitely say that the year we're leaving behind showed plenty of future promise for the System i market, particularly in regards to the new products that became available. Here's a quick recap of some of the most interesting and useful brand-new products that debuted in 2007. We'll review some of the more significant product upgrades here next week.

Zend Corporation's PHP was one of the big stories of the year as that language made a place for itself in System i developers' workbenches. Business Computer Design International (BCD) took the lead among development-tool companies in providing a means for easy entry to the PHP world with WebSmart PHP. This product runs on top of Zend Core and offers many features that simplify web application development for the System i using PHP. As you'd expect from any development tool, there are design and coding tools for Visual HTML and PHP, more than 50 intelligent templates for accessing databases, wizards and code snippets, built-in prompts, and source-code coloring options. Possibly most useful for beginners was WebSmart PHP's context-sensitive help with direct links to assistance on Zend's website and embedded documentation for more than 5,000 PHP functions.

BCD wasn't the only company to produce a PHP workbench, however, as System Objects presented Delphi/400 for PHP the following month. This PHP IDE runs on Linux, Unix, and Windows partitions as well as i5/OS to support web app development. Delphi/400 for PHP includes HTML page templates, visual components for building multitab input forms, and, like WebSmart PHP, can access both DB2 and MySQL databases.

Of course, PHP isn't the only option for web development, just the newest. Profound Logic Software launched Genie, a webfacing tool that generates graphical versions of legacy apps built in RPG, Cobol, and CL for web use among other options. Genie works on the fly, can convert apps on its own but enables customization, and lets developers pick and choose between application screens to be converted or customized. Another useful Genie feature is that it lets developers choose between using client-side Java scripts or a server-side automation language for navigating through applications. For those still committed to CGI for web development, CoralTree Systems offered The Renaissance Framework, an open-source workbench for building and deploying secure CGI-based web apps under V5R3 or higher. Framework combines elements of JavaScript, HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, and ILE RPG to produce a tool with a browser interface that generates apps using the Model-View-Controller architecture.

If someone were giving a prize for most new products launched in a year, our busy friends at NewGeneration Software (NGS) would win it hands down. Throughout the second half of year the company launched various parts of its Decision Assist business-intelligence suite. These consist of Financial Performance, a financial-analytics app; Business Performance, a business-analytics solution; and Healthcare, a BI product for hospitals and other medical facilities. All three include a built-in web portal and executive dashboards, multidimensional modeling, and direct output to MS Excel, and use a System i-resident DB2 datamart. As if that weren't enough, NGS also produced IQ Client, a query development module for its entire family of BI products, and a Query/400 API for its NGS-IQ product line. Hey guys, it's okay to take a day off once in a while!

Security was probably the hottest area for new applications in 2007. Help/Systems, after some long and careful development, authored Robot/SECURITY, a watchdog component for its Robot automated operations suite. Four of the product's five modules monitor exit points, conduct security audits, keep an eye on journal events, and enable PC-based forensic analysis. The fifth lets system managers adopt a new tactic for giving users who need one or two special privileges once in a while by automating temporary swaps with special user profiles that have special authorities, but only on an as-needed basis.

Data-specific security got a boost from three vendors. Linoma Software's Crypto Complete lets enterprises implement database-field encryption with up to 256-bit encryption keys without requiring application-code field expansion and includes a key-management feature. Applied Logic Corporation's Pro/Encrypt similarly offers data encryption with up to 256-bit keys for databases, files and files groups, and whole libraries. On the auditing side, Kisco Information Systems unveiled iFileAudit, which uses file-audit journals to keep track of changes (and who or what made them) to fields and files in native databases.

P.A. Townsend & Associates made an announcement that was key in a literal sense. It cooperated with NCipher to port that company's keyAuthority product to the System i, an application that lets users generate and manage encryption keys for a wide variety of functions. Townsend also launched Alliance LogAgent for the System i, a security compliance solution for mixed-platform environments that extracrts security information from a variety of locations, formats them to meet the Syslog events open standard, then transmits them to a multiplatform system-log server application. NuBridges LLC provided Secure Transaction Manager, which lets business partners exchange high volumes of files via any protocol in a secured environment.

Hand-in-glove with security is user authentication, and System i users got some new options in this area in 2007. I/O Concepts rolled out SecurITe, a standalone user-authentication server that's System i-compatible but controls system access for multiple platforms. The PowerTech Group offered up Password Control, an application that enforces strong password policies on System i servers and that includes a dictionary of first names, terms from pop culture, and other weak passwords it won't allow users to enter.

Rounding out the most utilitarian of the 2007 security products are two from BOSaNOVA that focus on the problem of unencrypted backup tapes. The Q3 Storage Security Encryption Appliance attaches to System i tape drive ports and encrypts all data written to tape. The Q3i is a secure tape drive with this function built in for tape drives using Linear Tape Open 1, 2, or 3 capabilities.

Four products don't quite fit in any of the areas I've already covered, but I want to be sure to mention them. Advanced BusinessLink's Strategi mobileACCESS, technically released late in 2006, is helpful as a 5250 emulation solution for mobile communications devices and optimized for large-scale applications. Teamstudio's Usage Monitor, although it only works for systems using Lotus Domino, tracks usage metrics for all of an enterprise's applications. Shield Advanced Solutions introduced Receiver Apply Program/400, a journal receiver-based disaster-recovery solution for System i environments using LPARs. Profound Logic Software, already mentioned, released iData, a browser-based database access and editing tool.

I'll conclude with a summary of some of the most feature-laden general software applications released in 2007. SugarCRM ported Sugar Enterprise, a customer-relationship management application that can use MySQL databases and Zend's PHP on the System i and that also lets users customize their customer-facing business processes. EXTOL rolled out the EXTOL EDI Appliance, which is based on the System i Express model 515 and provides all software applications and connections needed for secure participation in electronic data interchange via legacy applications that aren't already EDI-enabled. Infor Global Solutions delivered Infor ERP XA MES Suite, a manufacturing execution system for the System i that integrates ERP, MRP, and shop-floor control activities. Lawson Software initiated Lawson QuickStep for Distribution, a preconfigured ERP app for distribution companies on the System i and other platforms. CYBRA Corporation added EdgeMagic to its product line, an integrated radio frequency identification (RFID) application that integrates with ERP and warehouse-management apps and manages edge devices and RFID readers. EMC's Documentum Process Suite is a business process-management application with server-side components that run on the System i. LANSA made available LANSA Composer, a business-process integration application for System i machines running the Java Virtual Machine.

The System i market will remain strong and vibrant as long as vendors are out there providing products such as these that solve business problems and save users time and effort.

Posted by at January 8, 2008 12:59 PM