IBM

DAOS Estimator from IBM for Lotus Domino 8.5

If you are paying attention then IBM has recently delivered Lotus 8.5, and let me be the last to tell you. It’s good. It’s really good. It’s on pace for being the best thing since R5 (R5 was a huge leap forward at the time.)

There is a new Domino Attachment Object Service that looks at email with attachments and removes them, places a link in the mail and stores them centrally on the Domino Server. The DAOS is a huge step in the right direction and places Domino and Lotus on par with being the best darmed mail server and client combo alive right now.

For those, like me, who can’t upgrade to 8.5 today, you can download the DAOS Estimator for every OS that Domino runs on and find out what your saving will look like. Lotus and IBM project it’s well into the 40 - 50 % mark, and this is what people have been reporting(LINK1 LINK2).

LINK :: Download the Domino Attachment and Object Service Estimator Tool version 1.2

Note: You don’t have to have 8.5 installed on the server for it to work. All you have to do is install the tool from IBM.

COMMON giving back - 5K Race/Walk & Blood Drive

You will not catch me at the blood drive. I have a fear of needles and blood and while I am typing this I am breaking out in a cold sweat. I know it’s ok to see blood and needles are just medicines great technological advances, but I must have been a CIVIL WAR solider reincarnate who had one of those half in needles and lost a limb, because I hate them all.

On the other side, I am also not a runner, but I would like to try to run all 5K of it. I am getting in shape and would love to see a good turn out for the event. So sign up now and race me to the end. I am planning on winning it. Wouldn’t that be grand, 5′11′ stout man from NC wins 5K technology race…I can smell the gatorade already!

LINK :: COMMON Cares - 5K Run/Walk and Blood Drive

Public Service :: COMMON is coming to RENO

Are you going to be in RENO? I am!

COMMON is having it’s convenetion in RENO and you need to be there. If you are an IBM i or an AIX person looking for POWER solutions, please come to the COMMON Annual Meeting in RENO, NV this year. We would love to have you.

LINK :: COMMON in RENO

January 2009 - Wrap up and Thoughts

Well January 2009 is over. Time is flying and the economy is not getting much better is it? It’s getting harder to work harder when you are seeing people loose their jobs. I hate it when the economy goes to the crapper. I don’t like it one bit, and the media, in my opinion, is not helping. They are not reporting anything but news that would make a normal well mannered person want to go jump off a bridge. I am not suggesting you do that but why can’t the media report something other than bad bad bad all the time.

We have a running joke in our house when the news is on, you can almost her them saying, if you watch this news your family could die, and we all just laugh. The truth is the media never wants to report the fuzzy, happy, stories. I think it kills them.  I would like to see one day a week when the media does not make me want to turn the news off with all the bad news and do some good news.

I am also tired of companies keeping on CEOs that make millions and all this while the company is tanking and they get to lay off  5000 people. Hey CEO person, cut you and your EXECS salary down to 100K a year and then start cutting jobs. The way I see it we can either fire one $5 million a year EXEC or 300 people. Hummm. I will keep the 300 people who work hard and really need the money and let the one do nothing exec. figure it out. I get tired of hearing about bonuses too from companies that were telling us they needed a hand out 6 months ago and passed out money to retain executives. You have to be kidding me?

I hope the economy comes back soon and I hope all the people I know who don’t have work find some. How can we solve this economic problem. We can spend a little. I really don’t think it’s as bad as the government says it is either. We were out tonight trying to find a place to eat and every place was packed. The shops were packed and the mall was busy. Nothing but big companies seem to be doing bad who miss managed money and kept on to many high payed execs.

I also can’t wait to be in RENO and here what fancy story IBM has worked up as to why the IBM i and POWER Systems sales numbers are all off. Who will they blame? I am sure no System i’ and iSeries servers are coming off lease in 2009, they all somehow came off last year and none of them are going to be delivered this year?  While IBM lays off people they still fail to know how to sell some of the best hardware in the business. Funny DELL and HP are figuring it out and they are putting Windows onto their server and they still sell? What is the IBM i missing that it can’t seem to fly of the shelves at IBM? Sales staff? NO! Price? Maybe? Commitment from IBM? Maybe? A one sentence tag line? YES? How about CIOs and IT Managers who undrstand it and can order it today and get it next week? YES, we need that.

Why can’t I order an IBM i from IBM today and get it by next Friday? WHY?

You don’t have to answer I know it already and plan to ask it in RENO!

IBM Power Systems Technical University

LINK :: IBM Power Systems Technical University

This information came to me via Joe Lundy, thanks Joe! If you are in Denver and need to contact an IBM rep about POWER System or you need an AIX Guru, Joe is your man. Here is his contact info:

Joe Lundy
I/T Specialist, Power Systems
IBM Server Group, Denver CO
(303) 773-5725, TL 656-5725

Details about the University:

The IBM Power Systems Technical University featuring IBM AIX/Linux and IBM i is the premiere Power technical event.

This university is an intense, consolidated way to learn how you can reduce your operating costs, simplify your IT environment, access more solution providers and leverage the newest technology innovation — virtualization with the IBM POWER6™ technology.

Sharpen your competitive edge by honing skills and learning to exploit the latest Power System p™ and Power System i™ tools and solutions. Don’t miss the opportunity to gain new skills, obtain an update on what’s new, network with colleagues, and meet with our subject matter experts in a professional networking collaboration of technical gurus and industry professionals like you.

Never has there been a better time to refresh your skills and learn about the new generation of technology at the same time.

Date		21 Sep 2009 - 25 Sep 2009
Location		Orlando, Florida, USA
Duration		4.5 days
Price		USD TBA

Biased CIOs spend more money and don’t solve problems, they create them

What happens when an IBM AS/400, iSeries, System i, i5/OS, POWER System, Lotus Domino/Notes) IT shop doing fine, keeping the company running and is stable, has happy employees, happy users and then out of no where a new CIO or IT Manager is hired who:

1. Does not understand IBMs offering from both the IBM Systems side and the Lotus side?
2. Is biased towards another major technology company for no other reason or with out any logic or facts.

Bias is defined as; a particular tendency or inclination, esp. one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question; prejudice.

Now that we have established what bias is we can move on with the problem.

So there you are a loyal and hard working IBM i Admin, you and the Lotus Admin work hard to keep the company running. The companies main application for work is housed on the IBM i and everyone uses mail that comes out of Lotus Notes, plus Lotus has a feature no other application server has out there, rapid visual development, and there is always the one Lotus Developer, building applications for end users so they they can store information, access different types of data and make use of the Lotus and IBM i applications, and extend them to the company.

Everything is humming along, working well. Cost are in check, and with even more consolidation to the IBM i you could save more money.

The one summers day, or any season for that matter, a new CIO or IT Manager is hired into your company. Right after he says hello to everyone, his next comment is “We are going to replace all that IBM technology with Microsoft (or SUN).”

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