Zeitler Leaves IBM

Bill Zeitler, one of IBM's most influential leaders, is retiring this summer. Zeitler joined IBM in 1969 as a programmer and zoomed up through IBM's ranks, having a hand in the launch of the AS/400 and ultimately leading the group as the general manager of the AS/400 Division in the late 1990s. He went on to become senior vice president and group executive of the IBM Systems and Technology Group — the position he now holds.

System iNEWS caught up with a busy Zeitler and managed to snag a couple of quick comments from him.

System iNEWS: I heard that the unification of System p and System i was something that you've been working on for a long time. Now that the unification job is complete, does retiring now, following the launch of Power Systems, seem especially fitting?

Zeitler: As you know, we've been moving toward the unification of System i and p hardware for some time. We have been sharing more and more technology with the ultimate objective to enable clients to leverage these powerful operating systems on one hardware platform — racks, blades, and scalable systems — with industry-leading performance and virtualization. Given my background with the System i and the community going back to the launch of the AS/400, it's incredibly satisfying for me to see this through to completion. There is no question in my mind that the i environment is well positioned for longevity and future innovation. The feedback from the community has been extremely positive, so it's clear we've done the right thing by our customers.

System iNEWS: What's next for Bill Zeitler?

Zeitler: I will be turning over the leadership of the Systems and Technology Group to Bob Moffat on July 1. I will help Bob with the transition until August 1 and retire at that point. I have been with IBM for 39 years, and it has been a very gratifying experience. I plan to spend time relaxing and sailing with my wife and family. — Chris Maxcer, News Editor

PC Piracy and a Little License Manipulation

Although out-and-out piracy may be rare in the IBM i-related software world, software piracy is a worldwide problem that System i shops and users should be aware of — so say IT analysts and software vendors responding to joint efforts by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) to combat such theft.

Ellen Mishkind Thrasher, director of the Office of Business and Community Initiatives in the SBA Office of Entrepreneurial Development, says the project aims to provide education and training.

To help small businesses avoid software pitfalls, the SBA and the BSA have an online resource, SmartAboutSoftware.org, to assist in assessing the risks. The resource comes with a free software audit tool, which Thrasher says organizations should use annually.

The package also includes 10 tips to protect small businesses from illegal software. The cost of possessing pirated software, the tips warn, can be as high as $150,000 per infringement. So in addition to the moral arguments against having unlawful software, there are also some strong monetary incentives for staying honest.

What's the danger to System i shops and users? It's fairly small as long as the PC portion of the business is playing it straight. Still, some of BSA's reports indicate that close to one-third of all software installed on PCs worldwide was obtained illegally, a figure that translates to approximately $40 billion in global losses.

The piracy rates range from an estimated high of 95 percent in Armenia to a low of 21 percent in the U.S.

Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan come in at higher rates than the U.S., but still fall below 28 percent. The emerging markets, on the other hand, account for one-third of all PC shipments but only 10 percent of spending on PC software.

What About i?

No information has been collected on midrange servers such as the System i.

Clay Ryder, president of the analyst firm The Sageza Group, says in that realm several factors work against widespread piracy for the System i. For one thing, the software running on a System i won't run on a home PC. It's also not the type of software typically given away to family and friends, so there's less benefit to stealing it.

License Manipulation

"A bigger issue would be license manipulation or circumvention, in which, say, a 25-user license for an app might be circumvented to allow 40 people to use it," Ryder says.

Enterprise software vendor Infor Global Solutions hasn't encountered that problem, notes Senior Vice President of Corporate Compliance Mary Trick. Pirated or discounted copies don't come with access to ongoing updates and support, she points out, and without updates and support, businesses run the risk of losing out on competitive advantages that can be realized by using the software itself.

On the whole, Infor finds that its clients act responsibly with regard to license compliance. That's particularly true after license or illegal copy problems become known, Trick says. "If it is found that customers have strayed outside the terms of their license agreement, they typically work through a resolution with us very quickly." — Hank Hogan, Contributor

IBM Gets Nimble with New Tape Drive

IBM usually churns out one product after another fairly predictably, following the conventions its customers have come to expect all these years. However, in a rapid response to customer demand, last month IBM shipped a new tape drive ahead of schedule.

The solution? New support for a high-capacity, high-speed LTO Ultrium 4 SAS tape drive for the Power 520 and Power 550 systems. Previously, IBM offered support only for a 4mm DAT tape drive.

Kurt Rump, from IBM's Executive Briefing Center in Rochester, Minnesota, offered the details: The LTO-4 SAS tape drive is ordered as feature #5746 and mounts into the embedded half-high bay in the system unit. There is also an optional #5747 feature that ships five LTO-4 tape cartridges for customer convenience.

The capacity of an LTO-4 tape cartridge is 800 GB uncompressed or 1.6 TB with typical 2x compression. The rated native data transfer of the tape drive is up to 120 MB/sec. The drive is compatible with LTO-4 (Read/Write), LTO-3 (Read/Write), and LTO-2 (Read) media. It is priced very attractively compared with the 200 GB LTO-2 SCSI tape drive (which is available in the POWER5 515, 520, and 525 system units), while offering up to 4x the capacity and up to 5x the transfer rate of that tape drive.

The LTO-4 tape drive will require PTFs to be loaded on the system for either IBM i 5.4 or 6.1. — Chris Maxcer, News Editor

NEWS IN BRIEF

i5virus Gets Webby Nomination

Bytware's online marketing campaign, "i5virus: A Game of Espionage and System i Security," snagged a nomination for the 2008 Webby Awards. The online game combined a YouTube video filmed on location in Tokyo, Japan, with game play centered on hunting down System i cyber criminals.

Bytware developed the game for fun and to deliver educational messages about security issues important for the System i. Specifically, Bytware wanted to address potential issues that may occur when running PHP on the System i.

"Not to say that there is anything wrong with running PHP, but there are known security exposures that managers should be aware of so that they can properly secure their systems," says Christopher Jones, marketing director for Bytware.

Bytware launched another System i campaign, MoshiMoshi, at COMMON in Nashville (moshimoshicorp.com). — Larisa Redins, Contributor

CYBRA Goes Viral

Another System i company has gone mainstream. CYBRA unleashed in May a viral marketing campaign for its barcode and RFID software, MarkMagic, on the web.

The company posted all seven chronicles of "The 2,000 Year Old Programmer" (a.k.a. "2K") and his cool and hip counterpart, "Auto-ID," on YouTube and its website (cybra.com).

The videos showcase 2K's conversion from the difficult and ridiculous ways of creating barcodes and forms to the use of MarkMagic at the advice of Auto-ID. An 80-year-old retired school principal plays the part of 2K. — Cassie Deemer, Intern