Cheshire-based CHH Consulting is distributing U.S. firm Barsa Consulting's APRM virtualisation software for i OS 6.1 in the U.K. and Ireland. Vision Solutions has launched new version 6.0 releases of both its iTERA and MIMIX high availability solutions. And LANSA aims to bring together the worlds of Windows and IBM i with iFusion.

APRM – Automatic Partition Resource Manager – automates logically partitioned system environments by responding to each partition’s changing demands for CPU, memory and interactive resources. Multiple partition performance tuning is guided by rules-based tools and reporting of system resource usage across partitions. The software also automates tape and optical drive sharing among partitions.

Its creators say that APRM gets the most out of advances in Power i virtualisation such as uncapped, pooled processors and the Hardware Management Console interface. A lower-cost version of the solution, APRM for Backups, automatically switches I/O slots between partitions to share tape and optical drives. Used with IBM’s BRMS backup software, with a job scheduler or in any CL program, APRM for Backups also includes system resource usage reporting by partition.

IBM has published a Redbook on the tool, "Automatic Partition Resource Manager for System i and iSeries".

Vision Solutions has launched new version 6.0 releases of both its iTERA and MIMIX high availability solutions.

iTERA HA can now auto-discover libraries, configure an environment, create a journal, synchronise data and objects and automatically start mirroring, auditing and monitoring. A new Auto Action Messages feature lets users define and automatically trigger corrective action routines when the solution generates specific messages. Enhanced audits provide deeper examination of objects such as user profiles, directory entries, configuration (devices, lines and controllers), job schedule entries and output queues.

MIMIX HA enhancements include improved performance via optimisation of the apply process which provides faster replication for high transaction environments. The software also checks a larger number of attributes. It provides new integration points with the i environment including MAXOPT3 support for high transaction environments and integration directly into the Director/Navigator interface.

LANSA has kept a foot in the IBM and Microsoft camps for more than a decade. Its new offering, iFusion.net, is a software development platform that aims to unite both worlds.

The company says that iFusion.net provides an architecture to "fuse" tailor-made legacy systems with Microsoft solutions like SharePoint Server 2007 and SQL Server or applications built with the .NET Framework. It says that Power i/Windows incompatibility within organisations means silos are created, data flow is obstructed and end-users get frustrated.

The company says that typical scenarios for using its new solution include fusing an e-commerce website built using ASP.NET to an i-based ERP system or improving collaboration and workflow automation by combining tasks that require both Windows and IBM i functionality into a Microsoft SharePoint enterprise portal with a single sign-on.

Microsoft Visual Studio and .NET Framework developers could be given the authority to perform create, read, update and delete transactions on the core databases without risk of jeopardising data integrity or security. iFusion users can also be able to drill down to and amend live operational data on DB2 directly from a Microsoft Windows or web-based dashboard without having to launch a separate terminal session or window.