Upcoming Meeting Notice

The Association of Service and Computer Dealers International (ASCDI) is a 30 year old, worldwide non-profit organization made up of companies who provide technology solutions, technical support or value added services to the business community.

Members and non-members are invited to learn how to grow your business, find new business opportunities, hear from industry representatives and enjoy some fabulous networking events at our conferences:

TECH EXEC FORUM:  October 6-7
for technology resellers
CHICAGO, IL
Click here for more information.

ANNUAL FALL CONFERENCE:  October 16 – 18
SAN DIEGO, CA

ANNUAL ASIAN CONFERENCE:  November 14-15
BANGKOK, THAILAND

Click here for more information on ALL ASCDI MEETINGS, to view the agendas, lodging details, attendee lists and to REGISTER AT THE EARLY BIRD RATE.

ASCDI member in the news
Database modernization
Disaster recovery
IBM
Leasing
Market share
Sun
UPS

Clarification: ASCDI member in the news

Clarification: Credit Markets

The August 25, 2008 issue of ASCDI Now reported CIT's financial performance under an article titled, “Leasing: CIT's core commercial businesses reflect impact of difficult period.”  This article may be confusing to readers and ASCDI members who may mistakenly believe that it refers to the IT and capital equipment business that was formerly owned by CIT.   

For clarification, on December 31, 2007, the Macquarie Group acquired the business and assets of CIT Equipment Leasing (also known as CIT Systems Leasing).  This business is now known as Macquarie Equipment Finance and is no longer associated with CIT.

Therefore, the June 2008 financial results reported in ASCDI Now, refer to CIT and not to Macquarie's growing leasing business or its financial results. In fact, the Macquarie Group, with over $210 billion in total assets under management, has achieved successive years of profit and growth since 1992 and, with our fiscal year ended March 31, 2008, experienced record profits --- up 23%.  Also, as a result of being acquired by Macquarie, Macquarie Equipment Finance has expanded its equipment financing and service capabilities to offer technical, reselling, and disposition resources worldwide.  

Macquarie Equipment Finance
Learn more at www.macquarie.com.
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Database modernization

Database modernization still unknown territory
Just because an IT manager is accustomed to flying in the face of convention doesn't always mean there is a flight plan involved. And that's not to say that the ranks of IT professionals are filled with high stakes gamblers, either. By and large, IT is a safe haven for the risk adverse. As an example, let's take a look at the integrated database used by AS/400, iSeries, and System i users and compare it with what is considered a modern database. Who is ready to make the jump?

The long accepted practice in the System i environment--which dates back to the System/38, a thirty-year-old system that is the predecessor to the AS/400--is to use a form called Data Description Specifications (DDS) to define the database physical and logical files. This was fine when the platform was highly proprietary, but when that becomes a liability and an alternative to DDS for creating databases--SQL Data Definition Language (DDL)--becomes an industry standard, the conventional method becomes a one-way ticket when a round trip ticket would be a lot more convenient. Outside of the user base, the DDS-defined database contributes to the AS/400's reputation as an over-the-hill system. That's a hot-button issue that brings many of the AS/400 faithful to its defense. However, it's hard to deny that DDS-defined databases are an obstacle to interoperability. For companies that are moving to a service oriented architecture, are modernizing applications, or are managing and maintaining new databases, the traditional database is an issue that must be dealt with.
Read entire article.
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Disaster recovery

Vision Solutions passes benchmark for AIX on IBM blades
Vision Solutions, an availability and disaster recovery solutions provider for IBM Power Systems markets, announced a milestone in its market rollout of EchoCluster for AIX by passing compatibility testing with IBM's BladeCenter JS21 Express and SAN hardware. The validation benchmark was conducted on hardware at IBM's Shenzhen Power Systems testing facility in China by team members from both IBM and Vision's AIX development laboratory near Boston. Vision Solutions said its EchoCluster keeps AIX applications up and running through continuous server monitoring and immediate, automated failover to a secondary server, ensuring IBM customers keep critical applications highly available on local or remote servers. In support of Vision's goal to offer disaster recovery solutions for the SMB marketplace, EchoCluster can be used in conjunction with EchoStream for data replication with any-point-in-time Continuous Data Protection (CDP). This combination is an excellent choice for heterogeneous storage environments resulting from mergers and acquisitions, offering full ROI on all current hardware.
Visit www.visionsolutions.com.
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IBM

Connect to IBM iSeries server with iPhone and iPod Touch
MochaSoft has just released a new version of their popular TN5250 application. TN5250 is another enterprise-ready app that businesses can obtain from the App Store. This app acts as a terminal emulator which provides access to an AS/400, also known as the IBM iSeries, a midrange server designed for the business world and widely used by Collection agencies and other big and small business all over the world.  Version 1.1 of TN5250 includes full support for all standard 5250 emulation features, alternate screen size (24×80 or 27×132), SSL (Secure Socket Layer), zoom and scroll as the Safari browser, auto login, macros, ability to handle 6 different AS/400 configurations, support for 10 different EBCDIC code pages, and more. Compared to the Lite version, which is free, the full version has Fxx key board, another cool numeric key board, and macro support.
Visit www.mochasoft.dk.


Virtualization and cloud computing with IBM's Jazz technology
Surgient announced it will offer integrated solutions with products built using IBM Jazz collaborative technologies. As a result, IBM quality assurance users can use Surgient's Virtual Automation Platform to allocate IT resources and set up and tear down virtual labs on-demand for software testing and quality assurance, introducing new efficiencies to the application development lifecycle. IBM Jazz provides an open and extensible platform on top of which IBM, business partners and clients are building new development tools that integrate collaboration, team awareness and project health into every aspect of the software development lifecycle. Later this year, Surgient's Virtual Automation Platform will include an integration with IBM Rational Quality Manager, comprehensive test planning and process software that provides a single view into all aspects of a quality plan. Surgient's product currently integrates with IBM's Rational BuildForge.
Visit www.surgient.com or www.ibm.com.
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Leasing

ELFA’s survey of economic activity: Monthly Leasing and Finance Index
The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association's (ELFA) Monthly Leasing and Finance Index (MLFI-25), which reports economic activity for the $650 billion equipment finance sector, showed overall new business volume for July increased 17.2 percent when compared to the same period 2007. Cumulative year-to date new business volumes show an increase of 4.8 percent compared to 2007.

The MLFI-25 is the only index that reflects levels of equipment financed in the U.S. economy. The MLFI-25 complements other relevant economic indices, including the monthly durable goods report produced by the U.S. Department of Commerce, which reflects new orders for manufactured durable goods and the Institute for Supply Management Index, which reports economic activity in the manufacturing sector. Along with the MLFI-25 these reports provide a complete picture that describes the use of productive assets in the U.S. economy: equipment produced, acquired and financed.

“Business investment in capital goods continues even in light of the credit crunch and weakness in the overall economy. It is a testament to business confidence and export demand,” said Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., ELFA President.
Visit www.elfaonline.org.
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Market share

Microsoft and Oracle databases gain share vs. IBM
Sales of business database software made by Microsoft and Oracle are holding up strongly this year after the companies gained share from IBM in 2007, according to market research firm Gartner. Sales of Microsoft's database software climbed 16.5 percent to $3.1 billion last year, buoyed by growth in Asia and Eastern Europe. The No. 3 player in the market also expanded sales to mid-sized businesses in North America. Microsoft's market share widened to 18.1 percent from 17.6 percent, according to data that Gartner released. Sales at Oracle, by far the market leader, rose 14.9 percent in 2007 to $8.3 billion. Its market share grew to 48.6 percent from 47.9 percent. While sales at No. 2 player International Business Corp. rose 10 percent to $3.5 billion, its market share contracted to 20.7 percent last year from 21.3 percent, according to Gartner. One factor hampering IBM's growth rate is that customers who buy its database software tend to use the programs on IBM hardware, whose sales are not growing as quickly as the systems that are most often used with databases from Microsoft and Oracle.  Database sales at the three companies accounted for about 87 percent of the $17.1 billion global market for database software last year, according to Gartner.
Visit www.gartner.com
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Sun

Sun launches Java RIA toolkit
The launch of the Sun JavaFX Software Development Kit Preview edition is the first deliverable for desktop/browser applications in Sun Microsystems' play for a share of the rich internet application developer market. Since first announcing the JavaFX project in May 2007, the Java community has been left waiting for the "official" Java version of RIA solutions. RIAs provide a desktop-like application user experience but with the application delivered via the internet, typically within a web browser. RIAs became a mass developer movement with the adoption of Ajax frameworks and toolkits, based on JavaScript and XML, but the Ajax market is fragmented with multiple small players. The Java community has had JavaServer Faces, which allow the use of Ajax components, and a small player Canoo offers a pure Java framework for RIA, but many Java developers turned to combinations of Java and Ajax or Java and Adobe Flex. Therefore the JavaFX Preview SDK is eagerly welcomed by the Java community as a taste of what version 1.0, which is expected later this year, will be like. The preview edition is only fully supported in Windows, but version 1.0 is expected to be cross-platform with support for Mac, Linux, and Solaris. Mac is supported on Preview but not on a browser so requires Java SE installed.
Visit www.sun.com. ^Back To Top

UPS

Eaton’s Evolution UPS wins reader trust award
Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation announced that Network Products Guide, a world-leading Silicon Valley Communications publication reporting on technologies and solutions, has named Eaton’s Evolution and Evolution S uninterruptible power systems (UPSs) a winner of the 2008 Best Products and Services Award. This annual award honors products and services that represent the rapidly changing needs and interests of end-users of technology worldwide. Eaton’s Evolution units, sold under the MGE Office Protection Systems brand, are the perfect solution for protecting rack-optimized servers, storage systems and Internetworking equipment against damaging and costly power disruptions. The Evolution 650 VA to 2 kVA and Evolution S 1250 VA to 3kVA models all feature multiple form factors to suit any need: Tower or Rack/Tower versatile with a choice of depth sizes to accommodate a variety of rack enclosures. The Evolution is one of the first line-interactive UPSs in its class with an adaptable, multi-position Power Distribution Unit (PDU) that provides an innovative, space-saving method of easily adding receptacles to the back, side or top of the UPS – freeing up much needed space in dense rack environments.
Visit www.eaton.com. ^Back To Top