Dell Inc. announced it has signed a definitive merger agreement under which it will be acquired by Michael Dell, Dell's founder, chairman and CEO, in partnership with global technology investment firm Silver Lake. The transaction will be financed through a combination of cash and equity contributed by Michael Dell, cash funded by investment funds affiliated with Silver Lake, cash invested by MSD Capital, L.P., a $2 billion loan from Microsoft, as well as financing from other sources. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the second quarter of Dell's FY2014.

SHARE in San Francisco kicked off yesterday and will continue through Friday. If you were not able to travel to the event, you can still be a part of the audience with SHARE Live!, the virtual event option.

Attachmate announced MobileNow, the company's new mobile strategy that is intended to optimize the company's line of enterprise software products so that mainframe and legacy applications can be extended to mobile devices. Attachmate MobileNow delivers corporate data while providing tools for encrypting data, controlling access and monitoring for fraudulent use. The MobileNow approach does not require critical mainframe and legacy applications to be re-factored for mobile, resulting in quicker time-to-market and lower costs, according to Tom Bice, vice president of marketing and product management at Attachmate.

IBM reports a surge in mainframe sales in the most recent quarter, surpassing all previous quarters. This announcement was part of the company's release of quarterly and annual results. Overall, total quarterly revenue was down 1% from last year, and down 2% for the year.

William Data Systems (WDS) will showcase the latest release of ZEN TRACE & SOLVE (ZTS) for z/OS mainframe networks at SHARE in San Francisco this week. ZTS, formerly known as EXIGENCE, provides new features to help z/OS sites deliver more, in a shorter time, using fewer resources and with less cost. According to the company, the main advantage of ZTS's latest release is its advanced web-browser interface with flexible data presentation for easier use and more intuitive ways of working. In addition to helping more experienced technicians to solve network problems even faster, ZTS also short-cuts the network tracing learning curve for less experienced technicians. The biggest challenge for less experienced technicians is knowing what part of a network to trace and then interpreting the results of the trace so a problem can be averted or network bandwidth restored, Graham Storey, vice president of marketing, at William Data Systems, tells 5 Minute Briefing.

GT Software, a provider of enterprise modernization solutions, announced the general availability of its NEO Suite family of products. The release features updates that improve user experience and includes splash screens, user interfaces and documentation enhancements. With the release of NEObatch v3.2, NEOkicks v3.2, and NEOdata v2.1, the NEO suite of products is now compatible with Microsoft Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, SQL Server 2012, and the .NET 4.0 and 4.5 frameworks. The new product versions are also compatible with the recently released Fujitsu NetCOBOL for .NET v5.0 compiler and runtime, which allows customers to also take advantage of Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.

Compuware Corporation, a technology performance tools company, has made enhancements to the Compuware Workbench, a standardized point-and-click mainframe application development interface. The Workbench is now configured to deliver faster and more efficient file and data management capabilities, the vendor says. This includes the ability to edit complex IMS databases, as well as debugging functionality, all designed to significantly boost developer productivit

Heirloom Computing Inc. has formed a new partnership with Java Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider CloudBees to speed the transition of mainframe workloads to the CloudBees PaaS. With the partnership, Heirloom will deploy COBOL-based mainframe workloads to the cloud, using Heirloom Elastic COBOL and the CloudBees Platform.

SilverSky, a provider of information security solutions, is combining the assets of Perimeter E-Security and USA.NET into a unified brand focused on delivering an advanced security-as-a-service platform. SilverSky manages, secures and monitors corporate information assets with a portfolio of software and managed services, delivered through its unified policy-aware platform.

TransLattice has joined the Cisco Developer Network as a registered developer within the Physical Infrastructure technology category. In addition, two products, TransLattice Application Platform v.2.5 and TransLattice Elastic Database v.2.5, have successfully completed interoperability testing with Blades (B-series). The TransLattice Application Platform (TAP) creates a high-performance computing fabric from a cluster of affordable commodity servers that work cooperatively to ensure applications and associated data are always available.

A new survey of 200 IT managers by OneLogin finds enterprises are rife with unsafe password management. At least 43% of respondents admit that employees manage passwords in spreadsheets or on sticky notes, and 34% share passwords with their co-workers for applications like FedEx, Twitter, Staples, and LinkedIn. Another 20% experienced an employee still being able to login after leaving the company. Password management has been a difficult challenge long before mainframes were connected to the internet. Now, with cloud and software as a service, the stakes are even greater

IBM has announced that IBM SmartCloud for SAP Applications, an enterprise service unique to IBM, is available globally. The new service, IBM SmartCloud for SAP Applications, aims to automate and standardize provisioning of IT environments, and can accelerate service delivery with expert certified staff. According to the companies, SmartCloud services for SAP applications delivers 99.7% availability based on a global delivery model to support cloud-based systems around the clock. This service is available for SAP Business Suite software and the SAP BusinessObjects solution portfolio as an enterprise-class, fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering for running SAP solutions in a production environment.

SAP announced a new option for SAP Business Suite customers — SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA — providing an integrated family of business applications that captures and analyzes transactional data in real time on a single in-memory platform. With Business Suite on HANA, "SAP has reinvented the software that reinvented businesses," stated Rob Enslin, member of the Global Executive Board and SAP head of sales, as part of his presentation during the company's recent launch event.

Software AG has agreed to sell its SAP-service operations in Canada and the USA to itelligence, a full-service provider of IT solutions for the SAP market with approximately 2,700 employees in 21 countries. Its headquarters are in Bielefeld, Germany. The transaction closing is scheduled for January 16 and according to the companies the purchase price will not be disclosed. The transaction includes all of Software AG's SAP product-specific services in Canada and the U.S., which are coordinated from Toronto and Reston, Virginia respectively. In addition, itelligence plans to acquire the majority of around 80 employees as of January 16.

Oracle VM Release 3.2, a key component in Oracle's desktop to data center virtualization portfolio, is now available. There are two main themes to the new release, Adam Hawley, senior director of desktop and server virtualization product management at Oracle, tells 5 Minute Briefing. One main area of emphasis is to provide a richer, more diverse set of deployment options for customers. The second major collection of enhancements is around allowing users to more easily and efficiently manage larger environments.

The explosion of big data has presented many challenges for today's database administrators (DBAs), who are responsible for managing far more data than ever before. And with more programs being developed and tested, more tools are needed to help optimize data and efficiency efforts. Using techniques such as DB2's Multi-Row Fetch (MRF), DBAs are able to cut down on CPU time - and improve application efficiency. MRF was introduced in DB2 version 8 in 2004. Stated simply, it is the ability for DB2 to send multiple rows back to a requesting program at once, rather than one row at a time.

In a new blog, Kelly Beavers, vice president and business line executive, IBM Systems Software, writes about IBM SmartCloud Entry, which now supports the open source KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) hypervisor. The result, she explains, is that with just one product, customers can support virtual machines that are running on KVM, VMware, and/or PowerVM: Cloud computing is one of those technologies for which people have differing definitions, but SmartCloud Entry does the most basic things that just about everyone expects from a cloud solution: web-based provisioning for a cloud, and a pay-as-you go model. SmartCloud Entry supports those two critical capabilities with a couple of key attributes that decrease risk to organizations. First, it makes it really simple for a company that is new to the cloud to get started with a private cloud safely and behind their own firewall, and second, it does so with pricing that is completely affordable for the mid-market.

In a new blog, Kelly Beavers, vice president and business line executive, IBM Systems Software, writes about IBM SmartCloud Entry, which now supports the open source KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) hypervisor. The result, she explains, is that with just one product, customers can support virtual machines that are running on KVM, VMware, and/or PowerVM: Cloud computing is one of those technologies for which people have differing definitions, but SmartCloud Entry does the most basic things that just about everyone expects from a cloud solution: web-based provisioning for a cloud, and a pay-as-you go model. SmartCloud Entry supports those two critical capabilities with a couple of key attributes that decrease risk to organizations. First, it makes it really simple for a company that is new to the cloud to get started with a private cloud safely and behind their own firewall, and second, it does so with pricing that is completely affordable for the mid-market.

Server virtualization will remain a top priority for many IT organizations and vendor go-to-market strategies 2013, writes senior analyst Mark Bowker in a blog on the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) website. However, organizations will not be relying on a single hypervisor, says Bowker, who points to an ESG research brief, Multiple Hypervisor Usage Trends, in which nearly-two thirds (65%) of respondent organizations report using more than one hypervisor,

Server virtualization will remain a top priority for many IT organizations and vendor go-to-market strategies 2013, writes senior analyst Mark Bowker in a blog on the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) website. However, organizations will not be relying on a single hypervisor, says Bowker, who points to an ESG research brief, Multiple Hypervisor Usage Trends, in which nearly-two thirds (65%) of respondent organizations report using more than one hypervisor,

Canonical has announced a smart phone interface for its operating system, Ubuntu. The Linux-based software will allow users to run desktop apps on their handsets, so that they double for PCs when docked to monitors, writes Leo Kelion in an article for BBC News. According to Kelion, the code will initially be released as a file which can be installed on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone, replacing Android. Kelion also reports that Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu and vice president, products, at Canonical, says he is talking with manufacturers about devices to be sold with the system pre-installed within the year.

Canonical has announced a smart phone interface for its operating system, Ubuntu. The Linux-based software will allow users to run desktop apps on their handsets, so that they double for PCs when docked to monitors, writes Leo Kelion in an article for BBC News. According to Kelion, the code will initially be released as a file which can be installed on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone, replacing Android. Kelion also reports that Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu and vice president, products, at Canonical, says he is talking with manufacturers about devices to be sold with the system pre-installed within the year.

Red Hat announced the next minor release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9. The release, which marks the beginning of Production Phase 2 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, maintains Red Hat's commitment to a 10-year lifecycle through the introduction of several new features, including hardware enablement, security, standards and certifications, developer tools, and virtualization.

Red Hat announced the next minor release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9. The release, which marks the beginning of Production Phase 2 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, maintains Red Hat's commitment to a 10-year lifecycle through the introduction of several new features, including hardware enablement, security, standards and certifications, developer tools, and virtualization.

With 2012 now in the rear-view mirror, it's time to look ahead at what 2013 may bring, writes Katherine Noyes in an article for PCWorld. From the excitement about the Raspberry Pi 2013 and the array of "tiny, inexpensive, Linux-powered PCs," to whether 2013 will be the "Year of Linux on the Desktop," Noyes gazes at her crystal ball in "Five Linux predictions for 2013."

With 2012 now in the rear-view mirror, it's time to look ahead at what 2013 may bring, writes Katherine Noyes in an article for PCWorld. From the excitement about the Raspberry Pi 2013 and the array of "tiny, inexpensive, Linux-powered PCs," to whether 2013 will be the "Year of Linux on the Desktop," Noyes gazes at her crystal ball in "Five Linux predictions for 2013."

The explosion of big data has presented many challenges for today's database administrators (DBAs), who are responsible for managing far more data than ever before. And with more programs being developed and tested, more tools are needed to help optimize data and efficiency efforts. Using techniques such as DB2's Multi-Row Fetch (MRF), DBAs are able to cut down on CPU time - and improve application efficiency. MRF was introduced in DB2 version 8 in 2004. Stated simply, it is the ability for DB2 to send multiple rows back to a requesting program at once, rather than one row at a time.