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NEED TO KNOW
•U2 University Kicks Off Next Week; New Betas Available
•Paciolan Selects Informer Web Reporting Software
•BlueFinity Offers Migration Package from Raining Data’s PDP.NET to BlueFinity’s mv.NET

MV COMMUNITY
•Industry Leader Q&A with Pete Loveless on the jBASE Product Roadmap

U2 University Kicks Off Next Week; New Betas Available

The first session of U2 University (U2U), the premier U2 technical conference for IT executives, managers, professionals, DBAs, developers and business partners, kicks off next week in Denver, followed by sessions through November to be held in California, New York, Europe and Australia. “This is IBM's attempt to reach out to the people who are actually doing the development with these products and to help them understand all of the enhancements, the things that you can do with Web services, all of the modern technology that is part of these data servers, so they can move their applications forward into what IBM sees is the future of information on demand,” Susie Siegesmund, director, U2 Data Services, IBM Information Management, IBM Software Group, told 5 Minute Briefing.

“We have done so much, provided so many enhancements to both UniVerse and UniData over the last several years,” observed Siegesmund, “and we've decided we needed an effective way of getting some hands-on education on all these different features out to our customer base.” Except for the keynote, which will include the roadmaps, what has happened in the last year and where U2 is going, every session is a technical session, meant to train people on pieces of the technology, Siegesmund emphasized.

There will be 45 technical sessions spread over three focused tracks: U2 Data Servers, Application Development and Emerging Technologies, as well as complimentary certification exams, birds of a feather sessions and networking lunches. “In the U.S., we are taking engineers to do almost all of the sessions,” she said, while there will be a core team of eight people traveling internationally to deliver the sessions. Siegesmund will present the keynote address at the conferences and Jackie Burhans, U2 portfolio manager, IBM, will present the product roadmaps.

The latest beta release of the IBM Data Server Provider for .NET will offer support for U2 data servers alongside DB2 and Informix Dynamic Server (IDS). Along with the included IBM Database add-ins for Visual Studio 2005, this offering will provide SQL and XML interfaces to U2, allowing for seamless integration with Microsoft Server Explorer, support for NLS and Connection Pooling, ZERO programming for Windows, and integration with Crystal Reports. To participate in the early adoption program for this technology, email U2AskUs@us.ibm.com with a subject of IBM.NET Early Adoption Program. This technology will support both UniData and UniVerse, so indicate which data server you are using.

Additionally, the early adoption program for UniData 7.2 has begun. Major projects slated for UniData 7.2 include encryption of data at rest for security, a programming API for External Database Access (EDA), online resize for high availability, performance and functionality enhancements for data replication, a customer extensible administration console, and a graphical IDE for Basic. If you are a U2 customer interested in participating in the UniData 7.2 EAP, email U2AskUs@us.ibm.com and nominate yourself.

The first U2 University will be held August 28-30 in Denver, CO. Subsequent conferences will be held September 11-13 in Sydney, Australia; as well as October 2-4 in London, England; November 13-15 in Tarrytown, NY; and November 27-29 in San Francisco, CA. “This is designed to be an affordable education event for our customer base and we are very excited to be doing this. It is the first time we have done anything quite like this since we have been part of IBM,” said Siegesmund. To register for U2 University, go here.

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Paciolan Selects Informer Web Reporting Software

Paciolan, a leading provider of ticketing, marketing and fund development solutions for college athletics, performing arts, museums, arenas and professional sports organizations, has completed the integration of Entrinsik’s Informer Web reporting software into their core solution. Paciolan began offering Entrinsik's Informer as a system add-on in July.

Informer is a Web-based reporting tool that allows end-users to intuitively and securely access data directly from IBM U2 databases and view the data in HTML, Excel, or PDF formats. With Informer, Paciolan clients are able to quickly access all customer data to understand and act on trends in their business. Previously, Paciolan had had its own reporting solution and were considering upgrading it or creating a new one themselves when they learned about the Informer solution. For Paciolan, it was a make/buy decision, Doug Leupen, president of Entrinsik, told 5 Minute Briefing. The company saw that, doing it themselves, “it would take them a long time and a lot of cost, but it would not still provide the functionality, intuitiveness and the power of Informer,” Leupen added.

As part of the integration, Paciolan developers modified Informer’s look and feel to be consistent with that of their software, and customized application behavior to reflect custom business rules needed for user security and other processes. Entrinsik's VAR Toolkit allowed Paciolan to change the reporting solution to look like theirs, “to make it look as seamless as possible,” said Leupen.

The VAR Toolkit is intended to make it simple for VARs and resellers to customize Informer both visually, such as changing the look and feel of the application and the installer, and programmatically, such as adding custom authentication drivers, settings and embedding default configuration settings. It also includes a build script to automatically bundle customized drivers, settings, and data elements such as default reports into a new point and click type installer that can be distributed to customers. "The Paciolan partnership is exciting for us as it again demonstrates Informer’s ability to seamlessly integrate with ERP applications," said Leupen. For more information on Paciolan, go here, and for more on Entrinsik, go here.

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BlueFinity Offers Migration Package from Raining Data’s PDP.NET to BlueFinity’s mv.NET

BlueFinity International, a provider of software development tools and consultancy services to the MultiValue database and Microsoft .NET developer communities, and a member of the Mpower1 group of companies, has announced a special offer for Raining Data’s PDP.NET customers to migrate to BlueFinity’s mv.NET. Qualifying PDP.NET customers will be eligible to receive discounts on licenses in addition to the volume discounts in the price book, beneficial payment terms and a variety of consultancy services from BlueFinity, according to the vendor.

BlueFinity's published roadmap, available on the corporate Web site, includes plans for the development of both additional features for their existing product range and the introduction of new products. Either the product or the documentation or both are updated monthly as mv.NET is enhanced based on feedback from the field, according to the vendor. Future enhancements to mv.NET include support for .NET Framework 3.0, extended AJAX integration, Vista and 64-bit support.

For more information regarding the migration package for PDP.NET customers, email pdp@bluefinity.com. For more information on BlueFinity, go here.

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Industry Leader Q&A with Pete Loveless on the jBASE Product Roadmap

The jBASE User Conference 2007 held in Miami, FL, featured a "jBASE Product Roadmap" session focused on current enhancements as well as changes in the upcoming jBASE Release 5, a 64-bit implementation including features such as warm start recovery, resilient files, auto-resizing files, online backup, OBjEX.Net and more. Here, Pete Loveless, CEO of jBASE International, discusses the improvements in jBASE 5.

5MB: What is the most important elements that are being added in jBASE 5?

Loveless: Essentially, jBASE 5.0 takes the solid core of jBASE 4.1.5 and adds functionality to enable jBASE applications to become true 24x7 systems. Release 5 has been built with two fundamental principles in mind. Firstly - to make the product non-stop and secondly to make it 64-bit.  With the addition of Warmstart Recovery and Resilient Files, the jBASE database can be configured to automatically detect an abnormal shutdown and run a full integrity check applying any transactions that should be there and rolling back any transactions which did not complete. The Resilient Files are designed in such a way that integrity is kept both before and after every write so with a journaled operating system, there is no scope for the files to become corrupted. This, coupled with the fact that you no longer need to take the system down to backup or restore, means that your systems can truly be available 24x7 on a jBASE platform. There has been a lot of talk about on-demand and round the clock operations but without these core features there was no way of avoiding a lot manual intervention.

5MB: What is the significance of the 64-bit implementation for your customers?

Loveless: 64-bit support eliminates a number of OS-based restrictions on memory and files; for example, the Shared Library size on AIX, File Handles with Solaris and the file sizing limitations that exist on nearly every platform. The major suppliers of Unix servers have had 64-bit hardware and operating systems for some time, and the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003 is more and more prevalent. Demand has been growing and there are significant benefits to eliminating all the underlying 32-bit limitations with a full 64-bit implementation.

5MB: What will Release 5 enable that was not possible before?

Loveless: With major systems operating extended hours, a consistent and secure database is the cornerstone. The Robust Filestore and Auto-Resizing features mean that the basics are all in place. When you add Checkpointing functionality to Transaction Journaling and marry that all in to Warmstart Recovery, you have a system that can be left to operate round the clock. Then to complete the database security angle, we have full on-line Backup and Restore. The operations staff will no longer have to worry if there are enough “hours left” to complete a backup.

5MB: What has the response from customers been to previews of jBASE 5?

Loveless: We made the first public announcement of jBASE 5 at the recent jBASE Conference in Miami. The initial feedback from our major customers, VARs and end-users has been extremely positive. With the industry trend to on-demand and 24x7 operations, the new features in Release 5 are going to provide major benefits. The key features that have been added are eagerly awaited and, with our reassurance of a straightforward migration from 4.1.5, we already have a backlog of people waiting for the formal release.

5MB: Down the road, do you have a list of issues that will be addressed in jBASE 6?
 
Loveless: Like all good suppliers we work on two fronts.  As a major database supplier, we make our predictions as to what we think customers will require from the core of the database as we move forward.  Secondly, we are listening to our customers as to their requirements.  On this second point we have consulted our customers and have fed many of their requirements in to the Release 6 project.  We will begin to make public the content of Release 6 features to our major customers and prospects as soon as the scope is finalized, but for now let’s digest Release 5 first in early 2008 and enjoy the benefits it’s going to deliver before announcing anything further. 

5MB: What else would you like customers to know about the jBASE product roadmap?

Loveless: We recognize that we have an enormous and committed installed base that sees jBASE 4.1.5 as the release of choice. Release 4.1.5 is our flagship product; it is the basis for Release 5 and beyond. Therefore, we want to reassure those users by making an open statement that support for jBASE 4.1.5 is going to continue until at least 2012. There will be lots of good support for 32-bit computing for some time yet as we see jBASE 5 as something that complements the existing functionality in jBASE 4.1 rather than an immediate replacement.

For more information about jBASE, go here.

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