QMSI, whose Postal CASS product, QCODE, was successfully launched earlier this year for IBM mainframe systems running z/VSE, has announced a z/OS version that fully exploits all the capabilities z/OS has to offer.

According to Tim Gregerson, QMSI’s spokesperson, QCODE will enable z/OS shops to CASS certify their mail faster - and at a lower cost. “QMSI pricing is not based on CPU size or usage: each site has one simple, low price. No surprises, no guessing, no obfuscated billing.”

QMSI reports seeing processing times that are two to thirteen times faster, and CPU utilization that is just one quarter of other vendor's products, further reducing the overall cost of postal processing.

Tim explained QMSI’s commitment to the industry by saying: “This is just the beginning. The people behind QMSI are dedicated to developing and providing additional, cost-effective, performance-oriented software products for the mainframe mailing community and we will be introducing other new products, a PreSort package for example, in the coming year. Also coming soon: offloading processing onto an available zIIP engine, for z/OS QCODE, using IBM approved techniques.”

QMSI is an IBM mainframe-only software vendor. QCODE easily replaces Pitney Bowes' Finalist, Group1’s CODE1 and Anchor's MaxCASS. QCODE is CASS Certified by the United States Postal Service.

QMSI can be reached via their website www.quintmail.com or by calling 866.284.1001.

IBM announced new hardware, software and services packages to help clients consolidate and virtualize enterprise workloads on IBM System z. Included are two new enterprise Linux servers that provide attractive, off-the-shelf pricing and configurations for large-scale data center consolidation on Linux. Also announced were two additions to the System z Solution Edition series -- For Enterprise Linux and for Chordiant. Together, the new Solution Editions help organizations deploy new Linux workloads and bring customer relationship management applications like Chordiant to the platform.

The new offerings expand IBM’s initiative to help clients consolidate workloads on the System z mainframe and benefit from smarter and more efficient data centers that maximize the use of IT resources and reduce energy costs.

The two new IBM Enterprise Linux Servers come in Enterprise and Business Class configurations and provide a full array of components to help organizations consolidate scores or hundreds of Linux virtual servers on System z. One such component is z/VM, IBM's virtualization platform that helps clients extend the value of mainframe technology across the enterprise by integrating applications and data while providing high levels of availability and security. z/VM allows clients to run hundreds to thousands of Linux servers on a single physical server.

Compuware Corporation launched an extraordinary Mainframe Cost Savings Program for its Mainframe Solutions customers. Through this dynamic program, Compuware customers will receive a free cost-savings assessment, a roadmap to future mainframe operational costs savings and the opportunity to win a grand prize of $1 million.

To participate, customers participate in a straightforward and free cost-savings assessment. Through the assessment, Compuware will identify future savings opportunities as well as the specific operational cost savings that the customer currently enjoys by using Compuware.

The program is open to all Compuware customers who maintain a Compuware mainframe software maintenance contract during the program. Participating customers will access a secure web portal where they can easily submit brief stories documenting the successes and savings they have realized from Compuware Mainframe Solutions. The most compelling collection of stories will earn the winning organization a $1 million grand prize at the end of the year-long contest.

CA announced the integration of CA Endevor Software Change Manager, CA’s change management solution, and IBM’s Rational Developer for System z V7.6, the IBM Rational mainframe development environment. This new integration is designed to significantly simplify the development and management of mainframe software by streamlining application updates, reducing change-related programming errors, and facilitating compliance audits.

Many mainframe developers already use both RDz as their integrated development environment and CA Endevor SCM for automating software lifecycle management tasks such as code merging, versioning, and change tracking. This integration gives customers the ability to seamlessly link related development and software lifecycle management tasks.

With this integration, a programmer using RDz, for example, can extract the elements of an application within CA Endevor SCM that is awaiting modification, perform that modification, and then store the changes back into CA Endevor SCM for acceptance into the next release of the application. The CA Endevor SCM edit environment now includes key RDz functions such as content assist and smart syntax check—along with ISPF look-and-feel. When completed, the changes are placed back into CA Endevor SCM so users can take advantage of all CA Endevor SCM controls and build functionality. This unified approach to coding and release management can now improve productivity, accelerate time-to-delivery, and enable the auditability of programmer activities.

IBM announced 10 new software products to help companies lower application management costs by optimizing the System z mainframe for more workloads, such as data analytics, collaborative application development, application maintenance and other key business processes.

Given System z's ability to reduce costs through server consolidation, IBM and the industry have aggressively extended the breadth of new workloads for the mainframe via 3,800 z/OS-based and 3,000 Linux-based applications. The unique ability of the mainframe to host many application services on one system has helped System z achieve one of the industry's lowest application costs per user. Minimal application costs are important for companies which rely on multiple applications to run their business.

The new products span IBM's software portfolio to provide a range of benefits for System z customers. The benefits include optimal application connectivity, productivity, security and data management.

The new offerings complement IBM's recent announcement of seven integrated hardware, software and services packages -- IBM System z Solution Editions -- to help customers deploy new enterprise workloads, such as data warehousing, electronic payments and disaster recovery.

The Computer Measurement Group (CMG), the IT professionals responsible for planning, measuring and managing the world's largest IT infrastructures, announced that it has finalized its agenda for the 35th International Computer Measurement Group annual conference (CMG'09) taking place taking place December 6-11 in Dallas, Texas at the Gaylord Texan.

There will be several sessions devoted to cloud computing from key industry luminaries.

The keynote address will be presented by Amy Wohl, President of Wohl Associates. Amy is a world-renown computer industry analyst and author. Her presentation is titled, “The Impact of Software as a Service (SaaS) on the Enterprise Data Center.”

IBM Builds Massive Business Analytics Cloud for 200,000 Employees, Unveils Version for Clients

IBM announced the world’s largest private cloud computing environment for business analytics, which will provide IBM sales teams and developers new levels of insight to better meet the needs of clients worldwide. The cloud will launch initially with more than a petabyte of data, the equivalent of more than 300 billion ATM transactions.

IBM also announced a new solution, the IBM Smart Analytics Cloud, for clients to build their own private cloud environments based on the same Cloud infrastructure that IBM is using internally.

IBM’s Internal Business Analytics Cloud

Internally called Blue Insight, IBM’s cloud environment democratizes information, providing access to a variety of client and market data regardless of where an employee sits in the company. It gathers information from nearly 100 different information warehouses and data stores, providing analytics on more than a petabyte (1,000 terabytes or 1,000,000 gigabytes) of data. By turning that data into insight for IBM’s sales force and development communities, IBM will be able to deliver more value in the solutions and services it offers to its clients. More than 200,000 IBMers will have access to the new system.

PKWARE, Inc., a leading provider of data-centric security and compression solutions, announced that V. Miller Newton has been named President and Chief Executive Officer.

Newton was previously Chief Executive Officer for Monster, the renowned global employment solution. He is credited with growing the company from $400,000 to $45 million in revenue and from 50 to 230 employees. Prior to being named CEO of Monster, Newton was Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for TMP Worldwide, a global marketing communications company and parent company of Monster (now Monster Worldwide – NYSE MWW). Newton was instrumental in taking TMP Worldwide public in 1996.

In addition to his tenure with Monster, Newton was previously Chief Executive Officer of Netkey, a leading provider of applications and management software for self-service kiosks and digital signage. Netkey was acquired by NCR (NYSE: NCR). Prior to that, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Boston-based Lavastorm Technologies (now Martin Dawes Analytics), an international data analytic software company focused on improving business performance.

CA announced CA Encryption Key Manager, a z/OS-based comprehensive solution that unifies and automates the management, storage, distribution, and documentation of encryption keys for multi-vendor mainframe and distributed environments such as Linux, UNIX, Windows and Solaris. By doing so, CA EKM can reduce administrative overhead, support compliance best practices and corporate governance initiatives, and reduce the risk of downtime that can result from the inability to access encrypted data.

CA EKM automatically replicates encryption keys across a set of local and dispersed hosts via SSL-encrypted TCP/IP, so that keys can quickly and transparently be recovered in case of a disaster, hardware errors or a system outage. It also automatically enforces policies regarding the change of encryption keys and digital certificates, thereby mitigating the labor and risk associated with manual administration.

As a vendor-neutral solution, CA EKM helps IT organizations avoid being locked into costly standalone hardware or software purchases that could introduce single points of failure or lack the flexibility to meet changing business needs. Because the solution can support both popular IBM tape encryption devices and CA Tape Encryption subsystems from the same interface, CA EKM can streamline customers’ approach to this critical issue.

Capitalware Inc. has updated its 3 MQ z/OS security products. These security products help companies to protect their z/OS WebSphere MQ environments from security risks and to comply with any regulations or government laws.

1) MQ Authenticate User Security Exit for z/OS: The MQ Authenticate User Security Exit for z/OS (z/MQAUSX) is a solution that allows a company to fully authenticate a user who is accessing a z/OS WebSphere MQ resource. It authenticates the User's UserID and Password against the server's native z/OS system (RACF) or against z/MQAUSX's encrypted file.

The security exit will operate with WebSphere MQ v5.3.1, v6.0 and v7.0 in z/OS v1.4 or higher environments. It works with Server Connection, Client Connection, Sender, Receiver, Server, Requestor, Cluster-Sender and Cluster-Receiver channels of WebSphere MQ queue managers.

2) MQ Instant Secure Data for z/OS:

The MQ Instant Secure Data for z/OS (z/MQISD) provides encryption for MQ message data. z/MQISD is a solution that allows a company to encrypt message data, which flows between WebSphere MQ resources. z/MQISD operates with WebSphere MQ for z/OS v5.3.1 or v6.0 in z/OS v1.4 or higher environments. It operates with Sender, Receiver, Server, Requestor, Cluster- Sender, Cluster-Receiver, Server Connection and Client Connection channels of the WMQ for z/OS queue managers.

3) MQ Standard Security Exit for z/OS:

The MQ Standard Security Exit for z/OS (z/MQSSX) is a solution that allows a company to control and restrict who is accessing a WebSphere MQ resource. The security exit will operate with WebSphere MQ v5.3.1, v6.0 and v7.0 in z/OS v1.4 or higher environments. It works with Server Connection, Receiver, Requestor and Cluster-Receiver channels of WebSphere MQ queue managers.