Help/Systems Releases Robot/AUTOTUNE 6.0
Help/Systems Inc. (Minnetonka, Minn.) affirmed its status as a 1999 Partners in Development AS/400 All Star by releasing its latest version of its Robot/AUTOTUNE to address the market’s growing interest in Lotus Domino.
Robot/AUTOTUNE 6.0 combines new features and enhancements and is designed to help companies confront the problem of how to run multiple Domino servers on the same machine. Since each server runs in its own subsystem, users can specify tuning priorities and let Robot/AUTOTUNE 6.0 take over performance management for up to 99 servers.
For Help/Systems, the ability to manage multiple Domino servers is one of the most important features of 6.0. "Twenty-five percent of the new AS/400s for 1998 were for Domino," says Tom Huntington, Help/Systems' VP of technical services. "I think the trend will continue. People are realizing e-mail is a mission critical application and that AS/400 is a great platform for running mission critical applications because they are so reliable. NT and some of the other products aren’t as reliable or scalable."
One of Robot/AUTOTUNE's new features is its ability to manage job queues by allowing users to create a rotation. As jobs arrive on a job queue in the rotation group, Robot/AUTOTUNE allocates a dynamic pool to the job queue, allowing the job to process. "Through this process, we are able to process the jobs on job queues faster, because if there’s a job queue in front of it, it has to wait until it’s finished," Huntington says. "With job queue management, we can make a slot available sooner for the job."
Robot/AUTOTUNE 6.0 also offers enhancements in areas such as: monitoring interactive jobs to make sure a user is using a batch job interactively; the ability to monitor systems at specified intervals; and detail and summary reports that show users their AS/400 performance patterns.
"So far, Robot/AUTOTUNE 6.0 is working out fine for us," says Rollie Ver Way, systems programmer for John Morrell and Company (Cincinnati). "We only have 6.0 installed on one of our AS/400s, but we plan to have it installed on all of our AS/400s in the near future because it's easy to install, has good manageability and provides great service."
IBM's recognition of Help/Systems as a 1999 All Star was a big score for the automated operations solution provider. "We are long-time members of the AS/400 Partners in Development program and are very pleased to have been named a 1999 AS/400 All Star," says Janet Dryer, president of Help/Systems. "Because of our early access to OS/400 code through this program, even the earliest adopters of new OS/400 releases can be assured that the Robot products will be ready when they upgrade."
Robot/AUTOTUNE 6.0 is priced at $2,695 for AS/400 model P05; $3,080 for model P10; $5,250 for model P20; $8,580 for model P30; $12,870 for model P40; and $17,160 for model P50.