President's Message by Don Rima

It's finally here. Of course, I'm talking about V5R4 and the renaming of the midrange product line to System i5 and i5/OS.

Thanks to IBM, we're having two Announcement Briefings this month:

Richmond - February 27 at 6pm - Richmond Airport Hotel and Conference Center
College Park, MD - February 28 at 6pm - College Park Holiday Inn

As with the regular meetings, Happy Hour will start around 6pm. Dinner will be served around 6:30pm and the main presentation will start about 7pm. It will continue until the presenter is finished.

So, plan now to come hear about the new announcement items like:

• i5 Models: 520, 550, 570 and 595 and the new features.
• Power 5+ technology in the i5 family of systems
• New 32bit Java Virtual Machine
• New features in the WebFacing Deployment Tool
• Changes in the WebSphere Development Studio including free-format SQL in RPG applications!
• Integrating SOA Web Services with RPG
• Changes in iSeries Access for the Web
• CL Language enhancements
• RPG Language enhancements
• New Blade server functionality
• New DBA Tools to help with database management
• i5/OS Security updates
• New features in backup/recovery - INCLUDING SPOOL FILES!
• And LOTS LOTS MORE!

Register early and bring a friend!

February 27th and 28th Meetings

V5R4 i5/OS Announcement Details

Monday February 27, 2006
Richmond Airport Hotel and Conference Center
804-222-6450 for directions
6:00 pm networking/cash bar
6:30 pm Dinner
7:00 pm Presentation

Tuesday February 28th, 2006
College Park Holiday Inn
301-345-6700 for directions
6:00 pm networking/cash bar
6:30 pm Dinner
7:00 pm Presentation

When RSVP'ing, please specify which location.