IBM Withdraws Various iSeries and System i5 Features

August 14, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Last week, IBM announced that it would be withdrawing from marketing a number of iSeries and System i5 features. A bunch of software is also being torn out of the System i product catalog, too. All of these products have replacements, so don’t get too nervous.

The most significant announcement is that starting on May 1, 2007, IBM will no longer sell 35.2 GB, 15K RPM disk drives (features 4326) on the iSeries or System i5 for supporting OS/400 and i5/OS, and that similar (and lower cost) 36.4 GB disks for supporting AIX and Linux partitions on the iSeries and i5 platforms will also be removed from the catalog. IBM is telling customers to use 70.6 GB disks for OS/400 and i5/OS (feature 4327) and 73.4 GB disks for AIX and Linux (feature 1897). IBM already withdrew its 17.54 GB, 10K RPM disks (feature 4318) on September 1, 2004, and killed off the 35.2 GB, 10K RPM variants (feature 4319) on July 15, 2005. With this latest withdraw, customers looking to use cheaper 35.2 GB disks–cheaper being an extremely relative term–will have to pony up more money. The 35.2 GB disks spinning at 15K RPM, which are perfectly suitable for the System i5 line since disk arms, not capacity, is the important factor in online transaction processing performance, cost $1,199 at list price, while the 70.6 GB, 15K RPM units cost $1,999. IBM is still selling a 141.1 GB, 15K RPM disk for $2,999. Disk features for AIX and Linux in the same i5 box cost half as much, and for no good reason.

IBM is also phasing out an old set of PCI-X iSCSI TCP/IP offload engines with copper and fiber optic cables for a new line with the same technical characteristics, and an older 4 Gb/sec Fibre Channel host bus adapter card for the i5 has been replaced by a new one as part of the July 11 announcements. A bunch of i5 Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, HA Edition, and CBU Edition machines based on older Power5 technology are also being removed from the IBM catalog on October 3. (You can read the full product list in this announcement letter. Believe it or not, IBM has finally killed off some older 4 MB, 8 MB, 16 MB, and 512 MB memory cards from vintage AS/400s, effective August 8, 2006. (That’s the day the announcement was made.) Feature conversions from many vintage AS/400s were also killed off on August 8.

IBM also said that on September 30, it will no longer support Integrated Domino Fax for iSeries V4.4, which is currently being supported under a contract through Lotus or Global Services. Integrated Domino Fax for i5/OS V4R5 is the replacement product for this older fax software.

Finally, the old Software Subscription support services, which debuted many years ago, will also bite the dust on December 1. Software Subscription, you will remember, predates the current Software Maintenance agreement (which rolls software support and hardware support into a single, annual contract). Basically, Software Maintenance is your only option now.

Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 15, Number 32 -- August 14, 2006

CYBER-ATTACKS ON THE RISE. PROTECT WITH THE TRIPLE PLAY.

COVID-19 has not only caused a global pandemic, but has sparked a “cyber pandemic” as well.

“Cybersecurity experts predict that in 2021, there will be a cyber-attack incident every 11 seconds. This is nearly twice what it was in 2019 (every 19 seconds), and four times the rate five years ago (every 40 seconds in 2016). It is expected that cybercrime will cost the global economy $6.1 trillion annually, making it the third-largest economy in the world, right behind those of the United States and China.”1

Protecting an organization’s data is not a single-faceted approach, and companies need to do everything they can to both proactively prevent an attempted attack and reactively respond to a successful attack.

UCG Technologies’ VAULT400 subscription defends IBM i and Intel systems against cyber-attacks through comprehensive protection with the Triple Play Protection – Cloud Backup, DRaaS, & Enterprise Cybersecurity Training.

Cyber-attacks become more sophisticated every day. The dramatic rise of the remote workforce has accelerated this trend as cyber criminals aggressively target company employees with online social engineering attacks. It is crucial that employees have proper training on what NOT to click on. Cyber threats and social engineering are constantly evolving and UCG’s Enterprise Cybersecurity Training (powered by KnowBe4) is designed to educate employees on the current cutting-edge cyber-attacks and how to reduce and eliminate them.

A company is only as strong as its weakest link and prevention is just part of the story. Organizations need to have a quick response and actionable plan to implement should their data become compromised. This is the role of cloud backup and disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS).

Data is a company’s most valuable asset. UCG’s VAULT400 Cloud Backup provides 256-bit encrypted backups to two (2) remote locations for safe retrieval should a cyber-attack occur. This is a necessary component of any protection strategy. Whether a single click on a malicious link brings down the Windows environment or an infected SQL server feeds the IBM i, once the data is compromised, there is no going back unless you have your data readily available.

Recovery is not a trivial task, especially when you factor in the time sensitive nature of restoring from an active attack. This leads to the third play of the Triple Play Protection – DRaaS. Companies have myriad concerns once an attack is realized and a managed service disaster recovery allows employees to keep focus on running the business in a crisis state.

The combination of training employees with secure backup and disaster recovery offers companies the best chance at avoiding financial disruption in an age of stronger, more frequent cyber-attacks.

Reach out to UCG Technologies to discuss your company’s security needs and develop a data protection plan that fits you best.

ucgtechnologies.com/triple-play

800.211.8798 | info@ucgtechnologies.com

https://theconversation.com/cyberattacks-are-on-the-rise-amid-work-from-home-how-to-protect-your-business-151268

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