Happy Holidays And Big Changes Ahead For IT Jungle In 2017

December 14, 2016 Timothy Prickett Morgan

If you can say one thing about the AS/400 through IBM i community, it is one that demonstrates the longevity of ideas that are ahead of their time. IT Jungle, which has been publishing since July 2001, is one of the whippersnappers in this market, although The Four Hundred in various forms has been publishing since July 1989. And still, we are young.

It is with this long history in mind, which is so much shorter than the System/3 machines that came out in 1969, when many of us here at IT Jungle were either unborn or (comically) had hair, and their progeny through the System/38 in 1979, the System/36 in 1983, the AS/400 in 1988, the AS/400e in 1995, the iSeries in 1999, the System i in 2005, and the Power Systems running IBM i in 2010. Thankfully, IBM has not rebranded the line in the past six years, and it seems uninclined to do so in 2017. We will continue to be The Four Hundred next year, and not just because we own the trademark on that, but because that has been the name of this newsletter from the beginning and because we are a form of continuity for the community as well.

That said, everyone must adapt to survive and try to thrive, as the IT Jungle logo has said for more than a decade and continues to aspire to. We have some big changes coming in 2017, including a move to a new content management system and email delivery platform that will make us more adaptable than our current homegrown systems, which admittedly are looking a bit long in the tooth. Like many IBM i shops, we are so busy doing the business, in this case reporting and analyzing what is happening in the IBM i community, that we don’t worry about the systems as much. Our product, which is the insight of the community, is much more important. But we also have to keep up with the times and build a better platform, just as IBM i shops must do to keep their own companies competitive.

We are getting a much more modern look and feel for The Four Hundred while remaining consistent with our heritage. Again, much like the AS/400 has evolved into the IBM i. We will be moving to an email as a service platform for distributing our emails, and doing more of a push through social media, too.

One of the things that we are also going to do as part of our redesign is to consolidate our IBM i newsletters down to one publication that has a more consistent publishing schedule. So henceforth, subscribers who have received our material separately through The Four Hundred, Four Hundred Guru, and Four Hundred Monitor will receive our news, analysis, and technical articles through a new and improved, unified issue of The Four Hundred. We will send out a notice shortly that tells you about how to whitelist the new email service we are using so you can receive the newsletter when we send it. We will be consolidating the email list on our end, so subscribers don’t have to do that.

We are also putting the finishing touches on some new products that we will bring to market in 2017 for the IBM i community, and we are also thinking of how we might serve the broader community of small and medium businesses that includes the vast majority of the IBM i installed base and millions of other customers. The problems that all midrange shops are trying to solve are not unique to any particular platform, and we think there are lessons to be learned, companies to help, and advertisers to help pay for this work. We do so enjoy what we do, and that was the original mission of IT Jungle. We never forgot that. We were too busy surviving to adapt, as often happens. But now we are adapting. We will see if thrive happens. . . .

No matter what, we are so very grateful to the readers and sponsors that we have. Without readers, there is no purpose, and without sponsors there is no means to serve them. It is now time for those of us at IT Jungle to take some well-deserved time with family and friends, to unwind a bit and restore our reserves to take on the tasks that 2017 will present us. We look forward to that challenge, and to serving you in the coming year. Happy holidays, everyone, and we will see you in that bright new year that awai

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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