Alex Woodie
Alex Woodie is Senior Editor at IT Jungle. He was previously editor of two of IT Jungle's main newsletters, Four Hundred Stuff and The Windows Observer. Prior to joining Midrange Server (as Guild Companies was formerly called) in October 2001, Alex was a products editor at now defunct publisher Midrange Computing, where he was first introduced to the AS/400 and covered hardware, software, and services for Midrange Technology SHOWCASE magazine. Before joining Midrange Computing, Alex was a staff writer for The Insurance Journal and a reporter and columnist with The Paradise Post newspaper. Woodie obtained his Bachelors of Arts degree in journalism from Humboldt State University in 1997. Upon graduation, Alex intended to make his way onto a major daily newspaper, but in 1999 he found himself drawn to the high-technology industry, where his background in science and engineering has suited him well. He lives in Northern San Diego County. When he is not writing next week's newsletters, Alex can be found in his favorite chair reading the day's paper, in the kitchen, or at the beach.
-
Speedy PHP 7 Now Available for IBM i
April 5, 2017 Alex Woodie
The fast new PHP language and runtime that Zend Technologies has been working on for two years is now available for IBM i. With the delivery of PHP 7.1 and Zend Server for i 9.1 yesterday, the company says IBM i shops can expect to see their PHP applications run anywhere from 50 to 200 percent faster than before. IBM i shops will also benefit from MariaDB support and a new clustering capability.
The introduction of PHP 7 last fall marked a major overhaul of the popular scripting language that runs on all major platforms. As the first major release …
Read more -
Vanguard Goes Mobile With Content Management
April 5, 2017 Alex Woodie
Vanguard Systems last week debuted eMobile, a new mobile app that allows users to interact with its enterprise content management (ECM) system from the comfort of an iOS or Android app. As an extension to its flagship IBM i-based Vanguard ECM, eMobile keeps users hooked into the document workflow even when they’re out of the office.
Nobody said the shift from paper-based forms to digital document management would happen overnight. Even today, in the sixth decade of mainstream business computing, paperwork that’s based on actual paper – as opposed to digital forms represented by pixels on screen – is still …
Read more -
Time To Get Your 2FA On, IBM i Admins
April 3, 2017 Alex Woodie
System administrators working in regulated industries will soon be required to sign-in to servers using two-factor authentication (2FA), according to the latest PCI requirement. The industry regulation will impact administrators working with all types of computer systems, and will likely be enforced in late 2017 or early 2018, security experts say.
In prior versions of the Payment Cardholder Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), only remote administrators were required to use 2FA, which bolsters the security of the sign-on process by requiring users to show “something you know,” like a password, as well as “something you have,” like a hardware …
Read more -
ACS Getting New Database Schema Functions
March 29, 2017 Alex Woodie
IBM is adding more functionality to the upcoming release of Access Client Solutions (ACS) that should make IBM i database engineers and database developers very happy, including a new capability that allows users to work directly with schemas.
The database schema function was not on the list of new ACS features that IBM released back in February, when it first unveiled IBM i 7.3 TR2 and IBM i 7.2 TR6. IBM uses the major operating system and technology refresh (TR) announcements as a vehicle to also announce other products that aren’t part of the OS proper, but which are …
Read more -
Ensono Emerges With IBM i Cloud Offering
March 29, 2017 Alex Woodie
When it comes to selecting a cloud provider to run your IBM i applications, you have a lot of options, including prominent business partners and well-known VARs in the midrange market. One fairly large IBM i cloud provider that you’re probably not aware of is Ensono, and it’s working to raise its profile in the changing market.
The first thing that differentiates Ensono is its rich history. While the company’s name is just over a year old, it actually traces its business process outsourcing roots back 47 years to Downers Grove, Illinois, when the data services firm May & Speh …
Read more -
Original Testing Pure HTML5 Emulator For 5250
March 29, 2017 Alex Woodie
Test automation specialist Original Software is developing a 5250 emulator that’s based entirely in HTML5 code, which enables it to run in the Web browser of any modern device. Prospective users are those IBM i shops who are frustrated with the emulator in IBM’s new Java-based ACS product, which Original says is difficult to test.
When you think of the words “HTML5 and IBM i application development,” chances are good that what popped into your mind was an image of shiny new Web apps with all the latest screen widgets and UX gadgets designed to deliver a downright transformative – …
Read more -
Inside Carbonite’s IBM i Plans For EVault
March 22, 2017 Alex Woodie
It’s been a year since Carbonite acquired the EVault business from Seagate for $14 million, and not a lot has changed, save for the addition of IBM i support in the cloud backup agent. But according to Carbonite, there are big plans underway to bolster the EVault product line, and in particular its IBM i capabilities.
Carbonite continues to develop and sell the entire line of EVault products that it acquired in December 2015 from Seagate, according to Kashan Mohammad, Carbonite’s senior product manager in charge of EVault office solutions. (The home-based products, which account for the lion’s share of …
Read more -
One On One With HelpSystems’ Debbie Saugen
March 20, 2017 Alex Woodie
HelpSystems scored a big win in the business resiliency department last month when it announced the hiring of IBM veteran Debbie Saugen to head up its new business continuity services offerings. IT Jungle caught up with Saugen and HelpSystems CEO Chris Heim last week to discuss what the move means for Saugen, how it will impact HelpSystems, and how customers will benefit.
IT Jungle: Debbie, please tell me about your background at IBM. Have you always been involved in backup and recovery?
Debbie Saugen: I spent over 37 years at IBM and I was the technical owner of IBM i …
Read more -
Digital Transformation Drawing Crowds In Rocket’s Road Show
March 15, 2017 Alex Woodie
IBM i shops may be relatively conservative technologically and generally resistant to bandwagons. But midrange professionals are eager to learn about digital transformation, according to Rocket Software executive Dan Magid, who’s the point man for a global roadshow dedicated to the topic.
“How do I take part in digital transformation and do it with my IBM i? It’s a very hot idea,” Magid said from the San Francisco International Airport this week as he prepared to travel across the country to meet with more customers.
Digital transformation is a relatively new concept that’s taking the business world by storm. It’s …
Read more -
Vote On New IBM i Functionality With RFE Community Program
March 15, 2017 Alex Woodie
IBM is rolling out a new program that will not only allow IBM i customers to submit requests for enhancements (RFEs) over the Web, but allow the IBM i community to vote on them. Dubbed IBM RFE Community, the developerWorks program provides another venue for informing the Rochester Lab about a problem or asking them to build a new feature into the IBM i product.
The new IBM RFE Community program for IBM i, which we told you was coming last August, is based on other RFE programs the company has had in place for other software products. Armed …
Read more