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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.

  • Vision Bolsters Data Replication, Rebrands Under MIMIX

    March 15, 2017 Alex Woodie

    Vision Solutions may have moved out of the Windows and Linux high availability market following the sale of its Double-Take business. But the company is still building and supporting software for replicating data to and from these important platforms in real time. And with last month’s release of MIMIX Share 5.4, the Windows and Linux data replication story gets better.

    Vision Solutions unapologetically doubled down on its Power Systems HA business following the sale of the Double-Take to Carbonite. With three IBM i-based HA products under its wing — including MIMIX and iTERA HA, which are under development, and …

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  • Machine Learning And ERP’s Autonomous Future

    March 13, 2017 Alex Woodie

    What makes Netflix so good at predicting movies you’ll like? A recommendation algorithm based on your viewing history, and the viewing histories of others like you, of course. While consumer technology is rife with such technology, HarrisData president Lane Nelson sees a future when ERP applications augmented with machine learning algorithms can automate nearly all of the back-office decisions currently made by people.

    Machines have been taking over the back-office since the days of the typewriter. But the next wave of innovation occurring around big data analytics and machine learning will likely make the transition to a people-less office nearly …

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  • What IBM i Shops Should Know About Digital Transformation

    March 8, 2017 Alex Woodie

    You may have heard the term “digital transformation” bandied about and figured it was probably another two-bit term for a nickel idea. While all the specifics of digital transformation may not apply to the typical IBM i shop, the general idea behind the concept is one that most IBM i shops would do well explore.

    So, what is digital transformation? In an IBM Institute for Business Value report, the company defines it as “Creating new business models where digital meets physical.” Wikipedia calls it “the change associated with the application of digital technology in all aspects of human society.” …

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  • Don’t Look Now, But PCI Just Changed Again

    March 8, 2017 Alex Woodie

    Heads up, IBM i shops: Companies that process any volume of credit card transactions now must send self-assessments to their acquiring banks under the jurisdiction of the Payment Card Industry’s Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). This is a pretty significant change, as previously only merchants processing large volumes were subject to strict PCI DSS requirements.

    On January 31, a new PCI provision went into effect that requires Level 4 merchants to submit a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) to their issuing banks. Previously, Level 4 merchants, which are defined as processing 20,000 or fewer ecommerce transactions or 1 million total transactions, were …

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  • IBM i Cloud Providers React To Amazon S3 Outage

    March 6, 2017 Alex Woodie

    Last week’s Amazon S3 outage served as a wakeup call that cloud platforms, despite the scalability and availability advantages, actually aren’t infallible. But will the Internet giant’s East Coast outage have any lasting effect on cloud adoption? And will it impact cloud adoption among IBM i customers? We asked some experts to find out.

    User error was blamed on the “impairment” of US East 1, one of 16 “regions” under the massive AWS tent. The region, which is based in AWS’ Ashburn, Virginia data center, never went down entirely, despite claims that all of AWS was down, or that the …

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  • A Youth Movement For IBM i Champions

    March 1, 2017 Alex Woodie

    Don’t look now, but there’s a veritable youth movement afoot in IBM i land. While the platform may not be turning heads on college campuses just yet, it received a vigorous shot in the arm when IBM named relative youngsters Liam Allan and Kody Robinson to the latest crop of Champions for Power.

    The IBM i platform may appear to outsiders as a stodgy old platform maintained by graying men and women on the brink of retirement. But for those on the inside and in the know, there’s an understanding that sophisticated software never gets old and never goes out …

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  • Bank-Turned MSP Sees Growth in IBM i

    March 1, 2017 Alex Woodie

    There aren’t a lot of areas of the IBM i business that are growing these days. Fewer companies are running the platform, which causes young people to look elsewhere to start their careers. That dynamic is actually helping to drive business for First National Technology Solutions, which was an IBM i customer before becoming a managed service provider (MSP).

    In January, First National Technology Solutions (FNTS) announced it was seeing “a sharp increase” in demand for IBM i and mainframe hosting. While the Omaha, Nebraska-based company gets most of its revenue by providing private and hybrid cloud hosting for Windows …

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  • Security Awareness: Eight More Patches For IBM i Vulns

    February 27, 2017 Alex Woodie

    National security awareness month isn’t until October, but that didn’t stop IBM from issuing a torrent of patches this month to address all kinds of security problems in its products. For IBM i specifically, Big Blue patched eight flaws found across the OpenSSH and OpenSSL libraries for the three IBM i OSes under support. The Power HMC also received numerous security patches, as did dozens of other IBM products.

    OpenSSL and OpenSSH have been the source of numerous security vulnerabilities over the past three years, ever since the Heartbleed flaw was found in OpenSSL. As more flaws are found in …

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  • Top 11 Ways to Protect Your IBM i from Insider Threats

    February 22, 2017 Alex Woodie

    Hackers get a lot of attention when it comes to cyber security, and for good reason: external cyber threats are growing in volume and sophistication. But one shouldn’t overlook the harm that insiders can—and do—wreak on companies on a daily basis. Security expert Carol Woodbury recently shared 11 ways IBM i pros can protect the server from the very real threat posed by insiders.

    Woodbury, who is the vice president of global security services at HelpSystems and formerly was IBM‘s chief security architect for the AS/400, says IBM i shops unknowingly leave themselves open to internal attacks through a …

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  • IBM i TRs Bring New Open Source Data Transfer Tools

    February 22, 2017 Alex Woodie

    IBM i shops that adopt the latest Technology Refreshes from IBM will find a trio of new open source tools for moving data and objects across various data transfer protocols used on the Internet. The addition of Wget, cURL, and rsync to the IBM i Open Source solutions package will give IBM i shops more choices for moving data.

    As IBM added open source development tools like Python, PHP, and Node.js to the platform, it has triggered requests for additional tools that open source developers are familiar with, says Alison Butterill, the offering manager for IBM i in Rochester, Minnesota. …

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