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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.

  • COMMON Hosts Its Annual Conference, Welcomes New Board This Week

    May 20, 2024 Alex Woodie

    COMMON today kicks off its annual POWERUp conference, bringing the global IBM i community together in beautiful downtown Fort Worth, Texas. The world’s largest IBM i user group is also wrapping up an election for its board of directors, which features three candidates for three spots.

    For many decades, COMMON has hosted the single largest annual gathering of IBM i professionals, and that run of success will not be broken this week, with expectations of about 1,000 attendees at the show. This year’s annual COMMON conference, dubbed POWERUp 2024, features four days of education, networking opportunities, and other events in …

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  • Database Enhancements Galore In Spring 2024 IBM i TRs

    May 13, 2024 Alex Woodie

    The IBM i server is a database machine at the end of the day, so it’s not surprising that the latest technology refreshes (TRs) focus heavily on enhancements to Db2 for i. From new aggregate functions for the query optimizer to new and improved SQL-based IBM i services, there’s plenty of database goodness to go around in these releases.

    On May 7, IBM announced IBM i 7.5 TR4 and 7.4 TR10. You can read the announcement letters for the two releases here and here. The functionality for the two releases, which will become generally available on June 14, is …

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  • Spring 2024 IBM i Technology Refresh Unveiled by IBM

    May 8, 2024 Alex Woodie

    IBM today took the wraps off the latest Technology Refresh for the IBM i platform. When IBM i 7.5 TR4 and 7.4 TR10 ship on June 14, customers will find enhancements such as Merlin version 2, new features in Navigator and ACS, security improvements, a couple of RPG enhancements, HA and DR enhancements, and a host of new SQL-based database services, among other capabilities.

    In addition to new features, which we’ll get to in a second, the launch of IBM i 7.5 TR4 and 7.4 TR10 is important for an unexpected reason: It will mark the beginning of IBM’s transition …

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  • April Showers Bring May IBM i Security Vulnerabilities

    May 8, 2024 Alex Woodie

    IBM has patched more than a dozen security flaws in IBM i and related products this spring, including serious flaws in the operating system proper and the compilers, and a critical vulnerability in Administrative Runtime Expert that landed a nearly perfect CVSS Base score.

    In the interest of time, let’s cover the security vulnerabilities in descending order of severity. That means we’re starting with the worst and then moving on to the slightly less worse.

    ARE Flaw

    The flaw reported in the Administration Runtime Expert for i (ARE), which IBM launched in 2010 to make it easier to manage IBM …

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  • Kisco Bolsters IBM i Security Business With DXR Buy

    May 6, 2024 Alex Woodie

    Kisco Systems has acquired DXR Security, the company co-founded four years ago by IBM i security expert Carol Woodbury. The deal immediately boosts Kisco’s position in the IBM i security space, and gives Woodbury an opportunity to cement her midrange legacy.

    Woodbury started her computer security career in Rochester, Minnesota back in 1984, when she was hired to work on securing IBM’s midrange platform. Over a 16-year career, she eventually rose to the position of AS/400 Security Team Leader and Chief Engineering Manager for Security when she retired in 2000.

    Known simply by the community as the AS/400 security architect, …

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  • Raz-Lee Simplifies MFA for IBM i

    April 24, 2024 Alex Woodie

    The need for multi-factor authentication (MFA) has never been higher, as cybercriminals continue to compromise corporate and governmental systems to steal data and hold systems for ransom. That market need has led Raz-Lee Security to add several new features to its MFA solution that should help its customers stop, or at least significantly slow, unauthorized access to IBM i.

    Raz-Lee Security has sold MFA as part of its comprehensive iSecurity suite for several years, going back at least to December 2021, according to the company’s release notes for the product. With this month’s update to Raz-Lee MFA, the company has …

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  • IBM Cranks Up the Performance for Run SQL Scripts

    April 24, 2024 Alex Woodie

    Access Client Solutions (ACS) users who are tired of waiting for database fields to resolve in the Run SQL Scripts (RSS) facility will be happy to hear that IBM felt their pain and RSS will return data much more quickly to return data with ACS version 1.1.9.5, which IBM shipped earlier this month.

    The speed-up of field resolution time was listed as a concern to at least one IBM i user, who took to IBM Power Ideas Portal to voice his or her concern. “Simply put the resolution of potential field makes content assist almost unusable,” the user wrote. “I …

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  • Rocket DevOps Gets Update for Free Format RPG, VS Code, and DORA

    April 24, 2024 Alex Woodie

    The latest release of Rocket’s change management tool for IBM i brings several new capabilities, including improved support for VS Code and Free Form RPG. Rocket DevOps version 10.3.1 also brings better code testing capabilities and will help companies comply with new regulations, such as the EU’s Digital Operations Resilience Act (DORA).

    Rocket Software added support for the browser-based development environment VS Code last fall with the launch of Rocket DevOps version 10.2.2. Customers will find the new release of Rocket DevOps improves on that initial VS Code support, says Puneet Kohli, the president of the Rocket’s Application Modernization Business …

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  • What Degree? Kisco’s RCL Fellowship Spotlights Value of Training, Hard Work

    April 22, 2024 Alex Woodie

    Having a college degree is certainly one path to having a career in IT. But it’s not the only one, a point that Kisco Systems president Justin Loeber is making with the latest round of the Richard C. Loeber Fellowship, which is now accepting applications.

    It’s not that Justin Loeber is adamantly opposed to college degrees. After all, the current Kisco Systems owner eventually received a diploma in environmental science and public policy, which he called “a passion play.”

    But his father, Rich Loeber, never got a college degree. Despite proving his worth in data processing at a railroad and …

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  • Visualizing the Business Apps Used In the IBM i Marketplace

    April 10, 2024 Alex Woodie

    IBM i shops run an incredibly diverse array of software, including open source programs, packaged applications, and homegrown software. When it comes to business applications, data from the last nine State of IBM i Marketplace Surveys from Fortra helps to tell the tale.

    The IBM i platform was born to run applications. It’s right there in the original name, after all: Application System/400. Software vendors flocked to support the AS/400 following its launch in 1988, and while there has been some attrition over the years, there remains a strong core of vendors developing and supporting applications running on the platform. …

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