Alex Woodie
-
IBM: CMOD for i ‘Alive and Well’
December 9, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreIn last week’s The Four Hundred, we ran a story titled “Content Manager OnDemand For i Withdrawn In 2016.” It turns out that the product is very much alive.
“It is alive and well,” Tim Rowe, the business architect for application development and systems management for IBM i at the IBM lab in Rochester, Minnesota, told us.
For a while, it seemed clear enough that CMOD for i was dead. According to IBM U.S. Withdrawal Announcement 914-242 dated November 11, all of the CMOD for i products that IBM sells under the product ID number 5770-RD1 were
-
2014: The IBM i Year That Was
December 8, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreMy, what a year it has been. Seems like only yesterday we were chatting up what 2014 would bring, and now before we know it, it’s already passed by. From IBM‘s new chips and its old chip business to security hacks and vendor consolidation, it was a fairly eventful year. Here’s a look at the IBM i news highlights from 2014.
Arguably, the highlight of the year from an IBM i news perspective was IBM’s launch of the Power8 processor. It’s always exciting seeing what IBM’s chip experts do with the next generation of the Power architecture, and they
-
UPDATED: Content Manager OnDemand for i Lives On!
December 3, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreEditor’s note: This story, which was originally published under the headline “Content Manager OnDemand For i Withdrawn In 2016,” has been updated. Content Manager OnDemand for i continues to be developed and supported by IBM. “It is alive and well,” Tim Rowe, the business architect for application development and systems management for IBM i at the IBM lab in Rochester, Minnesota, told IT Jungle on December 3. Apparently, the IBM withdrawal announcement should only have been about withdrawing CMOD for Multiplatforms version 8.5, but for some reason the entire CMOD for i product was also listed as being sent out
-
Demand Building for Node.js on IBM i
December 2, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreFew of IBM‘s October announcements generated as much excitement as the revelation that Node.js is coming to the platform. The prospect of using JavaScript to build both the client and the server side of a Web application is very intriguing. For those IBM i professionals who have been waiting for the software and the associated documentation to be available, the wait will soon be over.
On October 6, IBM announced that IBM i 7.1 Technology Refresh 9 and IBM i 7.2 TR1 would both contain support for Node.js when the TRs shipped on November 11. Since then, numerous IBM
-
A ‘FastPass’ to IBM i Password Satisfaction
December 2, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreThe need to remember multiple passwords is the source of much stress for today’s modern computer user. Users must remember passwords for systems, passwords for apps, and passwords for phones. One vendor helping to eliminate the password overburden is the Danish company FastPass, which has been supporting IBM i with its password synchronization software for the past four years.
FastPass is a software or a service that enables employees to use a single password to access multiple systems. FastPass is based on Microsoft‘s identity management software for Windows, including Active Directory. On top of that, FastPass has built
-
A Power Tool for IBM i User Administration
December 2, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreManaging IBM i users can take a lot of work. Setting up user profiles, granting authorities, and eliminating profiles across multiple environments are critical tasks that administrators must tackle. Now PowerTech is selling a tool that automates much of the grunt work associated with user profile management on the IBM i platform.
PowerTech PowerAdmin is designed to take the sting out of user profile management by implementing role-based accessed control (RBAC) for groups of users. Instead of managing all of the settings and access rights involved with each user profile individually, administrators create templates for different roles that exist within
-
ProData Freshens Up Database Access with RDB Connect 4
December 2, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreThe days when all the data you needed to access resided in DB2/400 have long since passed, and today, being able to access data on other systems is a fact of life. One vendor helping IBM i shops get the most out of their disparate data sources is ProData Computer Services, which recently updated its remote database access tool, called RDB Connect.
RDB Connect is a collection of commands and functions that enable RPG, COBOL, and CL programs to have record-level access to data residing on other databases, including Microsoft SQL Server, MS Access, Oracle and MySQL, PostgreSQL,
-
IBM Sets Out to Save Email with ‘Verse’
December 2, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreEmail, you will remember, was the Internet’s first killer app. Before there was Twitter or texting or blogs, email transformed how we communicated. That was 30 years ago, but today email has lost its luster, thanks to spam and a plethora of other ways to send a note or share a file. Now IBM is seeking to elevate electronic mail to relevant new heights with a new hosted offering called Verse.
It may sound odd, but one of the problems with email is its continued popularity and relevance in the workplace. More than 108 billion work emails are sent daily,
-
SAP on IBM i Kernel Upgrade Taxes CPU
December 2, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreSAP on IBM i is considered one of the great, albeit largely unknown, combinations in enterprise computing. But organizations running that combo should be aware of a software upgrade from the German software giant that could cause performance issues.
The issue has to do with an upgrade to the SAP kernel that was issued in July. Apparently, IBM i shops that load SAP ERP Central Component 6.0 Enhancement Package 7 (EHP7) have been experiencing longer response times from the ERP server.
The information was shared last month by Christian Bartels, a product manager with IBM Germany who helps manage the
-
Infor to Drop Support for IBM i 6.1 with ERP Apps
December 2, 2014 Alex Woodie
… Read moreInfor will drop support for IBM i 6.1 with some of its most popular ERP products late next year, the company announced last month. It’s the same end-of-support timeframe that IBM itself has for IBM i 6.1.
In November, Infor sent a notice to its customers that it will no longer support or provide enhancements for Infor LX, Infor BPCS, and Infor EAM SSA running on IBM i 6.1 after September 30, 2015.
“Effective Oct 1, 2015,” the company writes, “releases, patches, and solutions delivered may be compiled for IBM i7.1/OST. These Support deliverables will install and function with IBM