Alex Woodie
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Robot/CONSOLE Gets IASP Support, Is Now Ready for PowerHA
October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreIBM i shops that use Help/Systems‘ Robot/CONSOLE to keep an eye on their server’s messages can feel a little safer that the software will function normally during a failover. That’s because the vendor has added support for individual auxiliary storage pools (IASPs) with last week’s release of Robot/CONSLE version 5.25, which allows it to work when it’s failed over to a backup storage server as part of an IBM PowerHA for IBM i environment.
While IASPs have been around for a decade, it’s only been in the last five years or so that software vendors have really come under
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Halcyon Tidies Up Journal Receivers, Tightens Up QAUDJRN
October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreHalcyon Software last week unveiled a new version of Systems Operations Suite (SOS), its software for monitoring and automatically responding to IBM i messages, applications, and processes. A new object monitor debuted with version 5.0 that gives customers more control over journal receivers. The update also delivers finer-grained monitoring of the system audit journal to detect potential security events, and brings customers a new custom task monitor.
Systems Operations Suite sits in the lower half of the totem pole that is Halcyon’s complete collection of IBM i systems monitoring and management tools. The Level 2 offering has all of the
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Townsend Stores Encryption Keys in the Cloud
October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreThe cloud keeps getting more secure every day. And now, Townsend Security–a vendor that knows a thing or two about how to do security right–even wants to store the encryption keys for your cloud-based applications in a hardware security module (HSM) that itself lives in the cloud.
Finding a safe place to store encryption keys is an important, but sometimes overlooked, aspect of good security management. If you lose those encryption keys or they’re stolen, your data is gone for good. Your encryption software vendor doesn’t have a “skeleton” key to recover the data, and it’s doubtful the National
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Magic Adds Mobile Device Management to Mix
October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreMagic Software is one of several IBM i-oriented development tool makers chasing the mobile opportunity, which is a big one. Last week, Magic bolstered its mobile story with new mobile device management (MDM) and offline mode capabilities.
The new Magic MDM offering gives customers the tools necessary to provision, support, secure, and monitor both corporate-owned and personal devices that employees bring to work. The software supports iOS, Android, and Windows platforms, and enables administrators to accomplish management tasks through a Web-based interface.
The Magic MDM offering can be used to enroll and configure devices over all network connection types (WiFi,
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Tectrade to Sell LaserVault UBD in Europe
October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreTectrade, a Dutch provider of IBM i solutions in several countries, this month announced that it has picked up and will start selling Electronic Storage Corp.‘s LaserVault Universal Backup Device (UBD) to clients in Europe.
Antoni Uni, a service transition consultant with Tectrade, explained his company’s decision to re-sell the LaserVault backup device to clients in the BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg) region.
“We selected LaserVault’s UBD because it will give our customers a tapeless backup solution and at the same time optimize the use of their current storage equipment,” Uni says in a press release. “Most of
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Jack Henry Debuts Outsourced Call Center Service
October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreCommunity banks that use the IBM i-based SilverLake core banking system from Jack Henry & Associates are among the customers that Jack Henry will be looking to sell a new outsourced version of its jhaCall center service.
Jack Henry’s software can serve the needs of many aspects of retail banking, including providing ATMs, e-banking websites, and automated telephone response systems. But when it came to providing a real human on the line for customers to talk to, while Jack Henry could set its clients up with software, they still had to provide their own flesh and blood to operate it.
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IBS Bundles All Enterprise Apps Into Business Suite 2014
October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreInternational Business Systems (IBS) this month unveiled IBS Business Suite 2014, a new offering that includes all of the Swedish software company’s business applications. In addition to being a marketing umbrella, the Business Suite implements standard user interfaces and integration points across IBS’ various products.
Business Suite 2014 includes functionality in the areas of ERP, Warehouse Management (WM), and Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP). Specific products include the flagship IBS Enterprise offering, which runs on IBM i and Windows, in addition to IBS Dynaman, IBS Bookmaster, and IBS S&OP.
IBS says the individual components have been integrated into a suite
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Micro Focus Finally Goes GA with RUMBA for iPad
October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreMicro Focus last week announced the general availability for its RUMBA 5250/3270 emulator for the iPad. The GA announcement comes a full nine months after the UK-based firm originally launched the emulator for iPad as part of its RUMBA+ roll-out. The Surface client is available now, but the Android client that Micro Focus had originally slated to get into its users hands by last spring will likely be delayed until 2014.
The mad dash to merge mobile functionality into our daily lives is not abating. The mobile revolution is here to stay, and it promises to reshape how we think
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Will Modern, Free-Form RPG Bring New Blood To The Platform?
October 21, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreVeteran RPG coders around the world are getting in a free format frame of mind in anticipation of the launch of IBM i 7.1 TR7 next month. While getting experienced RPG programmers to write more modern looking syntax is great, the real promise of free format RPG is the potential to get more people–particularly younger coders, but not necessarily students–interested in RPG. The big question is: Will it work?
The IBM i platform could definitely use an RPG-shaped shot in the arm, because the pool of experienced RPG programmers is shrinking every year. Whether it’s shrinking as fast as the
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Enforcive Debuts Field-Level Encryption for IBM i
October 15, 2013 Alex Woodie
… Read moreIBM i shops that find themselves needing an encryption solution may want to check out the new Field Encryption product unveiled by Enforcive last week. The addition to the company’s flagship Enterprise Security software suite allows IBM i security officers to encrypt data at the field level, as well as encrypt objects, which is useful for protecting tape backups. The new software also applies on-the-fly masking and scrambling to field-level data, and provides encryption key management capabilities, too.
There’s no shortage of reasons why an IBM i shop needs to encrypt its data. Besides just being a best practice for