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.
-
Steve Will Lifts the Curtain On “Major IBM i Announcement,” But Just A Smidge
March 3, 2025 Alex Woodie
If you haven’t heard yet, here it is: IBM is planning to make a major IBM i announcement soon. IBM i chief architect Steve Will said as much during his recent IBM i Guided Tour. While Will shared a general outline of what IBM has in mind for the major announcement, specifics still are few and far between.
Will, who also holds the titles of IBM i CTO and IBM distinguished engineer, teased the IBM i community with his one-hour February 12 presentation, which is titled IBM i in 2025 – A Strategic Preview. You can access a recording …
Read more -
Need Data Off An Old Tape? The Backup Crackers Can Help
March 3, 2025 Alex Woodie
What happens when you need data from an old backup tape, but no longer have the vintage IBM hardware it was backed up from, let alone a subscription to the application it was created from nor the backup software it was created with? If you find yourself in such a predicament, the folks at S2|Data would like to hear from you.
“We are backup software format crackers,” says Brendan Sullivan, the founder and chief executive officer of S2|Data. “What we do is we look at the media, which might be tape or it might be disk, and we figure …
Read more -
TL Ashford Preps For Looming 2D Barcode Mandate
February 24, 2025 Alex Woodie
The humble barcode traces its roots to 1974, when a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum was scanned into a System/370 mainframe at a market in Marsh, Ohio. Fast forward 51 years, and the retail industry is on the cusp of requiring a new generation of two-dimensional barcodes. TL Ashford is preparing to help IBM i shops comply with industry mandates around 2D barcodes, as well as to find creative ways to exploit the vast new data they contain.
The original Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode is composed of 30 vertical lines of varying width, which is sufficient for storing …
Read more -
MDNA Speeds Up Git Transactions In Big IBM i Environments
February 24, 2025 Alex Woodie
With the latest release of its change management software for IBM i, Midrange Dynamics North America (MDNA) has addressed a thorny issue impacting the use of Git in large IBM i environments. The company also enhanced how it handles custom IBM i definitions in Git environments.
The use of Git to manage source code has nearly doubled in the IBM i community over the past five years, according to Fortra’s IBM i Marketplace Study, growing to 30 percent in the most recent survey. That indicates a strong push to adopt DevOps technologies and techniques, which is a good thing …
Read more -
ACS Password Leaks Are A Security Issue On IBM i
February 17, 2025 Alex Woodie
IBM i shops that are relying on the old WINLOGON process with their Access Client Solutions (ACS) installations will need to find a new way to synchronize passwords between Windows clients and IBM i servers. According to a new report from Silent Signal, the passwords could still be compromised.
In early January, Big Blue published an IBM Support document about problems that IBM i shops were having after they applied the Windows 11 24H2 update, which Microsoft had started rolling out in October 2024. IBM i customers who used the ACS Windows Application Package told IBM they were no longer …
Read more -
Rocket Consolidates Half a Dozen Terminal Emulators With Secure Host Access
February 10, 2025 Alex Woodie
Rocket Software has rolled out Secure Host Access, a new terminal emulator for utilizing the classic greenscreen interfaces of heritage IBM i, mainframe, and Unix applications. The new offering consolidates multiple emulators acquired by Rocket over the years into a single offering, while delivering much-needed security features that the previous emulators largely lacked.
Rocket Software’s Secure Host Access is a terminal emulator that provides a full array of TN5250, TS3270, and VT connectivity from PCs, Web browsers, and mobile devices. The Java-based product offers all the features and capabilities that you would expect to find in a mature emulator, …
Read more -
IBM Christens Its 2025 Class Of Champions
February 10, 2025 Alex Woodie
Big Blue has declared a new roster of IBM Champions, those heroes among us who display expertise in technical subject matters, are tireless advocates of IBM platforms, and otherwise exhibit excellence in their work. Members of the IBM i ecosystem, as usual, are well represented in the program, even if the platform doesn’t have its own category. IBM also refreshed the badges it distributes as part of the related IBM Rising Champion Advocacy program.
A quick check of the 2025 IBM Champion web page shows there are 1,035 IBM Champions around the world in this, the 17th year of the …
Read more -
Izzi Throws Retiring IBM i Software Company Founders A Lifeline
February 3, 2025 Alex Woodie
Founders of smaller IBM i and System z software vendors who are looking to sell their companies before they retire may want to check out a new venture called Izzi Software. In an interview with IT Jungle, the executives heading the startup explain that it has a mandate to spend millions of private equity dollars on acquiring midrange and mainframe ISVs that have solid products and businesses, but may not be big enough to attract M&A attention from bigger firms.
It’s no secret that the IBM i and System z communities tend toward the older side of the age …
Read more -
What Do IBM i Shops Use To Write Applications These Days?
February 3, 2025 Alex Woodie
When it comes to languages and tools for developing applications on IBM i, there are a ton of options available for customers. Thanks to the PASE runtime, a variety of open source languages and runtimes have been brought to the platform, not to mention the time-tested ILE technologies from IBM. But what do IBM i shops actually use to write new apps? For answers, we look to Fortra’s 2025 IBM i Marketplace Survey results.
Fortra recently released the results for the 11th installment of its IBM i Marketplace Survey, which is based on surveys it conducted in late 2025 …
Read more -
Cybersecurity Still Top IBM i Concern, But AI And Others Are Creeping Up
January 27, 2025 Alex Woodie
Fortra last week formally released its 2025 IBM i Marketplace Survey results, which marks the start of the second decade of analysis into the IBM i community. In the closely watched Top Concerns component, there were minor changes in the top four items, led by cybersecurity for the ninth straight year. But what’s notable in 2025 is that there’s movement at the bottom of the list, indicating heightened interest in items such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.
IBM i users from around the world took Fortra’s annual IBM i Marketplace Survey in late 2024 – 250 of them …
Read more