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.
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IBM Unveils New and Improved IBM i Services
April 14, 2021 Alex Woodie
If you like IBM i Services — those SQL-based methods for executing a range of tasks in the operating system — then you’re in luck, because IBM has included a handful of new and improved IBM i Services in the Technology Refreshes (TRs) for IBM i 7.4 and 7.3, which were unveiled yesterday and ship this Friday.
IBM has developed an affinity for IBM i Services in the last few releases of the operating system. And why not? Users seem to like having a SQL-based alternative to CL commands and APIs. And since the IBM i Services are so easily …
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3 Takeaways from the 2021 PowerTech Security Report
April 14, 2021 Alex Woodie
PowerTech tomorrow will officially release its report on the state of IBM i security, which will be the 18th straight year it has published aggregated data collected from security scans of actual IBM i machines. We caught up with the report’s author, HelpSystems Director of Security Technologies Robin Tatam, for a quick preview.
Tatam and Sandi Moore, HelpSystems principal security consultant, will share the full results of the PowerTech security study in two webinars tomorrow, including one at 8 a.m. CT and another at noon CT. You can find more information about these free events and register to attend at …
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Big Blue Unveils Spring 2021 IBM i Technology Refreshes
April 12, 2021 Alex Woodie
IBM tomorrow will announce the latest round of Technology Refreshes (TRs) for the current versions of the operating systems. With IBM i 7.4 TR4 and 7.3 TR10, IBM is focusing its efforts on extending automation across various components of the operating system, including the database, security, and high availability. But a surprise also awaits IBM i enthusiasts who are visually inclined.
IBM gave IT Jungle a preview of the announcements that will go public tomorrow, and (very kindly) gave us permission to cover them in today’s issue of The Four Hundred. That means that the announcement materials will not …
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When Cloud Meets DevOps on IBM i
April 7, 2021 Alex Woodie
We’re witnessing multiple macro trends play out in the IT industry, with the rise of cloud computing and managed services being one of the most compelling storylines in 2021. How software is developed is changing too, with DevOps tools and agile methodologies rapidly becoming the norm. When these two trends converge in our little neck of the woods, it can leave IBM i customers wondering where to go. With their recently formed partnership, ARCAD Software and Connectria have mapped out one path.
A decade ago, companies were still unsure of the cloud. They would dabble with adding development, test, and …
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JD Edwards Roadmap Reveals Decisions To Be Made
April 7, 2021 Alex Woodie
SAP isn’t the only ERP vendor that wants to move on-prem customers to its cloud-based option. Its top rival, Oracle, appears to have similar aims. The company has made public commitments to continue supporting its JD Edwards customers for years to come, so there is no immediate reason to panic. But considering the investments that customers make in their ERP environments, JD Edwards customers should pay close attention to what comes next.
When Oracle bought PeopleSoft in 2004 for $10.3 billion, it also acquired the JD Edwards portfolio. That includes the World line, which only runs on IBM i, and …
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IBM Completes Migration of Knowledge Center to IBM Documentation
April 7, 2021 Alex Woodie
For years, the IBM Knowledge Center has been the go-to place to get technical information about how things work in IBM i. Got a question about RPG opcodes or ALLOBJ authority? The Knowledge Center was the place for you. As part of its broader overhaul of its online resources and properties, IBM recently completed the migration of its Knowledge Center to the new site, called IBM Documentation.
IBM i professionals can find all of the content they have grown accustomed to finding at the Knowledge Center on the new IBM Documentation site, which can be found at www.ibm.com/docs/en. There …
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Oracle Versus Rimini Slogs On In Second Decade
April 5, 2021 Alex Woodie
The lawsuit that keeps on giving, Oracle Versus Rimini Street, is generating news again, as the two companies continue to duke it out in federal court. But the battle spilled out into the streets with a pair of dueling press releases issued April 1 that had us wondering if it was all a joke. It wasn’t.
The last time we visited Oracle Versus Rimini Street was two years ago, when the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in favor of Rimini on the issue of costs. After a jury decided that Rimini was violating Oracle’s copyright in its third-party software support business …
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Skytap To Expand IBM i Cloud Offering
March 31, 2021 Alex Woodie
The Power Systems S922 is the go-to server for many cloud providers, including Skytap, which sells access to and manages IBM i, AIX, and Linux environments in Microsoft Azure and IBM Cloud. But as its cloud business grows, Skytap is finding that some of its customers are getting close to hitting their heads on the S922’s processing ceiling, which has precipitated a need for bigger boxes.
Skytap is currently scoping out the available Power Systems server lineup in anticipation of rolling out a second, larger Power offering, says Skytap Vice President Dan Jones.
“One of the key hurdles we want …
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Adlumin Adds IBM i Support to SIEM
March 31, 2021 Alex Woodie
Banks that run their core banking software on IBM i servers will be interested to hear that Adlumin is now ingesting IBM i security log data into its cloud-based security information and event management (SIEM) solution, giving them another way to detect unauthorized activity from hackers and malicious users.
Adlumin was founded five years ago with the goal of providing a low-cost SIEM and compliance solution to small and midsize banks and credit unions. The Washington, DC-based company started out by collecting log data from Windows and Linux devices, but it soon found out that customers wanted support for core …
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It’s Not Always Sunny in ERP Land
March 31, 2021 Alex Woodie
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems remain central to company operations. The expansive application suites are heavily relied upon to automate the core business processes that businesses rely on. However, they’re notoriously difficult to implement, and they do not always do what they’re supposed to. And according to a recent survey, they’re often lousy when it comes to providing a return on investment.
For its Technology Trends 2021 study, Computer Economics polled nearly 200 IT professionals to gauge what types of technologies they’re using, and whether they’re getting a good ROI out of them. When the results were tallied, ERP came …
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