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.
-
Welcome To The ‘Riehl’ World: Live, Hands-On IBM i Training
May 18, 2020 Alex Woodie
IBM i shops don’t have a ton of options available when it comes to online IBM i education these days. If you’re in the market to improve your skills, one of the outfits that should be on your shortlist is The 400 School, which is one of the few places left that offers hands-on IBM i education, according to the company’s founder and president, Dan Riehl.
Riehl has had the kind of IBM midrange career that younger folks arriving on the platform today can only dream of. He has founded companies, written books, worked as a security consultant and …
Read more -
Where Is IBM i?
May 13, 2020 Alex Woodie
If you’ve worked with the IBM i platform for any length of time, you realize that it can be hard to find. That’s true in the field, where companies sometimes aren’t even aware their applications are running on an IBM i system. But it’s also true when it comes to IBM’s own website, where you’d think i might be easier to find.
Finding the IBM i homepage by navigating IBM’s website (www.ibm.com) is a bit like searching for the bathroom in the mall by walking the entire length of every floor. You know it has to be there. …
Read more -
PowerHA Updates Focus on Integration and Automation
May 13, 2020 Alex Woodie
Despite the introduction of Db2 Mirror last year, PowerHA remains a critical component ensuring the high availability and disaster recoverability for thousands of IBM i shops around the world. Recent updates, including the delivery of PowerHA version 7.4 in the second half of 2019 and a minor update delivered in March 2020, have focused on bolstering the product’s integration with Db2 Mirror, as well as HyperSwap in the DS8000. Automation, monitoring, and usability have also been improved.
Brian Nordland, the PowerHA technical product manager with HelpSystems (which develops the product on behalf of IBM) recently updated the IBM i …
Read more -
Idera Bolsters Visual LANSA 15
May 13, 2020 Alex Woodie
Idera last month issued the first major announcement for its LANSA product lineup since it bought the application development toolmaker last year. With Visual LANSA 15, the company has delivered more than 500 enhancements, including a new API creation experience, native chart controls for Web apps, and a host of sample apps, among many other new features.
Before LANSA sold itself to Idera in January 2019, Visual LANSA was the company’s flagship integrated development environment (IDE) for creating modern graphical applications that run on IBM i, Windows, and cloud platforms.
While Visual LANSA users can get down and dirty …
Read more -
What’s New With Db2 Web Query?
May 11, 2020 Alex Woodie
Db2 Web Query, which is IBM’s strategic business intelligence tool for IBM i, doesn’t follow the same release cycle as the operating system itself. But as part of activity surrounding the latest round of Technology Refreshes (TR) for IBM i 7.3 and 7.4, IBM discussed the recent updates that it’s made to Db2 Web Query, along with new features that are due very soon.
To get the lowdown on the new Db2 Web Query features, we tuned into a recent presentation made by Doug Mack, IBM’s Db2 Web Query product manager. Mack presented a session with Db2 for i …
Read more -
ILEditor 2 Gives IBM i Shops A New Development Option
May 6, 2020 Alex Woodie
Liam Allan recently unveiled ILEditor 2, a new integrated development environment (IDE) for IBM i. The new IDE sports a fresher look and better performance compared to the first version of ILEditor, as well as an extensible plug-in system, which should also deliver better code coverage.
For many years, members of the IBM i community have expressed frustration by the high price, size, and performance of Rational Developer for i (RDi), which is IBM’s flagship development tool for the IBM i community. While the IDE’s performance has improved in recent years, members of the community still bemoan the …
Read more -
Confidence in IBM i Security Is Dropping, Syncsort Says
May 6, 2020 Alex Woodie
IBM i shops were significantly less confident in their ability to prevent a security breach in 2019 than the previous two years, according to a new study by Syncsort. More than 40 percent of IBM i shops have suffered at least one security breach, according to the study, which also indicates that awareness of security regulations is growing, but not for the ones you might think.
In 2019, 11 percent of respondents reported being somewhat or very unconfident in their ability to prevent a data breach at their organization, Syncsort concluded in its new study, which is titled “IBM i …
Read more -
Sharing Tape Libraries Across Partitions Without VIOS
May 4, 2020 Alex Woodie
IBM i shops have a love-hate relationship when it comes to the Virtual I/O Server, or VIOS. With the latest IBM i Technology Refresh, IBM is giving the anti-VIOS group a feature they have been requesting: the capability to easily share a tape library among multiple logical partitions, or LPARs without involving VIOS, SANs, or multiple adapters.
IBM is calling the new feature “IBM i Virtualization for Tape Libraries,” and it’s based on RFE (request for enhancement) number 127631. While the words “tape libraries” and “virtualization” are in there, this is not a virtual tape library (VTL) solution. That already …
Read more -
What’s New In Open Source With The Latest TRs
April 27, 2020 Alex Woodie
New technology is exciting. And when it can help you run your business more profitably or efficiently, well, it becomes very exciting. With IBM i, the open source community is arguably the biggest contributor of new technology to the platform. IT Jungle recently checked in Jesse Gorzinski, the IBM i open source architect, to hear how the open source story has improved with the recent technology refreshes.
Arguably the biggest open source-related enhancement with IBM i 7.4 TR2 and 7.3 TR8 revolves around a change in RPM, the new delivery method that IBM adopted two years ago to distribute new …
Read more -
Database Enhancements Galore In Technology Refresh
April 20, 2020 Alex Woodie
Db2 for i is the beating heart of the IBM i server. There’s no doubt about that. So when IBM delivers the next set of Technology Refreshes (TRs) for IBM i 7.3 and 7.4 next month, you can bet that they’ll be loaded with new and improved features to keep the database humming.
To get up to speed with the database-related enhancements in IBM i 7.4 TR2 and IBM i 7.3 TR8, IT Jungle caught up to Scott Forstie, a senior technical staff member at IBM’s lab in Rochester, Minnesota, and the database architect for Db2 for i.
There’s …
Read more