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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.

  • 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
  • Here’s What’s In the Latest IBM i Technology Refreshes

    April 15, 2020 Alex Woodie

    As expected, IBM today officially unveiled its spring Technology Refreshes for IBM i. Among the goodies that will become available for IBM i 7.4 TR2 or IBM i 7.3 TR8 (or both) are enhancements to Db2 Mirror, a new approach to tape library virtualization, improvements to open source, and new features and functionality around Db2, RPG, RDi, and security, too.

    Months ago, IBM execs circled April 14 on their calendars as the day for the big IBM 7.4 TR2 and IBM i 7.3 TR8 reveal, with the idea that the following week’s POWERUp conference in Atlanta, Georgia (now canceled, but …

    Read more
  • IBM i 7.3 Encryption Bolstered With TR8

    April 15, 2020 Alex Woodie

    Customers running IBM i 7.3 got some good news on the security front when IBM announced that the operating system would get support for the latest Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, version 1.3. And that’s not the only security-related enhancement this group of users received with the new Technology Refreshes.

    Last year, IBM gave IBM i shops the ability to use TLS 1.3, which is strongest publicly available encryption protocol used on the Internet today. TLS 1.3 debuted in the summer of 2018 and has since been adopted by nearly a quarter of sites on the Web, according to surveys. …

    Read more
  • Hacking IBM i: Penetration Testing Gains Popularity

    April 13, 2020 Alex Woodie

    Think your IBM i is hacker-proof? It may well be, but only a handful of systems have escaped the wrath of Carol Woodbury, the HelpSystems IBM i security expert who previously was the platform’s security architect at IBM. In recent years, Woodbury and company have ramped up a unique penetration testing service that aims to poke holes in IBM i configurations, all in the name of better security.

    Penetration testing, or ethical hacking, is growing in popularity as organizations seek to solidify the security of their servers. Open systems platform, like Linux and Windows servers and cloud resources, are the …

    Read more
  • IBM i Can Thrive Under New CEO, Arvind Krishna

    April 8, 2020 Alex Woodie

    Arvind Krishna took the reins as CEO of IBM on Monday, marking the changing of the guard at one of this country’s foremost tech firms. But this is no ordinary switch, as Krishna must immediately navigate IBM through an extraordinary crisis that combines technological and social upheaval along with a new business climate. If given the proper attention, the IBM i platform has the chance to shine.

    A new IBM CEO is a momentous event in and of itself. Since Thomas Watson founded the company in 1914, there have been only nine other CEOs at the Armonk, New York, company …

    Read more
  • imPower Technologies Embraces Switch to Online Learning

    April 8, 2020 Alex Woodie

    Traditional schools around the world are in turmoil as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown and the sudden switch to online learning. For Jim Buck and his new IBM i training venture, imPower Technologies, the sudden popularity of virtual education validates the work he and his colleagues have done to build an Internet-based IBM i education operation.

    “We’ve been preparing for this unknowingly for years now,” imPower Technologies Chief Operating Officer Michelle Lyons says. “Had we known, we couldn’t have prepared better.”

    Buck and Lyons started building imPower Technologies nearly three years ago to provide an online vehicle to deliver …

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  • Exploring ALL400s In Tableau

    April 8, 2020 Alex Woodie

    Those who love maps and the IBM i platform will get a kick out John Rockwell’s latest trick: an aerial view of the IBM i installed base through the lens of Tableau’s interactive BI software. And even if you have no particular predilection for geography, the ability to drill down into details and statistics of the IBM i populace is worth a look anyway.

    Rockwell, of course, is the steward of ALL400s, the list of IBM i shops that Rockwell started assembling back in 2005. The list contains the names of nearly 48,700 organizations that currently run or previously …

    Read more
  • Big Blue Changes Gears Slightly With IBM i TR Plan

    April 6, 2020 Alex Woodie

    The coronavirus has infected over a million people around the globe and forced hundreds of millions of employees to work from home. But it won’t stop IBM from announcing the next batch of Technology Refreshes, ostensibly IBM i version 7.4 TR2 and IBM i version 7.3 TR8, sometime in the next couple of weeks. Its plans for sharing the information, however, have changed.

    IBM has essentially shuttered its lab in Rochester, Minnesota, which falls under that state’s social distancing orders to help prevent the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. More than 80 percent of the United States is …

    Read more
  • Coronavirus Takes Its Toll On The Midrange

    March 23, 2020 Alex Woodie

    The IBM i midrange community has lived through a lot: hurricanes, fires, global recessions, and even terrorist attacks. And now it can add “viral pandemic” to the list of external events impacting the day-to-day operations of IBM i shops around the world, not to mention the cancellation of nearly all in-person meetings and conferences for the next two months.

    As the national reels from the spread of the novel coronavirus and the pneumonia-like disease that it causes, the IBM i midrange community has been forced to make substantial changes to its daily operations. For many office workers, that means forgoing …

    Read more

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