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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.

  • Going Off IBM Hardware Maintenance A Risky Move

    April 15, 2019 Alex Woodie

    Organizations that are running older Power Systems servers have some tough decisions coming up. IBM ceased offering hardware support for Power 6 servers on March 31, and support for Power 7 will go away on September 30. Some organizations may choose to support themselves instead of upgrading to a newer machine, but that move comes with substantial risks.

    While there’s no central clearinghouse for this sort of information, it would appear that a good percentage of IBM i customers – if not most of them – have hardware and software support agreements with IBM. Big Blue provides three years …

    Read more
  • IBM i Announcements Loom, and So Does POWERUp 2019

    April 15, 2019 Alex Woodie

    By now you probably know that IBM is making its next round of IBM i announcements next Tuesday, April 23, via a COMMON webcast. But what you might not know is that COMMON has more than a dozen sessions about the yet-to-be-disclosed announcements planned for the upcoming POWERUp 2019 conference taking place next month at Disneyland.

    “Right now we’re looking at about 15 or 16 sessions about the announcement itself,” COMMON Executive Director Manzoor Siddiqui tells IT Jungle. “We’re going to be the first conference where people will have access to the knowledge and the content around that.”

    On …

    Read more
  • Syncsort Debuts Unified IBM i Security Suite

    April 10, 2019 Alex Woodie

    Syncsort rolled out a suite of software this week that unifies several of the IBM i security products it has acquired over past two years. Dubbed Assure Security, the suite is designed to help IBM i shops lock down servers and protect them from threats while getting a handle on emerging data regulations, like the looming California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

    The acquisition of Vision Solutions by Syncsort back in June 2017 closely coincided with the two companies’ joint pivot into data security. Vision, of course, was best known as a provider of IBM i high availability solutions when it …

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  • GoAnywhere Tops in MFT, Research Group Says

    April 10, 2019 Alex Woodie

    We haven’t heard a whole lot about the GoAnywhere managed file transfer (MFT) solution since HelpSystems acquired Linoma Software back in 2016. But the product is coming to life in a big way this year, thanks to a major refresh of the IBM i-supported product, as well as a top score in a reputable research group’s ranking of MFT products.

    Info-Tech Research Group last week published a report ranking nine MFT products from some of the biggest names in file transfer and IT, including IBM, Ipswitch, Oracle, Adobe, and Citrix, among others. While GoAnywhere didn’t …

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  • Raz-Lee Reels In The File Editors

    April 10, 2019 Alex Woodie

    File editors can be great time-savers in certain situations. Who wouldn’t want developers to be able to quickly get into a database file, fix some errors, and then jump back out? Clearly, the answer is the security department. But thanks to a new solution from Raz-Lee Security called iSecurity Safe Update, file editors can be used without giving the security officer nightmares.

    File editors are among the most popular products on the IBM i platform, thanks to their capability to developers and administrators to make changes to data quickly and easily, without requiring programming. The IBM i operating system comes …

    Read more
  • Yes, IBM i Shops Have AI Options, Too

    April 8, 2019 Alex Woodie

    Companies of all shapes and sizes are encouraged to adopt artificial intelligence these days. Most of today’s AI tech, however, was developed to run in open systems and X86 environments. But there are a growing number of AI options from IBM and its partners for customers that want to keep their data resident on the Power Systems platform.

    There’s no denying there’s a lot of hype around AI today. One can scarcely turn on the TV or open a magazine or Web page without being inundated with claims of how leading organizations are using AI to gain a competitive edge, …

    Read more
  • IBM Clarifies Java Options Following Oracle License Crackdown

    April 3, 2019 Alex Woodie

    IBM i shops that are wondering how to maintain their Java environments following Oracle’s recent decision to restrict access to Java runtimes and development tools should pay close attention to some recommendations that IBM is making concerning Java, particularly how it impacts Access Client Solutions (ACS).

    Oracle is slated to ship a critical security update for Java Standard Edition (SE) 8 in a week and a half. But unless you have bought a commercial license for Java SE 8, your business won’t be getting that update, which could leave your systems vulnerable. That’s because in late 2018, Oracle made some …

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  • IBM Patches New Security Flaws in Java, OpenSSL

    April 3, 2019 Alex Woodie

    IBM this week patched a series of flaws in IBM i’s Java environment, including a pair of very serious problems in the OpenJ9 runtime that could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code, in addition to a series of less-severe Java vulnerabilities. The company also fixed a new flaw found in IBM i’s OpenSSL implementation.

    A total of seven Java flaws that impact IBM i versions 7.1 through 7.3 were addressed with one security bulletin issued by IBM on March 29. IBM issued Group PTFs for each release of the operating system to address them. A single OpenSSL flaw also …

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  • What New Language Will IBM i Support Next?

    March 27, 2019 Alex Woodie

    The prospect of a new language coming to a platform is always reason for excitement. New languages bring new capabilities, or at least faster ways to tap into existing capabilities. The question for those living and working on the IBM i platform is what language will come next?

    RPG remains the go-to language used by the vast majority developers on the IBM i platforms. According to the 2019 survey by HelpSystems, 84 percent of coders on the box use RPG. COBOL, RPG’s partner in legacy crime, is also supported in the Rational Development for IBM i RDi, along with …

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  • Trinity Guard Launches Third IBM i Product

    March 27, 2019 Alex Woodie

    Three is the magic number for Trinity Guard, the Houston, Texas-based security software company that just delivered its third security product for IBM i. TGDetect is a monitoring tool that alerts administrators of security issues, and also integrates with third-party SIEM solutions.

    Trinity Guard was founded several years by two former Micro Focus employees, Tony Perera and Pauline Ayala, who trace their roots back to the Pentasafe and NetIQ days. Perera and Ayala left Micro Focus to develop IBM i security software at Trinity Guard. The company has been slowly rewriting the old Pentasafe products, starting with TGAudit.

    TGAudit was …

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