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 Cooking With IBM i On GitHub?
May 14, 2018 Alex Woodie
The IBM i community’s relationship with open source started off as a slow embrace, but it’s turning into something more serious. A central player in this love affair is GitHub, which is not only the world’s largest repository for open source code, but increasingly a vehicle for delivering open innovation on the IBM i platform.
GitHub is a privately held company that was founded 10 years ago in San Francisco as Logical Awesome LLC with a simple goal: provide a hosting service and collaboration framework for software development projects managed with the Git open source version control system.
The company …
Read more -
Here’s What’s Next for the Enterprise Software World
May 9, 2018 Alex Woodie
Thirty years ago, enterprise resource planning (ERP) was a hot new technology promising to help streamline business processes. While ERP continues to generate billions in revenue, it’s mostly for keeping complicated systems up and running. Now the daughter of the founder of JD Edwards is sharing a bold new vision for how her company, called Nextworld, plans to take enterprise software to the next stage.
We first got wind of Nextworld venture about a year-and-a-half ago. We knew the Colorado company had big plans and a stream of funding from Kylee McVaney’s father, Ed McVaney. However, since Nextworld was …
Read more -
IBM Adds New PDM Perspective to RDi
May 9, 2018 Alex Woodie
IBM is receiving high marks for a new feature called PDM Perspective that it just launched in Rational Developer for i version 9.6.0.2. The new feature gives users the capability to filter libraries or members in RDi that’s very similar to the way PDM functioned in SEU. It’s so good, according to some IBM i experts, that it eliminates any reason not to use RDi.
There are several new features in RDi version 9.6.0.2, which IBM released May 2, but it’s the PDM Perspective feature that’s getting the most attention. According to IBM, the new PDM Perspective in the Object …
Read more -
IBM i Data Vulnerable, Security Report Says
May 9, 2018 Alex Woodie
HelpSystems last month published its 15th annual State of Security report, in which it summarizes the security checks that it performs on its clients and prospects’ IBM i servers over the course of a year. This year’s report covers 158 systems, and if the results are to be extrapolated to the IBM i installed base as a whole, then there’s a lot of vulnerable data out there.
If you’ve followed the HelpSystems and PowerTech reports over the years, then you’ve likely been made award of the irony that lies at the heart of IBM i security. The contradiction is this: …
Read more -
Keep Your IBM i Baby, Not The Bathwater
May 7, 2018 Alex Woodie
In the quest to modernize computer systems, some IBM i shops cease being IBM i shops. Wholesale migrations or complete rewrites of applications on different operating systems are sometimes necessary and beneficial, and sometimes they do more harm than good. When King III Solutions set out to enhance its advanced replenishment system, it managed to create a modern Web front-end that resonates with millennials without giving up its rock-solid IBM i back-end.
Based in Marietta, Georgia, King III Solutions, or K3S, develops software that helps wholesale distributors and retailers better manage their inventory, in part through a collection of …
Read more -
Survey Paints a Picture of IBM i Community, Product Usage
May 2, 2018 Alex Woodie
The folks behind the All 400s website have published the first results of an online survey that seeks to illuminate the state of the IBM i community, ranging from possible plans to migrate off the platform to third-party product preferences. The first 400 people have taken the 25-question survey, and the results may surprise you.
About a week ago, John Rockwell, the owner of the All 400s website (www.all400s.com) announced in the LinkedIn group “IBM i, iSeries, and AS/400 Professionals” that the first set of results has been released. The survey, which is hosted by Survey Monkey, …
Read more -
GDPR and IBM i: The Final Countdown
May 2, 2018 Alex Woodie
IBM i shops have just 24 days until the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect. If you haven’t started your GDPR project yet, it’s likely too late to complete it by May 25. But a good faith start to a GDPR remediation effort could benefit you in the eyes of regulators, should you happen to cross their path. Here’s what IBM i shops need to know as the countdown to GDPR-ageddon continues.
GDPR is a far-reaching law that governs how companies and other organizations are allowed to collect, process, and store data about European Union citizens, no matter …
Read more -
LaserVault Puts the ‘i’ in VTL
May 2, 2018 Alex Woodie
LaserVault is rolling out a new virtual tape library (VTL) offering that could interest IBM i shops who are looking to get away from physical tape. Dubbed ViTL, the offering emulates an IBM LTO tape library, and thanks to integration with BRMS and HelpSystems‘ Robot Save, can provide the “set it and forget it” level of automation that IBM i shops expect from enterprise storage, the company says.
LaserVault, which is also known as Electronic Storage Corp., is no newbie when it comes to virtualizing tape products. In 2006, the Tulsa, Oklahoma, company debuted LaserVault Backup to provide customers …
Read more -
Goodbye, Java Enterprise Edition. Hello, Jakarta EE
April 30, 2018 Alex Woodie
Developers who use Java Enterprise Edition will be happy to know that the development and runtime platform is gaining new life as Jakarta EE. As part of an agreement with Oracle, the tech giant will give up control over the platform to Eclipse Foundation, which has big plans to remake enterprise Java for the emerging cloud world.
Since it bought Sun Microsystems back in 2010, Oracle has been fully in charge of Java. That includes defining not just the core Java language, but having a big hand in everything else governed through the Java Community Process (JCP), including the Java …
Read more -
Multiple Security Vulnerabilities Reported In IBM i
April 30, 2018 Alex Woodie
IBM this month revealed an array of security vulnerabilities across IBM i middleware components, including OpenSSL, DHCP, and Java products. Most of the flaws were given a “high severity” rating, and all of them have been patched.
This week’s security fun starts with DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), which is used to automate the management and distribution of IP addresses within a network. According to the April 26 IBM security bulletin, IBM i 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 are vulnerable to a pair of security vulnerabilities in the underlying DHCP protocol.
The first DHCP flaw, which is identified as CVE-2018-5732 …
Read more