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.

• SoftLanding Gives Supermon A New Look

  August 9, 2017 Alex Woodie

  They say looks aren’t everything. But for the folks at SoftLanding, the new Web interface created for the Supermon performance monitoring tool will help customers see exactly how their IBM i servers are running, and that’s definitely something.

  Supermon for iSeries is a real-time performance monitoring tool that UNICOM Global acquired with its 2009 acquisition of Macro 4, one of several acquisitions the Los Angeles-area company made during that stretch. The software – which bears the name of a server that IBM hasn’t sold in over a decade – enables customers to monitor IBM i-specific server performance metrics …

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• A Fresche Start For Mike Pavlak

  August 7, 2017 Alex Woodie

  If you’ve ever dealt with PHP on IBM i, it would be tough to avoid hearing about Mike Pavlak, who worked directly for Zend Technology, which is the PHP company. But after nine years with the firm, Pavlak is now teaming up with Fresche Solutions, where he aims to work directly with IBM i clients on a wide range of open source and modernization projects.

  Pavlak has been a familiar face on the IBM i speaking circuit for just as long as PHP has been supported on the platform. His technological acumen and positive demeanor have been instrumental in helping …

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• Mulling Midrange Optimism

  July 24, 2017 Alex Woodie

  It can be hard to be positive about the state of the IBM i server. While there are occasionally signs of growth, the overall size of the market is a small fraction of what it used to be. Outside of Rochester, you can scarcely find an IBMer who can even spell “eye bee em eye.” But a recent merger involving third-party vendors indicates there may be hidden life in the legacy platform.

  Last month’s blockbuster acquisition involved IBM i HA software vendor Vision Solutions being sold by Clearlake Capital Group to Centerbridge Partners in order to merge it with Syncsort …

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• Logical Replication: Still the Mainstay for IBM i HA

  July 19, 2017 Alex Woodie

  For many years, logical replication solutions were the only choice in the high availability product category for IBM i and its predecessor platforms. IBM’s introduction of PowerHA changed that, providing a dramatically different approach to achieving high availability. However, the vast majority of HA deployments in the IBM i market still use logical replication solutions. Which one is best suited for your needs? Hopefully this story will help you find the answer.

  Logical replication solutions work by replicating changes made to database files and other IBM i objects in real time. The eight third-party products in this category – including …

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• Have You Patched Those 35 Java Vulns on IBM i?

  July 19, 2017 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that take security seriously will want to know that IBM has issued a number of security patches over the past several months. The patch count since March includes fixes for security vulnerabilities in various technologies supported in IBM i 6.1 through 7.3, including 35 alone in Java, as well as flaws in Python, Samba, BIND, and the integrated Web server.

  Implementing security patches, or program temporary fixes (PTFs) in IBM jargon, is one of the easiest ways to ensure your system is kept up-to-date against vulnerabilities that are constantly being exposed by the hacker community. It’s also …

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• Of Course i’s Not The AS/400

  July 17, 2017 Alex Woodie

  The AS/400 was a great computer. No doubt about that. In the pantheon of business machines, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything that remotely compares to IBM’s long-lived midrange champion. But today’s IBM i on Power Systems platform has evolved far beyond the AS/400, and midrange professionals who cling to the old words and ways are doing us all a disservice. Are you one of them?

  Chances are, you’re not. If you’re reading this article, you’re likely one of the “engaged” midrange professionals who takes an active interest in news, works to improve your skills, and embraces newer technologies available …

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• Sibley Elaborates on ‘Synergy’ of ILE Compiler Move

  July 12, 2017 Alex Woodie

  When Steve Sibley, the vice president and business line executive for IBM Cognitive Systems, announced a month ago that it’s moving development of its RPG compiler from the Rational group directly into the IBM i development organization, he cited the increase of “synergy” as the main reason for the move. IT Jungle finally caught up with Sibley last week and obtained a more detailed explanation.

  In his June 9 open letter to IBM i customers and partners, Sibley announced that development of the Rational programming tools for IBM i and ILE RPG and ILE COBOL compilers themselves would move into …

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• DocPath Picks Up AFP Printing Where IBM Leaves Off

  July 12, 2017 Alex Woodie

  If you’re looking to do fun and exciting things with your IBM i spool file output, you’ll need to look beyond IBM. With the death of AFP Utilities in IBM i 7.3 last year and the demise of InfoPrint Designer before that, it’s clear that IBM doesn’t want anything to do with printing or electronic document management. One vendor that’s eagerly investing in IBM i output is DocPath.

  AFP Utilities was a collection of programs from IBM that allowed IBM i shops to manage Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) content communicated to high-end production printers using the two-way Intelligent Printer Data …

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• Vision Buys Enforcive, Then Gets Sold And Merged With Syncsort

  July 10, 2017 Alex Woodie

  To say that it was busy couple of days for Vision Solutions last week would be an understatement. On Wednesday, the company announced its acquisition of IBM i security firm Enforcive. The following day, Vision announced that it was being bought by Centerbridge, a private equity firm that intends to merge it with ETL provider Syncsort.

  When all the smoke from the fireworks cleared, here’s how the chips landed: Clearlake Capital Group, which acquired Vision Solutions barely a year ago and bought Syncsort in 2015, was offered $1.2 billion by Centerbridge Partners for majority stakes in both firms. That …

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• Database Modernization Network Grows for TEMBO

  June 28, 2017 Alex Woodie

  A growing network of business partners is helping TEMBO Technology Lab spread the word about the benefits of database modernization to IBM i shops in North America. It’s also helping to lower the barrier to of entry for IBM i clients to get started.

  If you ask a group of IBM i professionals what application modernization means, you’ll likely hear a lot of different answers: the importance of avoiding “legacy” technologies, why free form RPG is great, the value of responsive design, and the importance of having a “mobile first” approach.

  To TEMBO founder Marinus van Sandwyk, these answers aren’t …

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