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.
-
Improving Customer Engagement on IBM i
June 28, 2017 Alex Woodie
A new survey points to a growing desire among IBM i shops to offer more customer engagement channels to their customers. However, the cost of implementing these changes and a lack of technical skills present considerable barriers, according to SoftLanding Systems, which conducted the poll.
IT resources are a limited asset at most organizations. They must choose carefully when and where to deploy these resources for maximum affect. At the same time, there is usually a long list of “wants” from various lines of business, and perhaps a shorter list of more critical “needs.” It’s up to the CIO and …
Read more -
DB2 For i Support Now Offered by Rimini Street
June 26, 2017 Alex Woodie
IBM i shops now have another option for obtaining technical support and maintenance services in support their DB2 for i environment: Rimini Street. And in some cases, owing to the uniquely integrated nature of this platform, the vendor will even provide support for the IBM i operating system as well.
Earlier this month, the Las Vegas, Nevada, company announced that it’s now offering third-party support services for all three versions of IBM‘s DB2 database – DB2 for i, DB2 for z/OS, and DB2 for Linux, Unix, and Windows (a.k.a. “Cousin LUWy”), in addition to the SQL Server database from …
Read more -
Seven Bright Spots To Ponder On The AS/400’s 29th Birthday
June 21, 2017 Alex Woodie
Today is the 29th birthday of the AS/400. If the box was a person, it would be pondering the big three-oh coming next year, and perhaps taking one last year to bask in the glory of youth. While the IBM i platform is no youngster, it’s far from the grave.
Here are seven bright spots that could potentially illuminate the platform’s path forward into middle age:
All About Those Apps, Apps, Apps
IT decision makers typical don’t start using a particular computer platform because of the platform itself, but because of the applications. Applications drive server sales.
The IBM i …
Read more -
Dell EMC Revs All-Flash Arrays
June 21, 2017 Alex Woodie
Dell EMC shipped new releases of its VMAX All-Flash array last month that supports IBM i and other platforms. Specifically, the computer giant rolled out a new entry-level array that stores up to 1 petabyte, as well as a 4 PB monster designed for the most demanding operational and analytic workloads.
Dell EMC has a long history of providing enterprise-class storage for the IBM i server and its predecessors, starting with the old EMC Symmetrix arrays and continuing with today’s flagship VMAX All Flash frames. In fact, Dell EMC is the only other provider of native storage for IBM i …
Read more -
Will AI Replace ERP?
June 19, 2017 Alex Woodie
Programmers in the midrange space are used to coding IBM i applications, like ERP, supply chain, and retail management systems, using RPG, Java, and COBOL. It’s simply what they do. But what happens when machines program themselves and react to events in real time? One impact, according to prominent members of the software industry, is the end of the enterprise software business as we know it.
Led by Web giants like Google and Facebook, the computing industry is making rapid advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The advent of deep learning techniques, such as convolutional neural networks, …
Read more -
IBM i Picks Up The Slack
June 14, 2017 Alex Woodie
Have you heard about this new thing called Slack? While it may sound like something your least productive programmers might do, Slack is actually one of the hottest new productivity apps in the land. And now it’s coming to the IBM i, thanks to BVS Tools.
Brad Stone’s BVS Tools recently rolled out a new application called GreenTools for Slack, or G4SLK. The product is an extension of Stone’s existing communication tools that integrates the IBM i server with Slack.
Slack, if you’re not aware, is a free Web-based service designed to help companies communicate and collaborate more effectively. …
Read more -
A New Data Connection From IBM i To Watson Analytics
June 14, 2017 Alex Woodie
Big data analytics is everywhere these days. It simply can’t be helped. And now that IBM is supporting the capability to load DB2 for i data directly into the Watson analytics service, it could be worth your IBM i time to check out what IBM has cooking in Cognitive.
IT Jungle recently checked in with Steve Sibley, IBM’s vice president and business line executive in charge of systems, to talk about the latest developments with Watson, including the new DB2 for IBM i Connect tile on BlueMix.
The new tile “is designed to make it easier for our clients to …
Read more -
Understanding IBM’s PowerHA For i
June 12, 2017 Alex Woodie
When it comes to high availability on the IBM i platform, there are two main options: logical replication and PowerHA SystemMirror for i. While the architecture and benefits of logical replication solutions are well-established and well-known, PowerHA remains a bit of a mystery for many. We will try to shine some light on how PowerHA works, and whether it is the right choice for you.
There has been an increase in interest around HA so far in 2017, but many IBM i shops remain confused about the various options. In the first article in this HA series, we took …
Read more -
Trinity Guard Gives PentaSafe Customers a Lifeline
June 7, 2017 Alex Woodie
IBM i shops that still use PentaSafe security and auditing tools will be glad to know that a company named Trinity Guard has emerged to continue developing and supporting the products. The Houston, Texas, company has already rewritten the flagship IBM i auditing tool to support the Authority Collection in IBM i 7.3, and major rewrites for two other PentaSafe products are in the works.
Almost 15 years ago, NetIQ bought PentaSafe for $255 million in one of the first of many deals that would help consolidate the IBM i software market in the years to come. Save for a …
Read more -
Linoma Takes GoAnywhere MFT to the Public Cloud
June 7, 2017 Alex Woodie
A new release of Linoma Software’s GoAnywhere managed file transfer (MFT) software lets customers move files to and from cloud repositories in the same way they handle transfers with on-premise systems. The cloud support reflects the major on-going shifts to public cloud infrastructure, and also addresses a previous shortcoming in the GoAnywhere product.
Last month, Linoma announced that GoAnywhere version 5.5 now supports deployments on public cloud systems, including Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. The new feature allows GoAnywhere customers to securely transmit files to and from remote cloud locations, while maintaining control and audit history from the central MFT …
Read more