• The Power of Three-Dimensional Thinking in Disaster Recovery

  September 11, 2024 Richard Dolewski

  The flow of information and commerce means around-the-clock access to “data” because business never sleeps. The transformative impact of today’s generative AI is shaping unparalleled customer expectations, driving consumers’ appetite for unmatched levels of digital infrastructure availability and self-service.

  IT must think in terms of resilience, operational continuity, and data protection to support today’s digital transformation. We must keep pace with the speed and needs of today’s economic climate, with an emphasis on security and resiliency.

  “Data Center Down.” These dreaded words are something business leaders never want to hear. Losing your cloud or on-premise engine room underlying business operations …

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• COMMON to Kick Off First of Two Fall NAViGATE Shows

  September 11, 2024 Alex Woodie

  What’s better than having one fall COMMON conference to learn new IBM i skills and meet with other midrange folks? The answer, of course, is to hold two NAViGATE shows – one in sizzling Florida next week, followed by a second event in November in the cooler climate of Toronto, Ontario.

  The IBM i community will converge on the Gulf Coast of Florida next week for NAViGATE 2024 Bonita Springs, which is being held at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point from Monday September 16 through Wednesday September 18.

  Hundreds of attendees are expected at the fall COMMON conference next week, …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, September 11

  September 11, 2024 Jenny Thomas

  We are back after the Labor Day break, and it is finally time to settle back into familiar routines as we make the final push to the end of the year. But if you feel like this year has gotten away from you and the goals you set for yourself, you still have time to add to your resume or brush up on some skills. We have some new learning opportunities on our Calendar below, and our friends at Manta Technologies are having a back-to-school sale on any combination package, including the complete IBM i Training Library. You can find …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Numbers 34 And 35

  September 11, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It is not only a relatively quiet time still for PTFs, but it is also Ketchup Week since The Four Hundred has been on a light publishing schedule during the past several weeks of the summer.

  We do have one security vulnerability and a few patches to deal with. First, we have Security Bulletin: IBM i Modernization Engine for Lifecycle Integration is vulnerable to multiple vulnerabilities, which you can find out more about here. The affected products include IBM i Modernization Engine for Lifecycle Integration 1.0 through 1.4.8 and 2.0 through 2.0.2.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups …

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• IBM Shutters Systems Research And Development Labs In China

  September 9, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  What a change four decades makes, and what a bigger change even a decade has made, when it comes to the relationship between the United States and China.

  Four decades ago, when Big Blue started to do business for real in China, the only reason to believe that the Middle Kingdom might one day rival the United States economically and militarily was the vastness of its population, the breadth and depth of its natural resources, and the patience and tenacity of its command economy. China was the anchor economy of the so-called BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – …

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• Thoroughly Modern: The Looming Talent Crisis In IBM i Management

  September 9, 2024 Lief Morin

  In today’s fast-evolving technology landscape, IBM i systems remain a bastion of reliability and efficiency for countless enterprises. Yet, as these systems continue to serve as the backbone of critical operations, a troubling trend is emerging – the professionals who know how to manage them are retiring. With an aging workforce and a scarce influx of new talent, organizations face the risk of operational disruptions.

  Picture this scenario: your last seasoned IBM i system administrator is about to retire, and the remaining team lacks the deep expertise required to manage complex system needs. This isn’t just a minor hiccup; it’s …

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• IBM Introduces Mapepire, The New Db2 For i Client

  September 9, 2024 Alex Woodie

  IBM has released a new client for connecting applications to the Db2 for i database. Dubbed Mapepire, the open source client is designed to be faster, lighter weight, and easier for developers to work with compared to existing ODBC and JDBC database clients, especially in cloud environments.

  Building an application-side database client using existing Db2 for i’s database drivers, such as ODBC and JDBC (included in the JTOpen Java toolbox for IBM i) typically entails cramming a lot of overhead into the client component, says Liam Allan, who helps develop new open source development tooling at IBM.

  “For example, jtopen …

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• As I See It: Unintended Consequences

  September 9, 2024 Victor Rozek

  In the classic movie Inherit the Wind, Spencer Tracy plays a character fashioned after Clearance Darrow in a re-enactment of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. It acquired that reductive moniker because the defendant was a teacher accused of teaching evolution.

  In his closing summation Tracy, as the defense attorney, argues that there has always been a price for achieving progress. New knowledge often challenges old beliefs; progress inevitably displaces what came before; and, more often still, it leaves in its wake a wash of unintended consequences. “Mister,” says Tracy, “you may conquer the air, but the birds will lose …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 33

  September 9, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  We are back to the Quiet Time again in PTF Land, and we are beginning to wonder if the slowdown in patches has anything to do with the recent closures of the research and development labs by China, which we report on elsewhere in this issue. Probably not. But maybe.

  Fact is, there is not a lot going on this week, and thankfully no security vulnerabilities that we could see.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level since we last published:

  PTF Groups 7.5:

  • HIPERs (High Impact/Pervasive)
  • Java
  • RPG Café

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • HIPERs (High

  …

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• Could a CrowdStrike-Type Outage Hit IBM i?

  August 21, 2024 Alex Woodie

  It’s been a month since CrowdStrike caused a massive IT outage that took down large swaths of the Internet, causing billions of dollars in damage. The CrowdStrike outage was a Windows-only affair, but it’s worth asking: Could a similar incident impact IBM i?

  The largest IT outage in history began the morning of July 19, when a poorly configured update to CrowdStrike’s endpoint security software, called Falcon, caused 8.5 million Windows computers to crash, resulting in the dreaded blue screen of death (BSOD).

  For computer users of a certain vintage, the BSOD is – or at least was – …

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