• IBM i Work Problem Feature Unemployed For Software Faults

  July 31, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  One of the true differentiations of the AS/400 platform launched 35 years ago was Electronic Customer Support, which at the time involved remote diagnostics and the ability of the machine to reach out over a modem – remember, there was no commercial Internet yet – to connect directly to IBM and report problems as they were happening.

  After three and a half decades, there are a lot of different components and features of the IBM i-Power Systems Electronic Customer Support (ECS) and Electronic Service Agent (ESA) customer care services, way beyond what was available in the original ECS. But recently, …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 31

  July 31, 2023 Doug Bidwell

  Here’s something to look out for: D-mode IPL from tape fails with system reference code B6005121 on IBM i, which you can read more about at this link. Here’s the deal. When the PTF for MA50161 is PERM applied and the PTF for MA50018 is not PERM applied, and a SAVSYS is taken, a D-mode IPL from that tape will fail with the B6005121, which is an operating system task during the IBM i boot process.

  Also, this week we wanted to remind you that software-related issues cannot be automatically uploaded to IBM technical support using the WRKPRB feature …

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• What Will the Next 35 Years of IBM i Hardware Bring?

  July 26, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Will IBM move beyond 64-bit memory addressing for the IBM i platform? What about the potential for quantum processors in the next three-and-a-half decades? These were some of the ideas floated by retired IBM Chief Architect Frank Soltis during the recent celebration of IBM i’s 35^th birthday.

  One of the reasons the IBM i platform is still kicking 35 years after the launch of the AS/400 back in the summer of 1988 is its capability to incorporate new hardware without throwing all the software developed for it into disarray. There are limits to this adaptability, of course, but it’s …

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• Programmers.io Unveils Impact Analysis Tool for IBM i

  July 26, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Programmers.io, one of the largest IT services and software development firm specializing on IBM i, last month unveiled a new impact analysis tool for IBM i that it claims will help customers get a better understanding of their applications as they prepare for modernization.

  Programmers.io is a Fort Worth, Texas, IT services firm that began working on the IBM i platform about a decade ago. Since then, it has built a considerable business around the platform, which accounts for nearly half of its 600 engineers. Many of these professionals are based in India, where the company recruits engineers to become …

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• Infor Marketplace Offers Solutions for IBM i

  July 26, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Infor, which is the biggest ERP vendor for IBM i, didn’t forget about the IBM i when it updated its Infor Marketplace recently. In fact, the software market features a range of solutions that can run on IBM i and work with Infor ERP solutions running on IBM i, the software company says.

  Infor originally launched the Infor Marketplace in January 2022 with the goal of streamlining the process of searching for and obtaining software that augments operations for its 65,000 customers. Third-party solutions available at the launch included Avalara’s tax automation software and talent management software from Visual …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, July 26

  July 26, 2023 Jenny Thomas

  The heat wave has finally hit the western parts of the U.S. after a relatively mild June, and the temps have been extreme. The temperature is not the only thing that is rising, though. In the computing world, the cost of a data breach has also reached record highs, according to IBM’s recent Cost of a Data Breach report. Interestingly, the report, the link to which you can find in our Top Stories section below, also found that despite the rising cost, companies are still reluctant to invest in cybersecurity. Read on for more about cybersecurity and the other ” …

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• Power Expert Care Tweaked With Add-On, Fixed Price Services

  July 26, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In the wake of the Kyndryl spinout last year, Big Blue has been tweaking and repackaging the services it offers through what used to be called Lab Services and what is now known as Technology Expert Labs, offered through its Technology Services division.

  The Power Expert Care services, which are designed to offer supplemental support for customers using IBM i, AIX, or Linux on Power Systems, there are two tiers, Advanced and Premium. (You would think there would be a Standard or Basic tier, but there isn’t. Maybe there will be some day. . . . ) This week, IBM …

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• Big Blue’s New “WebSpheres” To Surf The Container And AI Waves

  July 24, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Without question, there is a lot of money that can be made on AI training and inference, as is aptly shown by the financial results of Nvidia. That company, which is the darling of Wall Street these days, has gone from datacenter wannabe to datacenter giant in the course of a decade and a half. It has been fascinating to watch, but it is as much the result of lucky timing as hard work, as Jensen Huang, the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer, admitted from the beginning.

  Nvidia has been working on parallel computing architectures for accelerating HPC workloads …

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• Serious New IBM i Vulns Exposed by Silent Signal – More On the Way

  July 24, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Two new vulnerabilities in core components of the IBM i operating system were disclosed by IBM last week, including one that impacts Performance Tools and another in Facsimile Support for i. Both vulnerabilities were discovered by Silent Signal, the Hungarian firm that discovered the recent DDM vulnerability, and both are considered high risk flaws that should be patched immediately.

  More security flaws exist in IBM i that will be exposed in the months to come, the company says.

  The first new flaw, CVE-2023-30988, pertains to a local privilege escalation vulnerability discovered in Facsimile Support for i, a native IBM …

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• Power Systems Down A Bit, But Holding Steady In Q2

  July 24, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Considering that we are over a year into the Power10 entry and midrange server upgrade cycle, and almost two years into the Power10 high-end cycle, the fact that the Power Systems server business is only down a few points in the second quarter is, well, normal. As in the old normal where things have a natural ebb and flow and the business is not just in a kind of 45 degree decline like we saw a decade ago.

  This is what happens when Big Blue sticks to its enterprise computing knitting and is not distracted by the money-losing proposition of …

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