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  • What’s New in IBM i 7.2–At a Glance

    May 6, 2014 Alex Woodie

    There’s a whole bunch of new stuff in IBM i 7.2, which IBM formally announced last Monday and actually shipped on Friday. Together with the new Power 8 servers and other major software product releases, these are exciting times in the Power Systems and IBM i community. Here you’ll find a quick, 30,000-foot view of last week’s announcements.

    IBM made hundreds, if not thousands, of additions and changes to the core IBM i OS with version 7.2. At a high level, the biggest enhancements include:

    The i means business.

    • Security boost in DB2/400 through addition of row and column access control (RCAC) capabilities
    • Adoption of SQL Query Engine (SQE) as the default engine for processing native queries, among other programmer productivity enhancements in DB2/400
    • IBM Navigator for i gets multi-system PTF comparisons, as well as better performance data collection
    • Single sign on (SSO) enhancements via using Kerberos to authenticate FTP and Telnet clients against FTP and Telnet servers on IBM i
    • Adoption of the new WebSphere Liberty Core as the core engine powering the Integrated Application Server (IAS) 8.5
    • Adoption of the WebSphere Liberty Application Server as the core engine powering the Integrated Web Services Server (IWSS) 8.5
    • Support for Zend Technology‘s Zend Server for IBM i version 6 or higher is required with IBM i 7.2
    • Various enhancements to the IFS, including support for Samba, which brings the OS compatibility with the Windows-like CIFS network file system (not to mention hot new dance moves)
    • Various printing enhancements, including more options for producing PDFs
    • Dynamic switching to and from single-thread context (actually introduced in IBM i 7.1 TR8)
    • Support for the Vector Scalar eXtension (VSX) capability in Power8, which provides support for IEEE-conforming vector and scalar binary floating point operations
    • Support for “WAN over LAN” advanced virtualization capabilities for saving PCI slots
    • An expansion in the maximum file size supported by the /QOPT (optical file system) in IFS from 4 GB to almost 10 TB to mesh with the new RDX media
    • A technology preview for a new mobile solution (powered by IBM i Access for the Web) that allows users to access IBM i resources from any mobile device equipped with a Web browser
    • And new releases of IBM i Access for Web, IBM i Access for Windows, and the IBM i Access Client Solutions.

    For a full accounting of the core IBM i 7.2 enhancements, see United States Software Announcement 214-154 (PDF).

    IBM threw several other non-OS related enhancements into the big 7.2 announcement letter. These aren’t technically part of the OS, but are important nonetheless, and include:

    • Various BRMS enhancements, including an extension of the “hub” functions introduced with IBM i version 7.1 TR5
    • New PowerHA Express Edition unveiled, which brings the new “hyperswap” feature for rapidly moving and IPL’ing LPARs on new SANS (see IBM Debuts ‘HyperSwap’ with PowerHA Express Edition).

    Separately, IBM made several other big IBM i software announcements last week that we think you out to know about. They include:

    • Content Manager OnDemand for i version 7.2, which adds support for full text search and also uses IBM’s new “strategic Web client”–see U.S. Software Announcement 214-186 (PDF)
    • Rational Development Studio for i 7.2 (compilers), which delivers full support for free-format RPG–see U.S. Software Announcement 214-129 (PDF)
    • Rational Developer for i version 9.1, a new release of the Eclipse-based IDE for developing applications in RPG, COBOL, C, C++, SQL, and DDS; becomes available May 23–see U.S. Software Announcement 214-188
    • Enhancements to PowerVP Standard Edition, the virtualization performance (VP) offering that’s integrated with the PowerVM hypervisor to collect performance info from IBM i, AIX, and Linux environments–see U.S. Software Announcement 114-056 (PDF)

    IBM also made an assorted collection of tape-related announcements last week, which we’ll cover in a future issue of the newsletter.

    RELATED STORIES

    IBM i 7.2 Available May 2

    IBM i TR8, Database Driven

    Big Blue Launches IBM i 7.1 TR8 As 7.2 Looms



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    More IT Jungle Resources:

    System i PTF Guide: Weekly PTF Updates
    IBM i Events Calendar: National Conferences, Local Events, and Webinars
    Breaking News: News Hot Off The Press
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    U.S. Economy Creates A Decent Number Of Jobs In April As The World Turns: Investments In IBM i

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Volume 14, Number 10 -- May 6, 2014
THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY:

ARCAD Software
ASNA
Essextec
Linoma Software
RJS Software Systems

Table of Contents

  • What’s New in IBM i 7.2–At a Glance
  • m-Power Brings 2FA to Web Apps
  • Kisco Hooks SafeNet Into IBM’s SIEM
  • Remain Ties TD/OMS Into IBM’s Rational Team Concert
  • Raz-Lee Rolls Out Business-Item Capture Solution
  • CNX Debuts AutoCode Tool at COMMON
  • Mincron Goes GUI and Mobile with LANSA
  • BCD Rides Demand for Scrollable Grids to RPG OA
  • Looksoftware Introduces Open Access to COBOL Development
  • Halcyon Adds Forecasts to IBM i Job Scheduler

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