• Will The Turbulent Economy Downdraft IBM Systems Or Lift It?

  April 28, 2025 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  We have always contended that recessions accelerate technology trends rather than slow them down. And if we start heading into a recession either in the United States or around the globe – it is hard to imagine one without the other – it is reasonable to assume that companies will be looking very aggressively to take automation up another level to cut costs further, to generate new lines of business, and to push profits as hard as they can in what will probably be a deflationary environment.

  There are a lot of assumptions in that paragraph, so let’s pick it …

  Read more

• How IBM Improved The Database With IBM i 7.6

  April 28, 2025 Alex Woodie

  Developers have a host of new database functions to play with in IBM i 7.6 and 7.5 TR6, not the least of which is the new data change table reference functions. In addition to that big new feature, IBM is bringing updates to SELF, enhancements to parallel execution of SQL statements, and 10 new IBM i services, among others.

  The Db2 for i database is the beating heart of the IBM i platform, storing, processing, and serving data to all of the IBM i applications. While other databases are available on the platform (MySQL, MariaDB, and Postgres) through the AIX …

  Read more

• Rocket Celebrates 35th Anniversary As Private Equity Owner Ponders Sale

  April 28, 2025 Alex Woodie

  Rocket Software has come a long way since Andy Youniss and Johan Magnusson Gedda founded the company in Youniss’ Boston garage in 1990. Today the company counts more than 12,000 customers, including a large number of IBM i shops, and reportedly has a valuation of around $10 billion. Could the company’s 35th anniversary of its founding be a good time for its current majority owner, Bain Capital, to sell?

  Youniss started building what we now think of as Rocket Software in 2000, when he completed the first of what would become dozens of acquisitions. Over the years, there would be …

  Read more

• 50 Acres And A Humanoid Robot With An AI Avatar

  April 28, 2025 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  We have made a joke for over the past year that sometime in the not-too-distant future, when we are born, we will be issued three things: Some kind of unique identifier such as a Social Security number in the United States, a software-based collection of AI agents to teach us and to do self-driven education about the world, and a humanoid robot that can embody that collection of AI agents – one might call it a Purson – to keep us safe as we grow.

  This would at least level the AI playing field to a certain extent.

  All jokes …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 17

  April 28, 2025 Doug Bidwell

  Just a reminder that as part of the April 8 announcements, IBM Software Support content is changing to require entitlement check for software patches. See more at this link, but the gist of it is that IBM Software Support Troubleshooting, Question & Answer, and How To documents are changing to require entitlement. This means that you will be required to log on with an IBMid that has proper entitlement before viewing the entire document.

  Also this week, there is Security Bulletin: IBM WebSphere Application Server is vulnerable to server-side request forgery (CVE-2025-27907), which you can find out more about …

  Read more

• The New Capabilities IBM Added To Navigator For i

  April 23, 2025 Alex Woodie

  The addition of multi-factor authentication (MFA) to IBM i 7.6 is the big news with the recent operating system update from IBM. But IBM has introduced new capabilities to other parts of the platform as well, and some of the biggest reside in Navigator for i.

  As the strategic Web-based console for administrating the IBM i server, it’s natural that Navigator for i gets lots of attention. Whether you’re looking to monitor or manage the databases, inspect batch jobs, configure security, or monitor performance, Navigator for i is the one central place that lets you do it. You can, of …

  Read more

• One Big Time-Saving Network Enhancement In IBM i 7.6

  April 23, 2025 Alex Woodie

  IBM i 7.6 brings a host of new enhancements around security and database development, among other areas. But IBM has also brought one big new capability to the operating system’s networking environment that will be worth the cost of an upgrade for some larger IBM i environments.

  IBM introduced Ethernet Link Aggregation support in IBM i 7.1 Technology Refresh 3 (TR3), which shipped way back in 2012. Ethernet Link Aggregation enables several full-duplex Ethernet links to be grouped into a single line description with a single Media Access Control (MAC) address, which can boost reliability as well as throughput. …

  Read more

• Using AI To Derive Application Intelligence And Drive Modernization

  April 23, 2025 Marc Dallas

  Everybody in the IBM i space knows that Big Blue is working on a coding assistant based on generative AI models to help developers write better and more consistent RPG applications with what everyone assumes will be a smaller and smaller programming talent pool.

  But there is more to leveraging AI as a tool for application development and modernization than this. There are those who want to be able to use GenAI tools that can analyze and convert code from one language to another – much as the same large language models were first trained to translate between two languages …

  Read more

• Sundry Interesting IBM i Announcements For You To Ponder

  April 23, 2025 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  We are still picking though the latest tweaks and changes to the IBM i platform that came with the April 8 announcements. We are still also working through our disappointment that there was not one single interesting hardware announcement from Big Blue relating to the Power Systems platform. We are having a bit of iron deficiency, it seems.

  First thing first, we noticed this week that the official Redbook for IBM i 7.6, which naturally enough is called IBM i 7.6 Features And Functions, has been published, and is jam packed with 215 pages of more details about …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 16

  April 23, 2025 Doug Bidwell

  This week, we bring you two security vulnerabilities and an import HIPER for firmware updates for Power Systems iron. Let’s start with the firmware.

  There is new microcode for Firmware 950 .. 950.D1, which you can find out more about at this link here, and new microcode for Firmware 950 .. 950.E0, which you can read all about at that link there. These are HIPERs and affect the following hardware:

  • Power System S914 Server (9009-41A)
  • Power System S922 Server (9009-22A)
  • Power System S924 Server (9009-42A)

  Now for the vulnerabilities. First, we have Security Bulletin: IBM i 7.6 is …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles