• IT Spending Growth Will Not Be As Robust In 2023

  February 27, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you are like other companies in the world, your IT budget as 2023 is getting caught in the pinchers between inflation making IT hardware, software, and services more expensive and the jitteriness of the economy, both locally and globally, that is making company owners and managers a little less hesitant to spend in the first place.

  The good news, as we are fond of saying, is that an economy cannot go to zero unless there is a zombie apocalypse, a nuclear war, an electromagnetic pulse event, or an invasion by aliens. The funny thing about February 2023 is that …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 8

  February 27, 2023 Doug Bidwell

  We are playing catch up a bit here at the IBM i PTF Guide, and apologies for that but it goes that way sometime. There are a bunch of security vulnerabilities that you need to be aware of, including one that covers systems software not from IBM, as we usually track, but file transfer software from Forta (formerly known as HelpSystems). We are going to be keeping a closer eye on third party software security bulletins going forward.

  So first, we have CVE-2023-0669, which explains that GoAnywhere MFT from Fortra (formerly HelpSystems) suffers from a pre-authentication command injection …

  Read more

• IBM i Subscription Pricing Comes To All Power9 And Power10 Iron

  February 20, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Big Blue has been gradually “cloudifying” the packaging and pricing of its Power Systems hardware and IBM i software stack as an alternative to buying hardware outright and acquiring perpetual licenses to the operating system and pay Software Maintenance. Subscription-based pricing came to hardware and software for the Power10-based Power S1014 server running IBM i 7.5 last year, and now IBM i subscription pricing is more widely available.

  As outlined in announcement letter 223-030 on Valentine’s Day last week, IBM i subscription pricing is now available on all Power9 and Power10 servers, top to bottom, and on the four current …

  Read more

• RPG Use “Skyrocketed” Says IBM i Marketplace Report

  February 20, 2023 Alex Woodie

  RPG has always been the number one development language on IBM i, the platform with which it is most closely linked. But as open source languages like PHP and Java spread on IBM i, some speculated that RPG’s popularity would begin to slip. That hasn’t happened, according to Fortra’s most recent IBM i Marketplace Survey Results report. In fact, usage of RPG has “skyrocketed,” it says.

  From 2015 to 2020, the percentage of Fortra (formerly HelpSystems) Marketplace Survey-takers who chose RPG as one of their development languages stayed steady, hovering around the 84 percent to 89 percent level. Structured Query …

  Read more

• A Hodge Podge Of Power Systems Stuff

  February 20, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Sometimes Valentine’s Day falls on a Tuesday and ends up being a kind of lightweight Power Systems announcement day. That happened last week as IBM’s top brass in the Power Systems division discussed the priorities for the Power Systems line in 2023, which we covered in the top story in last Wednesday’s issue, and the subscription-based pricing for IBM i on all Power9 and Power10 machines, which we covered in this week’s top story.

  There is always some other stuff that IBM does on Power Systems announcement day, and February 14, 2023, is no exception.

  Announcement letter 120-017 has …

  Read more

• As I See It: On the Chopping Block

  February 20, 2023 Victor Rozek

  I remember the first time I witnessed someone getting fired. He was called into his manager’s office where a short, occasionally animated, conversation ensued. By the time he got back to his desk, two security guards took his badge and keys, handed him a cardboard box, told him to pack his belongings, and escorted him out of the building. No goodbyes, no parting words, no well wishes from colleagues. Though he had worked there for some years, in the end he was as disposable as a used Kleenex.

  I thought about him recently as Tech sector headlines reported massive layoffs. …

  Read more

• IBM’s Power Systems Battle Plan To Take On 2023

  February 15, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Human beings treat every year as if they are distinct, and that means businesses have to do the same. Strategies evolve over time and deal with discontinuities like recessions, but tactics are ever-changing as companies cope with the conditions on the ground, not the view from the headquarters. And thus, the Power Systems segment within IBM’s Systems division within its Infrastructure group is no different, but this year is a bit different as the top brass in Power Systems are actually giving us some insight into the battle plan for the year.

  Ken King, general manager of the Power Systems …

  Read more

• Zero-Day Vulnerability in Fortra’s GoAnywhere MFT Being Actively Exploited

  February 15, 2023 Alex Woodie

  A critical security vulnerability in Fortra’s (formerly HelpSystems) managed file transfer (MFT) solution, GoAnywhere MFT, is being actively exploited to steal data from companies and possibly even to spread ransomware according to published reports. Fortra told customers to consider every managed credential in their GoAnywhere environment to be compromised, shut down cloud instances of the service, and issued an emergency patch for the zero-day security vulnerability.

  Security reporter Brian Krebs was the first to share news of the vulnerability, which is described as remote code injection flaw that requires administrative console access for successful exploitation. In a February 2 post …

  Read more

• Getting Ready for IBM i Cloud Migrations

  February 15, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Interest in the cloud is growing at the moment as IBM i shops put all their run-time options on the table. However, customers who decide to move IBM i workloads to the cloud often don’t have a firm grasp on everything that goes into such a migration. There’s a lot of prep work that needs to be done, and too many shops are not ready when moving day arrives.

  Many IBM i shops are considering a move to the cloud, according to the 2023 IBM i Marketplace Study from Fortra (formerly HelpSystems). The report showed that cloud migrations moved from …

  Read more

• Four Hundred Monitor, February 15

  February 15, 2023 Jenny Thomas

  It’s been a wild week around the world. While we can’t promise you the possibility of extraterrestrial activity – as was implied might be happening over the skies of the United States – we can promise the relevant news and resources of the week. Granted, not as exciting as little green men, but still of interest for our IBM i ecosystem. Our calendar is a one-stop shop of webinars and events from the industry. This week we have added a ton to our Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings, so be sure to take a look at all the …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles