• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 32

  August 16, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  Greetings IBM i shops. As you know, HIPER PTFs come out every two weeks, and the level is incremented each time they come out. The V7R1 HIPER level hit 201 this week. That means that V7R1 has been around at least 402 weeks. So in September we should hit the 408th week, or, at 52 weeks per year, four years for V7R1.

  Scanning the list of Last Updated dates for all levels at all releases, August and September are traditionally dead months. Not much happens in PTF Land. V6R1 had a flurry of updates back in 2015 in those months, …

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• Does IBM i Need More Databases?

  August 14, 2017 Alex Woodie

  There are many things that differentiate IBM i from other platforms, including its storage, security, and programming models. But one of the most unique aspects of the IBM i platform is its integrated DB2 database, which is used exclusively by practically all IBM i customers. You just don’t find this on other platforms. But perhaps it’s time for IBM i to diversify its database support?

  In many respects, DB2 for i is the platform’s greatest strength. IBM i is renowned for its transaction processing prowess that drives ERP and other line of business applications, and DB2 for i (formerly DB2/400, …

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• IBM Moves HMC Management To Native Power Server, LPARs

  August 14, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Out of band management is not a new thing in the IT sector, and many of the best and most sophisticated pieces of software in the world have a distinct management console of some sort that gathers up the state of a machine or collection of machines and uses it to initially configure those devices and to coerce them to behave themselves despite their nature for electronic mischief.

  The Hardware Management Console, or HMC, has been around for so long in the AS/400, iSeries, System i, and IBM i line for so long we can’t remember when people were not …

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• Guru: Teraspace To The Rescue

  August 14, 2017 Jon Paris

  Hey, Jon:

  My team has been trying to resolve a problem for the last few weeks and they are running into several obstacles. The main one has to do with RPG restrictions for data structure length.

  We use a third-party program to process transactions. In the latest version, the vendor has increased the length of the fields in the data structure that we have to pass them. After our programs were changed to accommodate this increase, the RPG program would not compile because the DS exceeds 16,733,104 bytes. The vendor has told us to use teraspace but by itself that …

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• Ransomware Raises The Stakes For Data Insurance

  August 14, 2017 Adam Roth

  In May, the WannaCry ransomware attack flooded news headlines worldwide. With over 230,000 infected computers, covering a span of roughly 150 countries, it was one of the larger attacks we have seen in some time. WannaCry spread through various operating systems but appeared to have had little impact on IBM i shops.

  However, even though IBM i have the reputation as being an impenetrable operating system doesn’t mean that they are immune to attacks. If an IBM i shop has a connected Windows network on a shared drive with the IBM i host, a virus can easily enter and spread …

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• What’s Old Is New Again: The IBM i Means Business

  August 11, 2017 Dan Burger

  It seems like a lot of companies are simply dumbfounded when it comes to IT staffing. Maybe it’s the inability to cope with the accelerated evolution of information technology. Determining how much upgrading is necessary for a given business model is not a follow the leader game. And an IT strategy based on “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” has led to trouble for many businesses where IT is broken and in need of repair. Too often there’s a rush to save business with technology without taking care of the business first.

  “The biggest challenge of business is learning …

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• IBM Boasts of Big Tape Breakthrough

  August 9, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Reports of tape’s death have been greatly exaggerated in recent years. But if IBM Research can turn a technological breakthrough it made with Sony in the lab into an actual product, tape will remain relevant for decades to come.

  IBM last week announced that it set a new record for areal density on magnetic tape when it achieved 201 gigabits per square inch with a prototype for a new “sputtered” magnetic tape format, which it says is 20 times the areal density used in current state-of-the-art commercial tape drives. The achievement could enable the production of a tape cartridge that …

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• SoftLanding Gives Supermon A New Look

  August 9, 2017 Alex Woodie

  They say looks aren’t everything. But for the folks at SoftLanding, the new Web interface created for the Supermon performance monitoring tool will help customers see exactly how their IBM i servers are running, and that’s definitely something.

  Supermon for iSeries is a real-time performance monitoring tool that UNICOM Global acquired with its 2009 acquisition of Macro 4, one of several acquisitions the Los Angeles-area company made during that stretch. The software – which bears the name of a server that IBM hasn’t sold in over a decade – enables customers to monitor IBM i-specific server performance metrics …

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• Subscription-Based Change Management Added To IBM i MSP Menu

  August 9, 2017 Dan Burger

  Software subscriptions can be a good solution for companies looking for operational benefits using cloud hosted services for their development systems, as well as their backup systems. Because this type of IT strategy is forecasted to become increasingly common – companies will search for greater efficiencies and cost savings – IBM i vendors Midrange Dynamics and iTech Solutions have partnered to provide a new set of subscription services.

  iTech will add subscription-based Midrange Dynamics Change Management Software (MDCMS) to the portfolio of solutions that the Power Systems solutions and services company offers.

  The subscription includes codes for HA/backup systems, as …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, August 9

  August 9, 2017 Dan Burger

  We all know the short answer to the “What is Watson” question. Watson is IBM’s cognitive computing superstar. What to do with Watson and how to do it is a little foggy. If you’ve read the IT Jungle articles, you’re ahead of most. But if you’re still sorting out artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning, this interview with IBM’s Alison Butterill and Jesse Gorzinski could help see cognitive more clearly.

  Also in this issue, internship programs can help grow your IT staff while injecting youth and new skills. Internships attract talent. Think of it as an extended interview and …

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