• Digitally Transform Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It

  August 17, 2020 Alex Woodie

  The coronavirus pandemic and economic lockdown has laid bare, with ruthless efficiency, the differences between digital natives and brick-and-mortars. In short, companies that are either entirely online or have figured out a way to emulate them are winning and gaining share, while those dependent on physically being present in buildings are losing. That’s leading experts to recommend that businesses hit the gas pedal on their digital transformation plans, or risk permanent dislocation.

  It’s tough to overestimate the impact that COVID-19 is having on the American way of life, for both work and play. Entire industries, such as travel and hospitality, …

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• Guru: Dynamic Arrays Come To RPG – The Next Part Of The Story

  August 17, 2020 Jon Paris

  In my first tip on this topic I covered the automatic sizing option (*AUTO) for the new dynamic arrays. In this tip I am going to look at the second option (*VAR), which allows the programmer to directly control the capacity of the array, growing and shrinking it as required. In addition I will also briefly cover the third option (*CTDTA) which, as you may have guessed, relates to compile time arrays.

  Using A Varying Length Array

  Let’s start with a brief example of using a variable sized array in conjunction with SQL. This approach answers the classic question of …

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• HelpSystems Buys GlobalScape For $217 Million For File Transfer Expansion

  August 17, 2020 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Secure file transfer is a thing, particularly with companies working remotely, and this is why the investors behind the HelpSystems conglomerate are shelling out a whopping $217 million, or $9.50 per share, to buy a publicly traded rival in the secure managed file transfer tool arena called GlobalScape.

  The deal offered by HelpSystems and agreed to represents a 16 percent premium over the market capitalization of GlobalScape prior to the announcement of the acquisition, and the deal will be funded by cash on hand at HelpSystems plus new debt that is backed by Jefferies Finance and credit funds affiliated with …

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• Accelerating DX Does Not Necessarily Mean Spending More Bucks

  August 17, 2020 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It is important to not confuse activity with the money it generates. While activity and money can sometimes be proportional as well as rising and falling together, it is not always the case that they point in the same direction. And particularly when it comes to IT spending during a pandemic-induced recession that the world has not seen in a hundred years. Equally important to consider is that overall IT spending is not necessarily an indicator of how spending in any particular area will rise and fall. All boats definitely do not rise together, especially in the choppy economic waters …

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• Raz-Lee Simulates Ransomware Attack on IBM i

  August 12, 2020 Alex Woodie

  How would your IBM i server react to a ransomware attack? Would it successfully repel the invaders, or would it give the bad guys what they’re after: chaos and bitcoin? Simulating a ransomware attack is the gist of a new feature in Anti-Ransomware from Raz-Lee Security, which recently shipped a new release of the software.

  Raz-Lee Security debuted Anti-Ransomware back in 2018, a year after a pair of widespread ransomware attacks (WannaCry and Petya) made the computing world sit up and take notice of the new security threat blossoming on the Internet.

  Anti-Ransomware uses a rules-based approach to detect …

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• IBM Rolls Out ACS 1.1.8.5

  August 12, 2020 Alex Woodie

  IBM last week introduced a new release of Access Client Solutions (ACS), the popular IBM i client that’s used by administrators, programmers, and engineers alike. There are enhancements to Run SQL Scripts, new 5250 viewing options, and a performance boost for viewing selected files on the IFS with version 1.1.8.5, among other mostly minor updates.

  According to the release notes associated with the new iteration of ACS, IBM made a handful of changes with version 1.1.8.5.

  Let’s start with the improvements to Run SQL Scripts, which is an increasingly popular utility in ACS that leverages the power of SQL and …

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• Man-DB Brings Documentation to IBM i

  August 12, 2020 Alex Woodie

  IBM i developers who have a question about how a particular command or feature works in open source packages now have an easy way to look up documentations, thanks to the addition of support for the Man-DB utility in IBM i, which IBM unveiled in late July.

  Man-DB is an open source implementation of the standard Unix documentation system. It provides a mechanism for easily accessing the documentation that exists for open source packages, such as the Node.js language, or even for commands, like Curl.

  The software, which can be installed via YUM, only works with open source software on …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, August 12

  August 12, 2020 Jenny Thomas

  For many of us, the last 100 days are something we would like to forget. Days running together as we learn to manage work life and home life and all the new rules and social practices that come with a pandemic. Imagine doing that and taking on the leadership role for the biggest IT firm in the world. IBM’s new CEO Arvind Krishna came on board in April just as the coronavirus was taking hold around the world and there was no choice but to hit the ground running. This week, we examined Krishna’s first 100 days, which you can …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 32

  August 12, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  It is another busy week here in the summer of 2020, there is a lot of activity among our IBM i customers, and this is a blessing indeed. Better to be too busy than not busy enough.

  In the interest of time, we will get right to the point. This week there is a new release of Access Client Solutions: 1.1.8.5. There is also new release of SPT (System Planning Tool): V211.

  Here’s the PTF rundown by release:

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • Temporary Storage PTFs

  PTF Groups 7.3:

  • Temporary Storage PTFs

  PTF Groups 7.2:

  • Temporary Storage PTFs

  PTF Groups 7.1:

  • Nothing

  …

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• New IBM CEO’s First Hundred Days: A Mixed Bag

  August 10, 2020 Alex Woodie

  How did Arvind Krishna do during the first 100 days of his new job as the CEO of IBM? Krishna took the helm during a remarkable stretch in early April, when COVID-19 was clamping down on businesses of all sizes, so he will be forgiven for not completing the wholesale transformation of the 109-year-old company into the hybrid cloud leader during that time. Just the same, some people expected more from him.

  The selection of Krishna by IBM’s board of directors is important because he was the architect of the $34 billion Red Hat acquisition, which was announced in October …

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