TFH Volume: 35 Issue: 7 Archives

IBM Switches To Build To Order For Entry Power Systems

February 24, 2025 Timothy Prickett Morgan

If we trust our memory, for the past several decades both high-end Power systems machines as well as all System z mainframes have been done on a build-to-order basis, and for the past decade at least, these big iron boxes were made at IBM’s factories in Poughkeepsie, New York, for the worldwide market.

For many years, entry and midrange AS/400 line was manufactured in three plants: the main factory in Rochester, Minnesota for the market in Canada and the United States and for certain high end machines in Europe, as well as Santa Palombo outside of Milan, Italy for entry …
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Coming To You Live In A Datacenter Very Near You, Or One Far Away, Too

February 24, 2025 Ash Giddings

We are at a pivotal moment in IBM i history regarding migration options. Public cloud solutions like IBM Power Virtual Server and Skytap on Azure have matured to the point where they are now viable for production workloads, shedding the novelty value that surrounded them during the era which coincided with the launch of IBM’s Power9 machines, to a lesser extent, Power10 iron.

Additionally, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) worldwide are well equipped with Power10 hardware and the expertise to support both migrations and ongoing operations. Furthermore, on-premise Power10 delivers impressive price-to-performance benefits, with Power11 poised to raise the bar even …
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TL Ashford Preps For Looming 2D Barcode Mandate

February 24, 2025 Alex Woodie

The humble barcode traces its roots to 1974, when a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum was scanned into a System/370 mainframe at a market in Marsh, Ohio. Fast forward 51 years, and the retail industry is on the cusp of requiring a new generation of two-dimensional barcodes. TL Ashford is preparing to help IBM i shops comply with industry mandates around 2D barcodes, as well as to find creative ways to exploit the vast new data they contain.

The original Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode is composed of 30 vertical lines of varying width, which is sufficient for storing …
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MDNA Speeds Up Git Transactions In Big IBM i Environments

February 24, 2025 Alex Woodie

With the latest release of its change management software for IBM i, Midrange Dynamics North America (MDNA) has addressed a thorny issue impacting the use of Git in large IBM i environments. The company also enhanced how it handles custom IBM i definitions in Git environments.

The use of Git to manage source code has nearly doubled in the IBM i community over the past five years, according to Fortra’s IBM i Marketplace Study, growing to 30 percent in the most recent survey. That indicates a strong push to adopt DevOps technologies and techniques, which is a good thing …
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IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 8

February 24, 2025 Doug Bidwell

Two big security vulnerabilities greet you as you start your week. First, we have Security Bulletin: This Power System update is being released to address CVE-2023-52881, which you can find out more about here. We don’t see issues with baseboard management controllers very often, so pay attention to this one.

The affected releases are:

Affected Product(s)               Version(s)

OPENBMC                             FW1060.00 – FW1060.20

OPENBMC                             OP940.00 – OP940.70

HMC                                        OP940.00 – OP940.72

OPENBMC                             OP910.00 – OP910.90

Second, we have Security Bulletin: IBM i is vulnerable to a user gaining elevated privileges due to an unqualified library call [CVE-2024-55898]. You can find out …
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IBM Switches To Build To Order For Entry Power Systems

Coming To You Live In A Datacenter Very Near You, Or One Far Away, Too

TL Ashford Preps For Looming 2D Barcode Mandate

MDNA Speeds Up Git Transactions In Big IBM i Environments

IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 8

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