• Ransomware Epidemic Hits Epic Proportions, And IBM i Shops Take Notice

  May 17, 2021 Alex Woodie

  The ransomware outbreak hit home for millions of Americans last week when attackers shut down a major East Coast pipeline as well as a hospital network on the West Coast. For IBM i shops, the events are a potent reminder to re-evaluate network security and data protection systems to ensure they’re resilient from attack.

  You could be forgiven for thinking you were watching an episode of Mr. Robot last week as news spread of the shutdown of Colonial Pipeline network, which provides 45 percent of the gasoline for the entire East Coast of the United States through 5,500 miles of …

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• Guru: How To Acquire The IBM i Administration Runtime Expert Product And PTFs

  May 17, 2021 Dawn May

  In past articles about the Administration Runtime Expert, I mentioned that you install the ARE licensed program product on your central system, but I never documented steps on how you acquire the 5733-ARE program product. I apologize for this oversight since, as it turns out, obtaining ARE is not immediately obvious.

  To get the 5733-ARE product, you must log into the IBM Support website and go to your Entitled Systems Support page. Under My Entitled Software, select Software Downloads. You need to select your system that is entitled to IBM software, the category of IBM i, and then …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, May 17

  May 17, 2021 Jenny Thomas

  Here in southern California, where a couple of the IT Jungle crew reside, we are in the throes of May Gray, soon to be followed by the equally depressing June Gloom. It’s our own weird little season between Spring and Summer marked by overcast mornings followed by a peek of sunshine if you’re far enough from the coast. The current news cycle is reminiscent of the May Gray/June Gloom with a mix of ho-hum but a glimmer of what we have to look forward to. Read on for the latest industry and related news, and don’t forget to check out …

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• Talking Shop With Power Systems Chief Stephen Leonard

  May 10, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Whether or not you were aware of it, the Cognitive Systems division of IBM – what we still colloquially call Power Systems here at IT Jungle and what everyone else still calls it for the most part – has had a new general manager for quite some time and we had not yet had a chance to talk to the new chief. But recently we did hop on the Zoom with Stephen Leonard to get some insight about the Power Systems business and how it fits into the new and evolving IBM and the rapidly changing IT sector.

  Leonard dates …

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• Thoroughly Modern: IBM i Web Development Trends To Watch In the Second Half

  May 10, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It is hard to believe, but in terms of budgets and thinking, within six weeks we will be entering the second half of 2021, a turning point year if there ever was one, and perhaps an inflection point for 2021 itself and thus for the next decade or so.

  The need to modernize is not lost on most IBM i shops, but it seems like there’s a new web technology to learn each week. It’s no surprise that getting started with Web development is a stumbling block in itself. That’s why vendors like Fresche are working to demystify Web development …

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• Guru: Date Format Confusion

  May 10, 2021 Ted Holt

  Hey, Ted:

  I use the Copy to Import File (CPYTOIMPF) command to build a CSV file to be sent to a MySQL system. My colleagues are unable to import the file because of the format of a timestamp field. CPYTOIMPF puts a hyphen between the date and time (e.g. 2021-05-10-04.36.24.849555), but the other system wants a space between them. Other than writing a custom program do you know of another way to change the format of the timestamp output?

  — Richard

  You won’t need a custom program, Richard. There’s another way to handle this requirement.

  IBM has already very thoughtfully …

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• Precisely To Bolster Data Governance With Infogix Buy

  May 10, 2021 Alex Woodie

  The private equity groups that own Precisely (formerly Syncsort) last week announced a plan to acquire Infogix, a provider of data governance software and related tools designed to boost trust in data. While there is some overlap with Precisely’s current software, particularly in data quality, the company says Infogix’s offerings will bolster its overall data integrity story. For IT Jungle readers, the fact that Infogix has IBM i software may be of interest.

  Infogix has a long history in the IT business going back to 1982, when Madhaven Nayar founded the company in Naperville, Illinois as Unitech Systems. For decades, …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 19

  May 10, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  As The Four Hundred reported last week, there is a major bug in Access Client Solutions 1.1.8.7. We originally said that IBM was pulling it and replacing it soon with ACS 1.1.8.8. We were expecting it last week, but it did not happen. Since this story ran, IBM has said that customers moving to ACS 1.1.8.7 should do so and then call into IBM and get a patch called TESTFIX_1.1.8.7  and apply it. Here is a link to the document that tells you how to do this and here is the link to the patch itself. This is …

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• RPG Gets the ‘Splits’ with Latest TRs

  May 5, 2021 Alex Woodie

  The latest batch of Technology Refreshes (TRs) for IBM i 7.4 and 7.3 wasn’t a barnburner by any means. But the twice-yearly update brought a little bit of new stuff for everybody, including RPG programmers, who gain three new built-in functions, one of which is called %SPLIT.

  RPG remains the most popular language on the IBM i platform, with a solid 87 percent share, according to the recent HelpSystems Marketplace Report, nearly twice the share of Java and over four times the share of COBOL. Good old Report Program Generator, for what it’s worth, is the closest thing to the …

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• Guardicore Extends Zero-Trust Security to IBM i

  May 5, 2021 Alex Woodie

  Guardicore, which is trying to shake up the firewall market with its “micro segmentation” security solution, recently announced that it has extended its “zero-trust” approach to the IBM i platform. The offering will help IBM i shops close blind spots in their security posture by monitoring the server for signs of problems, the company says.

  Guardicore develops a software-based security solution called Centra that uses a micro segmentation approach to protecting IT assets from evolving security threats. Micro segmentation is a relatively new approach to cybersecurity that revolves around the concept of breaking the network down into multiple segments or …

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