• Syncsort Bolsters IBM i Security Play With Cilasoft Buy

  January 8, 2018 Alex Woodie

  Syncsort significantly beefed up its security bona fides last month after we went on holiday hiatus when it acquired Cilasoft, an IBM i security software company based in France that also has a significant North American presence. Syncsort, which bought HA giant Vision Solutions last year, recently shared its security product plans – including the possibility of creating a new IBM i product based on technology from Cilasoft and Enforcive and integration with Splunk – with IT Jungle.

  On December 12, Syncsort announced that it has completed the acquisition of Cilasoft, its products and technology, and its approximately …

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• Guru: An Update Conundrum Finally Solved!

  January 8, 2018 Ted Holt

  Russ writes, “Hey, Ted! I was trying to use a pure SQL solution to adjust some data today. My SQL statement worked fine in quality control, but failed in production. I’ve been wondering if the failure was caused by the database or by me! My problem was to renumber sequence numbers for a customer in a table.”

  Russ’s question arrived in my inbox on February 1, 2012. Yes, almost six years ago. At the time, I couldn’t help him. But with the latest technology refreshes from IBM, there is now a way to make the update work properly, and I’m …

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• HelpSystems Adds To Its Non-IBM i Acquisition List

  January 8, 2018 Dan Burger

  HelpSystems, well known for its IBM i security software, has acquired Fox Technologies, a company that specializes in security for Linux and Unix systems. With the acquisition, HelpSystems broadens its software and security software and services across a greater range of operating systems, a business plan it has pursued for the past several years.

  HelpSystems has been steadily expanding its multi-platform capabilities, as well as its IBM i capabilities, with a long list of acquisitions. It is widely recognized in the IBM i community as the largest provider of systems management tools and utilities, but is also a formidable vendor …

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• COMMON Education Gets Member-Driven Tweaks

  January 8, 2018 Dan Burger

  COMMON isn’t an organization that’s prone to making major changes. But that doesn’t mean the world’s largest professional organization dedicated to IBM Power Systems – most obviously IBM i – is opposed to improving what it has and introducing a few new ideas. During the holiday season, COMMON president Justin Porter explained to IT Jungle what moves COMMON made in 2017 and previewed some coming attractions for 2018.

  Porter says COMMON is increasing its emphasis on member-driven training and education, and one of the best examples he talked about was the new for 2017 RPG Boot Camp. The Boot Camp …

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• Happy Holidays From IT Jungle!

  December 23, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The years are always long ones, and that is a virtue, not a curse. Having work and purpose, and being part of a community, is not just a good thing, but the thing. It can be easy to forget that sometimes, when we are busy and caught up in our busy-ness.

  But now is the time of year when the good folks at IT Jungle, for which I have had the great honor to be associated with for many decades now, take a break and spend time with family and friends and let the words follow where they will …

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• 2017: An IBM i Year In Review

  December 13, 2017 Alex Woodie

  It’s mid-December, which means it’s time to look back upon 2017 and reminisce on the biggest stories of the year for IBM i and the overall midrange community. From a pair of Technology Refreshes and the scheduled demise of IBM i 7.1 to acquisitions and security breaches, there was a lot to take in.

  It all started off innocently enough in…

  January

  IBM has had a good run of not changing the name of the platform. In fact, it hadn’t changed the name since 2008, giving it a line of uninterrupted starts that even Giants quarterback Eli Manning could appreciate. …

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• UCG Technologies Takes Off To The Great White North

  December 13, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  For those of you who have never tried to build a business and employ people before, it is a hell of a lot harder to do than it may look. But it is an invaluable experience, and a way of life that some people cannot do without. Just ask Jim Kandrac, one of the most vocal and ebullient members of the IBM i community, and he will tell you all about it.

  We had a chat with Kandrac last week just as the company was celebrating its 30th anniversary in business, which is a long time for any IT company …

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• ARCAD Procures Funding To Fuel Expansion

  December 13, 2017 Dan Burger

  The financial incentives instigating investors to back companies that create software and provide services to the IBM i community continue to raise eyebrows and elicit surprise among those unfamiliar with the innovation taking place in the so-called legacy netherworld.

  Another glimpse of this appeared last week when ARCAD Software announced it received a € 2.5 million ($2.95 million in US currency) investment from the European equity firm Alto Invest. ARCAD develops and markets DevOps and modernization solutions for platforms that include IBM i, Unix, Linux, Windows and z/OS. This is the first external funding ARCAD has received during its …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, December 13

  December 13, 2017 Dan Burger

  Finding programmers skilled in open source technologies isn’t difficult. And neither is teaching them modern RPG. A good programmer can be comfortable and productive in multiple environments given the right set of circumstances. Real world examples exist and this article is written by someone who is living it.

  Another example of skills evolution is happening with Db2 for i. The value of a modern database is widely overlooked, but the benefits are numerous. IBM’s Mike Cain explains how database knowledge can pay off. Insights into Power9 and AI applications plus the costs of bad data are also in Monitor this …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 49

  December 13, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  There is not much happening this week in IBM i PTF Land, and the holiday season is obviously in nearly full swing. But I was able to glean the following newsworthy items:

  Recommended Fixes – Temporary Disk Space

  Record locking API isn’t cleaning up after itself.

  • V7R3 SI65944
  • V7R2 SI65942
  • V7R1 SI65943

  Recommended Fixes – HMC code Upgrades

  We have added the following link to the “Links” worksheet in the guide – great stuff is here! See http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=nas8N1021840.

  And, finally, happy holidays, and we will see you in the new year….

  As usual, we have included an archive of …

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