• Guru: When Procedure Driven RPG Really Works

  July 14, 2025 Gregory Simmons

  In the vast and varied ecosystems of Earth, few interactions between species have captured the imagination of scientists and casual observers alike as much as the relationship between bottlenose dolphins and puffer fish. This curious dance, often involving the deliberate provocation of the puffer fish to trigger its natural defense mechanism, has led to many interpretations – from simple play to speculative pharmacological experimentation. I submit to you today, that in the digital ocean of RPG development, developers should interact with their procedures in ways that, to the outside eye, might seem equally cryptic, yet are deeply intentional, meticulously orchestrated, …

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• Vendors Fill In The Gaps With IBM’s New MFA Solution

  July 14, 2025 Alex Woodie

  The new multi-factor authentication (MFA) capability that IBM has built into the IBM i operating system is a real gamechanger in terms of securing the system and preventing unauthorized access to applications and data. However, it lacks some key capabilities that some customers are looking for in an MFA solution, which third-party vendors are eager to fill.

  The native MFA function that Big Blue delivered with IBM i 7.6 is being praised almost universally throughout the IBM i community as a massive security improvement. The MFA functionality, which uses randomly generated time-based one-time passwords (TOTP), is built directly into …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 27

  July 14, 2025 Doug Bidwell

  If you are an ASNA shops, there is an important security update that the company wants you to be aware of. This is an important security notification regarding a vulnerability discovered in two ASNA Windows Services: ASNA Assist and ASNA Registrar. ASNA says that it has resolved this vulnerability with updated versions of all supported ASNA products. You can find out more about this issue at this link.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level since we last published:

  PTF Groups 7.6:

  • None

  PTF Groups 7.5:

  • None

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • None

  PTF Groups 7.3: …

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• With Power11, Power Systems “Go To Eleven”

  July 8, 2025 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Today is Power11 announcement day, and as sometimes happens during the debut of a new processor and a new platform to go along with it, we do not have all of the details necessary to tell you everything you need to know about the new Power11 processor and the four of the five Power Systems machines that will make use of it and start shipping on July 25.

  Here is what we generally know. First, you will hear a lot of Spinal Tap jokes, like the one in the title above, which refers to special Marshall amplifiers which go …

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• With Subscription Price, IBM i P20 And P30 Tiers Get Bigger Bundles

  July 8, 2025 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Big Blue has been noodling how it might tweak the subscription pricing for the P20 and P30 tiers since getting feedback on the first pass it did on its big iron Power Systems machines way back in February 2023. That feedback from the company’s biggest IBM i customers was not entirely glowing, but IBM has been clear that it would in the fullness of time move from perpetual software licensing to subscription pricing on all of its software, and that IBM i would not be an exception.

  To cushion the blow – and there is one because customers keep machines …

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• Izzi Buys CNX, Eyes Valence Port To System Z

  July 8, 2025 Alex Woodie

  Izzi Software today announced the acquisition of CNX Corp., owner of the Valence suite of Web development tools for IBM i. The deal is the first IBM i-related acquisition for Izzi, which was founded last year with a mandate to buy smaller IBM i and mainframe vendors that typically don’t get M&A attention from bigger players.

  CNX is a Chicago-based software vendor and consulting firm founded in 1996 by Richard Milone and Robert Swanson. The two had worked with BPCS (now Infor ERP LX) customers, and developed a product that extended that ERP system to the Web. That product, then …

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• IBM i Shops “Attacking” Security Concerns, Study Shows

  July 8, 2025 Alex Woodie

  Faced with ever-growing security concerns, IBM i shops are “attacking” the problem and taking real steps to improve their security posture, Fortra says in its latest State of IBM i Security study. It is the second straight year that Fortra has noticed an improvement in IBM i shops’ approach to security. However, there are still areas that require improvement.

  Fortra and its predecessors (HelpSystems, PowerTech) have been running the annual State of Security study for 22 years, providing a unique glimpse into the security configurations of IBM i customers that is unmatched in the industry.

  Every year, a new group …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 26

  July 8, 2025 Doug Bidwell

  Brace yourself because the IBM i platform has five security vulnerabilities that you have to analyze and cope with in this week’s issue of the IBM i PTF Guide.

  Let’s just jump right in and get to it.

  First, we have Security Bulletin: IBM WebSphere Application Server is affected by arbitrary code execution (CVE-2025-36038), about which you can find out more at this link. The affected software is IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.5 and 9.0.

  Second, there is Security Bulletin: IBM i is affected by a user gaining elevated privileges due to an unqualified library call vulnerability in …

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• Liam Allan Shares What’s Coming Next With Code For IBM i

  June 23, 2025 Alex Woodie

  The rise of Code for IBM i arguably is the best IBM i technology story of the past few years. The VS Code development environment came out of nowhere to challenge Rational Developer for i as the pre-eminent developer tool on the platform. And according to Liam Allan, who started this whole thing, Code for i is only going to get better in the months and years to come.

  There is clear and unmistakable momentum behind VS Code and Code for IBM i, the VS Code plug-in that Liam Allan created back in 2021 while working at Seiden Group …

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• From Stable To Scalable: Visual LANSA 16 Powers IBM i Growth – Launching July 8

  June 23, 2025 Nichole Ballesteros

  IBM i remains one of the most trusted enterprise platforms in the world, running mission-critical operations across industries like manufacturing, logistics, and finance. Its unmatched reliability and performance have made it a mainstay for organizations running high-volume, always-on business systems.

  But as innovation speeds up, IBM i teams are under pressure to do more: modernize applications, integrate with newer systems, and deliver modern user experiences – all without compromising business operations. The problem? Most legacy environments weren’t built for agility, and rewrites are often expensive and risky.

  That’s where Visual LANSA 16 comes in. Originally built for IBM i and …

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