• Cybercriminals Targeting American Water Infrastructure, Feds Say

  March 27, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Overseas cybercriminal groups are ramping up their attacks on American infrastructure, including drinking water and wastewater systems, the White House Government warned last week. Considering that many local water districts rely on the IBM i server, this should serve as a wakeup call for them to bolster security before it’s too late.

  In a letter addressed to the governors of all 50 states, EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Jake Sullivan, assistant to the president for National Security Affairs, warned that government security professionals have detected attacks on water systems coming from China and Iran.

  One of the attack vectors was …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, March 27

  March 27, 2024 Jenny Thomas

  Every day has some sort of national designation. For instance, today, March 27 is National Scribble Day, National Little Red Wagon Day, National Spanish Paella Day, and National Joe Day (to celebrate people named “Joe”). One day you may not have heard of, however, is Q-Day, and maybe you don’t want to know. Q-Day is the time when quantum computers are powerful and stable enough to crack current encryption schemes, and depending on who you ask, it could be an immediate concern. Or not. The first article in our Top Stories looks at the team of IBM researchers who report …

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• LTO Cartridge – Drive Compatibility Matrix Not As Deep As You Think

  March 27, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  A bunch of IBM i shops that must be in the process of upgrading their tape backup systems reached out to the techies that are part of the IT Jungle collective recently and expressed surprise or dismay when they thought that the LTO 9 tape drives they were looking at would be able to read tape cartridges written by LTO 7 drives or that LTO 8 drives would be able to read LTO 6 cartridges.

  This, after all, has been the pattern that we have seen in the market for a long, long time. LTO 5 drives can read and …

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• Ibi Reaches Out to D2b Web Query Customers, Discusses Cause of Breakup

  March 25, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Nearly six months after ibi and IBM abruptly ended their OEM relationship, ibi is now reaching out to Db2 Web Query customers and encouraging them to license the business intelligence product it was based on, its own WebFOCUS suite. An executive with ibi also provided IT Jungle with some insight into the source of the breakup and what its IBM i customers can expect going forward.

  On the same day that IBM was unveiling the Fall 2023 Technology Refresh last October, it made an unexpected announcement that shocked the IBM i community: It would no longer sell Db2 Web …

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• Introducing PowerVS: Your Gateway To A Hybrid Cloud Future With IBM i

  March 25, 2024 Tom Horan

  In the fast-paced world of IT, businesses are always on the lookout for cutting-edge solutions that fuel their growth. For IBM i users, the shift to the cloud has been tricky, often complicated by compatibility, security, and performance issues. But in 2024, all eyes are on the cloud thanks to IBM’s revolutionary PowerVS. The challenges that were once difficult hurdles to overcome are turning into stepping stones for progress.

  PowerVS, an advanced technology from IBM, empowers businesses to extend their IBM i platform to the cloud. This game-changing solution allows organizations to tap into the agility and scalability of cloud …

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• What Do Secondhand Power9 Machines Cost These Days?

  March 25, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Before IBM consolidated its Global Asset Recovery Services arm in the Systems group in the wake of the spinout of the Kyndryl outsourcing and services business, we could go out to the IBM web site every now and then and get a sense of what secondhand Power Systems machinery cost. But alas, that is no longer the case.

  And so, we went poking around the Internet late on a Friday night and stumbled across our old friends at Data Tech Computer Services in Alpharetta, Georgia, which have been in business nearly three decades peddling AS/400, iSeries, System i, and IBM …

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• The Low Down On Service Extension For IBM i 7.X Releases

  March 25, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In the wake of our discussion two weeks ago of the long-lived releases of IBM i and OS/400 and how they compare in terms of technical support and bug fix coverage to Linux and Windows Server, we got a bunch of questions about just when the service extension – what we call extended support like other operating system vendors – would end.

  We understood the very high price that customers pay for service extension – as brilliantly outlined in a piece by Steve Pitcher back in October 2023, which showed the high price that the cumulative cost stacks up …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 12

  March 25, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  It’s a pretty quiet week in IBM i PTF Land, which is just want you want as Spring has sprung and we are getting ready for the Easter holiday coming next weekend. So, no security vulnerabilities to report this week, which is a good thing. There are some group PTFs for the current releases and we have added some new links to the IBM i PTF Guide spreadsheet as well.

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

  PTF Groups 7.5:

  • DB2 for IBM i
  • SAP support required PTF list for IBM

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• Yet More Announcements On IBM i Software Subscriptions

  March 18, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In the past two years, Big Blue has done of lot of things to repackage the IBM i software stack, and even its entry Power Systems machinery, to be consistent with the modern world of utility pricing for IT systems. Many are not thrilled by this, of course, and not just because they are resistant to change. While IBM is bundling in many features and add-ons to the stack for free as it shifts to subscriptions, the core IBM i subscriptions are without question more expensive than buying a perpetual license and paying Software Maintenance over a five, six, or …

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• Raz-Lee Adds Zero-Trust Features To IBM i Firewall

  March 18, 2024 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that are looking to implement a zero-trust security posture in their IBM i systems may want to check out Raz-Lee Security. The software company has added micro-segmentation capability to its iSecurity Firewall product, giving IBM i shops another level of control over their networks.

  Zero-trust is one of the more promising methods to secure an internal network these days, as it requires users to be authenticated, authorized, and continuously validated before being granted access to internal applications or data. It has been widely adopted in corporate networks as one aspect of a strong defense, particularly in Windows …

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