• What’s Wrong With Modern RPG?

  February 27, 2017 Dan Burger

  IBM continues to enhance RPG. If it wasn’t being improved on a regular basis, there would be cause for concern, but some people find cause for concern in everything. Satisfaction is on the other side of the fence, even after they’ve crossed the fence. That’s not an endorsement for “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” There’s always room for constructive criticism and honest assessments of the circumstances.

  That brings us to the RPG enhancements in the recently announced Technology Refresh identified as IBM i 7.2 TR 6 and IBM i 7.3 TR …

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• Top 11 Ways to Protect Your IBM i from Insider Threats

  February 22, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Hackers get a lot of attention when it comes to cyber security, and for good reason: external cyber threats are growing in volume and sophistication. But one shouldn’t overlook the harm that insiders can—and do—wreak on companies on a daily basis. Security expert Carol Woodbury recently shared 11 ways IBM i pros can protect the server from the very real threat posed by insiders.

  Woodbury, who is the vice president of global security services at HelpSystems and formerly was IBM‘s chief security architect for the AS/400, says IBM i shops unknowingly leave themselves open to internal attacks through a …

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• IBM i TRs Bring New Open Source Data Transfer Tools

  February 22, 2017 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that adopt the latest Technology Refreshes from IBM will find a trio of new open source tools for moving data and objects across various data transfer protocols used on the Internet. The addition of Wget, cURL, and rsync to the IBM i Open Source solutions package will give IBM i shops more choices for moving data.

  As IBM added open source development tools like Python, PHP, and Node.js to the platform, it has triggered requests for additional tools that open source developers are familiar with, says Alison Butterill, the offering manager for IBM i in Rochester, Minnesota. …

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• Linoma Climbs the File Transfer Ladder

  February 22, 2017 Dan Burger

  Linoma Software has taken its managed file transfer software up another notch with its latest release of GoAnywhere Version 5.4.2. The basic aptitude of managed file transfer (MFT) products cover the secure and automated transfer of files inside and outside of organizations. That includes sharing data among the various platforms from IBM i to Windows, Linux, Unix, mainframe, and Mac OS.

  With its latest refresh, Linoma‘s GoAnywhere updated its SSL cipher configuration picklist for the admin server, HTTPS/AS2 server, FTP server and FTPS server. Just six weeks ago, SOAP and RESTful Web Services were added with the introduction of …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, February 22

  February 22, 2017 Dan Burger

  A few weeks ago, Jesse Gorzinski was featured in an IT Jungle story. This week the IBM business architect of open source technologies shows up as the author of new blog called Open Your i. Open source can be really good for IBM i. And since we’re all accustomed to acronyms, OYi has a nice ring to it. We’ll be keeping an eye on Jesse.

  Monitor is also pointing to stories on cloud security mythology, IT budget advice for a bigger piece of the pie, testing your mental strength when taking on new projects, dialing into the top ten …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 7

  February 22, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  It has been a fairly quiet week in PTF Land, and that is reasonable considering that IBM has accelerated the ramp of its Technology Refreshes for IBM i 7.2 and 7.3 and is getting them out the door well ahead of the normal April-May spring cleaning for these updates.

  As we told you last week, there are several WebSphere Application Server release levels that are covered in various IBM i releases. The idea behind a Program Temporary Fix, which is what PTF stands for, is that when you take the PTF and put it on your system, it fixes the …

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• IBM Gives The Midrange A Valentine’s Day (Processor) Card

  February 20, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  As expected, IBM rolled out a Valentine’s Day surprise for its IBM i and AIX customer bases with a new pair of machines aimed at giving a low powered, lower cost option for the customers running its legacy applications instead of Linux, which is the darling of the Power Systems business these days even though it does not come even close to representing the majority of the Power Systems revenue stream.

  The Power Mini or IBMini, as I have been calling the machine affectionately, turns out to be a variant of the existing single-socket Power S812 system that IBM has …

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• SQL And Database Shine As Next Tech Refresh Approaches

  February 20, 2017 Dan Burger

  Twelve inches of fresh snow has piled up on your driveway and all you have is a shovel. That’s minimal functionality and, depending on your fitness level, your snow removal performance may be less than desirable. At best, you’re on the low end of the functionality and performance continuum and you’re wishing for better.

  So it is with the DB2 for i database and the programmers who shovel data there. Any help moving data from where it is to where it’s needed will likely be appreciated. Ditto for accelerating application behavior and gaining application functionality.

  This brings us to the …

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• Guru: Parameter Passing Fundamentals Of Programs Versus Procedures

  February 20, 2017 Jon Paris

  In my earlier tip, Fundamentals: Parameter Passing, I discussed the basics of parameter passing and the importance of ensuring that parameter lengths and data types match those expected by the called routine. In this tip I want to go one step further and discuss differences between passing parameters to programs and to procedures.

  Let’s start with passing parameters between programs. In particular, I will focus on the impact of passing fewer parameters than the called program is expecting because this is one area in which programs and procedures differ, and a failure to understand that can lead to some …

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• What’s New In Access Client Solutions

  February 20, 2017 Alex Woodie

  IBM unveiled new Technology Refreshes for the IBM i 7.2 and 7.3 operating systems last week, and among the goodies intrepid IBM i professionals will get to use on March 17 are new features and functions in Access Client Solutions. The Java-based interface may not deliver everything that older products offered, but ACS does have some things you can’t find anywhere else.

  ACS, you will recall, is the new run-anywhere client that IBM unveiled back in August 2012 as the new strategic replacement for older clients. The product includes a full 5250 emulator based IBM’s Host-On Demand; 5250 printer emulation; …

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