• New RDi Ready For IBM i Developers

  September 21, 2015 Dan Burger

  Friday was the first day of RDi 9.5 season. The general availability of the latest edition of IBM‘s modern RPG development environment was celebrated with fireworks, champagne, and raucous cheering at IBM i shops from Boston to Berlin to Beijing. If only it were that illustrious. The adoption rate of RDi is unquestionably on the rise, but the pace is closer to a rustle than a hustle. Maybe the new RDi enhancements will up the tempo. Of all the new features added to RDi 9.5, there are three that may turn up the power of persuasion somewhat for shops

  … Read more

• IBM Gearing Up For October Power Announcements

  September 21, 2015 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The word on the street is that Big Blue is getting ready to make some announcements for the Power Systems platform in October, so brace yourself for more stuff. We are not sure exactly what IBM is gearing up to do, but we have heard some rumblings that will affect the IBM i customer base tangentially and perhaps, if we have our way, directly. IBM likes to tie announcements to specific events, and personally, I would like for the new hardware, software, and services to be launched at the Power Systems and System Storage Technical University in Cannes, France, which

  … Read more

• What Does IBM’s Embrace Of Apache Spark Mean To IBM i?

  September 21, 2015 Alex Woodie

  IBM is actively embracing a new software framework called Apache Spark as the core engine powering predictive analytics application going forward. The big data world has gone absolutely gaga over Spark, and Big Blue has even put Spark on the venerable z/OS mainframe. But where does that leave its little brother, the IBM i platform? Apache Spark, if you’re not familiar, is hands down the hottest technology at the moment in the world of big data analytics. The open source project is so popular because it implements a relatively easy to use framework for running in-memory analytic workloads across

  … Read more

• EXTOL Helps IBM i Shop with Web Services . . . m-Power Delivers In-Memory Analytics . . . VAULT400 Racks Up Another Win

  September 16, 2015 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  EXTOL Helps IBM i Shop with Web Services CURT Manufacturing has been using the EXTOL EDI Integrator for i software from EXTOL International for over a decade. But when the tow-hitch manufacturer decided to expand its business on the Web, it needed something to accelerate its new ordering processes. That’s when it tapped another product from the Pottsville, Pennsylvania, software company: EXTOL Business Integrator (EBI) Web Services. With EBI Web Services installed on the company’s Power Systems server, CURT Manufacturing found the solution it needed. It’s all about ensuring that CURT’s back-end processes could deliver faster response times to requests

  … Read more

• BCD Adds Digital Signatures to Modernization Tool

  September 16, 2015 Dan Burger

  For many members of the mobile workforce, capturing digital signatures are all in a day’s work. It was just a matter of figuring out how to efficiently and securely collect signatures that identify and authenticate electronic documents. Mobile signature capture is one of the new features BCD Software has added to its green-screen to GUI application modernization tool called Presto. If mobile apps are part of your IT plans, signature capture probably fits in as well. Mobile access to modernized green-screen applications is improving business processes and customer service, says Marcel Sarrasin , who has helped make that happen for

  … Read more

• Toolmaker Jumps Into IBM i Web Development with WOPiXX

  September 16, 2015 Alex Woodie

  Toolmaker Advanced Efficiency, a German developer of software for the IBM i server, recently rolled out a new framework for developing Web applications that run on IBM i. The software, called WOPiXX, enables programmers to create new Web apps by leveraging their existing RPG skills, the company says. In the modern Web 2.0 world, developers typically are expected to be fluent in client-centric languages like HTML, JavaScript, and XML. Even in the IBM i space, it’s not uncommon to see companies looking for those rare unicorns who can code the front-end Web apps using those technologies, but also be

  … Read more

• SoftLanding Gets Into the Content Management Business

  September 16, 2015 Alex Woodie

  Most IBM i professionals probably know SoftLanding Systems for the change management software that the company developed. While Turnover remains SoftLanding’s main breadwinner, the UNICOM Global property is further diversifying its offerings with the introduction of a new content management package for IBM i. Dubbed Columbus, the new product combines elements of both content management (which is about managing information in the enterprise) as well as document management (which is about multi-channel delivery of documents). As a document management product, Columbus enables IBM i shops to transform existing output into digital formats that can be more readily consumed via Web,

  … Read more

• Hacker Defends DEF CON Talk on IBM i Vulns

  September 16, 2015 Alex Woodie

  Two weeks ago we told you about a presentation about hacking the IBM i server that was held at the recent DEF CON conference. Now the hacker behind the presentation is taking exception with assertions in the story, and insists that his hacking technique exploits security flaws in IBM i OS and don’t rely on poor server configurations. Carol Woodbury, a former IBM security architect, looks into the hacker’s new claims. Bart Kulach, who runs the www.hackthelegacy.org website and delivered a DEF CON presentation by the same name, sent us this letter. It’s reprinted here with his permission: Dear Mr.

  … Read more

• RCAC In DB2 For i, Part 3: Advanced Topics

  September 15, 2015 Michael Sansoterra

  In Part 1 and Part 2 of this RCAC series, I covered row and column access control (RCAC) row permissions and column masks, and demonstrated how they can be used to add an additional layer of security to your DB2 for i database without necessarily having to change legacy applications. This tip will explore the RCAC topic a little further by discussing a few advanced concepts that may affect your implementation of RCAC. Bypassing RCAC With SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION When the SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION statement is executed, a SQL database connection is “impersonated” to run under the identity of another

  … Read more

• Another Reason To Use Unrequired Correlation Names

  September 15, 2015 Ted Holt

  Almost eight years ago I gave you two good reasons to use a correlation name when SQL did not require one. A recent experience revealed to me another good reason to use an unnecessary correlation name, and I am happy to be able to share that information with you today! A colleague of mine had an SQL query that ran to completion but produced the wrong results. He asked me to take a look at it, and I’m glad he did, because the experience taught me something. Let me set up the situation for you. Assume two tables: a table

  … Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles