• Simulated Role Swaps–Maxava’s Secret Weapon

  December 9, 2014 Alex Woodie

  It may sound trite, but during a disaster you can expect the unexpected. No matter how much planning you put into your disaster preps, chances are good you overlooked something. It’s also true that, without any planning, your chances of surviving the disaster are poor. That’s why high availability software vendor Maxava puts a strong emphasis on testing using its simulated role swap (SRS) functionality. The SRS feature, which is available only on Maxava’s high-end offering called Enterprise+, allows IBM i customers to test their failover processes to see whether the backup machine is ready to handle the load in

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• BCD Advances PHP-on-i Development in WebSmart

  December 9, 2014 Alex Woodie

  BCD Software has supported the PHP language with its WebSmart suite of IBM i development tools for several years. But with the last week’s unveiling of WebSmart version 10.6, the Chicago-based company is allowing PHP coders to do more advanced development using object-oriented techniques thanks to the addition of Zend Framework 2 (ZF2) and PHP data object (PDO) templates. WebSmart’s support for ZF2 is aimed at more advanced developers who are looking to build enterprise-grade applications that incorporate a model-view-controller (MVC) architecture and object-oriented (OO) coding techniques. ZF2 provides this core MVC layer, and now BCD supports ZF2 in its

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• Most Innovative IBM i Products: A FHS Year in Review

  December 9, 2014 Alex Woodie

  Where will IBM i products go in 2015? They will likely look a lot like 2014, which was heavy on mobile and Web development technologies, open standards, and security. Let’s take a stroll through the Four Hundred Stuff (FHS) archive, now 13-years strong, and recount the top new, improved, or innovative IBM i products that we saw over the past 12 months, from a purely non-objective, editorially biased, seat-of-one’s pants standpoint. January: Open Display Files The year started with looksoftware (now Fresche Legacy) unveiling an offering based on the Open Display File (ODF) standard. IBM‘s Rational Open Access:

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• IBM Issues More POODLE Patches, Warns Not to Use SSLv3

  December 9, 2014 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that continue to use SSLv3 to encrypt their communications are susceptible to the POODLE security vulnerability and could have their data compromised, IBM warned today in a security bulletin. IBM also issued new security patches that disable SSLv3 in IBM i’s Java runtime. While IBM recommends moving to the newer TLS protocol, many IBM i applications still require SSLv3 and will likely break when it’s disabled, IBM warns. IBM started patching its various systems against the POODLE vulnerability over a month ago when it became clear that SSLv3 needed to go. Applications patched in November include the

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• IBM Pulls The Plug On Old Peripherals

  December 8, 2014 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Peripherals change with blazing speed in the IT market, and the Power Systems line, as a collection of various components, is no different from other systems out there. IBM can’t keep all components in supply forever, and it has to move to newer components to stay competitive. And thus a bunch of devices for the Power Systems line are being sunsetted in favor of newer kit. In announcement letter 914-229, IBM is replacing its first generation of 1.8-inch, 387 GB SSDs with the second generation. Both are based on so-called enterprise multi-level cell (eMLC) flash technology, and IBM has

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• How Does Three Percent Sound?

  December 8, 2014 Dan Burger

  IT salaries are nudging their way upward and the outlook for hiring IT workers is somewhat improved as we get ready to turn the page on another calendar year. The Computer Economics 2015 IT Salary Report anticipates wages for Joe and Jane IT Worker will rise above the rate of inflation to the tune of 3 percent in the coming year, a modest increase that signals wage growth in these low-inflation times. It may not look like much, but this indicates organizations are increasing pay rates as the jobs market improves. The study shows that even at the 25th percentile,

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• Big Blue And ITG Build Case For IBM i Resiliency

  December 8, 2014 Dan Burger

  Business resiliency and business continuity are terms that are mistakenly used as synonyms with disaster recovery. A disaster is the worst type of disruption to business continuity. It is also the most infrequent. Like death from a thousand paper cuts, a variety of little things can play havoc with business resiliency. How much havoc is related to the value a company attaches to any aspect of the business that does not run at peak performance. Downtime is the enemy of business continuity. Every year the tolerance for downtime edges closer to zero. For some shops zero tolerance has been in

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• Changes Ahead For IT Jungle In 2015

  December 8, 2014 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  We are closing out one year, and looking forward to another one. It is hard to believe that The Four Hundred has been around since the summer of 1989, and that writing this newsletter was my first real job out of college. We have changed a lot over the years, and we must still be learning because we are still changing. You will notice a few changes as 2015 comes around on the guitar. First, we are moving to a wider column format for stories that is reflective of the higher resolution screens that most PCs and mobile devices have

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• Happy Holidays From All Of Us

  December 8, 2014 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It is that time of year again, when I am surrounded by fruitcakes that are slurping up kirschwasser like hungry babies, turning them into full-blown, holy day, celebratory, and damned near incendiary, bricks to commemorate the ending of one year and, if need be, to be used as food or fuel in an uncertain New Year. I mean, that is what fruitcake is all about. Living through an uncertain and possibly dark time to make it through to the spring and the renewed Earth. And when you think about all of that wonderful dried fruit, the four different kinds of

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• As I See It: The Path Forward

  December 8, 2014 Victor Rozek

  The world irrevocably changed on May 11, 1997, although at the time the event was reported more as a novelty than the opening salvo of a revolution. It was the day Grandmaster and World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov was beaten by IBM‘s Deep Blue. The day when the master/slave relationship between humans and computers flipped. To be sure, there were moments of consternation as people briefly wondered how the implications of machine supremacy might translate in their own lives. But like the advent of the printing press, the full impact of the event would not be felt for many

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