• Talk Is Cheap, Action Is Costly

  February 1, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Companies pick the platforms for their mission critical systems so they can run them for decades. And it is a very, very big deal when they decide to change those platforms. And, furthermore, it is a hell of a lot harder to change these platforms than many people think, and that is because most of the value of those platforms is locked up in the applications and databases that run atop the servers, operating systems, and middleware.

  It is with this in mind that we always take any survey data that asks IT executives if and when they are going …

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• SolarWinds Hack Raises Concern for IBM i Shops

  January 27, 2021 Alex Woodie

  The recently disclosed hack of the SolarWinds log management software enabled bad actors to gain access to the protected networks of numerous government agencies and private companies. It is also impacting an untold number of IBM i shops, which use SolarWinds software in not-insignificant numbers.

  In early December, Reuters broke the story of a massive and sophisticated breach of federal government computer systems that started in March 2020. According to the stories, state-backed cybercriminals exploited security flaws in at least three software vendors, including SolarWinds, Microsoft Azure, and VMware, to access private information in the target systems, …

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• 2021 Predictions for IBM i: Part Two

  January 20, 2021 Alex Woodie

  The response from the first batch of IBM i prediction we ran last week was superb. Here’s hoping that the community finds the second batch of predictions equally as worthwhile.

  Chris Wey, the president of the Power Business Unit at Rocket Software, wonders if crystal balls have any power left following the events of last year. “After an unpredictable 2020, the very notion of predictions is called into question,” Wey says. “Still, as an optimist, I believe we will see some incredibly positive outcomes of the past year’s turmoil in the coming year in our space.

  “First, Power systems …

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• HelpSystems Acquires Data Security, File Transfer Companies

  January 13, 2021 Alex Woodie

  HelpSystems started 2021 just like it ended 2020: by acquiring a software company.

  Two days before Christmas, HelpSystems acquired Vera, a developer of digital rights management software that is based in Palo Alto, California. Then on January 4, it struck again, acquiring FileCatalyst, an Ottawa, Ontario provider of software for accelerating file transfers.

  Both acquisitions fit neatly into HelpSystems’ existing strategy for helping its customers securely and efficiently move and manage data, as well as with other recent acquisitions that the company has made, says Jim Cassens, HelpSystems president.

  The FileCatalyst software is used to accelerate the transfer …

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• How IBM i Fits Into the Evolving ERP Market

  November 30, 2020 Alex Woodie

  IBM i remains a solid platform on which to run an ERP system. But with the shift to the cloud, not to mention a surge in homegrown application development on IBM i, the platform’s future for packaged ERP deployments is uncertain.

  The IBM midrange platform has a rich history of packaged ERP applications for a range of business types. From discrete manufacturing and trucking to banking and healthcare management, software vendors have targeted the IBM i platform and its predecessors to run integrated ERP systems and other similar types of business applications for over decades.

  But the go-go ERP deployments …

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• Christmas for Ransomware: How COVID-19 Is Fueling Cybercrime

  November 18, 2020 Alex Woodie

  American tech professionals may be feeling secure working from home in 2020, but that warm fuzzy feeling quickly turns into a sticky, cold sweat when one realizes all the overtime that cybercriminals are putting in to steal your hard-won resources. The situation is getting so bad that some have taken to calling COVID-19 “Christmas for ransomware.”

  According to Bitdefender’s “Mid-Year Threat Landscape Report 2020,” reports of ransomware increased by 715 percent from the first half of 2019 to the first half of 2020. The company says that this figure suggests that threat actors upped their ransomware campaigns to …

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• Is Information Overload Hurting IBM i Security?

  September 28, 2020 Alex Woodie

  What is wrong with IBM i security? If you look at surveys and reports, you would be hard pressed to find something that is not broken. From excessive authority and ransomware, to exit programs and default passwords, it can feel as if IBM i servers are rife with security failures.

  IBM i shops are certainly aware of the security shortcomings. Security has been rated the number one concern in each of the past two IBM i Marketplace studies conducted by HelpSystems. In the most recent report, 77 percent of respondents rated security a top concern, the highest percentage …

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• Is It Time To Rename RPG?

  August 24, 2020 Alex Woodie

  Should IBM rename RPG, and if so, what should the new name be? It’s an interesting idea, and one that was recently floated by a member of the IBM i community, who submitted an official request for enhancement (RFE) on the matter. The crux of the argument is that full free-format RPG is such a dramatic departure from fixed-format RPG that it deserves a new name. But will IBM, which owns the language, go along with the change?

  Report Program Generator, or RPG, debuted way back in 1959, at the dawn of the computer age, as a way to replicate …

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• HCL Certifies Domino 11 on IBM i/Power

  August 5, 2020 Alex Woodie

  Domino 11 officially shipped in late 2019 by HCL Technologies, the company selected by IBM to continue development of the Domino family of products in 2017. Last month, the company announced that Domino 11 running on IBM i has been certified on select Power9 servers. Among the new capabilities that it brings is the new low-code Volt environment.

  The Domino family of products, including Notes, Sametime, Connections, and Traveler, has been through quite a bit over the past few years. After nearly a decade of neglect by IBM, HCL Tech made the development of Domino 10 a priority for the …

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• HelpSystems Makes A Move In Data Classification

  August 5, 2020 Alex Woodie

  Before you can secure your data, you need to know what data you have and whether it’s sensitive. That’s the logic that drove the acquisitions of a pair of data classification software companies by HelpSystems recently.

  On June 25, HelpSystems’ announced the acquisitions of two firms — Titus and Boldon James — both of which offer similar capabilities in the field of data classification. HelpSystems plans to integrate their data classification offerings into products used by its large IBM i installed base.

  Titus, which is based in Ottawa, Canada, says it provides solutions to “some of the largest financial …

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