• IBM Mulls Using DataMigrator as Cloud Warehouse Pipeline

  June 29, 2022 Alex Woodie

  IBMers are playing around with an update to a little-known ETL tool called DataMigrator for i that would make it easier for IBM i shops to move transactional data to cloud-based data warehousing platforms. The update would use Apache Kafka for the final connection to the cloud.

  DataMigrator ETL Extension, as the product is formally known, is an extract, transform, and load (ETL) tool created by IBM back in 2015. The product was developed to work with Db2 Web Query, the Java-based business intelligence tool that it OEMed from Information Builders (now owned by TIBCO).

  DataMigrator for …

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• PowerTech AV Automatically Detects Ransomware Activity

  June 29, 2022 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that are concerned about ransomware attacks may be interested in a new release of PowerTech Antivirus from HelpSystems, which can automatically detect ransomware activity on the IBM i system and block it before it can cause damage. There’s also a nifty new “canary file” feature that will hopefully keep IBM i users from falling down the coal mine.

  PowerTech Antivirus, which formerly carried the Stand Guard Anti-Virus label, was originally developed by Bytware to detect and prevent viruses from infecting the IFS on IBM i. The software, which HelpSystems obtained in a 2008 acquisition, uses an …

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• Infor Puts CM3 Project On Hold

  June 29, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Infor is no longer developing an on-premise and containerized version of M3, its ERP system that’s popular with IBM i customers. While the CM3 project is apparently dead, the company is working to certify the latest release of the ERP system on IBM i version 7.5, IT Jungle has learned.

  Like other ERP vendors with large legacy installed bases, Infor has struggled to get customers to move to its cloud offerings. In particular, its customers who run the M3 ERP system on IBM i have not migrated to the cloud version of the product in the numbers that Infor expected. …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, June 29

  June 29, 2022 Jenny Thomas

  It’s hard to find a lot of good news these days. That’s why we hope you find some respite in the enthusiasm with which we cover the IBM i and its community. Where else can you find a deep-dive series on subscription pricing on the IBM i stack, complete with stacks of data and analysis? The only place you can find that is in the Jungle, and you can catch up on it starting in the Top Story below. As we head into July, you will notice lots of new learning and networking opportunities coming up on the Calendar below, …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 24, Number 26

  June 29, 2022 Doug Bidwell

  There have been some remediations for some issues with the MQSeries message queuing middleware for the IBM i platform, including IBM MQ Version 9.2.4 CD and IBM MQ Version 9.2.5 CD. You can find out more here. As for remediation or fixes, this issue was resolved under APAR IT40453. Upgrade to IBM MQ Version 9.3, there are no workarounds and mitigations.

  And then, of course, there is a new security vulnerability. Check out Security Bulletin: IBM MQ is vulnerable to multiple Eclipse Jetty issues, so please see more at this link, and see CVE-2021-28169, CVE-2021-34428, CVE-2021-28163, CVE-2021-28164, CVE-2021-34429, …

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• Guild Mortgage Takes The 20-Year Option For Modernization

  June 27, 2022 Alex Woodie

  When Kurt Reheiser returned to the IBM i server after a 15-year hiatus away the platform, things weren’t a lot different than how he left them. “My skills were more relevant than I thought they would be,” the former RPG developer said during last month’s POWERUp 2022 conference. Now as the CIO of a multi-billion-dollar company called Guild Mortgage, Reheiser is overseeing a modernization initiative that will keep building on the company’s successful history of custom development on the IBM i platform.

  Reheiser shared his and his company’s IT journey during a keynote address at COMMON’s annual user conference …

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• IBM i Licensing, Part 3: Can The Hardware Bundle Be Cheaper Than A Smartphone?

  June 27, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  How many monthly iPhone bills is a Power10-based entry server worth?

  Let me ask this another way: Which will be more expensive: Providing a seat for a corporate user of an IBM i system, with a complete set of hardware and systems software, or providing an iPhone 13 Pro Max with a data plan and cellular service to each end user? Both are premium products with premium features.

  We don’t know, but as the July 12 Power10 announcements are approaching, we are getting closer and closer to finding out.

  Let’s talk about the iPhone 13 Pro Max first because we …

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• Guru: The Finer Points of Exit Points

  June 27, 2022 Bruce Bading

  Many years ago, we received a call from an IBM i customer stating that all exit points were gone and the QAUDJRN and receivers were missing. Then the question, “Do you think we’ve been hacked?” Truth was, the exit points weren’t gone; the associated programs had been de-registered. Conclusion, they had most likely been compromised.

  The IBM i platform is a very securable system that can be secured (Secure vs Secured – What’s the difference?, WikiDiff), if you take steps to secure it.

  On the IBM i, a limited number of functions provide an exit so that your …

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• Big Blue Tweaks IBM i Pricing Ahead Of Subscription Model

  June 27, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Back in May, Big Blue said that it was going to be simplifying the IBM i stack ahead of a move to subscription pricing for systems software as well as hardware that runs it. To do that means zeroing out prices for a slew of things that had price tags on them formerly.

  In announcement letter 322-406 on June 1, IBM made good on that promise to move a bunch of software from “separately charged” to “entitled with IBM i status, which we outlined in our coverage on May 16. The news here is not just that IBM followed …

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• We Still Want IBM i On The Impending Power E1050

  June 27, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In March last year, as Big Blue was finishing up the development of the Power10 family of Power Systems machines, we wrote an essay explaining that we wanted IBM i to be a first-class operating system citizen on the four-socket Power E1050 machine, which we finally expect to see launch on July 12 if the rumors are correct.

  We never did like that IBM i was not supported on the Power8-based Power E850 four-socket server, and then also not supported on the Power9-based Power E950 four-socket server. And we equally do not like the fact that, if the rumors we …

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