• Say Sayonara To IBM i 7.1 Next Spring

  May 22, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  We sometimes think that the IBM announcement system tries to pull a fast one on us. Like many people in this market, we watch this system like a hawk, looking for anything pertinent to Power Systems or IBM i. A very important announcement was made on April 11, well ahead of the COMMON user group meeting in Orlando, Florida, two weeks ago, but no one we know saw it. A business partner saw it late last week and alerted us to it.

  In announcement letter 917-080, Big Blue announced the date when IBM i 7.1 will see its software …

  Read more

• Top Ten New IBM i RFEs

  May 22, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Should IBM open source its database drivers, or add support for .NET? Should it add the latest SSL ciphers to IBM i 7.1? These are some of the changes that it has received through its new Web-based requests for enhancement (RFE) program on its developerWorks site.

  The new RFE functionality is only a few months old, but it’s already attracting the attention of IBM i professionals who want IBM to change things about the stack. It’s also getting attention from other IBM i pros who get to vote on them.

  Here are the top ten RFEs so far, ranked by …

  Read more

• Guru: Confessions Of A Recovering RDi Outline Addict

  May 22, 2017 Susan Gantner

  As an unabashed RDi fan, my list of “favorite features” is pretty long, but right up near the top of the list has always been the Outline view for RPG IV. It was Outline that finally got me to move to WDSC (RDi’s predecessor) from its predecessor, CODE (a.k.a., CODE/400) many years ago.

  I’ve long been amazed at the number of RDi users who say they don’t use Outline – some don’t even have it in their RSE perspective any more. I have always suspected that’s because they closed it by accident long ago and never had a chance to …

  Read more

• As I See It: Wake Up Call

  May 22, 2017 Victor Rozek

  Maybe she just didn’t want to carry a purse. Or maybe she liked to wear tight jeans and having anything in the pockets spoiled the look. Or maybe she wanted to keep it handy, or thought it was trendy or “dope.” But whatever the reason she, like a growing number of women, carried her cell phone tucked into her bra.

  She was 39 at the time of diagnosis, a Chinese woman, non-meat eater, with no genetic or lifestyle predispositions to cancer. Under the circumstances, what her doctor found was highly unusual: multiple primary tumors in her right breast. It was …

  Read more

• Investment In IBM i Leads To Innovation Award

  May 22, 2017 Dan Burger

  Running the company website on the IBM i is one of those ideas that demonstrates how people get in their own way by creating phantom obstacles. Without thinking much about it, the default website decision often is “put it on the Windows or Linux server.” Regrettably, the default setting doesn’t always yield the best results.

  Evidence to that effect is the work done by the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors. Migrating their website from a Windows server to their IBM i, on close examination, was a smart choice for several good reasons. Lower cost of operation, a content management system …

  Read more

• WannaCry: What IBM i Pros Need To Know

  May 17, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Last week’s epic WannaCry ransomware attack left hundreds of thousands of people around the world scrambling to recover their data, either by paying the cyber crooks or executing their disaster recovery plan. If you’re an IBM i professional, the question you should be asking yourself is: What if that were me?

  Companies in the United States escaped relatively unscathed from the ransomware attack, which exploited a known security vulnerability in the Windows operating system and was based on code that was “weaponized” by the National Security Agency and subsequently stolen by hackers.

  There are two main reasons for this. For …

  Read more

• ARCAD And GitHub Prepare For A Paradigm Shift

  May 17, 2017 Dan Burger

  One platform. One island. One epic story of survival. That may be over dramatizing the IBM i environment, but it makes a point about the dangers of single-platform thinking in a world that is multi-platform oriented. That thought occurred to me when I first heard that ARCAD Software, an IBM i vendor specializing in application development and DevOps, was partnering with GitHub, a collaboration-oriented software company focused on code sharing and reducing software delivery schedules.

  Until locking hands with ARCAD, GitHub was missing an IBM i integration point and ARCAD was relying on Rational Team Concert (RTC) for its …

  Read more

• Going Rogue with Open Source Support on IBM i

  May 17, 2017 Alex Woodie

  The number of IBM i shops adopting open source software (OSS) is on the uptick as companies strive to innovate more with fewer resources. However, the prospect of obtaining technical support for OSS tech looms as a major barrier to adoption. One potential option comes through custom support packages from Rogue Wave Software.

  While Rogue Wave Software isn’t strictly an OSS company, it’s no stranger to the paradigm either. Even before it its 2016 acquisition of Zend, which built a PHP business for IBM i shops, the company was quite active on the open source front. Considering that 70 percent …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 19

  May 17, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  Every Wednesday, the IBM i PTF Guide is included in The Four Hundred to help system administrators figure out what patches to put onto your machines and what ones you can ignore. The IBM i PTF Guide is available in downloadable spreadsheet format, and we have taken the archive back about two and a half years for your convenience.

  We are, as always, thankful to Doug Bidwell, the owner of IBM i business partner DLB Systems Associates, who has been putting together a guide to help OS/400, i5/OS, and IBM i shops deal with patches for the past 19 years. …

  Read more

• Open Source On IBM i: Let It Grow

  May 15, 2017 Dan Burger

  The evaluation of open source software is nowhere near conclusive when it comes to enterprise grade application development. Decisions remain in the exploratory phases. Roadmaps are incomplete. Most are without clear routes to a destination. Some are without destinations. However, it would be wrong to assume roads are not being built.

  There is no way that the future of application development – on IBM i or anywhere else – can handle everything that is coming down the pike without open source. That’s not a mandate to jump on a band wagon. It’s an awareness wake-up call. The IBM i community …

  Read more

Previous Articles