• What Is Threatening IBM i Security Now

  March 16, 2026 Alex Woodie

  The nature of cybersecurity threats is always changing, which requires constant vigilance by those who value security. IBM i is just as exposed to threats as any other networked operating system on the planet, but it’s also unique in certain ways, which actually makes security harder. To get the lowdown on how these phenomena interrelate in the first quarter of 2026, we turn to renown IBM i security expert Carol Woodbury from Kisco.

  Woodbury recently sat down with Justin Loeber, the Kisco owner and head of business development, to present a webinar titled IBM i Threat Landscape 2026: A Fireside …

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• Guru: Access Client Solutions 1.1.9.11 – Security First, With Continued Investment In SQL Tooling

  January 26, 2026 Gregory Simmons

  Big Blue has released IBM i Access Client Solutions (ACS) version 1.1.9.11, and while the release is anchored by an important security fix, it also reflects IBM’s continued investment in the SQL tooling that has become central to day-to-day IBM i development and administration. This is not a feature-heavy update on its own, but it arrives after a series of releases that have steadily expanded the usefulness of both Run SQL Scripts and SQL Performance Center.

  The primary driver for upgrading to ACS 1.1.9.11 is the remediation of CVE-2025-66516, an XML External Entity vulnerability related to how ACS processes certain …

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• Learning And Laughing With Scott Forstie And Tim Rowe

  December 8, 2025 Alex Woodie

  In the darkest days of the 2020 pandemic, with COVID lockdowns in full force, IBM i business architects Tim Rowe and Scott Forstie decided to try something new: start a video blog. Dubbed iSee, the short videos blend serious technical content around ACS and SQL services with goofy puns and silly drawings. Fast forward to fall 2025, and iSee is going strong, as the pair recently aired their 100th iSee episode.

  “Scott and I have been thinking about some fun things that we want to talk about to help you in your every day job,” Rowe said in the very …

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• What You Will Find In IBM i 7.6 TR1 and IBM i 7.5 TR7

  October 13, 2025 Alex Woodie

  It’s early October, which means leaves are changing colors, nights are getting colder, and IBM developers in southern Minnesota and elsewhere are gearing up the autumnal Technology Refreshes for the IBM i operating system.

  With last week’s announcements of TR1 for IBM i 7.6 and TR7 for IBM i 7.5, which ship November 21, IBM has committed to delivering a slew of updates and new functionality across the range of IBM i system software, from application development to administration.

  Before we get into the specific areas of IBM i, let’s cover the general enhancements it made with I/O handling. For …

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• Big Blue Delivers IBM i Customer Requests In ACS Update

  August 25, 2025 Alex Woodie

  Christmas is still four months away, but that didn’t stop IBM from giving Access Client Solutions (ACS) customers the new features they requested. The deliveries were made in the mid-summer update, ACS version 1.1.9.9.

  ACS is the must-have tool that lives in every IBM i professional’s toolbox. It contains a slew of facilities for interacting with the system, including RSS, data transfer, IFS file viewing, spool file management, 5250 emulator, 5250 printer emulation, and a virtual console for LAN and HMC management.

  IBM updates ACS several times a year regardless of the Technology Refresh cycle, as is typical with several …

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• Guru: Creating An RPG Stored Procedure With Parameters

  January 20, 2025 Mike Larsen

  There are times we need to build processes that will be used across different platforms. An example is a pricing routine. When a system needs to get pricing, we need to make sure the price the customer pays is the same regardless of how the order was created in our system.

  One way to create this functionality is using web services. Another way we can provide this functionality is through stored procedures. This series of tips will focus on different ways we can build stored procedures on IBM i.

  For the first part, I created an RPG program (Figure 1) …

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• IBM Bolsters Run SQL Scripts In ACS 1.1.9.6

  August 12, 2024 Alex Woodie

  IBM last week shipped a new release of Access Client Solutions (ACS) that contains several user-requested updates for Run SQL Scripts (RSS), the popular tool that allows users to execute SQL statements. ACS 1.1.9.6 also brings enhancements to the data transfer, IFS, and 5250 emulator components of ACS, among others.

  ACS, of course, is the universal Java-based utility that IBM unveiled 12 years ago to replace Client Access. It’s a must-have tool for any IBM i user, as it contains a slew of facilities for interacting with the system, including RSS, data transfer, IFS file viewing, spool file management, 5250 …

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• IBM Cranks Up the Performance for Run SQL Scripts

  April 24, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Access Client Solutions (ACS) users who are tired of waiting for database fields to resolve in the Run SQL Scripts (RSS) facility will be happy to hear that IBM felt their pain and RSS will return data much more quickly to return data with ACS version 1.1.9.5, which IBM shipped earlier this month.

  The speed-up of field resolution time was listed as a concern to at least one IBM i user, who took to IBM Power Ideas Portal to voice his or her concern. “Simply put the resolution of potential field makes content assist almost unusable,” the user wrote. “I …

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• New Run SQL Scripts Features in ACS Update

  August 23, 2023 Alex Woodie

  If you’re a fan of the Run SQL Scripts features in IBM i Access Client Solutions, then there’s good news: IBM has adopted several suggestions on how to improve the functionality in the latest release of ACS.

  IBM quietly released ACS version 1.1.9.3 last month, enabling a series of new functions in the popular Java-based utility used by IBM i professionals to interact with the platform, as well as a handful of fixes.

  At the top of the list, according to an IBM Support document on the new release, are enhancements to Run SQL Scripts (RSS), the handy facility that …

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• IBM Unveils Fall 2022 Tech Refreshes for IBM i

  October 12, 2022 Alex Woodie

  IBM yesterday announced Technology Refreshes for its two most current IBM i operating systems, including 7.5 and 7.4. Security continues to be a big driver of new functionality with 7.5 TR1 and 7.4 TR7. But the fall TRs bring a bevy of enhancements across all areas, including the database, IBM i services, open source, application development, and analytics, among others.

  Security has been the number one concern for CIOs for a few years now, and IBM has responded with a number of new features in IBM i. Some of the new security features exist in IBM i Navigator, the GUI …

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