• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 50

  December 11, 2023 Doug Bidwell

  Well, there are two new security vulnerabilities in the IBM i stack, as we report elsewhere in this issue of The Four Hundred. And there is also an update to the System Planning Tool. Let’s do the latter first and the former last.

  The System Planning Tool, version 6.23.340, is now available for download at this link. The System Planning Tool is used by customers and business partners to build valid system configurations for Power Systems machines and their software stacks. You can look at the release notes for various SPT generations here.

  Now on to the …

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• Fresche Bolsters MFA with IBM i Exit Point Coverage

  December 6, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Organizations relying on Fresche Solutions’ multi-factor authentication (MFA) to protect their IBM i assets can now implement more fine-grained enforcement by protecting access to IBM i exit points, the company announced recently. The MFA offering also now hooks into enterprise-level MFA solutions.

  MFA has emerged as a minimum standard for protecting critical IT assets and data, as well as for preventing ransomware attacks. Even if a cybercriminal were to obtain the user ID and password to access sensitive applications and data, MFA serves as a difficult-to-overcome barrier that slows, if not prevents, them from actually getting into systems.

  Fresche Solutions …

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• AWS Taps Precisely to Bring IBM i Data Into Its Cloud

  December 6, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Amazon Web Services and Precisely have entered into a partnership agreement that will see AWS reselling Precisely’s data replication software to bring IBM i data into the cloud. It’s part of a larger effort by AWS to bring more IBM workloads into its data centers.

  Precisely and AWS previously had a relationship to move mainframe data into the world’s largest public cloud through a program called AWS Mainframe Modernization Data Replication. In late November, the companies announced they’re expanding the program to include IBM i. (While not technically a mainframe, the IBM i server is often called a mainframe. If …

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• Government Cracks Down on Security Responses, Unpatched Vulns

  December 6, 2023 Alex Woodie

  New federal rules that go into effect next week require public companies to share information about past security incidents within four days of the event, as well as detail in annual reports how they’re preparing for future attacks. And a state prosecutor in New York fined a company for allowing hackers to steal customer data through a critical zero-day security vulnerability that was left unpatched for 11 months.

  The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s new cybersecurity rule that went into effect on October 1 requires public companies to report details of cybersecurity incidents that impact their operations. Companies must report …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, December 6

  December 6, 2023 Jenny Thomas

  As one year comes to a close, it’s natural to look ahead with anticipation of what the new one will bring. No matter your age, there’s something about rolling over the calendar that makes us take stock of our lives, reset goals, and make a plan for the year ahead. That applies to companies, too. For instance, one of the oldest names in computing is hoping to shape the future of, well, everything. Yes, our very own IBM is making big moves in quantum computing and AI that it hopes will pay off big in the new year, as you …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 49

  December 6, 2023 Doug Bidwell

  Welcome back to having to worry about security vulnerabilities and PTF patches. This week, there are two security vulnerabilities, a set of patches for IBM i 7.2, and HIPERS for IBM i 7.4 and IBM i 7.5 – among other things. Let’s do the vulnerabilities to start.

  First, we have Security Bulletin: IBM Java SDK and IBM Java Runtime for IBM i are vulnerable to a remote attacker causing integrity impacts due to the libraries component (CVE-2023-22049), which you can find out more about here. The IBM i PTF Group numbers contain the fix for the vulnerability. Future PTF …

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• Getting [Stuff] Done Done With Briteskies

  December 4, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The IBM i ecosystem is big enough, and changes enough with the times, that we are still finding companies who are relatively new to the base but who have been around for a bit of time who are doing interesting things and who are not quite on our radar. Part of what we do is seek these companies out so we can tell you about them, what they are doing, what they see in the market, and how they can help you.

  Such is the case with Briteskies, a consultancy based in Cleveland, Ohio, that we have written about …

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• Thoroughly Modern: Practical Ways IBM i Developers Can Use AI Today

  December 4, 2023 Scott Gingerysty

  This October at COMMON’s NAViGATE Conference, I presented a session about practical ways that IBM i developers can use AI in their day-to-day development practices. We discussed how you can streamline and optimize the development process, improve coding velocity, enhance code hygiene, testing and documentation, and we also looked at some of the caveats. After connecting with the folks at COMMON – and seeing their enthusiasm – I felt inspired to share these examples with the IT Jungle community.

  So, why AI for developers? AI offers a transformative toolkit that streamlines learning and amplifies creative problem-solving. Through machine learning algorithms, …

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• IBM i Momma Bear Retires

  December 4, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Alison Butterill is probably the most famous IBM i visage in the world. For as long as we can remember – which is not necessarily any kind of test we realize – Butterill has been front and center, calming and thoroughly explaining the IBM i platform, being the interface between customers and engineers steering its development, and being its official spokesperson alongside of IBM i chief architect Steve Will.

  We are sad to report that Butterill retired as worldwide IBM i offering manager from Big Blue on November 30. And in a manner that is absolutely consistent with her calm …

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• IBM Pushes Storage Limits With Storage Scale 6000

  December 4, 2023 Alex Woodie

  IBM recently unveiled a new high-end all-flash storage array that pushes the limits of I/O. Dubbed the IBM Storage Scale System 6000, the new array gives users 1.44 PB of storage in a 4U chassis with up to an eye-watering 256 GB/sec of bandwidth and 7 million input/output operations per second (IOPS) of performance.

  Few IBM i shops have the need for that sort of performance with traditional business applications. Indeed, with its Storage Scale parallel file system (the new name given to IBM’s General Parallel File System, or GPFS, which also previously went by the name Spectrum Scale), the …

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