System iNetwork

December 2008

December 18, 2008 8:59 AM

IBM Still Has It—Customers' Trust, That Is

The Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe released Ponemon's fifth annual survey of Most Trusted Companies for Privacy, and Google and Microsoft aren't on the top-20 list, but IBM is. Computerworld offers an analysis of the results, and you can also read the TRUSTe/Ponemon press release about the survey results, which includes a quote from Harriet Pearson, IBM vice president and chief privacy officer.

It's probably not news to any of us, but the survey found that worry about privacy is higher than ever, consumers believe they're losing control of their personal information, and identity theft is of primary concern.

Here are the companies that made the list:

1 American Express
2 eBay
3 IBM
4 Amazon
5 Johnson & Johnson
6 Hewlett Packard
6 U.S. Postal Service
7 Procter & Gamble
8 Apple
9 Nationwide
10 Charles Schwab
11 USAA
12 Intuit
13 WebMD
14 Yahoo!
15 Facebook
16 Disney
16 AOL
17 Verizon
18 FedEx
19 US Bank
20 Dell
20 eLoan

--Linda Harty, security & networking/connectivity editor

Posted by lharty on December 18, 2008 at 8:59 AM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2008 2:13 PM

Former Peregrine CEO Heads to Slammer

Here's an update for you from a scandal that we covered all the way back in 2002.

Here's a quick summary: from 1999 to 2002, Peregrine higher-ups altered their financial statements, resulting in an increase in their stock price. After an audit, they were discovered and sued by several law firms.

Here's an excerpt from our 2002 article mentioned above:

In the wake of this financial bombshell, Peregrine has announced several measures to get back on track financially. Last week, Peregrine announced that it was consolidating its North American offices and paring its staff by nearly half, cutting loose 1,400 people, or 48 percent of its workforce. The company also borrowed $50 million in a secured loan and agreed to sell its supply chain enablement business to Golden Gate Capital. Peregrine acquired the supply chain enablement business two years ago when it bought iSeries e-commerce vendor Harbinger, yet analysts at the time said that the acquisition was doomed because the two vendors served customers in different industry segments and different financial brackets.

Well, if you were one of that 48 percent of employees, you can rest a little bit easier now. Former Peregrine Systems Inc. CEO Stephen Parker Gardner, 55, was sentenced to eight years behind bars. He also had to cough up more than $1 million in proceeds from the sale of real estate and nearly $400,000 seized from his brokerage accounts.

Of course, that's nothing next to the $8 million that he gained when he sold his over-inflated stocks, but hey, it's better than nothing. And I doubt all his riches will do him much good in prison when he's sleeping next to his cellmate, T-bone.

--Erin Bradford, systems management & availability editor

Posted by ebradford on December 17, 2008 at 2:13 PM | Comments (0)

December 15, 2008 8:04 AM

COMMON Embraces Power Systems, Calls for AIX Sessions to Complement IBM i Education

AIX and Linux on Power Systems users could find themselves in a big, COMMON bear hug this spring. In an effort to embrace IBM Power Systems, the IBM i user group COMMON is calling for sessions on AIX, IBM's version of the Unix operating system, to complement the rich curriculum of IBM i educational courses it offers at its annual meeting. COMMON's Annual Meeting and Exposition will be held April 26-28, 2009 in Reno, Nevada.

Following its mission to educate users of the IBM i operating system, COMMON President Randy Dufault says the organization wants to provide information and training to IBM i users who might need to implement an AIX partition, as well as AIX users who might want to implement IBM i on a Power System server. The organization already includes Linux sessions among its annual conference courses, but would also like to offer AIX-specific sessions on systems management, database, security, application development, and high availability topics. You can get more information about COMMON's call for AIX presentations on the web. Submissions are due December 22.

In an email exchange with Dufault, System iNEWS Senior Industry Editor Rita-Lyn Sanders asked about the inclusion of AIX sessions at the annual meeting and what it might mean for COMMON's future direction and attendees at the educational event.

System iNEWS: What does it mean for attendees that COMMON is seeking more AIX sessions?

Dufault: COMMON certainly has taken a proactive approach to addressing the needs of the entire Power Systems community—beyond just our traditional IBM i audience—since the merging of the platforms was announced at the annual meeting in Nashville earlier this year. We expect that as part of this transformation we will continue to be proactive in addressing the needs of the COMMON community, including providing AIX education.

AIX-related content for Power Systems shops coming from a primarily i background simply means that when there is a business need to run an AIX partition, the three pillars of COMMON (Advocacy, Education, and Community) will be there to support them.

For Power Systems shops coming from a primarily AIX background it means that all the knowledge—particularly on the non-operating system areas of the environment (e.g., virtualization, hardware, development tools)—embedded in the three pillars of COMMON is accessible and available to them.

System iNEWS: Does COMMON anticipate it will have more AIX sessions than at past conferences? If so, why?

Dufault: Other than the User Blue joint effort COMMON conducted with Share a few years back, there has not been much AIX-specific educational content offered at any of the COMMON venues. That said, however, COMMON was very early and has been very consistent with educational and community support for Linux on Power. Linux and AIX share an awful lot in common and as such, AIX is by no means a stretch. So yes, we expect that as part of addressing the needs of our members, which now include the broader Power Systems community, providing AIX-specific educational sessions is an important part of our educational offerings.

As to why . . . although right now there is a network of AIX local user groups, there is not an opportunity for those groups to come together with a consolidated voice. Many of the things we have come to expect from our user group—like a viable requirements process—do not exist in the AIX arena yet. New education options at the annual meeting are certainly one opportunity, but there is much, much more.

System iNEWS: How many AIX sessions have there been (on average) at past annual conferences, and how many would COMMON like to have in Reno?

Dufault: As I noted earlier, there were few AIX specific session topics at annual meetings, except where the topic had a strong relationship to i. Some examples of those topics include virtualization, Unix aspects of PASE and, as I mentioned before, Linux. In the past, probably less than 1 percent of our annual meeting sessions were AIX specific, but at Reno we will offer a much higher number.

What we are advertising for in Reno are very specific AIX topics, above and beyond the content we have offered before and will continue to offer. Transitioning to AIX from other Unix platforms seems to be a real education need right now as IBM wins more of that business away from the competition.

Obviously, how many AIX-specific sessions end up in Reno will be a function of how many folks from that community step up to share their knowledge. Regardless, we are adding session rooms to make it all happen. It does have to be limited to 40 session periods or so as it is important that there not be any impact on the other content that COMMON's members are planning and expecting.

System iNEWS: Has COMMON had vocal interest from the COMMON masses for AIX sessions or is COMMON taking a proactive approach to Power Systems?

Dufault: In its 48 years, I think COMMON has always taken a proactive approach to the changing IBM-product landscape, and this change is no different. From the 1620 in the beginning to the System 3, System 32/34/36, System 38, and AS/400, the leaders of this organization were always way ahead in helping members and prospective members with the next thing coming down the IBM technology pipeline.

As for a vocal interest from the community; we have had conversations with the AIX community at large, some of the leaders in the AIX community, and with IBM, and I have heard nothing but strong interest. We will need to reach into the community and let them know we are here, but I think we can get that done. Interestingly, the single biggest topic in demand from the AIX community right now seems to be Power Systems virtualization—something COMMON has a whole lot of experience with.

System iNEWS: Does COMMON expect there will be AIX folks at the conference as opposed to traditional i folks? Is this a goal, to increase AIX folks attendance?

Dufault: Again, COMMON has a big task ahead of getting the message out to the AIX community. I do believe that will get done and as a result, I do expect folks will be with us in Reno that do not come from a traditional i background. Those folks won't be there just for AIX education, though. There will be advocacy programs for AIX getting under way, some community activities for them (Ask the Experts and such), and a whole bunch of Power Systems education that applies to them—whether or not they have discovered the incredible business value of an i partition yet. Of course, all of us will have the opportunity to help those folks make that discovery.

The goal for COMMON always is to reach into the community it serves, to see where it can serve that community better, and to see where it can reach more of the community. The communities COMMON serves are businesses that trust IBM Power Systems servers to run their enterprises, along with the individuals that make those servers do useful things. AIX is a part of that community, as is Linux, as is i, as is PowerVM.

So, I sure hope more folks come to our annual meeting and participate in all of COMMON's programs as a result of what we are doing. Regardless of what changes IBM makes, the need for an independent user voice that provides advocacy, delivers education, and develops community never lessens, and with the current situation, probably is growing.

--Rita-Lyn Sanders, industry issues & RPG editor

Posted by rsanders on December 15, 2008 at 8:04 AM | Comments (0)

December 11, 2008 3:59 PM

IBM i 6.1: Chock-full of Enhancements

I noticed that we're offering a free podcast covering security enhancements in IBM i 6.1, and it brought to mind all the great 6.1 coverage we've had since the release early this year. Give a listen to "V6R1 Security Enhancements that Solve Your Problems" (it's free!), and then come back here and peruse some more of our 6.1 coverage. You'll be glad you did, because these articles cover a lot, including application development, SQL scripts, RPG file parameters, document management, and more.

Do More with Run SQL Scripts in 6.1
by Kyle Gilbertson
Run SQL Scripts 6.1's new features provide greater flexibility for running script-based workloads, prototyping JDBC applications, examining performance, assessing database information, and creating scripts based on open standards.
December 2008

File Parameters for RPG
by Barbara Morris
An RPG expert shares how to properly pass files as parameters, along with guidelines as to which files can be passed.
December 2008

V6R1 Enhancements for RPG
by Barbara Morris
V6R1 brings several new features and continues to build on previous improvements in how you work with your favorite language.
November 2008

Operations Console Makes It Simple in V6R1
by Edith Lueke
The Operations Console function in V6R1 is quicker and simpler to install, easier to use, and drives itself by automatically detecting system settings. It's a real streamlined deal.
October 2008

Two Worlds Collide in V6R1--SQL Commands and IFS Files
by Gina Whitney and Scott Forstie
IBM has enhanced the ILE SQL precompilers and the SQL statement processing command in V6R1 to accept input from IFS source stream files. With these updates, source code management and script-related processing has never been easier.
October 2008

SELECT from INSERT: New SQL Function in System i V6R1
by Jinmei Shen and Karl Hanson
What was previously two separate functions (Select and Insert) has now become one function in V6R1 (Select from Insert). This article explores the new function and offers helpful ways to use it, including syntactical examples.
September 2008

Navigator for i5/OS Database Gets Even Better in V6R1
by Jim Flanagan
System i Navigator for V6R1 has a plethora of enhancements for you to sink your developer teeth into. This article highlights some of the major changes in System i Navigator for V6R1.
September 2008

The Essential Guide to Document Management
by Glenn Rose
V6R1 provides the latest in new products and tools to give added flexibility to the native print functions integrated into the operating system.
August 2008

IBM Systems Director Navigator for i5/OS: Inside Time Management
by Stacy Benfield
See how the Time Zones and Time Adjustment utilities in IBM Systems Director Navigator for i5/OS can help you manage time on your System i.
July 2008

V6R1 Journal Recovery Enhancements, Part 2
by Larry Youngren & Robert Andrews
Better journal-cache control, simplified and refined journal-apply actions, better control of automatic journaling, easier and tidier management of journal receivers, and improved SMAPP screens — in part 2, we continue our look at V6R1's plethora of journal recovery improvements.
July 2008

i5/OS Grows Up
by Carson Soule
Released via V6R1 from its proprietary background, i5/OS is now a very big kid on the block.
May 2008

System i Dev Experts Talk RDi, RDi SOA
by Chris Maxcer
Some of the System i's best minds sound off on what V6R1 means to developers. Rather than focusing on the good, the bad, and the ugly of RDi and RDi SOA, they opine on the promising, the questionable, the confusing, and the cool.
May 2008

IBM Revitalizes System i App Dev in V6R1
by George Farr
With V6R1, IBM dishes out a smorgasbord of new System i app dev products and enhancements. For dessert, top the spiced-up tools and compilers with EGL.
April 2008

V6R1 Journal Recovery Enhancements, Part 1
by Larry Youngren & Robert Andrews
Whether it's more flexible journal treatment, better monitoring for potential traffic jams, prompt detection and enhanced prevention for garbling, or increased bandwidth for remote journal needs, V6R1's practical new features will please journal users.
April 2008

Leap Ahead with DB2 for V6R1
by Kent Milligan
Are you wondering what V6R1 has to offer? The new DB2 for V6R1 offers improved performance and enhancements that make it easier to quickly deploy SQL applications. After you read about the new features, you will want to run to V6R1.
March 2008

Get Ready for V6R1
by Debbie Landon
Here are seven steps to ensure a smooth program conversion, and five of them need to be taken while you’re still on V5R3 or V5R4!
March 2008

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--Linda Harty, security & networking/connectivity editor

Posted by lharty on December 11, 2008 at 3:59 PM | Comments (0)

December 4, 2008 1:10 PM

5.3 Ends It, You Need to Move On...

In case you were hoping to continue your happy bliss with 5.3, let me crush that dream for you. IBM will stop supporting 5.3 on April 30, 2009. But they make you feel like you should have known this already with their latest announcement. Here's a snippet of the "you knew this was coming" breakup letter, er, I mean announcement letter...

Every release of IBM i, i5/OS, and OS/400 software has a finite support period. The End of support date for each software release is announced either with the initial release announcement or twelve months prior to becoming effective. When a software release reaches the End of support date, direct upgrades to subsequent releases are only available for a limited time.

But make sure you don't wait until the last minute to upgrade. IBM goes on to warn that

If a direct upgrade to the latest software release is not available, you need to conduct a multiple-step upgrade. This requires upgrading to an interim release to enable upgrading to the latest release.

If all direct upgrades to subsequent software releases have been withdrawn, there is no supported way to upgrade the system. The only alternative is to perform a labor-intensive manual upgrade, which typically requires hiring custom services.

So, even if you're not ready to say goodbye, sounds like it's time to shed a few tears, dig into the Ben and Jerry's, and move on. Hey, I hear 5.4 is single and still looking...

--Erin Bradford, systems management & availability editor

Posted by ebradford on December 4, 2008 at 1:10 PM | Comments (0)

IBM Teams with DeVry University to Train Next Enterprise Generation

IBM and DeVry University have launched a new Enterprise Computing track within DeVry University's Computer Information Systems (CIS) bachelor's degree program. The new track will incorporate multiple IBM systems technologies into a single degree program track. The move is not only designed to give students an understanding of IBM's systems but also to create enterprise-focused skills for some of the largest and systems-diverse businesses with modern--and complex--data centers.

DeVry University is a member of the IBM Academic Initiative program, and IBM says it is the first to incorporate multiple IBM Systems technologies into a single degree program track.

"IBM's clients and Business Partners are always looking for college graduates who are educated in enterprise systems concepts and technologies," notes Ross Mauri, general manager of IBM Power Systems. "DeVry University's courses will help students develop skills unique to scalable midrange and mainframe platforms. As an added feature, students will apply that knowledge by using IBM technology through the use of supported labs, case studies, and design projects."

If the Boomers Retire

"For DeVry University, the relationship with IBM enables us to continue to revitalize interest in technology careers by leveraging IBM's assets and providing a career path for our graduates," notes David Pauldine, president of DeVry University. "Within the next five to seven years, Baby Boomers will begin retiring, and DeVry University can help fill the pipeline with a pool of qualified applicants for IBM, its customers, and Business Partners. Our students will be educated on IBM's technology that currently runs the world's top 50 banks and 22 of the 25 top U.S. retailers."

DeVry believes that this new Enterprise Computing track that covers IBM systems will help set its students apart from other computer science graduates.

"The IBM Academic Initiative was established to address the need for maintaining a vibrant workforce and attracting new talent," says Terry Patane, director of IS recruiting for Costco Wholesale. "This approach creates a win-win-win relationship between IBM, key clients, and forward-thinking colleges and universities. Costco's recent teaming with IBM to host the Academic Initiative roundtable for DeVry University has opened new opportunities for Costco recruiting, resulting in what we hope becomes a mutually beneficial relationship."

As further evidence of the need for entry-level yet enterprise-savvy talent, IBM says the Large User Group (LUG), which is an organization of high-end IBM Power Systems IBM i-focused customers, supports the new Enterprise Computing track being offered by DeVry. The LUG has a closed membership of 100 or so of IBM's most privately vocal and active IBM i-running customers, and the LUG meets regularly with IBM to discuss its enterprise-focused needs. The LUG membership represents many diverse industries including retail, logistical services, financial services, real estate, insurance, and others, and a number of LUG members are included in the Fortune 500.

IBM Academic Initiative faculty members worldwide can access more than 1,000 other hardware, software, and services training resources at no cost at www.ibm.com/university/academicinitiative/. The DeVry Enterprise Computing track will launch in March 2009.

Posted by cmaxcer on December 4, 2008 at 9:07 AM | Comments (0)

IBM Promotes New Change-Management Software for i Systems

IBM's new Rational Team Concert for i suite of change-management utilities promises i system shops a bigger chunk of the Rational Developer for i (RDi) pie when it comes to simplifying, automating, and governing application development.

George Farr, worldwide product manager for IBM i tools and compliers, reports that the suite offers an integrated set of collaborative software delivery tools for IBM i development and management pertaining to source control, change, build, process, and governance in a single application that is native on the i. It also features specialized support for traditional languages such as RPG and Cobol and for multi-tier software development and application modernization efforts using RPG, Java, CL, and EGL.

"Rational Team Concert for i (RTCi) is the complete team collaboration environment for RPG, Cobol, Java, and EGL developers," says Farr. "It provides the entire roundtrip of software development: planning, process definition and enforcement, tracking changes to source, problem logging and resolution, compiling, auditing, and live reporting of 'your project health.' You have wished for a product like this for decades for IBM i, and now it is finally here."

The solution, he says, keeps an eye on the challenges organizations face in delivering high-quality, business-aligned software that adheres to compliance regulations and meets the needs of geographically distributed teams that must produce more with the same or even fewer resources. It provides a native i OS version of Rational Team Concert version 7.5 along with support for programming languages used primarily on the i system and its IFS.

Based on the open and extensible Jazz platform, the product empowers software teams to collaborate in realtime in the context of specific roles and processes by delivering new levels of productivity, agility, and innovation, according to Farr. It builds on the core IBM Rational Team Concert solution by providing a Team Server and Build System Toolkit that runs on the i. The new suite features the following integrated components:

Software Configuration Management: This includes essential software version control, workspace management, and parallel development support to individuals and teams to promote developer-to-team flow, integrated stream management, component-level baselines, server-based sandboxes, modules identified in streams and available baselines, the ability to store, control, and track changes to RPG, Cobol, and Java application sources in a repository, and support for the IBM i native library file system and the integrated file system (IFS).

Work Item Management: RTCi supports different types of work items for software development teams and captures discussions for later reference. Work item owners or interested parties can subscribe and receive notifications via RSS/Atom feeds. Team members can share queries with a group or with particular users. Functions include query editor interface and the tracking of changes to RPG, Cobol, and Java sources through work items.

Build management: The product also offers efficient scheduling and execution of software build processes. You can leverage multiple servers for rapid, cross-platform build processing and create a detailed bill of materials to enhance build reproduction. Additional functions include work item and change set traceability, local or remote build servers running on the i, build for RPG and Cobol applications on the i, support for Ant and command line tools for Java, and build definitions for team builds.

"I was absolutely delighted to have been tapped on the shoulder and given earlier in the year the mission of delivering this brand new product to IBM i customers," Farr says. "We use what we sell. Our own IBM i development teams actually used RTCi to develop RDi 7.5 and RTCi 1.0 releases months before the product was generally available. The managers found it easy to use to plan the work for each milestone, to assign work, and to track the progress of the team with greater visibility. Our developers loved the high level of integration of their development tools with the process and change management tools. RTCi really helped us to deliver our releases on schedule, including a 1.0 release that just shipped."

Farr adds, "This is the first of many releases to come to integrate RTCi with RDi to enhance development experiences."

Rational Team Concert for i was relesased in November on electronic media and will be available on physical media December 19. IBM is also offering free 60-day trials. IBM is shipping free trial CDs for new orders of WDS on V6R1. For more information, see the IBM U.S. annoucement letter.

--Vicki Hamende, application development and database editor

Posted by vhamende on December 4, 2008 at 8:31 AM | Comments (0)

December 1, 2008 4:37 PM

IBM: 9 Trends and Technologies That Will Shape Security

In a recently released white paper, IBM discusses nine important trends to focus on in the next several years for secure IT. These trends frame the paper's discussion of how organizations can respond to the security challenges of upcoming technological and social changes. The paper explains the technologies and the potential that comes with them, as well as ways IBM can help businesses strategically manage the challenges, risks, and opportunities involved.

Download the white paper.

--Linda Harty, security & networking/connectivity editor

Posted by lharty on December 1, 2008 at 4:37 PM | Comments (0)

IBM Pulls the Plug on Select Power Systems

But don't freak out yet! Replacements are available. In this announcement, dated November 18, 2008, IBM announces its plans to cease the sale of the following machines:

IBM System i 9406 Model 525
IBM System i 9407 Model 515
IBM Power 520 Express 9407-M15
IBM Power 520 Express 9408-M25
IBM Power 550 Express 9409-M50

All the models will be replaced with IBM Power 520 8203-E4A except 9409-M50, which will be replaced with IBM Power 550 8203-E8A. A slew of feature withdrawls also accompany the model withdrawals, including some select Base DVD-Roms, power supplies, and about a hundred other components associated with the recently killed models. It might be time for that upgrade afterall...

--Erin Bradford, systems management & availability editor

Posted by ebradford on December 1, 2008 at 3:11 PM | Comments (0)