Change control: is it a tool or is it an attitude? Maybe it's a little of both.
Written by David Shirey
Last month, we talked about some of the myths that seem to surround change management. Now let's take a few moments and talk about what a change control system should be.
Every IT shop has some sort of change-management system. And it's often more a burden than a help. Why? Because of a number of change management myths that we hold near and dear.
Written by David Shirey
The single most unheeded dictum, which seems to come from every successful entrepreneur-turned-billionaire, is to not be afraid of making mistakes. In fact, many people proudly declare that mistakes are the only way you make progress, and they attribute much of their success to their ability to make mistakes. Interestingly enough, this never seems to have worked out for me, but they're the rich ones, so they must know.
A famous editor once said, "You know how when you tighten a bolt on your engine the front bumper falls off?" That started me thinking of writing about how difficult it can be to modify an existing application. Oh, all right. It was her idea from the beginning. So what.
Written by David Shirey
In the beginning, an application was written from scratch. And it was beautiful to behold. It did what it was supposed to do, and the logic flow was as clean and as clear as you could reasonably expect it to be. And it lived happily with a dozen unicorns, a handsome prince who liked watching romantic comedy movies, and a beautiful princess with long hair and a diaphanous gown.
But then, somebody decided that some changes needed to be made to it. So they modified the code to show the customer AR Tariff code. And suddenly, one of the unicorns disappeared and was replaced by a hippo.
Integrated Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) provides the ability to innovate while reducing overhead costs, thus improving time to delivery, quality, value, and predictability.
Written by Olenka Van Schendel
The classic definition of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) derives from the notion of "software as a product": identifying distinct and cyclical phases of requirements management, software architecture, development, testing, maintenance, change management, project management, and release management.
Most importantly, and to dispel a common misconception, the scope of ALM is broader than the simple software development lifecycle (SDLC).
With the fervor of SOA activity, you need to know how to derive the most value and how an incremental approach addresses planning, development, and deployment challenges.
Enterprises of all sizes are increasingly recognizing the importance of implementing service-oriented architecture (SOA) in order to accelerate software reuse and provide real-time responsiveness to customers. The ability to overcome obstacles, including managing several independent IT systems and expanding product lines and business applications spread throughout the enterprise, makes it easy to understand the popularity of SOA deployments.
For instance, in an effort to reduce costs and improve efficiency, many companies have started outsourcing business processes offshore to countries like China and India. These offshore workers are taking the place of individuals who know how to traverse through complicated legacy transactions. The carriers sending work offshore are looking for a solution that can be sent to the business process outsourcing (BPO) provider to get them up and running as quickly as possible.
SOA is a key enabler in propelling business process integration (BPI) initiatives within an organization.
We have been talking seriously about SOA for two or three years now. But is SOA a good solution for the short term? Isn't it a time bomb for the future?
A bank in France started to set services in place in 2002. At that time, they had about 15 services related to their CRM system. Progressively, following their approach of creating services, by 2005 they had several hundred services used by all the development teams. This is a good story for evaluating an SOA initiative. Digging into the different project teams, talking with project managers and developers, it appears that there were so many services—too many, as a matter of fact—that it was impossible to use and manage them in an efficient manner! Re-use of services and versioning became a nightmare. As a result, the whole system had to be reconsidered.
In today's complex IT world, choosing the right change management system is crucial.
As your business needs evolve, a greater volume of software changes—possibly over several platforms and certainly under a tight schedule—are required to support your business objectives. Structured software change management, and the productivity tools it brings to the table, becomes a requirement not only for the IT staff, but for other departments within your company as well.
Mobile computing is rapidly maturing into a solid platform for delivering enterprise applications. Many IBM i shops today are realizing that integrating their IBM i with mobile applications is the fast path to improved business workflows, better customer relations, and more responsive business reporting. The ROI that mobile applications can produce for your business is substantial.
This ASNA whitepaper takes a look at mobile computing for the IBM i. It discusses the different ways mobile applications may be used within the enterprise and how ASNA products solve the challenges mobile presents. It also presents the case that you already have the mobile programming team your projects need: that team is your existing RPG development team!
1. Affordable Cloud Solutions
2. Efficiencies of MIMIX
3. Rising Cost of Downtime
This white paper is a collaborative effort between Connectria Hosting, a pioneer in the development of the IBM i Cloud, and Vision Solutions, the leader in High Availability and Disaster Recovery solutions including MIMIX®, the standard for complete, scalable HA/DR protection for the IBM i.
It will provide a review of the core causes and costs of both planned and unplanned downtime and will then provide a detailed discussion of current options for IBM i High Availability and Disaster Recovery in the Cloud.
Most importantly, as you read you will learn why true HA and DR protection are now within reach of even the smallest of businesses.
Download the technical whitepaper on MANAGING YOUR IBM i WIRELESSLY and (optionally) register to download an absolutely FREE software trail. This whitepaper provides an in-depth review of the native IBM i technology and ACO MONITOR's advanced two-way messaging features to remotely manage your IBM i while in or away from the office. Notify on-duty personnel of system events and remotely respond to complex problems (via your Smartphone) before they become critical-24/7. Problem solved!
Today’s businesses must be available 24/7 with fewer people having to manage more complex systems and processes.
IT departments receive a constant bombardment of information from a diverse variety of operating systems, business applications, and critical processes and support a complex array of servers and devices running across their entire network.
With tight resources and the need to keep costs in check, more and more is expected of IT operational staff to handle this information efficiently. They need to ensure a swift response with appropriate actions, that essential data is received at the right time, prove service levels are maintained, that contingency and high availability strategies are fully operational, and that vital business activities run smoothly and without disruption.
For the third annual IBM i Marketplace Survey, HelpSystems set out to gather data about how businesses use the IBM i platform. The past two surveys have sparked many thoughtful conversations about this technology and we’re thrilled to be part of such an engaged community.
Nearly 500 people from across the globe completed this year’s survey. We’re so happy to share the results with you, and hope you’ll find the information interesting and useful as you evaluate your own IT projects.
Sections: IBM i in the Data Center | IT Initiatives & Trends | Outlook for IBM i | Demographics | Resources
PRACTICAL TOOLS TO IMPLEMENT DISASTER RECOVERY IN YOUR IBM i ENVIRONMENT
CLOUD VS. ON-PREMISE?
- COMPREHENSIVE CHECKLISTS
- RISK COST CALCULATIONS
- BUSINESS CASE FRAMEWORK
- DR SOLUTIONS OVERVIEW
- RFP BUILDER
Download your free copy of DR Strategy Guide for IBM i today.
The DR Strategy Guide for IBM i is brought to you by Maxava – innovative global leaders in High Availability and Disaster Recovery solutions for IBM i.
After surveying 400+ IBM i professionals, we discovered:
- The state of IBM i modernization in today's businesses and their goals for the future
- The effect legacy applications have on the businesses' internal and external processes
- The #1 concern upper managers have with the IBM i, and how to combat it
...and much much more!
Download your copy of The 2016 State of IBM i Modernization today.
Does a virus have your server down? Perhaps it’s the latest worm, Trojan horse, buffer overflow or denial of service attack that’s got you or one of your servers down. While one of these bugs may be affecting one or more of your servers in your enterprise, it is highly unlikely that the server affected is a Power server running IBM i. IBM i may be running your core business applications or it may be hosting your website or running Domino. Whatever its function within your enterprise IBM i has remained unaffected by virus and malware attacks. Why is that?
Viruses and other ailments spread by infecting a host that is vulnerable. Let’s take a look at how IBM i and the applications running on it can remain unscathed by the viruses and malware that are so prevalent today.
In this white paper, Carol Woodbury of SkyView Partners defines each “ailment” and then describe the defenses and protection mechanisms provided by IBM i to ward off the attack.
In this white paper we hope to explain why the decision to secure- or not secure – data on the IBM i needs to be a business decision ... not a technical decision.
Something is preventing management from understanding the need to secure the electronic data. So let’s explore why we think this happens....
For every breach that makes headlines, dozens of other organizations have had data stolen or corrupted by hackers—or even their own users. Cyberthreats become more sophisticated every year, raising the importance of proper security controls.
The 2017 State of IBM i Security Study proves once more that many organizations running the IBM i operating system rely on system settings that leave data vulnerable. This is true across all industries for businesses large and small.
Weak passwords, lax system auditing, and overly privileged users leave your server vulnerable to internal and external threats. A data breach caused by a cybercriminal or a negligent insider can cause irreparable damage to an organization of any size.
The annual State of IBM i Security Study strives to help executives, IT managers, system administrators, and auditors understand the full extent of IBM i security exposures and how to correct them quickly and effectively.
If your business is thinking about modernizing your legacy IBM i (also known as AS/400 or iSeries) applications, you will want to read this white paper first!
Download this paper and learn how Node.js can ensure that you:
- Modernize on-time and budget - no more lengthy, costly, disruptive app rewrites!
- Retain your IBM i systems of record
- Find and hire new development talent
- Integrate new Node.js applications with your existing RPG, Java, .Net, and PHP apps
- Extend your IBM i capabilties to include Watson API, Cloud, and Internet of Things
Read Node.js for Enterprise IBM i Modernization Now!
Learn how to combine automation software and IBM i to increase revenue and enhance customer experiences. Download the exclusive Help/Systems White Paper “Building a Sound Investment Strategy Through Technology.”
This free four-page PDF, written by Help/Systems Director of Automation Technology Chuck Losinski, is packed with concise tips for IBM i. You’ll learn why Power Systems running IBM i are the key to a sound investment strategy. You’ll also discover how automation technologies such as batch processing, agent tasks, interactive processes, backups, report management, and system and message monitoring can save your company money while making your operations more reliable than ever.
We're even giving one lucky person the opportunity to choose their own prize in our "All About Choice" contest for a $100 MC Press Bookstore gift card.
Visit the MC Webcast, MC White Paper, and MC Software Centers today and select as many of the FREE offerings you would like to receive.
While there, enter the contest and you may just win a $100 MC Press Bookstore gift card! Next Drawing: February 28, 2018.
Winner:
January '18 - Steve Goldman
February '18 - Kris Short
In this 45-minute recorded webinar, we dissect complex system monitoring by introducing best practices and smart techniques that will help you reduce and simplify your multi-platform monitoring workload.
In this 45-minute recorded webinar, virtualization specialist Glenn Robinson joins Ash Giddings to discuss the use of VIOS in today’s demanding Power Systems environments. VIOS can help you realize real business value by reducing IT expenditure and adding the flexibility to grow and shrink resources according to data center demands through virtualization across IBM Power Systems estates.
Make Application Monitoring Easy Across the IBM i, Windows, AIX, and Linux Platforms in Your Environment
IT departments are constantly bombarded by information from a wide variety of operating systems, business applications, and critical processes. At the same time, the department must support a complex array of servers and devices running across their entire network.
With limited resources and the need to keep costs in check, more and more is expected of operational staff to handle this information efficiently.
In this 45-minute recorded webinar, we’ll dissect complex systems monitoring by introducing best practices and smart techniques that will help you:
- Ensure vital business applications run smoothly and without disruption
- Respond swiftly and with appropriate actions
- Confirm that essential data is received at the right time
- Prove service levels are maintained
- Keep contingency and high availability strategies fully operational
IBM i is great at managing varied workloads—the OS offers many built-in work management and system utilities to aid administration.
But greater customization is sometimes necessary in the line of duty.
Halcyon has built upon these utilities to deliver a number of advanced functions designed for you to take control of all of your day-to-day IBM i activities.
During this on-demand webinar, our experts will demonstrate some of Halcyon’s capabilities and describe real-life scenarios that highlight how you can:
- Reduce your alerting footprint by implementing leading-edge monitoring techniques
- Identify both organic growth and spikes in disk space utilization
- Automate time-consuming housekeeping tasks
- Take advantage of the powerful IBM i Services
- Automate literally anything
Set your sights on having the right monitoring solution, no matter what comes your way. Watch the recording today!
My desktop application users spend a lot of time manually generating and printing letters using IBM i data.
Our team copies and pastes information between IBM i applications all the time. Launching a PC application from my IBM i screens is impossible today.
Sound familiar?
Too many businesses go through manual efforts to transfer documents and data across IBM i and desktop applications—especially ERPs. Whether you use JDE World, JDE EnterpriseOne, Infor, Epicor, Microsoft Dynamics, or any other ERP, chances are your employees are stuck transferring information manually. And all of that manual effort leads to hours upon hours of wasted time.
But it doesn’t need to anymore.
Let’s face it: IBM i experts and RPG programmers are retiring from the workforce. These folks have been managing all areas of your business—often manually and behind the scenes—for decades, everything from IT operations to data and documents to cybersecurity.
Are you prepared to handle their departure?
During this 30-minute recorded webinar, our panel of IBM i experts—Chuck Losinski, Robin Tatam, Richard Schoen, and Tom Huntington—will outline strategies that allow your company to cope with IBM i skills depletion by adopting these strategies that allow you to get the job done without deep expertise on the OS:
- Automate IBM i processes
- Use managed services to help fill the gaps
- Secure the system against data loss and viruses
IBM i skills depletion is a top concern for IBM i shops around the world. The strategies you discover in this webinar will help you ensure that your system of record—your IBM i—continues to deliver a powerful business advantage, even as staff retires.
Experts agree that one of the most overlooked areas of IBM i security is the Integrated File System. Available since V3R1, the IFS provides access for users carrying nothing more than a user profile and password, so it better be secure! If you believe nothing important is stored on your server's IFS, think again, because it's a conduit to many things, including the Operating System and all of your application libraries and files.
Watch this important session to learn about securing the IFS, including:
Why do we care about the IFS?
Permissions versus Authority
Root folder access
Auditing IFS activities
Read/Write versus *ALLOBJ
Anti-Virus Considerations
This 30-minute recording demystifies Linux on Power, AIX, and VIOS and teaches best practice techniques for maintaining and controlling critical processes and applications running on your Linux, AIX, and VIOS environments.
Security expert Carol Woodbury is joined by the newest member of the HelpSystems team: Debbie Saugen.
Debbie is recognized worldwide as an expert on IBM i backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and high availability. For decades, Debbie has helped IBM i shops build and implement effective business continuity plans.
In today’s business climate, business continuity is more important than ever. But 83 percent of organizations are not totally confident in their backup strategy.
During this webinar, Carol and Debbie discuss the importance of a good backup plan, how to ensure you’re backing up your security information, and your options for encrypted back-ups.
In this presentation, Alex Roytman (CEO, Profound Logic) and Liam Allan (2016 COMMON Student Innovation Award winner) will unveil a completely new and unique way to modernize your legacy applications.
Learn how Agile Modernization:
- Uses the power of Node.js in place of costly system re-writes and migrations
- Enables you to modernize legacy systems in an iterative, low-risk manner
- Makes it easier to hire developers for your modernization efforts
- Integrates with Profound UI (GUI modernization) for a seamless, end-to-end legacy modernization solution
Protecting your data from viruses or malicious code is not an unfamiliar concept, but understanding how these threats can affect your Power Systems server may not be as easy to grasp.
There are many myths about viruses and IBM i—including the belief that the system is immune. Many Power Systems managers still don’t see viruses as a risk because they see them as a Windows threat. While this was once true, today’s connected environments operate under different rules.
It’s time to take action and protect IBM i and the network that connects to it. This on-demand webinar will help you gain an understanding of the relationships between:
- Viruses and the integrated file system (IFS)
- Power Systems and Windows viruses
- PC-based anti-virus scanning vs native IBM i scanning
There are a number of ways you can minimize your exposure to viruses. Learn the facts to ensure you're fully-protected.
Automate Process Flow Through the Data Center
Typical “computerized” business processes are a combination of multiple schedulers, operational scripts, CL programs, and manual file checking, all backed up with the trusty runbook.
Is there a better way to manage business processes?
It is a common misconception that a business process cannot be automated if it’s too complicated or requires that someone verify each step. We’re here to tell you there is a better way to manage your business—process automation is possible!
Take 30 minutes to learn the options for automating your business process flow and how they fit into your data center processing, including cases of:
- Complex or iterative schedules
- Event-driven dependencies
- Multi-platform dependencies
- Dynamically calculated parameters
- Exception notification
- SAP and Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne integration
How do I know business process automation is effective?
If you have any doubts that automating complex business processes will improve your level of service, you’ll also hear a success story from the senior systems administrator at Trident Seafoods who embraced automation using the Robot solution and is reeling in the benefits!
It’s simple. IBM i is the most reliable, securable, and powerful platform to house your critical business data.
IBM i was built for business and has added features and functionality over the years to keep up with modern business needs. You can trust it to run your business, access your data in real-time, and keep your data secure. Plus, IBM i can scale to your business and handle all of your critical data.
Can your other platforms do that?
We didn’t think so.
Watch this 30-minute webinar to learn why you should keep your data on IBM i, including:
- IBM i is reliable
- IBM i offers fast and secure real-time data access
- IBM i helps your business prepare for tomorrow
Plus, we demonstrate how Sequel Data Access helps you modernize IBM i data access and meet your business needs.
Overnight and weekend support can be a minefield for operations teams tasked with attempting to maintain system availability, especially when they must rely on laptop-based VPN access—where a delayed response can prove costly.
With over 2 billion smartphone users worldwide, it’s perfectly reasonable for you to use the BYOD movement to your advantage and start managing your IT infrastructure from the palm of your hand. Watch this on-demand webinar to learn how Halcyon has modernized this crucial layer of support by introducing mobile applications for IBM i monitoring.
You’ll hear how one company has used the Enterprise Console mobile app to provide a valuable audit trail and speed up response time. You’ll also learn:
- The benefits of mobile apps
- How to respond to critical messages within seconds
- How to get notifications your way on your device
- How to set up escalation, ensuring alerts are always handled in a timely fashion
If your team is responsible for managing IBM i applications and services after regular business hours, you won’t want to miss this one!
Your ERP system —whether it’s JDE World, Enterprise One, Infor, Epicor, Microsoft Dynamics, VAI, or anything else—is essential to maintaining your company’s key business information and processes. But you’re constantly generating and receiving paper and electronic documents, too, and it’s hard to keep everything straight. So, you wind up chasing documents and data around—and keeping your customers and vendors waiting.
It’s time to make life easier and make your customers happier. With an electronic document management system, you can integrate with your ERP to keep all of your key documents and data in one spot.
And when all of your documents are stored digitally, you can speed up your processes and get key documents (like purchase orders and invoices) approved faster.
Watch the webinar and learn how to:
- Integrate a document management system with your ERP
- Capture all of your key shop floor, order, and shipment documents in one central repository
- Improve customer, vendor, and employee response times
- Accomplish more work without adding additional staff
It’s time to deliver your shipments faster and keep your customers happy by streamlining your paperwork processes.
How long does dock door signing take your organization? Too long if you’re still using manual processes and paper.
From generating to collating to printing to routing to signing, manual processes and paper slow down your organization—and your delivery times. Electronic documents and digital signature capture can change all of that. And your organization will be able to create, route, approve (with digital signatures), and retrieve documents faster.
Learn how digital signature capture helps you:
- Eliminate steps in your approval processes
- Improve auditability
- Reduce customer service time to resolve questions
Plus, we’ll demonstrate how digitizing signatures and documents will reduce your organization’s costs over the long haul.
Why AppDev Should Embrace Automation
Your application development team is an expensive resource that works hard to improve business processes, yet more and more IBM i shops are putting AppDev in charge of managing day-to-day system operations.
Instead of taking their attention away from the website, business analytics, mobile, security, SQL data access, and more, streamline operations with automation and build in notifications so your teams have visibility into processing when they need it, and can manage the rest by exception.
In just 30 minutes, our experts will show how AppDev teams can take advantage of Robot automated operations on IBM i and beyond so they can:
- Stop programming for multi-platform job and file event dependencies
- Stop struggling with incorrect parameter values
- Stop wondering where to fit a process into daily, weekly, or monthly cycles
- Stop the on-call headaches, the firefighting, and the lack of progress cycle
- Go ahead, give your AppDev team a productivity boost!
NGS’ Software Developer Kit (SDK) gives IBM i developers comprehensive query, dynamic mobile reporting, analytics and Web report design features at an affordable cost. Install and create meaningful outputs for managers in one day! Web page and portal integration, email, FTP are included.
The $895* SDK includes a one user license, online training, user manuals, one year of software maintenance; toll-free support and online incident reporting.
- Want to modernize beyond Query/400 and PC files transfers?
- Need a Web reporting solution without the learning curve and overhead of DB2 Web Query?
- Have many reporting needs, but a tight budget and small staff?
View the demo and request a FREE TRIAL of the SDK.
* Limited time offer.
IBM has provided us with two powerful and very exciting security enhancements in the last two versions of IBM i.
Scott Forstie of IBM joins Carol Woodbury to demonstrate and describe the V7R2 feature called Row and Column Access Control (RCAC), which extends how you define which users have access to specific rows in a database file. RCAC also provides a way to mask data for all or selected users.
The recently released V7R3 adds Authority Collection. Authority Collection provides organizations and vendors with the ability to know exactly what authority is required to perform a task, eliminating the guesswork. Gone is the need to set *PUBLIC authority on database files to *ALL or to automatically grant service accounts *ALLOBJ special authority just because you’re unsure of what authority is required.
Watch Scott and Carol as they discuss these and other new security features delivered in V7R2 and V7R3.
Learn why event auditing is necessary and how to configure it
Experts’ fears surrounding the risks associated with poor configuration were recently confirmed by the 2016 State of IBM i Security Study. Published annually, the results reveal most Power Systems lack adequate security controls and auditing measures.
In this fast-paced webinar series, leading experts Robin Tatam and Carol Woodbury share insight into critical areas of IBM i security.
This second session of the series introduces event auditing, with Robin Tatam covering the basics and more:
- Why auditing is necessary
- Determine if IBM i auditing is currently active
- How to configure auditing with one simple command
- What audit events are recorded (and which are missed!)
- How high availability (HA) applications often make critical events disappear
- Event reporting and real-time alerting
Protect your system from unauthorized network access through readily available PC tools
Experts’ fears surrounding the risks associated with poor configuration were recently confirmed by the 2016 State of IBM i Security Study. Published annually, the results reveal most Power Systems lack adequate security controls and auditing measures.
In this fast-paced webinar series, leading experts Robin Tatam and Carol Woodbury share insight into critical areas of IBM i security.
This on-demand webinar will show you how well-known services like FTP and ODBC enable users to access sensitive data without oversight or restrictions. Robin Tatam will also explain what exit programs are and how you can use them to protect your organization.
“Security” is definitely on your IT staff’s to-do list, but how often does this item get checked off?
IT doesn’t have enough time for security—the 2016 IBM i Security Study proves it. The trouble is that data security isn’t a set-and-forget project. Data security on your IBM i requires on-going attention and expertise.
In this on-demand webinar, you’ll learn how to save time and work more effectively. We’re cutting to the core of IBM i security by outlining the simple strategy developed by our experts.
You’ll see a straightforward approach to understanding and addressing risk to your IBM i data. We’ll also show you how our world-class security services help people protect business-critical data when they don’t have the time, resources, or knowledge to tackle IBM i security on their own.
Set the tone for data protection with security-relevant system values
Experts’ fears surrounding the risks associated with poor configuration were recently confirmed by the 2016 State of IBM i Security Study. Published annually, the results reveal most Power Systems lack adequate security controls and auditing measures.
In this fast-paced webinar series, leading experts Robin Tatam and Carol Woodbury share insight into critical areas of IBM i security.
The series opens with an introduction to security-relevant system values.
System values are one of the fundamental elements of IBM i security. The security system values enable you to “set the tone” of security on your IBM i, enforce password composition rules, and enable auditing. Watch this on-demand webinar to see Carol Woodbury describe these system values and provide guidance on their best practice settings.
The IFS is one of the most commonly overlooked aspects of IBM i security
Experts’ fears surrounding the risks associated with poor configuration were recently confirmed by the 2016 State of IBM i Security Study. Published annually, the results reveal most Power Systems lack adequate security controls and auditing measures.
In this fast-paced webinar series, leading experts Robin Tatam and Carol Woodbury share insight into critical areas of IBM i security.
This recorded session has Robin Tatam introducing IFS security:
- Defining IFS
- How the IFS is configured
- Common IFS security mistakes
- What a virus can do to IBM i through the IFS
- Tracking user activity
Everyone knows that cyber security is important, but getting started on the road to data protection and compliance can be confusing and intimidating. Understanding common vulnerabilities helps you focus your attention and resources on the areas that need the most help.
We all want “best-practice” security, but what are top organizations doing to achieve and maintain it?
Watch this webinar to learn the details about how to develop the seven habits that are part of daily life for secure organizations. You’ll learn how to:
- Break the Ostrich Syndrome
- Develop a Security Policy
- Assess Current Standing
- Perform Security Event Logging and Review
- Use “Best of Breed” Technologies
- Monitor for Ongoing Compliance
- Plan for the Future
This on-demand webinar examines what each of these habits means to IBM i, and helps you make sure that you don’t become the next security statistic.
"From the world's largest corporations to small Internet stores, compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is vital for all merchants who accept credit cards, online or offline, because nothing is more important than keeping your customer’s payment card data secure.” — PCI Security Standards Council
Complying with the PCI standard is a normal part of doing business in today’s credit-centric world. But, PCI applies to multiple platforms.
The challenge becomes how to map the general PCI requirements to a specific platform, such as IBM i. And, more importantly, how can you maintain—and prove—compliance?
Watch this webinar to understand:
- How PCI requirements relate to IBM i systems
- IBM i-specific barriers to compliance
- How PowerTech security solutions help you fulfill PCI requirements, meet compliance guidelines, and satisfy auditors
You’ll leave with the knowledge and confidence you need to evaluate PCI compliance requirements and prepare your IBM i system for today’s regulatory challenges.
Your IBM i holds a massive amount of data. In most organizations, that data constitutes a mission-critical and high-value asset.
How do you adequately protect the data residing on your IBM i, given its value to your organization? IBM has provided us with many options for protecting our data, but it’s now always clear how to select and implement the best options for your circumstances.
This recorded webinar describes IBM i’s different data security options, along with implementation recommendations and tips for getting started. Carol Woodbury, one of the world’s top IBM i security experts, also provides considerations to help you determine how many layers of security are right for your organization.
IBM i is known for its security, but this OS could be more vulnerable than you think.
Although Power Servers often live inside the safety of the perimeter firewall, the risk of suffering a data leak or data corruption remains high.
Watch noted IBM i security expert Robin Tatam as he discusses common ways that this supposedly “secure” operating system may actually be vulnerable and who the culprits might be.
Watch this on-demand webinar and learn how to rapidly and easily deploy mobile apps to your organization – even when working with legacy RPG code! IBM Champion Scott Klement will demonstrate how to:
- Develop RPG applications without mobile development experience
- Deploy secure applications for any mobile device
- Build one application for all platforms, including Apple and Android
- Extend the life and reach of your IBM i (aka iSeries, AS400) platform
You’ll see examples from customers who have used our products and services to deliver the mobile applications of their dreams, faster and easier than they ever thought possible!
Watch this Webinar Now!
Modern, web-based applications can make your Enterprise more efficient, connected and engaged. This session will demonstrate how the Profound UI framework is the best and most native way to convert your existing RPG applications and develop new modern applications for your business. Additionally, you will learn how you can address modernization across your Enterprise, including databases and legacy source code, with Profound Logic.
We will demonstrate how Profound UI:
- Goes beyond simple screen-scraping to truly modernize your RPG applications
- Uses RPG Open Access and your own RPG code and development talent to modernize
- Supports rapid development with an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop Designer
- Integrates with our on-the-fly modernization, mobile development, and Enterprise Modernization solutions
High availability for IBM i has been a hot topic in 2017, jumping 20% from our 2016 survey to take the #2 seat on IT priority lists just behind cybersecurity. And no surprise with these two topics so closely tied to your most valuable asset: your irreplaceable business data.
With major airline outages last year and the recent ransomware attacks, you must be asking yourself: am I doing everything I can to protect my organization’s data?
Tune in as our panel of IBM i high availability experts—Tom Huntington, Matt Staddler, and Cole Ragland—deliver lively discussion around the top high availability issues of today, including:
There are no do-overs when it comes to your data. Once it’s gone, it’s gone...unless you have a data replication layer in place to protect it. Learn the value of these strategic solutions and how you can implement them in a hurry—watch now!
In this Webinar, we'll demonstrate how Profound.js 2.0 enables you to easily adopt Node.js in your business, and to take advantage of the many benefits of Node, including access to a much larger pool of developers for IBM i and access to countless reusable open source code packages on npm (Node Package Manager).
You will see how Profound.js 2.0 allows you to:
Download and watch today!
Roses are red, your UIs are green...It's time to make your apps proud to be seen!
Whether you have green screens or a drab GUI, your outdated apps can benefit from modern source code, modern GUIs, and modern tools.
Profound Logic's Alex Roytman and Liam Allan are here to show you how Free-format RPG and Node.js make it possible to deliver applications your whole business will love.
In this webinar, you'll learn how you can use both Profound UI and Profound.js to:
This webinar will include a live product demonstration and Q&A with the presenters.
Download and watch today!
IBM i is one of technology’s best-kept secrets, with little information available about what IBM i users are doing on this server. Even companies that use this technology struggle to explain to their own teams what IBM i stands for and who else is using it.
The IBM i Marketplace Survey—now in its 3rd year—was designed to solve this problem. Watch this on-demand webinar for the exclusive results of the 2017 survey. IBM i Champion Tom Huntington is joined by a panel of technology experts to discuss year-over-year trends and new insights. The panel will discuss:
The expert panel will provide industry insight and comments about the results. When the webinar concludes, you’ll get access to the full results.
Most business intelligence tools are just that: tools, a means to an end but not an accelerator. Yours could even be slowing you down. But what if your BI tool didn't just give you a platform for query-writing but also improved programmer productivity?
Watch the recorded webinar to see how Sequel:
Accelerated productivity makes everyone happy, from programmer to business user.
Everyone wants a piece of your business data. But keeping up with data access requests in the era of constantly growing data is a challenge. As a result, your IT department can be overwhelmed, inundated, and constantly needing to play catch-up.
It’s time to develop a strategy that will help you meet your informational challenges head-on. Watch the webinar to learn how to set your IT department up for business intelligence success in 2018.
You’ll learn how the right data access tool will help you:
Ready to make your game plan and finally keep up with your data access requests?
Let’s face facts: servers don’t hack other servers. Despite the avalanche of regulations, news headlines remain chock full of stories about data breaches, all initiated by insiders or intruders masquerading as insiders.
User profiles are often duplicated or restored and are rarely reviewed for the appropriateness of their current configuration. This increases the risk of the profile being able to access data without the intended authority or having privileges that should be reserved for administrators.
Watch noted security expert Robin Tatam as he discusses a new approach for onboarding new users on IBM i and best-practices techniques for managing and monitoring activities after they sign on.
There’s a better way to run your queries. With an advanced query tool like Sequel Data Access, you can deliver the IBM i data your organization needs quickly and efficiently—without the hang-ups.
In this session, we’ll address common frustrations with Query/400, discuss major data access and distribution trends, and help you understand what to look for in a more advanced query tool.
Plus, you’ll learn how a tool like Sequel lightens IT’s load by:
What happens when your company depends on an outdated document management strategy?
Everything is harder.
Capturing documents means scanning and filing—which takes you away from tasks that actually matter to the business. Managing documents means sorting through an endless sea of shared folders or filing cabinets—and sometimes documents can’t be found. Distributing documents means following a frustrating, manual process for routing documents internally and sending them to vendors and customers.
You don’t need to stick with status quo anymore.
Watch the webinar to learn how to put effective document management into practice and:
Get actionable info to avoid becoming the next cyberattack victim.
In “Data breach digest—Scenarios from the field,” Verizon documented an AS/400 security breach. Whether you call it AS/400, iSeries, or IBM i, you now have proof that the system has been breached.
Watch IBM i security expert Robin Tatam give an insightful discussion of the issues surrounding this specific scenario.
Robin will also draw on his extensive cybersecurity experience to discuss policies, processes, and configuration details that you can implement to help reduce the risk of your system being the next victim of an attack.
Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) runs on AIX and allows you to share input/output resources across logical partitions. The health of your VIOS server is critical to the performance of all your Power server partitions, so monitoring it is a must.
Our 2017 IBM i Marketplace Survey Results uncovered a cool trend: an increasing number of IBM i shops are running AIX instances alongside IBM i on Power Systems servers. We like to see these systems playing nicely together on the same server, though it does shine a spotlight on shared resources.
During this 30-minute recording, our experts demonstrate the new VIOS and AIX monitoring capabilities in Robot Monitor. You’ll learn about:
With VIOS/AIX running alongside IBM i, you need visibility into your entire Power environment.
Watch now to see how Robot Monitor can get you there!
You’re responsible for looking after Windows, Linux, AIX, and VIOS, but you worry that you don’t understand their complexities well enough to make your job effective—or easy.
No problem! Simplify the management of multiple operating systems and applications without becoming experts in each area.
In this 30-minute recorded webinar, our experts demonstrate how you can:
This presentation includes a live demo of Network Server Suite and shows how easy monitoring multiple operating systems and applications can be using point-and-click technology.
When IBM i disk space pulls its notorious disappearing act, you don’t have time to waste figuring out how the trick is done. You need to know when disk space starts to disappear and where it has gone before system performance and productivity start to suffer.
Looking behind the curtain to keep a close eye on disk space—especially in a multi-partition environment—can have its challenges, but every good admin can have an ace up their sleeve. Our experts will show you how Robot Monitor can help you pinpoint exactly when your auxiliary storage starts to disappear and why, so you can start taking a proactive approach to disk monitoring and analysis. You’ll also get insight into:
Start seeing through the sleight of hand and get instant visibility into disk usage. Add advance warning of potential threats and—abracadabra!—you’ll reduce the risk of disk space depletion and curb the sudden flurry of activity to clean things up.
Still following manual processes for extracting and transferring data across platforms? You’re not alone. Many business still depend on RPG for their daily business processes and report generation. And that leads to a lot of manual effort.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could stop re-keying data between IBM i and other applications? Or if you could stop replicating data and start processing orders faster? Or what if you could automatically extract data from existing reports instead of re-keying?
It’s all possible. Watch this webinar to learn about:
Plus, you’ll see a demonstration of how data automation software from HelpSystems will help you finally stop re-keying data.
Protecting your organization from cyberthreats has never been more important—or more difficult.
IT pros have many tactics to choose from, but time (and budgets!) are not unlimited. The key is prioritizing risks and identifying the most effective ways to mitigate the danger.
In 2018, HelpSystems surveyed more than 600 IT and cybersecurity professionals to find out what security exploits loom largest and what strategies they’re turning to for protection.
In this on-demand webinar, our team of cybersecurity security experts analyzes results. You’ll learn about:
You'll also get practical tips for using this data to drive cybersecurity conversations at your organization.
When it comes to IBM® Rational® Open Access: RPG Edition (also known as RPG Open Access), there are still many misconceptions - especially where application modernization is concerned!
In this Webinar, we'll address some of the biggest myths about RPG Open Access, including:
This Webinar features IBM i expert Alison Butterill, and Profound Logic’s Brian May and Alex Roytman.
Watch the On-demand Webinar Now!
Do your users keep paperwork on their desk until it's processed?
Are people constantly removing documents from filing cabinets?
What happens when your company depends on an outdated document management strategy?
Too much paper is wasted—approximately 1,000 pages per month per worker.
Attempts to locate documents in endless filing cabinets drive your employees crazy.
And distributing documents to customers, vendors, and business partners is expensive and takes up far too much time.
These are just three common reasons why it might be time for your company to implement a paperless document management system.
Watch the webinar to learn more and discover how easy it can be to:
Plus, our experts will provide a live demonstration of how implementing a document management solution will quickly solve your paper-based problems, so you can be more
Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Why support 5 different products, when you can do it all with MarkMagic?
- Drive over 450 different printer types.
- Create invoices, statements, checks.
- Set dynamic rules that transform output on the fly.
- Conditionally distribute via Email, fax, or PDF.
- Integrate with your current applications in minutes.
- Preview printing on screen.
- Native System i, Windows, AIX, Linux.
Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable.
Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution.
Key features include:
- Simplified backup procedures
- Easy data encryption
- Save media management
- Guided restoration
- Seamless product integration
Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits.
Try the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution FREE for 30 days.
Managing messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events?
Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution.
Key features include:
- Automated message management
- Tailored notifications and automatic escalation
- System-wide control of your IBM i partitions
- Two-way system notifications from your mobile device
- Seamless product integration
Keep your critical applications and data available. Try the Robot Message Management Solution FREE for 30 days.
The thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing.
Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution.
Key features include:
- Automated report distribution
- View online without delay
- Browser interface to make notes
- Custom retention capabilities
- Seamless product integration
Rerun another report? Never again. Try the Robot Report Management Solution FREE for 30 days.
For over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks.
Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. brKey features include:
- Automated batch, interactive, and cross-platform scheduling
- Event-driven dependency processing
- Centralized monitoring and reporting
- Audit log and ready-to-use reports
- Seamless product integration
Scale your software, not your staff. Try the Robot Job Scheduling Solution FREE for 30 days.
NGS' Qport Office enables Windows users to run IBM Query/400 queries to:
- Create and update Excel spreadsheets and Access databases
- Create Word documents
- Send to Windows screen and PC printers
No query conversion is required. Works with i5/OS V5R1 & above. Installs in minutes!
If you don’t have a budget to replace IBM Query/400, but want your users to have one click enhanced output of their queries.... Request the online license agreement and product download instructions today!
Offer good through December 31, 2016.
Protect your company by monitoring network traffic to your IBM i servers with the industry-leading exit program, PowerTech Network Security.
Without visibility into IBM i's exit points, your users could be viewing, changing, or even deleting sensitive data—and you wouldn’t know!
Network Security lets you monitor and control access to over 30 exit points, including:
- ODBC
- FTP
- DDM
- Remote command
- Fileserve (mapped drives to IFS)
It’s easy to set up custom access rules and get notified in real-time when security events occur.
Stop “back door” access today. Try Network Security free for 30 days.
More than a paging system - ACO MONITOR is a complete systems management solution for your Power Systems running IBM i. Managing the complexities of today's operating systems, business applications, and networks challenges even the most knowledgeable IT professionals. The cost to an enterprise of unplanned downtime, loss of human expertise during sick leave or vacation, and system/application or environmental failure can be devastating. ACO MONITOR manages your Power System 24/7, uses advanced technology (like two-way messaging) to notify on-duty support personnel, and responds to complex problems before they reach critical status.
ACO MONITOR is proven technology and is capable of processing thousands of mission-critical events daily. The software is pre-configured, easy to install, scalable, and greatly improves data center (and staff) efficiency.
