All Content

Mainframe Security: Are There More Gaps in Your Defenses Than You Thought?

Hackers are always trying to find ways into your mainframe and exfiltrate your data. Trying to stay ahead of their ingenuity can be hard work. Luckily, penetration testers are doing that work for us, and we can learn a lot from them about how to strengthen our defenses. Threats to the Mainframe When people talk […]

IBM i 7.5: New System Limits and More Hidden Gems

I’ve been reviewing the documentation about IBM i 7.5 and have discovered more hidden gems. Continuing from the post last week, here are more of my favorites: Historical Data Collection Is on by Default I submitted an IBM Idea asking that Collection Services enable historical data by default. I am happy to report this feature […]

Trends in the Modern, Connected and Secure Z Ecosystem: Ensono’s View

Reg Harbeck: Hi. I'm Reg Harbeck and today I'm here with Lisa Dyer, who is the global VP and mainframe line of business leader, and Steven Perva, who is senior mainframe modernization engineer with Ensono. Rather than telling you more about Ensono, let's start by Lisa, if I could ask you, tell us both about […]

Sponsored Content by
Ensono

How to Create a Security Strategy That’s Built to Last

More accessible technology, economic and political volatility, and evolving hacking techniques mean that security personnel face different challenges than they did five years ago. Organizations must develop a reliable security strategy to keep up with data security needs. Part of this strategy begins with the security basics: assess your environment, implement end-user education, enforce password […]

Sponsored Content by
Blair Technology Solutions inc.

Filtering IP Addresses With AIX IPSec

I want to deny IP address 8.211.1.243 from accessing my AIX system (for inbound connections). The first step is to enable IPSec on the AIX. This example is for ipsec_v4. # smit ipsec4 –> Start/Stop IP Security –> Start IP Security Start IP Security [Now and After Reboot] + Deny All Non_Secure IP Packets [no] […]

The Open Mainframe Project Mentorship Program: The Next Generation of Mainframe Talent

“It’s a fantastic thing to know that as a community we have the ability to give back to the broader ecosystem,” says John Mertic, Director of Program Management at the Linux Foundation. For the past six years, Mertic and several other staff have coordinated the Open Mainframe Project Mentorship Program, helping participants learn valuable mainframe […]

Use Nginx to Make Web Content Zoom!

In my previous blog post, I talked about some open-source “hidden gems.” They can do everything from processing JSON to analyzing disk space. Coincidentally, as I started this blog, I opened a poll on Twitter. Of course, this data set isn’t significant enough to form large conclusions, but I was surprised by the results. I […]

Key Considerations for an Effective, Long-Term Security Strategy

More accessible technology, economic and political volatility, and evolving hacking techniques mean that security personnel face different challenges than they did five years ago. Organizations must develop a reliable security strategy to keep up with data security needs. Part of this strategy begins with the security basics: assess your environment, implement end-user education, enforce password […]

A Look at IBM i 7.5 and Merlin

Paul Tuohy: Hi everyone and welcome to another iTalk with Tuohy. Delighted to be joined today by not one person but two people and two of my favorite people to do iTalks with. You can probably guess who they are given the time of year it is and what’s going on this week or in […]

Routing Work by User Profile and More Hidden IBM i 7.5 and IBM i 7.4 TR6 Gems

IBM has announced IBM i 7.5 and IBM i 7.4 TR6. A new release is a big deal and there are a huge number of great enhancements. Steve Will’s article, Announcing IBM i 7.5, 7.4 TR6, IBM i Merlin, is one of the best places to start for an overall review. You should also listen […]

Announcing IBM i 7.5, 7.4 TR6, IBM i Merlin

IBM has unveiled the next major release of IBM i—7.5—as well as IBM i 7.4 TR6 and a brand new product called Merlin. Get the details in this blog from Steve Will.

Migrating LPARs to the Cloud

Today I want to talk about migrating LPARs to the cloud. Where are you on your cloud journey? Have you just begun thinking about it? Are all of your systems currently running in the public cloud? Are you running a proof of concept or some test and development machines in the cloud? Have you decided […]

Can IMS Connect to the Outside World?

Information Management System (IMS) was developed by IBM, with Rockwell and Caterpillar Inc., starting in 1966 as a bill of materials system for the Apollo space program. It went live in 1968, making it over 50 years old. Like everything else on the mainframe, it has been updated and extended since that time. As you […]

IBM, Lenovo, HPE and Huawei Servers Rank as Most Secure Platforms in ITIC Survey

IBM, Lenovo, Huawei and Hewlett-Packard enterprise servers ranked as the most secure platforms in an ITIC survey—experiencing the fewest number of successful data breaches

Tips on the HMC, VIOS, LPAR and More

It’s always nice to hear from readers. Even better is when I can confirm that my information is helping techies in the real world. My colleague Eric Hopkins recently put my invscout script to work for one of his clients. Here’s his story: I have a customer who has smartly blocked outbound traffic to the […]

The Importance of Belonging in the Mainframe Community

By definition, belonging is a unique, subjective experience that relates to the desire to connect with others—according to American psychologist Carl Rogers. It’s how a person feels supported, respected, heard and valued; how they can feel proud of themselves and the others around them. So, how can the mainframe community make belonging a reality for […]

IBM i Next Gen Apps: The Modernization Approach

The first cornerstone of IBM i strategy is to provide solution developers with everything they need to be successful. The solution developers we serve include both Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and the programming teams who create software for specific customers—whether as employees of those customers, or as independent contractors and consultants. Of the thousands of […]

Message Monitors in New Navigator

IBM is updating New Navigator (New Nav) on a regular basis and there are a lot of enhancements that have been added over the past few months. This post highlights new functions in Message Monitors. IBM’s documentation on Message Monitors overview has complete details. You find Monitors in as shown in Figure 1: Message Monitor […]

Highlights From the 2022 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index

The annual X-Force Threat Intelligence Index from IBM Security is always a sobering read, and the 2022 edition is no exception. Here, we highlight some of the key security findings, statistics and trends in the report. Cyberattacks by the Numbers This year’s report outlines that phishing was the most common cause of cyberattacks in 2021. […]

Big Things Coming for IBM i in 2022

Well, well, well. Back again! It’s been about six months since I published a blog post, and about two years since I worked with the good people at TechChannel. I’m happy to bring the “You and i” blog back “home.” Of course, if I only post once every six months, it won’t mean much … […]

IBM Aims for the Hybrid Cloud and Increases Security With the New z16

IBM today unveiled the z16 enterprise server, the latest release in its line of IBM Z mainframe systems. The new z16 delivers a slew of embedded, advanced capabilities aimed at hardening security, boosting performance, delivering greater value and cost efficiencies, and making analytics accessible and easy to use for non-data scientists to deliver immediate value. […]

Leveraging IBM i and RPG for Web Servicing

Another day in the life of a developer as another web service takes to production. Not an extraordinary task but this time the process was smooth sailing. What made it so painless?  What led to the decisions of using certain programs over others? In this article I will explain why I chose IBM i as […]

Seeing the World Via the Mainframe

Reg Harbeck: Hi, I'm Reg Harbeck, and today I'm here with my colleague and co-author Karl-Erik Stenfors, who has been in the mainframe space for a very good long time. Well Karl-Erik, let's start by telling us about how did you end up on the mainframe?   Karl-Erik Stenfors: Well, a bit of a point. […]

The Importance of Mainframe Documentation

The discovery of Egyptian hieroglyphics was the event that led to the definitions of the formal writing system that was once used in ancient Egypt as part of the native language. Egyptian hieroglyphics had more than 1,000 distinct characters that were used to tell the stories associated with the time. In the same vein, telling […]

The Importance of Refactoring

Charlie Guarino: Hi everybody, this is Charlie Guarino. Welcome to another edition of TechTalk SMB. This month I am joined by what I'm going to say is a household legend in our industry: Mr. Ted Holt. He has been in our community for years and years. Ted has worked in the IT industry for over […]