IBM Z Pervasive Encryption Marks a Paradigm Shift for Security
July 17, 2017
Trust is the currency that drives the new economy. It’s the foundation of digital relationships and demands security, transparency and greater value in every interaction and transaction. That’s among the reasons IBM equipped the new z14 system with pervasive encryption. Transitioning away from selective encryption to end-to-end protection helps organizations secure all of their enterprise […]
Articles5 Points to Consider When Preparing for Backup and Recovery
July 17, 2017
Planning for IT outages, whether instigated by Mother Nature, human error, system issues or a sly hacker, is no small feat for businesses. While the causes of unplanned outages vary, a strategy to manage outages can be standardized. Harry Batten, executive IT architect, IBM, lists five common points companies should consider while crafting a backup […]
ArticlesThe Brilliance of Resilience in a Cognitive World
July 10, 2017
Recent headlines from the halls of Washington, D.C. to our major airports have served to remind us of the increasing complexity and importance of having complete layers of resilience that protect our business systems. These interlocking layers include combinations of high availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR), security and managed service solutions that completely envelop and […]
ArticlesTokenized Encryption: The Project Nexus
May 1, 2017
The project generating this article largely involves implementation of a mainframe-based cryptographic interface oriented primarily to CICS Transaction Server, COBOL and MVS. However, these principles and concepts apply to all IT platforms. In fact, the project plan includes tasks and activities involved in converting the client’s websites using different programming languages and software to enable […]
ArticlesBlockchain Is Set to Streamline Markets and Transform Industries
May 1, 2017
Business is built on trust. The seller needs to trust the buyer to pay for goods. The buyer needs to trust that the seller will deliver those goods, and that they have the right to sell them to begin with. Financial institutions must trust one another to settle transactions. Other examples abound. To create an […]
Tokenized Encryption: Details Become Design
April 3, 2017
Once a project such as PCI compliance is approved, the first step is to hold a kickoff meeting. There are numerous reasons for a kickoff meeting: The CIO affirms the project’s importance and defines objectives, team members can acquaint themselves with each other, determine deadlines, identify potential obstacles and possible solutions, and establish requirements. But […]
ArticlesKeep Data out of Danger
April 3, 2017
If you haven’t seen “Attack of the Killer LOBs” yet, it’s coming soon to a DB2* environment near you. No, this isn’t a new science fiction movie—it’s a lurking danger in your environment today. Your vital data may have already been compromised, leaving you with a customer service, legal and compliance nightmare. Even worse, because […]
ArticlesTrend Watch: Security
March 27, 2017
This is the sixth post in a multi-part series with a focus on trends that are interesting and important, specifically in enterprise computing. In this post, I’ll continue my point-in-time analysis by looking at the interesting and complex topic of security. z/OS Security When someone says “mainframe security” you probably think RACF. However, if you […]
ArticlesTokenized Encryption: Getting Started
March 1, 2017
When I was engaged to implement cryptography and establish payment card industry (PCI) compliance, it was for a single division of a large conglomerate where each division had its own IT department with differing software, hardware, infrastructure and performed separate implementations. Although my client had the most processing platforms and data stores to integrate, and […]
ArticlesTokenized Encryption: Connecting Docs
February 1, 2017
This third and final article on documentation examines the information necessary to support a cryptographic interface oriented to CICS Transaction Server and MVS. While the focus is on mainframe environments, the principles and concepts apply to all IT systems. Likewise, except for specific programming languages and software, this information applies to all platforms. Function […]