Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

IBM i Brief: ARCAD DevOps product integrated into Merlin. The HA / DR market continues to thrive, according to Maxava.
Modernization: APIs and Web Services Explained.
Development: Development Mascots. Comparing Languages used on the IBM i.
Security: IBM Facsimile Support Privilege Escalation.

IBM i Brief

ARCAD DevOps product integrated into Merlin

Merlin is the “first browser-based integrated development environment (IDE) from IBM, providing an alternative to the powerful but resource-draining Rational Developer for IBM i (RDi) product.”

ARCAD has been a long-time partner of IBM and now has its DevOps product essentially embedded into Merlin because of the number of technologies it has brought to the product.

IBM has big plans for Merlin, and DevOps is just the beginning.

In the future, Merlin will be more than a tool for app modernization. It will be a vehicle for other tools such as, “app catalog, PTF management, security development, and security compliance,” to name a few.

The HA / DR market continues to thrive, according to Maxava

Timothy Prickett Morgan interviews Maxava’s Global Vice President, John Dominic, about the current trends in the HA and DR markets.

While the global market for HA / DR continues to be strong, the United States is proving to be the dominant player.

“Risk management drives disaster recovery and high availability now. In the US, financial and insurance companies are way ahead of the game.”

Key takeaway:

The money spent on resilience before a disaster is way more valuable than the money spent after a disaster. So for every dollar you spend ahead of time, it’s worth $1,000 after the fact.

Modernization

APIs and Web Services Explained

If you are new to APIs and web services and are looking for a better understanding of how they work, here’s an article for you.

“APIs are one of the most frequently referenced technical concepts by non-product/engineering stakeholders because of the business opportunities they present. An understanding of the fundamentals of APIs is therefore a very useful thing to have.”

This article is written from the Product or Project Manager’s perspective. It covers the basic use cases as well as dives into the details.

Development

Development Mascots

There is some discussion on Github about Node.js not having a mascot. There seems to be some interest in creating one.

This made me think. There is always some discussion around new logos for the IBM i but little or no discussion around a mascot.

Linux has a mascot. I could not find a mascot for the IBM i.

If there was a mascot for the IBM i, what would it be?I looked, and there is nothing for RPG either. I mean, doesn’t every programming language need a mascot?

Comparing Languages used on the IBM i

“As the landscape of programming continues to evolve, many IBM i developers find themselves exploring a diverse array of languages beyond those with which they began our coding journey.”

The future IBM i developer will code in numerous languages. A good place to start is to look at the syntax of the language.

Comparing the Syntax

RPG
CL
Node.js and JavaScript
PHP
Python

This post dives into the similarities and differences between the languages.

Security

IBM Facsimile Support Privilege Escalation

“Have you ever seen privilege escalation in action on IBM i?

This post shows how various techniques could be used to “discover and exploit a previously unknown vulnerability.”

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