Resources

Article

Managing IT Access Privileges

Mon, 03/13/2017
THE UNSOLVED PROBLEM Secure, private, effective use of computers by a company (including hosted, cloud and other services as well as the company’s own systems) relies on managing access privileges. The problem isn’t unique to computers. Office buildings, hotels, apartments and college dorms, for example, typically have “master keys” (or smart ID badges...
Vulnerability Management
Article

Solving Healthcare Security Concerns

Mon, 03/13/2017
According to a recent KPMG report, four-fifths of executives at healthcare providers and payers say their information technology has been compromised by cyberattacks. That same report presents how the increased risk to healthcare organizations relates to the richness and uniqueness of the information that health plans, doctors and hospitals handle. Apart from typical financial fraud, there is also...
Vulnerability Management
Article

New Approaches to the SWIFT and PCI-DSS Framework

Mon, 03/13/2017
THE WORLD OF COMPLIANCE At the official start of summertime 2016 in Britain we are starting to consume the labour of last autumn, five gallons of alcoholic homemade cider (yum!) made from eight apple varieties grown in mine and my neighbors’ gardens. I’m very VERY careful sterilizing glassware, containers, and buckets: there was this unfortunate...
Infrastructure and Data Protection
Article

Pros and Cons for Puppet's Configuration Management & Security

Mon, 03/13/2017
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY I was at the Red Hat Summit in Boston at the end of June. We had a lot of activity at our exhibitor stand, and a lot of discussions being passed on to me by our sales team I continued to have the same conversation again and again over the three days. This seems to be the year people have finished bedding down Puppet in...
Vulnerability Management
Blog

The DDoS Deception You Need to Know About

By Robin Tatam on Wed, 03/08/2017
A denial-of-service attack is any attempt to interrupt or inflict downtime upon IT systems, but a basic DoS threat is smaller in scale than its DDoS counterpart. With the former, the influx of traffic may come from a single source, while in a DDoS attack, traffic comes from numerous sources – making it more difficult to deal with.
IBM i Cybersecurity
Blog

How “Smash and Grab” Compromises IBM i

By Robin Tatam on Wed, 03/08/2017
During an audit a few years ago, I revealed to the client’s security team that corporate payroll information on every employee, including the CEO, was being archived in an output queue (called PAYROLL) for weeks at a time. Due to poor configuration, this information was accessible to every employee.
IBM i Cybersecurity
Blog

What is the Value of SIEM?

By Robin Tatam on Wed, 03/08/2017
As is often the case in the technology industry, the details surrounding security information and event management can be a little unclear. While vendors may offer solutions of varying complexity, there is still a basic idea behind most SIEM products…
Vulnerability Management
On-Demand Webinar

An Introduction to PCI Compliance on IBM Power Systems

By Robin Tatam
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?
Compliance
IBM i Cybersecurity
On-Demand Webinar

Stop Feeding IBM i Performance Hogs

By Chuck Losinski
Runaway jobs and processes like the many-headed QZDASOINIT beast are infamous for gobbling up resources. Watch this webinar and learn how to round up runaway database server jobs and more to protect system performance.
Monitoring
On-Demand Webinar

IBM i Monitoring by the Dashboard Light

By Chuck Losinski
Your network operations center is full of monitors, and each monitor might have multiple screens where technicians search to find system and application information. It’s time to get a single, graphical view to visualize performance and processes. Watch this webinar to discover Robot Monitor dashboards.
Monitoring
On-Demand Webinar

SQL-Based Monitoring with Robot Monitor

By Chuck Losinski
Part of what makes Robot Monitor so powerful is the ability to perform custom monitoring across system and application values via user-defined SQL statements. Get the real-time visibility and historical data you need to keep performance issues under control.
Monitoring
Article

The Commercial Power of SQL-Based Monitoring

By Kurt Thomas on Thu, 09/15/2016
The SQL-based monitoring feature in Robot Monitor means organizations can now apply the valuable insights, analysis, and real-time notifications that they use for system information to information from broader business applications.
Monitoring
Blog

Big Data? BIG DEAL!

By Kurt Thomas on Tue, 08/30/2016
With the dawn of the big data era upon us, what can IBM i systems administrators expect in terms of the demands that will be placed upon them and what kind of resources will be required to cope? Find out what the managed services industry can teach us today about what the future holds for us tomorrow.
Monitoring
Article

Astronauts Rely on Checklists (and So Should You)

By Kurt Thomas on Tue, 08/30/2016
What do astronauts and IBM i admins have in common? Checklists! These seemingly simple yet effective devices serve as our external memories and deliver process consistency, but they’re not without limitations.
Monitoring
Article

Disks Busy vs. ASP Busy in Robot Monitor

By Kurt Thomas on Thu, 08/25/2016
Did you know that the Disks Busy monitor reports the average percentage across all your ASPs, not just System ASP? You could be teetering near an I/O overload and not know it! If you have multiple ASPs, use the ASP Busy monitor instead. Here’s why.
Monitoring
Article

High Availability Fail Tales (and How to Avoid Them)

By Kurt Thomas on Thu, 08/25/2016
Chasing a high availability state is a common goal for IBM i administrators and one that can be thwarted by a single issue left unattended. By sharing some of the most frequent tales of what went wrong from real-world environments, you’ll be able to avoid these same scenarios.
Monitoring