As Baby Boomers retire, the shortage of mainframe professionals grows more acute  

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices.  Click here to subscribe.  For years we have been hearing about critical IT skills shortages. Companies just can’t find enough (or the right) people with expertise in mobility, cybersecurity, data storage, networking, cloud and other important areas.There’s one area, however, where the shortage is becoming acute, and affected companies that don’t act now might soon find themselves in a world of hurt. I’m talking about the business-critical discipline of mainframe stewardship.Experts have been warning about this for at least a decade, and the days of reckoning are here, driven largely by the fact that mainframe champions are retiring from the workforce in droves. People who started their IT careers in the 1970’s and 1980’s – when the mainframe was king – are now baby boomers at the end of their careers. The generations behind them took up different computing platforms, meaning there are few people to pass the mainframe torch to. By some estimates there will be more than 84,000 open positions in this field by 2020.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Citrix Beats Q4 but Starts 2017 on a Weak Note

GoTo is nearly gone, and that makes the math complicated.

Worth Reading: IPv6 server addressing strategies

In this post, I’ll discuss configuration approaches for systems that usually have been configured with “static” IP parameters in the IPv4 age/context (for example, servers in data centres). When it comes to IPv6 there are more options and we’ll have a look at their implications and potential advantages/disadvantages. —APNIC

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Gmail will block JavaScript attachments, a common source of malware

Starting Feb. 13, Google will no longer allow JavaScript attachments on its Gmail service, killing one of the main methods of malware distribution over the past two years.Users will no longer be able to attach .JS files to emails in Gmail, regardless of whether they attach them directly or they include them in archives like .gz, .bz2, .zip or .tgz. For those rare cases when such files need to be shared via email, users can upload them to a storage service like Google Drive and then share the link.The .JS file extension will be added an existing list of other banned file attachments that includes: .ADE, .ADP, .BAT, .CHM, .CMD, .COM, .CPL, .EXE, .HTA, .INS, .ISP, .JAR, .JSE, .LIB, .LNK, .MDE, .MSC, .MSP, .MST, .PIF, .SCR, .SCT, .SHB, .SYS, .VB, .VBE, .VBS, .VXD, .WSC, .WSF and .WSH. Most of these file types have long been abused by cybercriminals to send malware via email.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Gmail will block JavaScript attachments, a common source of malware

Starting Feb. 13, Google will no longer allow JavaScript attachments on its Gmail service, killing one of the main methods of malware distribution over the past two years.Users will no longer be able to attach .JS files to emails in Gmail, regardless of whether they attach them directly or they include them in archives like .gz, .bz2, .zip or .tgz. For those rare cases when such files need to be shared via email, users can upload them to a storage service like Google Drive and then share the link.The .JS file extension will be added an existing list of other banned file attachments that includes: .ADE, .ADP, .BAT, .CHM, .CMD, .COM, .CPL, .EXE, .HTA, .INS, .ISP, .JAR, .JSE, .LIB, .LNK, .MDE, .MSC, .MSP, .MST, .PIF, .SCR, .SCT, .SHB, .SYS, .VB, .VBE, .VBS, .VXD, .WSC, .WSF and .WSH. Most of these file types have long been abused by cybercriminals to send malware via email.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Seagate’s roadmap includes 14TB, 16TB hard drives within 18 months

Seagate is getting closer to reaching its goal of making 20TB hard drives by 2020.Over the next 18 months, the company plans to ship 14TB and 16TB hard drives, company executives said on an earnings call this week.Seagate's hard drive capacity today tops out at 10TB. A 12TB drive based on helium technology is being tested, and the feedback is positive, said Stephen Luczo, the company's CEO.The demand for high-capacity drives is mostly in enterprises and for consumers who can afford the drives. The drives are mostly used in NAS configurations and storage arrays.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ericsson CEO Ekholm Cuts Dividend as Company Tries to Regain Financial Footing

It's the company's first dividend cut since 2008.

Wine 2.0 brings MS Office 2013 compatibility to Linux

This week, Wine—the project that allows you to run many Microsoft Windows applications on non-Windows platforms—hit a rather huge milestone: version 2.0. From the Wine 2.0 release notes:  “This release represents over a year of development effort and around 6,600 individual changes. The main highlights are the support for Microsoft Office 2013 and the 64-bit support on macOS.”  I’ll be honest. The Mac OS tidbit isn’t all that interesting to me. But the support for Microsoft Office 2013 is, almost certainly, of interest to a number of people. (I don’t use it personally, but I know plenty of organizations that do.) To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

On the ‘net: Considerations in Moving to an SDDC

There are two basic models to consider when moving data centers: running the old and new in parallel during some form of transition phase, or integrating your existing equipment with the newer SDDC. The second, integrating existing equipment within a single data center fabric, is not one, but two answers: integrating at the pod level, or running the SDDC over the top of existing equipment. —Tech Target

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Commuting Chelsea Manning’s sentence was just and proper

Before leaving office, President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of former Army soldier Chelsea (Bradley) Manning. At the time, Manning was serving a sentence of 35 years for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks in 2010. This material was subsequently published by WikiLeaks, embarrassing the U.S. government and exposing several previously undocumented war crimes that took place in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The President’s decision to commute Manning’s sentence was extremely controversial.  The verdict was made over the objection of Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, while other military and government officials quickly criticized Obama’s pronouncement.   Just today, President Trump on Twitter referred to Manning as an “ungrateful traitor” who should have never been released from prison.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Commuting Chelsea Manning’s sentence was just and proper

Before leaving office, President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of former Army soldier Chelsea (Bradley) Manning. At the time, Manning was serving a sentence of 35 years for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks in 2010. This material was subsequently published by WikiLeaks, embarrassing the U.S. government and exposing several previously undocumented war crimes that took place in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The President’s decision to commute Manning’s sentence was extremely controversial.  The verdict was made over the objection of Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, while other military and government officials quickly criticized Obama’s pronouncement.   Just today, President Trump on Twitter referred to Manning as an “ungrateful traitor” who should have never been released from prison.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Commuting Chelsea Manning’s Sentence Was Just and Proper

Before leaving office, President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of former Army soldier Chelsea (Bradley) Manning.  At the time, Manning was serving a sentence of 35 years for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks in 2010.  This material was subsequently published by WikiLeaks, embarrassing the US government and exposing several previously undocumented war crimes that took place in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The President’s decision to commute Manning’s sentence was extremely controversial.  The verdict was made over the objection of Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, while other military and government officials quickly criticized Obama’s pronouncement.   Just today, President Trump referred to Manning as an “ungrateful traitor” who should have never been released from prison on Twitter.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Commuting Chelsea Manning’s Sentence Was Just and Proper

Before leaving office, President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of former Army soldier Chelsea (Bradley) Manning.  At the time, Manning was serving a sentence of 35 years for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks in 2010.  This material was subsequently published by WikiLeaks, embarrassing the US government and exposing several previously undocumented war crimes that took place in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The President’s decision to commute Manning’s sentence was extremely controversial.  The verdict was made over the objection of Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, while other military and government officials quickly criticized Obama’s pronouncement.   Just today, President Trump referred to Manning as an “ungrateful traitor” who should have never been released from prison on Twitter.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Digital disrupts traditional outsourcing market in 2016

The traditional IT and business process outsourcing market declined 25 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year, producing a total of $9.6 billion in total contract value, according to data from Information Services Group (ISG). The value of traditional infrastructure, applications, and business process deals in the fourth quarter was down eight percent over the previous quarter, according to ISG.[ Related: Outsourcing trends to watch in 2017 ]“These results, we believe, reflect uneven global demand,” says John Keppel, partner and president of North EMEA and Asia for ISG. “The traditional sourcing sector is in the midst of a structural change, as more and more services move to the cloud and many service providers try to adapt their business and sales models to meet these changing market conditions.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 of the most anticipated smartphones for 2017

It's become an annual tradition that we await tech companies to debut the latest smartphone hardware. Smartphone rumors fly every year as experts and consumers  speculate about the features they think -- and hope -- will be included in their favorite devices.And if it's time for an upgrade, there are plenty of new exciting smartphone features that your old device probably doesn't offer. Whether you want more screen real estate, a waterproof smartphone or a fresh new design, you'll want to keep an eye on these five smartphones.iPhone 8 Apple Once released, the iPhone 8 will mark the 10th anniversary of the popular Apple smartphone and industry experts anticipate a completely redesigned iPhone. MacWorld reports a possible return to stainless steel, an all-glass design, a curved OLED display, new color options, wireless charging, a foldable design and a third, smaller model of the iPhone 8.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Chrome, Firefox start warning users when websites use insecure HTTP logins

The war on insecure webpages has begun, and Mozilla fired the first shot.Recently, Mozilla rolled out Firefox 51 to its mainstream user base. With the new release comes an insecure warning on any page that offers a login form over an HTTP connection instead of HTTPS. Chrome plans to follow suit with version 56, expected to be released to mainstream users on Tuesday, January 31, as Ars Technica first pointed out.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 6 simple tricks for protecting your passwords HTTP uses an open, unencrypted connection between you and the website you’re visiting that could be intercepted by anyone monitoring traffic between you and the site. For that reason, it’s never a good idea to share login or credit card information over an HTTP connection. Most major sites offer the encrypted version—HTTPS—but every now and then you’ll come across a site that doesn’t.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Chrome, Firefox start warning users when websites use insecure HTTP logins

The war on insecure webpages has begun, and Mozilla fired the first shot.Recently, Mozilla rolled out Firefox 51 to its mainstream user base. With the new release comes an insecure warning on any page that offers a login form over an HTTP connection instead of HTTPS. Chrome plans to follow suit with version 56, expected to be released to mainstream users on Tuesday, January 31, as Ars Technica first pointed out.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 6 simple tricks for protecting your passwords HTTP uses an open, unencrypted connection between you and the website you’re visiting that could be intercepted by anyone monitoring traffic between you and the site. For that reason, it’s never a good idea to share login or credit card information over an HTTP connection. Most major sites offer the encrypted version—HTTPS—but every now and then you’ll come across a site that doesn’t.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Trump’s trade TPP move a setback for cloud computing

WASHINGTON -- On the heels of the news that President Trump has removed the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive trade deal that he blasted as a candidate, experts warned of the fallout for cloud-computing companies that have been advocating for policies to break down digital trade barriers that restrict the flow of data traffic across international boundaries.Here at the annual State of the Net tech policy conference, the news was met with disappointment by a panel of experts, who said that the provisions of the TPP governing the activities of tech companies would have been an important step toward establishing international norms for trade in the digital age.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Face-off: Oracle vs. CA for identity management

Employees come and go, or switch departments, so IT managers seek an automated way to give (or deny) them access privileges to corporate systems. Two of the top software products for identity and access management (IAM) are Oracle Identity Manager and CA Identity Manager, according to IT Central Station, an online community where IT professionals review enterprise products.Both products have their fans who say the sophisticated software helps them handle routine access tasks … without paperwork. But users also note that there are areas where the products have room for improvement — areas such as the user interface, initial setup and vendor tech support, according to reviews at IT Central Station. Plus, several users said the vendors need to migrate these products to the cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Face-off: Oracle vs. CA for identity management

Employees come and go, or switch departments, so IT managers seek an automated way to give (or deny) them access privileges to corporate systems. Two of the top software products for identity and access management (IAM) are Oracle Identity Manager and CA Identity Manager, according to IT Central Station, an online community where IT professionals review enterprise products.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)