The talks highlight continued demand for Nvidia GPUs. A deal like this would also provide a boost for Amazon's AI business.

AWS Is Negotiating a Huge Cloud Deal to Supply IBM With Nvidia GPUs - Business Insider

Moor Park High School in Preston, Lancashire, has secured a £390,000 in-kind grant from IBM to improve cybersecurity readiness. The collaboration provides training via IBM’s SkillsBuild platform and the IBM Service Corps, equipping staff and students with tools to protect sensitive data ...

Moor Park High School Teams with IBM on £390,000 Cybersecurity Grant to Enhance School Preparedness — EdTech Innovation Hub

Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below.

Dan Ives Acknowledges Nvidia, Microsoft As 'Core Drivers Of AI' But Sees Palantir, IBM, AMD And Apple Joining The Party As Well

Yeah, you heard me: International Business Machines (IBM -0.29%) is one of the best AI stocks to buy right now. Big Blue has been an AI innovator since the 1970s, introducing game-changing technologies such as the first speech recognition system and the first programming language for self-learning ...

2 Game-Changing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy Right Now (Hint: Not Nvidia) @themotleyfool #stocks $IBM $NVDA $PATH

Understaffing in cybersecurity — the "skills gap" — is driving up the cost of data breaches in recent years, according to a decade of reports by IBM.

The cybersecurity skills gap contributed to a $1.76 million increase in average breach costs

IBM is set to acquire Prescinto to expand its AI-native asset management product offerings and boost prospects in the renewable energy sector.

Will the IBM Stock Benefit From the Acquisition of Prescinto?

The feature satisfies the fantasy football participants' curiosity and makes a broader point. If the business world is going to adopt generative AI at scale, it'll first need to trust the models. And IBM is providing the insight to allow that trust.

ESPN Fantasy Football Uses IBM Watsonx AI for Smarter Insights - Business Insider

On this episode of The Future with Hannah Fry , Fry travels to IBM’s research facility to learn the promise and peril of the technology’s unfathomable power.

Video: How to Harness Quantum Computing’s Unfathomable Power - Bloomberg

United States Of America. v. Microsoft Corporation Court Filing by Thomas Penfield Jackson, November 5, 1999 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 32 of 58. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here IBM IBM is both a hardware and a software company. On the hardware side, IBM manufactures and licenses, among other things, Intel-compatible PCs. On the software side, IBM develops and sells, among other things, Intel-compatible PC operating systems and office productivity applications. The IBM PC Company relies heavily on Microsoft’s cooperation to make a profit, for few consumers would buy IBM PC systems if those systems did not work well with Windows and, further, if they did not come with Windows included. IBM’s software division, on the other hand, competes directly with Microsoft in other respects. For instance, IBM has in the past marketed OS/2 as an alternative to Windows, and it currently markets the SmartSuite bundle of office productivity applications as an alternative to Microsoft’s Office suite. The fact that IBM’s software division markets products that compete directly with Microsoft’s most profitable products has frustrated the efforts of the IBM PC Company to maintain a cooperative relationship with the firm that controls the product (Windows) without which the PC Company cannot survive. Whereas Microsoft tried to convince Netscape to move its business in a direction that would not facilitate the emergence of products that would compete with Windows, Microsoft tried to convince IBM to move its business away from products that themselves competed directly with Windows and Office. Microsoft leveraged the fact that the PC Company needed to license Windows at a competitive price and on a timely basis, and the fact that the company needed Microsoft’s support in many more subtle ways. When IBM refused to abate the promotion of those of its own products that competed with Windows and Office, Microsoft punished the IBM PC Company with higher prices, a late license for Windows 95, and the withholding of technical and marketing support. In the summer of 1994, the IBM PC Company told Microsoft that, with respect to licensing Microsoft’s operating-system products, it wanted to be quoted terms just as favorable as those extended to IBM’s competitor, Compaq. It was IBM’s belief that Compaq paid the lowest rate in the industry for Windows and enjoyed unparalleled marketing and technical support from Microsoft. In response to the IBM PC Company’s request, Microsoft proposed that the companies enter into a “Frontline Partnership” similar to the one that existed between Microsoft and Compaq. Pursuant to that proposal, Microsoft and the IBM PC Company would perform joint sales, marketing, and development work, and the PC Company would receive future Microsoft products at the lowest rates in the industry. At the same time that it offered the IBM PC Company the rather general terms in the Frontline Partnership Agreement, Microsoft also offered the PC Company specific reductions in the royalty rate for Windows 95 if the company would focus its marketing and distribution efforts on Microsoft’s new operating system. Specifically, the PC Company would receive an $8 reduction in the per-copy royalty for Windows 95 if it mentioned no other operating systems in advertisements for IBM PCs, adopted Windows 95 as the standard operating system for its employees, and ensured that it was shipping Windows 95 pre-installed on at least fifty percent of its PCs two months after the release of Windows 95. Given the volume of IBM’s PC shipments, the discount would have amounted to savings of between $40 million and $48 million in one year. Of course, accepting the terms would have required IBM, as a practical matter, to abandon its own operating system, OS/2. After all, IBM would have had difficulty convincing customers to adopt its own OS/2 if the company itself had used Microsoft’s Windows 95 and had featured that product to the exclusion of OS/2 in IBM PC advertisements. Representatives from IBM and Microsoft, including Bill Gates, met to discuss the relationship between their companies at an industry conference in November 1994. At that meeting, IBM informed Microsoft that, rather than enter into the Frontline Partnership with Microsoft, IBM was going to pursue an initiative it called “IBM First.” Consistent with the title of the initiative, IBM would aggressively promote IBM’s software products, would not promote any Microsoft products, and would pre-install OS/2 Warp on all of its PCs, including those on which it would also pre-install Windows. IBM thus rejected the terms that would have resulted in an $8 reduction in the per-copy royalty price of Windows 95. True to its word, IBM began vigorous promotion of its software products. This effort included an advertising campaign, starting in late 1994, that extolled OS/2 Warp and disparaged Windows. IBM’s drive to best Microsoft in the PC software venue intensified in June 1995, when IBM reached an agreement with the Lotus Development Corporation for the acquisition of that company. As a consequence of the acquisition, IBM took ownership of the Lotus groupware product, Lotus Notes, and the Lotus SmartSuite bundle of office productivity applications. Microsoft had already identified Notes as a middleware threat, because it presented users with a common interface, and ISVs with a common set of APIs, across multiple platforms. For its part, SmartSuite competed directly with Microsoft Office. In mid-July 1995, IBM announced that it was going to make SmartSuite its primary desktop software offering in the United States. Microsoft did not intend to capitulate. In July, Gates called an executive at the IBM PC Company to berate him about IBM’s public statements denigrating Windows. Just a few days later, Microsoft began to retaliate in earnest against the IBM PC Company. The IBM PC Company had begun negotiations with Microsoft for a Windows 95 license in late March 1995. For the first two months, the negotiations had progressed smoothly and at an expected pace. After IBM announced its intention to acquire Lotus, though, the Microsoft negotiators began canceling meetings with their IBM counterparts, failing to return telephone calls, and delaying the return of marked-up license drafts that they received from IBM. Then, on July 20, 1995, just three days after IBM announced its intention to pre-install SmartSuite on its PCs, a Microsoft executive informed his counterpart at the IBM PC Company that Microsoft was terminating further negotiations with IBM for a license to Windows 95. Microsoft also refused to release to the PC Company the Windows 95 “golden master” code. The PC Company needed the code for its product planning and development, and IBM executives knew that Microsoft had released it to IBM’s OEM competitors on July 17. Microsoft’s purported reason for halting the negotiations was that it wanted first to resolve an ongoing audit of IBM’s past royalty payments to Microsoft for several different operating systems. Prior to the call on July 20, neither company’s management had ever linked the ongoing audit to IBM’s negotiations for a license to Windows 95. IBM was dismayed by the abrupt halt in the license negotiations and the prospect that it might not get a license for Windows 95 until the audit process concluded. IBM’s executives executives surmised that all of its major competitors had already signed licenses for Windows 95. The PC Company would lose a great deal of business to those competitors during the crucial back-to-school season if it could not begin pre-installing Windows 95 on its PCs immediately. The conclusion of the audit appeared to be weeks, if not months, away. The PC Company thus faced the prospect of missing the holiday selling season as well. IBM executives pleaded with Microsoft to uncouple the license negotiations from the ongoing audit and offered Microsoft a $10 million bond that Microsoft could use to indemnify itself against any discrepancies that the audit might ultimately reveal. IBM also offered to add a term to any Windows 95 license agreement whereby IBM would pay penalties and interest if any future audit disclosed under-reporting of royalties by IBM. On August 9, 1995, a senior executive at the IBM PC Company went to Redmond to meet with Joachim Kempin, the Microsoft executive in charge of the firm’s sales to OEMs. At the meeting, Kempin offered to accept a single, lump-sum payment from IBM that would close all outstanding audits. The amount of this payment would be reduced if IBM offered a concession that Kempin could take back to Gates. As one possibility, Kempin suggested that IBM agree to not bundle SmartSuite with its PCs for a period of six months to one year. He explained that the prospect of IBM bundling SmartSuite with its PCs threatened the profit margins that Microsoft derived from Office and constituted a core issue in the relationship between the two companies. The IBM executive rejected Kempin’s suggestion. In a follow-up letter, Kempin stated that Microsoft would require approximately $25 million from IBM in order to settle all outstanding audits. Kempin reiterated that, If you believe that the amount I am asking for is too much, I would be willing to trade certain relationship improving measures for the settlement charges and/or convert some of the amounts into marketing funds if IBM too agrees to promote Microsoft’s software products together with their hardware offerings. The message was clear: IBM could resolve the impasse ostensibly blocking the issuance of a Windows 95 license — the royalties audit — by de-emphasizing those products of its own that competed with Microsoft and instead promoting Microsoft’s products. IBM never agreed to renounce SmartSuite or to increase its support for Microsoft software, and in the end, Microsoft did not grant IBM a license to pre-install Windows 95 until fifteen minutes before the start of Microsoft’s official launch event on August 24, 1995. That same day, the firms brought the audit issue to a close with a settlement agreement under which IBM ultimately paid Microsoft $31 million. The release of Windows 95 had been postponed more than once, and many consumers apparently had been postponing buying PC systems until the new operating system arrived. The pent-up demand caused an initial surge in the sales of PCs loaded with Windows 95. IBM’s OEM competitors reaped the fruits of this surge, but because of the delay in obtaining a license, the IBM PC Company did not. The PC Company also missed the back-to-school market. These lost opportunities cost IBM substantial revenue. Even once the companies had resolved the audit dispute, Microsoft continued to treat the IBM PC Company less favorably than it did the other major OEMs, and Microsoft executives continued to tell PC Company executives that the treatment would improve only if IBM refrained from competing with Microsoft’s software offerings. On January 5, 1996, Kempin sent a letter to a counterpart at the IBM PC Company. In it, Kempin expressed his belief that the PC Company would enjoy a closer, more cooperative relationship with Microsoft if only IBM’s software arm did not compete as aggressively with the products that comprised the core of Microsoft’s business: As long as IBM is working first on their competitive offerings and prefers to fiercely compete with us in critical areas, we should just be honest with each other and admit that such priorities will not lead to a most exciting relationship and might not even make IBM feel good when selling solutions based on Microsoft products. . . .You are a valued OEM customer of Microsoft, with whom we will cooperate as much as your self-imposed restraints allow us to do. Please understand that this is neither my choice or preferred way of doing business with an important company like IBM. In addition, we would like to see the IBM PC company being more actively involved in assisting Microsoft to bring key products to market . . . . To date the IBM PC company has not always been an active participant in these areas - understandable given your own internal product priorities. I hope you can help me to change this. In closing, Kempin wrote, “You get measured in selling more hardware and I firmly believe if you had less conflict with IBM’s software directions you actually could sell more of it.” When Kempin spoke to the same executive at the end of the month, he repeated a message he had delivered more than once before: The fact that the IBM PC Company preinstalled SmartSuite on its PC systems made Microsoft reluctant to help IBM sell more PC systems. After all, the more PC systems IBM sold with SmartSuite, the fewer copies of Office Microsoft could sell. For this reason, as Kempin explained to a group of IBM PC Company representatives in August 1996, Microsoft refused to provide IBM press releases with quotes endorsing any PC system that IBM shipped with SmartSuite. Microsoft later expanded that rule to cover any IBM PCs shipped with the World Book electronic encyclopedia instead of Microsoft’s Encarta. IBM might have been less concerned about Microsoft’s refusal to offer endorsements if such quotes did not appear frequently and prominently in press releases announcing new PC systems from other OEMs such as Compaq. Microsoft’s conspicuous silence with respect to IBM PCs sent the message to customers that IBM’s PCs did not support Windows as well as PCs manufactured by other OEMs did. Microsoft also denied the IBM PC Company access to the so-called “enabling programs” that Microsoft ran for the benefit of OEMs such as Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and DEC, even though IBM met the prescribed objective criteria for admission. Like the absence of public endorsements, IBM’s exclusion from Microsoft’s enabling programs led customers to question whether the Microsoft software they needed would work optimally with IBM’s PCs. IBM learned through surveys it conducted that the firm had lost between seven and ten large accounts, representing about $180 million in revenue for IBM, because the tension between Microsoft and IBM led customers to doubt that Windows would not work as well with IBM PCs as with PCs produced by firms with which Microsoft was on cordial terms. Microsoft justified its exclusion of the PC Company from the enabling programs with its suspicion that IBM might use the programs to gain entrée with customers and then attempt to sell those customers IBM software instead of Microsoft products. At the same time, a Microsoft executive told a counterpart at IBM that the PC Company would be admitted to the programs when IBM’s CEO repaired his relationship with Bill Gates. Microsoft’s executives were persistent despite IBM’s repeated refusals to sacrifice its own software ambitions to improve its relations with Microsoft. In February 1997, one executive from Microsoft told a group of IBM PC Company executives that Gates might relent in his reluctance to cooperate with their company if IBM moderated its support for Notes and SmartSuite. In a meeting held the next month, Microsoft representatives conditioned fulfillment of two objects of IBM’s desires on the company’s willingness to pre-install Microsoft’s products in the place of competing applications, such as SmartSuite, and objectionable middleware, such as Notes. The first inducement that the Microsoft representatives blandished before the PC Company was early access to Windows source code, which Compaq and a handful of other OEMs enjoyed. IBM wanted this early access in order to ensure its hardware’s contemporaneous compatibility with Microsoft’s operating system products. Next, Microsoft offered IBM permission to certify itself as being compliant with certain hardware requirements that Microsoft imposed (and that customers had come to look for as a sign of an OEM’s ability to support Windows). Self-certification would have decreased the time it took IBM PCs to reach the market, and IBM knew that the privilege was already being extended to some of its main OEM competitors. With respect to both benefits, the representatives from Microsoft explained that Microsoft would extend them to the PC Company on the condition that it stop loading its PC systems with software that threatened Microsoft’s interests. The discriminatory treatment that the IBM PC Company received from Microsoft on account of the “software directions” of its parent company also manifested itself in the royalty price that IBM paid for Windows. In the latter half of the 1990s, IBM (along with Gateway) paid significantly more for Windows than other major OEMs (like Compaq, Dell, and Hewlett- Packard) that were more compliant with Microsoft’s wishes. Finally, Microsoft made its frustration known to IBM by reducing, from three to one, the number of Microsoft OEM account managers handling Microsoft’s operational relationship with the IBM PC Company. This reduced support impaired still further IBM’s ability to test, manufacture, and ship its PCs on schedule, further delaying IBM’s efforts to bring its PC products to market against the competition in a timely manner. In sum, from 1994 to 1997 Microsoft consistently pressured IBM to reduce its support for software products that competed with Microsoft’s offerings, and it used its monopoly power in the market for Intel-compatible PC operating systems to punish IBM for its refusal to cooperate. Whereas, in the case of Netscape, Microsoft tried to induce a company to move its business away from offering software that could weaken the applications barrier to entry, Microsoft’s primary concern with IBM was to reduce the firm’s support for software products that competed directly with Microsoft’s most profitable products, namely Windows and Office. That being said, it must be noted that one of the IBM products to which Microsoft objected, Notes, was like Navigator in that it exposed middleware APIs. In any event, Microsoft’s interactions with Netscape, IBM, Intel, Apple, and RealNetworks all reveal Microsoft’s business strategy of directing its monopoly power toward inducing other companies to abandon projects that threaten Microsoft and toward punishing those companies that resist. Continue reading . here About We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: This court case Civil Action No. 98-1232 (TPJ) retrieved on 2-06-2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. justice.gov

The History Between IBM and Microsoft

United States Of America. v. Microsoft Corporation Court Filing by Thomas Penfield Jackson, November 5, 1999 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 14 of 58. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here Empirical Evidence of the Applications Barrier to Entry The experiences of IBM and Apple, Microsoft’s most significant operating system rivals in the mid- and late 1990s, confirm the strength of the applications barrier to entry. a. OS/2 Warp 46. IBM’s inability to gain widespread developer support for its OS/2 Warp operating system illustrates how the massive Windows installed base makes it prohibitively costly for a rival operating system to attract enough developer support to challenge Windows. In late 1994,IBM introduced its Intel-compatible OS/2 Warp operating system and spent tens of millions of dollars in an effort to attract ISVs to develop applications for OS/2 and in an attempt to reverseengineer, or “clone,” part of the Windows API set. Despite these efforts, IBM could obtain neither significant market share nor ISV support for OS/2 Warp. Thus, although at its peak OS/2 ran approximately 2,500 applications and had 10% of the market for Intel-compatible PC operating systems, IBM ultimately determined that the applications barrier prevented effective competition against Windows 95. For that reason, in 1996 IBM stopped trying to convince ISVs to write for OS/2 Warp. IBM now targets the product at a market niche, namely enterprise customers (mainly banks) that are interested in particular types of application that run on OS/2 Warp. The fact that IBM no longer tries to compete with Windows is evidenced by the fact that it prices OS/2 Warp at about two-and-one-half times the price of Windows 98. b. The Mac OS 47. The inability of Apple to compete effectively with Windows provides another example of the applications barrier to entry in operation. Although Apple’s Mac OS supports more than 12,000 applications, even an inventory of that magnitude is not sufficient to enable Apple to present a significant percentage of users with a viable substitute for Windows. The absence of a large installed base, in turn, reinforces the disparity between the applications made available for the Mac OS and those made available for Windows, further inhibiting Apple’s sales. The applications barrier thus prevents the Mac OS from hindering Microsoft’s ability to control price, regardless of whether the Mac OS is regarded as being in the relevant market or not. c. Fringe Operating Systems 48. The applications barrier to entry does not prevent non-Microsoft, Intel-compatible PC operating systems from attracting enough consumer demand and ISV support to survive. It does not even prevent vendors of those products from making a profit. The barrier does, however, prevent the products from drawing a significant percentage of consumers away from Windows. As discussed above, Be markets an Intel-compatible PC operating system, called BeOS, that is specially suited to support multimedia functions. The operating system survives on a relatively minuscule number of applications (approximately 1,000) and a user base which, at around 750,000, is trivial compared to the number of Windows users. One of the reasons the BeOS can even attract that many users despite its small base of applications is that it advertises itself as a complement to, rather than as a substitute for, Windows. Although the BeOS could run an Intel-compatible PC system without Windows, it is almost always loaded on a system along with Windows. What is more, when these dual-loaded PC systems are turned on, Windows automatically boots; the user must then take affirmative steps to invoke the BeOS. While this scheme allows the BeOS to occupy a niche in the market, it does not place the product on a trajectory to replace Windows on a significant number of PCs. The special multimedia support provided by the BeOS may, for a small number of users, outweigh the disadvantages of maintaining two large, complex operating systems on one PC. Of that group, however, it is likely that only a tiny number of users will find that support so attractive that they would be willing to forego Windows, and its huge base of compatible applications, altogether. The experience of the Linux operating system, a version of which runs on Intelcompatible PCs, similarly fails to refute the existence of an applications barrier to entry. Linux is an “open source” operating system that was created, and is continuously updated, by a global network of software developers who contribute their labor for free. Although Linux has between ten and fifteen million users, the majority of them use the operating system to run servers, not PCs. Several ISVs have announced their development of (or plans to develop) Linux versions of their applications. To date, though, legions of ISVs have not followed the lead of these first movers. Similarly, consumers have by and large shown little inclination to abandon Windows, with its reliable developer support, in favor of an operating system whose future in the PC realm is unclear. By itself, Linux’s open-source development model shows no signs of liberating that operating system from the cycle of consumer preferences and developer incentives that, when fueled by Windows’ enormous reservoir of applications, prevents non-Microsoft operating systems from competing. Continue reading . here About We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: This court case Civil Action No. 98-1232 (TPJ) retrieved on 2-06-2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. justice.gov

Proof of Applications Barrier to Entry: The Experiences of IBM and Apple

Mergers and acquisitions help drive the business world forward. Those that take place in the cybersecurity industry are no exception. Cybersecurity firm Momentum reported that M&As in cybersecurity in 2021. Around 14 mergers and acquisitions amounted to $1 billion, including deals involving Proofpoint, Avast, Mimecast, and McAfee, among others. hit a whopping $77.5 billion Another major player in the cybersecurity landscape is IBM, which recently announced plans for an upcoming acquisition. Below, learn more about IBM's acquisition of Randori, what this deal means for the future of IBM, and how it will impact the cybersecurity sector. IBM Announces Plans to Acquire Randori At this year's RSA Conference (RSAC), IBM announced plans to acquire a leading attack surface management (ASM) provider and offensive security company Randori, based in the Boston area. Randori seeks to help clients understand what external facing assets they possess, on-site or in the cloud, that attackers may see and prioritize exposures that come with the most risk. IBM acquired Randori to streamline its threat detection and improve its response solutions portfolio. Additionally, the deal is expected to bolster IBM's Hybrid Cloud Strategy, which to all types of clients, such as cost-effectiveness and more value compared to a public cloud-only approach. provides plenty of business benefits Before IBM announced this acquisition, Randori secured more than $30 million in Greenhill, Meijer and FirstBank funding. One benefit of solution is that it is a "hacker-led" company. Clients will experience an authentic cybersecurity incident during simulations. From there, Randori can assist clients in determining previously unknown exposure points that could lead to a data breach and negatively impact their business. Randori's ASM What This Means for IBM Moving Forward There's no denying that companies are grappling with an expanded attack surface. Cybercriminals are also growing to be more sophisticated — some have even __ __to launch their attacks. harnessed the power of AI One beneficial aspect of IBM's acquisition of Randori is timing. IBM recently joined hundreds of other companies and suspended business activity in Russia due to the country's recent attacks on Ukraine. IBM also in Russia in what's being called a "wind-down" of operations. The U.S. federal government also responded to Russia's attacks with punitive economic sanctions, , including banking and financial systems, oil and gas businesses, and the technology sector. began laying off employees targeting vulnerable industries As per IBM's announcement, the company plans on with the extended detection response (XDR) capabilities that come with the IBM Security QRadar. Insights from Randori's software will feed into the QRadar XDR. Security teams will gain more visibility for threat hunting, incident response and intelligent alert triage. integrating Randori's ASM software Additionally, it's expected that Randori's offensive security solution will complement X-Force Red's leading hacker lead offensive security services, another benefit rooted in IBM's acquisition. How Will the IBM Acquisition Impact the Cybersecurity Industry? Combining IBM's deep AI and threat intelligence expertise with Randori's solutions could help provide more cybersecurity solutions to clients and deliver better protection from cyber incidents. Mike Beck, global CISO at DarkTrace, says, "CISOs want solutions that prioritize cyber risks and autonomously harden their environments…businesses are in a constant state of flux and…operational risks are not static. Risk assessment and subsequent hardening must be done in real-time, which is only possible with an AI-driven approach." When companies can leverage the latest digital tools, powered by AI, machine learning, or another emerging technology, to improve their AMS, they're less likely to experience downtime or face critical data breaches lessens. It's vital to take a preventive approach to cybersecurity and managing potential attacks. Consider how beneficial it is for a company to see attacks from the cybercriminal's perspective. With the acquisition, IBM's solutions may become even more valuable to the modern company, regardless of industry. Other IBM Acquisitions Aside from the Randori deal, IBM has acquired three other companies this year. The company is looking to boost its hybrid cloud services and deliver superb AI capabilities to its clients. IBM acquired Sentaca to help them , which is expected to revolutionize the tech industry and provide more use cases for other sectors, such as health care and consumer electronics. The company also acquired Neudesec, a leading Microsoft Azure consultancy firm. prepare for the 5G era In January, IBM acquired Envizi to assist organizations with sustainability initiatives and achieve environmental goals. This specific acquisition could not be any more timely, considering how the climate crisis is a significant issue many companies and the countries they operate in are concerned about. IBM: A Juggernaut Company There's no doubt that IBM is leveraging its power and success to acquire companies and improve their goods and services. Before the Randori deal, its acquisitions were diverse. They sought to achieve unique outcomes, from the 5G tech revolution to addressing climate change. It will be interesting to see how IBM moves forward with Randori and other acquisitions in cybersecurity. It seems as though IBM is making great strides to help its clients achieve their goals, protect themselves and prepare for the world to become even more digital.

What will IBM's Acquisition of Randori Mean for Cybersecurity?

If you’re like most IBM i users, you know how much value your IBM i data and applications bring to your business. Your end-users, however, may not. In today’s world of rich user experience, fast-paced application development, and constantly evolving customer expectations, IBM i applications are under increasing pressure to get with the times. Your customers have excellent digital touchpoints in every part of their lives. As a result, their expectations increase each time they encounter a better digital or customer experience like online stores and online banking. Digitally savvy customers increasingly expect their own internal IT teams to meet their real-time information needs whenever, wherever, and on whatever device that’s convenient to them. If your legacy IBM i apps and systems can’t meet these expectations, may be the way forward. IBM i application modernization Modernization is not a one-time project. Instead, it is a holistic approach to incrementally improving your existing platforms’ architecture, infrastructure, and delivery. A lot has been said about modernization over the years, but only a few sources provide a clear actionable guide.  In this article, we’ll dive straight in with six actionable insights on IBM i application modernization. Why Should You Web-enable Your IBM i 5250 Applications? The first on this cheat sheet is web-enabling your 5250 green screens. Technology advancements and the effect of the coronavirus have made remote work more common than ever. In addition to this, ever-improving browser-based user experiences have made web accessibility mainstream. Because of this, organizations must, more than ever, provide their partners, customers, and end-users easy access to tools and functionalities when and where they need them. IBM i applications, however, are often monolithic with 5250 green screens. Even worse, those green screens are only accessible on-site via centralized terminals or computers. The good news is that modernization is a way for IBM i users to take their applications to the web. With the right strategy and tools, you can simultaneously leverage your existing backend and incorporate web accessibility. How Can You Create a Modern UI for Your 5250 Applications? While the IBM i platform is effective, robust, and powerful, its applications produce green screens that modern users find difficult to navigate. Let’s look at it from the end-user perspective. Obviously, outside the office, your users are used to modern interfaces like Airbnb, Instagram, and Expedia. How do you think they react to returning to the multi-decades old 5250 green screens at work? Frustrated? Bored to death? Ready to migrate to your competitors offering modern UIs? At a time where digital transformation is a prerequisite for sustainable growth, you can’t afford to lag. This modernization strategy is also known as UI scraping or refacing. Its usually used when the goal is to create quick wins. However, the ROI is pretty low because you’re not adding much value other than just having a nicer presentation. But as you go further to enhance your refaced screens with better navigation, GUI controls, and various integrations, your ROI increases. Why Should You Mobilize Your IBM i Applications? Converting a 5250 application to display and receive information on mobile devices expands the application’s data gathering capabilities. It allows you to scan barcodes, obtain location coordinates, take photos or videos, and/or store data in a local database. Your applications can capture multiple data types, simplifying the data capture process and improving data quality. Why Should You Manage Your Spooled Files? Are you guilty of leaving spooled files unattended? Most IBM I administrators are. And this often leads to reports remaining on an output queue until someone mistakenly deletes or clears the queue in a bid to free up disk space. The way you handle spooled files directly impacts you and your end-user. It also presents a great modernization opportunity. With the right modernization tools, you can empower your team to effectively manage spool files from a browser. Why Should You Leverage Browser-based DB2 Query Tools? One of the most common DB2 tasks is retrieving information. DB2 query tools provide a unique solution for building and running queries against IBM i (System i, iSeries, or AS/400) DB2 databases from a browser. You can query DB2 tables, print the query results, and copy the results into applications like Microsoft Excel. In addition, you can create distributed SQL database queries for DB2 databases and any ODBC/JDBC accessible data sources. LANSA provides that do this for you. IBM i modernization tools Why Should You Automate Data Exchange Using Host Integration? Host integration solutions allow users to Integrate 5250 applications with web and line-of-business applications. This way, you can automate exchanging data with 5250 applications. Great host integration service providers leverage an application programming interface (API) that developers can use to write programs that automatically operate applications written with RPG or COBOL. With host integration, you can simulate a person’s actions entering data on screens in a 5250 application. This feature makes it possible to integrate existing 5250 applications with .NET, Java, or other 5250 applications. Are You Ready to Modernize Your IBM i Applications? In a pandemic-hit new economy, you must change at the same pace as your environment. Your customers and trading partners all require browser-based and mobilized solutions. Your modern users require modern interfaces. But what you need are the right tools to help you leverage the “6 cheats” discussed in this article to upgrade your IBM i solutions. LANSA’s aXes and RAMP provide all that’s necessary to implement these “6 cheats” and more. These tools allow you to quickly address the immediate needs of your employees, customers, and partners while giving you the flexibility to keep working toward your long-term goals. In IBM i Modernization

How to Modernize IBM i Applications

We often come across a situation where we need to know what kind of java JDK is installed on a particular server. It could be the JDK from Oracle or IBM or an Open JDK. I came across one such situation when connecting to IBM MQ channels over SSL from a client where java was installed. However, the java client program could not connect MQ channels despite all the MQ configurations and settings being correct at the client end and even on the server end. Later, based on the error codes and after some google search, I learned that if the java client is not running on IBM java, we need to set special arguments. After setting those up, it started working. Here I would like to mention a simple java command that will provide us the vendor details describing what vendors java implementation has been installed on that particular server. The command is simple but shows a lot of information that we would like to know in some other situations. Oracle JDK C:\Users\Yohan>java -XshowSettings:properties -version
Property settings:
awt.toolkit = sun.awt.windows.WToolkit
file.encoding = Cp1252
file.encoding.pkg = sun.io
file.separator = java.awt.graphicsenv = sun.awt.Win32GraphicsEnvironment
java.awt.printerjob = sun.awt.windows.WPrinterJob
java.class.path = .
java.class.version = 52.0
java.endorsed.dirs = C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60\lib\endorsed
java.ext.dirs = C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60\lib\ext
C:\Windows\Sun\Java\lib\ext
java.home = C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60
java.io.tmpdir = C:\Users\Yohan\AppData\Local\Tempjava.library.path = C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath
C:\Windows\Sun\Java\bin
C:\Windows\system32
C:\Windows
G:\YOHAN\oracle19\WINDOWS.X64_193000_db_home\bin
G:\YOHAN\OracleSoftware_19version\WINDOWS.X64_193000_db_home\bin
C:\Program Files\Git\cmd
C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath
C:\Windows\system32
C:\Windows
C:\Windows\System32\Wbem
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL Fabric 1.5 ^& MySQL Utilities 1.5C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin
C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.8.0_60/bin
G:\softwares\apache-maven-3.2.2/bin
C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\bin
C:\Program Fileodejs\ C:\Users\Yohan\AppData\Roaming\npm
    C:\Program Files\nodejs
    .
java.runtime.name = Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment
java.runtime.version = 1.8.0_60-b27
java.specification.name = Java Platform API Specification
java.specification.vendor = Oracle Corporation
java.specification.version = 1.8
java.vendor = Oracle Corporation
java.vendor.url = http://java.oracle.com/
java.vendor.url.bug = http://bugreport.sun.com/bugreport/
java.version = 1.8.0_60
java.vm.info = mixed mode
java.vm.name = Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM
java.vm.specification.name = Java Virtual Machine Specification
java.vm.specification.vendor = Oracle Corporation
java.vm.specification.version = 1.8
java.vm.vendor = Oracle Corporation
java.vm.version = 25.60-b23
line.separator = \r \n
os.arch = amd64
os.name = Windows 8.1
os.version = 6.3
path.separator = ;
sun.arch.data.model = 64
sun.boot.class.path = C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60\lib\resources.jar
    C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60\lib\rt.jar
    C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60\lib\sunrsasign.jar
    C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60\lib\jsse.jar
    C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60\lib\jce.jar
    C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60\lib\charsets.jar
    C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60\lib\jfr.jar
    C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60\classes
sun.boot.library.path = C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60\bin
sun.cpu.endian = little
sun.cpu.isalist = amd64
sun.desktop = windows
sun.io.unicode.encoding = UnicodeLittle
sun.java.launcher = SUN_STANDARD
sun.jnu.encoding = Cp1252
sun.management.compiler = HotSpot 64-Bit Tiered Compilers
sun.os.patch.level =
sun.stderr.encoding = cp437
sun.stdout.encoding = cp437
user.country = US
user.dir = C:\Users\Yohan
user.home = C:\Users\Yohan
user.language = en
user.name = Yohan
user.script =
user.timezone =
user.variant =
java version "1.8.0_60"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_60-b27)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.60-b23, mixed mode) IBM JDK G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\bin>java -XshowSettings:properties -version
Property settings:
awt.toolkit = sun.awt.windows.WToolkit
com.ibm.cpu.endian = little
com.ibm.jcl.checkClassPath =
com.ibm.oti.configuration = scar
com.ibm.oti.shared.enabled = false
com.ibm.oti.vm.bootstrap.library.path = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\bin\default
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\bin
com.ibm.oti.vm.library.version = 29
com.ibm.system.agent.path = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\bin
com.ibm.util.extralibs.properties =
com.ibm.vm.bitmode = 32
com.ibm.zero.version = 2
console.encoding = Cp437
file.encoding = Cp1252
file.encoding.pkg = sun.io
file.separator = ibm.signalhandling.rs = false
ibm.signalhandling.sigchain = true
ibm.signalhandling.sigint = true
ibm.system.encoding = Cp1252
java.awt.fonts =
java.awt.graphicsenv = sun.awt.Win32GraphicsEnvironment
java.awt.printerjob = sun.awt.windows.WPrinterJob
java.class.path = .
java.class.version = 52.0
java.compiler = j9jit29
java.endorsed.dirs = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\endorsed
java.ext.dirs = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ext
java.fullversion = 8.0.6.35 - pwi3280sr6fp35-20210714_01(SR6 FP35)
JRE 1.8.0 Windows 8.1 x86-32-Bit 20210622_7763 (JIT enabled, AOT enabled)
OpenJ9   - b1f3adb
OMR      - c2f4a18
IBM      - c24a144
java.home = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre
java.io.tmpdir = C:\Users\Yohan\AppData\Local\Tempjava.lang.stringBuffer.growAggressively = false
java.library.path = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\bin\default
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\bin
C:\Windows\SysWOW64
C:\Windows
G:\YOHAN\oracle19\WINDOWS.X64_193000_db_home\bin
G:\YOHAN\OracleSoftware_19version\WINDOWS.X64_193000_db_home\bin
C:\Program Files\Git\cmd
C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath
C:\Windows\system32
C:\Windows
C:\Windows\System32\Wbem
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL Fabric 1.5 ^& MySQL Utilities 1.5C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin
C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.8.0_60/bin
G:\softwares\apache-maven-3.2.2/bin
C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\bin
C:\Program Fileodejs\
C:\Users\Yohan\AppData\Roaming\npm
    C:\Program Files\nodejs
    .
java.runtime.name = Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment
java.runtime.version = 8.0.6.35 - pwi3280sr6fp35-20210714_01(SR6 FP35)
java.specification.name = Java Platform API Specification
java.specification.vendor = Oracle Corporation
java.specification.version = 1.8
java.vendor = IBM Corporation
java.vendor.url = http://www.ibm.com
java.version = 1.8.0_301
java.vm.info = JRE 1.8.0 Windows 8.1 x86-32-Bit 20210622_7763 (JIT enabled, AOT enabled)
OpenJ9   - b1f3adb
OMR      - c2f4a18
IBM      - c24a144
java.vm.name = IBM J9 VM
java.vm.specification.name = Java Virtual Machine Specification
java.vm.specification.vendor = Oracle Corporation
java.vm.specification.version = 1.8
java.vm.vendor = IBM Corporation
java.vm.version = 2.9
line.separator = \r
os.arch = x86
os.encoding = UTF8
os.name = Windows 8.1
os.version = 6.3
path.separator = ;
sun.arch.data.model = 32
sun.boot.class.path = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\bin\default\jclSC180\vm.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\se-service.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\math.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ibmorb.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ibmorbapi.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ibmcfw.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ibmpkcs.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ibmcertpathfw.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ibmjgssfw.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ibmjssefw.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ibmsaslfw.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ibmjcefw.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ibmjgssprovider.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ibmjsseprovider2.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\ibmcertpathprovider.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\xmldsigfw.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\xml.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\charsets.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\resources.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\rt.jar
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\lib\dataaccess.jar
sun.boot.library.path = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\bin\default
G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\jre\bin
sun.cpu.endian = little
sun.desktop = windows
sun.io.unicode.encoding = UnicodeLittle
sun.java.launcher = SUN_STANDARD
sun.jnu.encoding = Cp1252
user.country = US
user.dir = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\ibm\ibm_sdk80\bin
user.home = C:\Users\Yohan
user.language = en
user.name = Yohan
user.timezone =
user.variant =

java version "1.8.0_301"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 8.0.6.35 - pwi3280sr6fp35-20210714_01(SR6 FP35))
IBM J9 VM (build 2.9, JRE 1.8.0 Windows 8.1 x86-32-Bit 20210622_7763 (JIT enabled, AOT enabled)
OpenJ9   - b1f3adb
OMR      - c2f4a18
IBM      - c24a144)
JCL - 20210625_01 based on Oracle jdk8u301-b09 Open JDK G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\openjdk11\bin>java -XshowSettings:properties -version
Property settings:
awt.toolkit = sun.awt.windows.WToolkit
file.encoding = Cp1252
file.separator = java.awt.graphicsenv = sun.awt.Win32GraphicsEnvironment
java.awt.printerjob = sun.awt.windows.WPrinterJob
java.class.path =
java.class.version = 55.0
java.home = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\openjdk11
java.io.tmpdir = C:\Users\Yohan\AppData\Local\Tempjava.library.path = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\openjdk11\bin
C:\Windows\Sun\Java\bin
C:\Windows\system32
C:\Windows
G:\YOHAN\oracle19\WINDOWS.X64_193000_db_home\bin
G:\YOHAN\OracleSoftware_19version\WINDOWS.X64_193000_db_home\bin
C:\Program Files\Git\cmd
C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath
C:\Windows\system32
C:\Windows
C:\Windows\System32\Wbem
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL Fabric 1.5 ^& MySQL Utilities 1.5C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin
C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.8.0_60/bin
G:\softwares\apache-maven-3.2.2/bin
C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\bin
C:\Program Fileodejs\
 C:\Users\Yohan\AppData\Roaming\npm
    C:\Program Files\nodejs
    .
java.runtime.name = OpenJDK Runtime Environment
java.runtime.version = 11.0.12+7-LTS
java.specification.name = Java Platform API Specification
java.specification.vendor = Oracle Corporation
java.specification.version = 11
java.vendor = Red Hat, Inc.
java.vendor.url = https://access.redhat.com/
java.vendor.url.bug = https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi
java.vendor.version = 18.9
java.version = 11.0.12
java.version.date = 2021-07-20
java.vm.compressedOopsMode = Zero based
java.vm.info = mixed mode
java.vm.name = OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM
java.vm.specification.name = Java Virtual Machine Specification
java.vm.specification.vendor = Oracle Corporation
java.vm.specification.version = 11
java.vm.vendor = Red Hat, Inc.
java.vm.version = 11.0.12+7-LTS
jdk.debug = release
line.separator = \r \n
os.arch = amd64
os.name = Windows 8.1
os.version = 6.3
path.separator = ;
sun.arch.data.model = 64
sun.boot.library.path = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\openjdk11\bin
sun.cpu.endian = little
sun.cpu.isalist = amd64
sun.desktop = windows
sun.io.unicode.encoding = UnicodeLittle
sun.java.launcher = SUN_STANDARD
sun.jnu.encoding = Cp1252
sun.management.compiler = HotSpot 64-Bit Tiered Compilers
sun.os.patch.level =
sun.stderr.encoding = cp437
sun.stdout.encoding = cp437
user.country = US
user.dir = G:\YOHAN\softwares_1\openjdk11\bin
user.home = C:\Users\Yohan
user.language = en
user.name = Yohan
user.script =
user.timezone =
user.variant =
openjdk version "11.0.12" 2021-07-20 LTS
OpenJDK Runtime Environment 18.9 (build 11.0.12+7-LTS)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 18.9 (build 11.0.12+7-LTS, mixed mode) That’s it! Stay tuned for more stories :)

Oracle, IBM, or Open JDK? How to Know Java Vendor Details

In a sent on June 8th, IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna made a bold statement regarding the company’s policy toward facial recognition. “IBM no longer offers general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software,” says Krishna. letter to congress “IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency.” The company has halted all facial recognition development and disapproves of any technology that could lead to racial profiling. The Problem with Face Recognition The ethics of have been in question for years. However, there has been little to no movement in the enactment of official laws barring the technology. In fact, numerous law enforcement agencies actively use face recognition tech today. As an example, the has an entire section that details how they use facial recognition to catch fugitives, via a global database of images from 160 countries. face recognition technology INTERPOL website However, according to IBM, this technology may not yet be ready for use in law enforcement. “We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies,” says Krishna. “Artificial Intelligence is a powerful tool that can help law enforcement keep citizens safe. But vendors and users of Al systems have a shared responsibility to ensure that Al is tested for bias, particularity when used in law enforcement, and that such bias testing is audited and reported.” Bias in Modern Face Recognition Algorithms In December of 2019, The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a study which found large variations in accuracy across numerous contemporary face recognition algorithms. False Positives A false positive is when the system says that a face matches an entry in the database, when in fact they are not of the same person. The biggest glaring issue was that Oppositely, they were lowest among Eastern Europeans. The study found that “This effect is generally large, with a factor of 100 more false positives between countries.” false positive rates were much higher among those of African and Asian descent. Additionally, they found that false positives were higher in faces of women, the elderly, and young children. False Negatives A false negative is when the system says that a face does not match any entries in the database, when in fact it is in the database. This is especially dangerous at airports or border crossings. If the system checks individual faces against a criminal database, it could potentially allow dangerous individuals past a security check. The found that and lowest among Caucasians and African Americans. NIST study false negatives were highest among Asians and American Indians How Will IBM’s Boycott on Face Recognition Tech Affect the Industry? IBM has been at the forefront of machine learning development for a long time. Their natural language processing system, IBM Watson, is regarded as one of the best question-and-answer systems in the world. Aside from NLP, IBM has also done impressive work in Computer Vision with . Their advancements have garnered much respect in the AI community, and as a result their voice carries weight. Watson Visual Recognition Positive Impact of IBM’s Stance on Facial Recognition When such a large company takes a strong position on facial recognition, it is bound to make waves. In fact, IBM’s decision already seems to be causing a domino effect in the industry. Following IBM’s announcement, of their own saying they are halting sales of facial recognition technology to American police departments. Microsoft made an announcement On the other hand, other companies may take advantage of IBM halting facial recognition development.  There is now more room in the market for other companies and startups to move in. The worst case scenario is that nothing changes. Companies might continue developing face recognition algorithms to sell to law enforcement agencies, without worrying about the consequences. Final Thoughts Ideally, other developers will start investing more time and money to ensure that their algorithms are free of bias. Hopefully, more companies will take a step back to study the effects of emerging technologies before releasing them. IBM’s CEO believes that the biases that exist in modern facial recognition algorithms warrant a complete halt of their usage. They are calling on governments and vendors to ensure that their algorithms are free of bias before being implemented in vital areas of society, such as law enforcement. Many AI technologies are emerging faster than governments are able to regulate. Hopefully, IBM’s stance paves the way for other large tech companies and startups to think about ethics before advancement. Previously published on: https://lionbridge.ai/articles/why-ibm-decided-to-halt-all-facial-recognition-development/

How IBM's Stance on Face Recognition Will Affect the AI Industry

This is a tutorial about how we can implement IBM Cloud Storage in our Ruby on Rails 6 projects. We can upload images and manage these assets with Rails. In this tutorial we are going to build a simple app. We can upload a kitty photo and vote for that photo (this tutorial only includes the part of creating a new Rails app, configuring it to save our photo on the cloud, and showing it on an image tag; the design and the part for the photo will be included in the app but is not shown in this tutorial). You can find the app on this repository , and the live version here: . https://github.com/redacuve/my-cat-photos https://my-cat-photos.herokuapp.com/ Before we start, here is a little bit of background. I needed to use file storage for my project on Rails 6. At first Amazon S3 seemed fair to me. There is a lot of documentation about how to use AWS, but there was a problem. For a free account you need a valid credit card. I was looking for other options but they all needed credit cards (Azure, Google Cloud). Then I found IBM Cloud. For a free account you don’t need a credit card. IBM also upgraded their cloud. Now it is compatible with protocol S3 (Simple Storage Service) like Amazon Web Services. Thanks to this protocol you can save objects (they can be files, or in this case images) and every object is saved in a bucket (a container of objects). This is great because the previous cloud of IBM was tricky to use. Creating an account and making our Bucket The first part is, of course, going to the registration URL and registering. We can go to and create our account. https://cloud.ibm.com/registration We need to provide our email and password. Then click on Next. We need to look for our confirmation email. IBM will send us a code and we need to insert that code in the given field and click on Next. We need to add our personal information and click on . Create the account When we create our account, we can read some documentation and we can click on . Then we are going to see the dashboard. Accept I’m not going to explain all of the services that IBM includes, but feel free to check them out. There are some very good services. We can create our resource clicking on “Create resource”. We are going to search “Object Storage” and click on it. There we can see the features of our plan (lite and free). We can add the name of the resource (I will call it my-cat-photos; you can call it whatever you want). And then select “Create”. Now we are on the Cloud Object Storage section. We need to select “Create Bucket”. Here we can customize our bucket clicking on Custom Bucket. But a standard predefined bucket is fine, so we can select that one. it’s important to have a unique bucket name. We can see the location of the bucket (and we can change it) but the default location is OK. We can also see the service credentials, where we can add another one later. We are ready to click on “View Bucket Configuration”. IMPORTANT. Here there is information that we will need later. We need to look at it and save it for later. Specifically, we need: The region Bucket name Endpoint. We can find the first two on bucket details and the last one scrolling a little bit to endpoints and copy the public one. For me, these are the data: us-south Region: my-cat-photos-cos-standard-cpm Bucket name: s3.us-south.cloud-object-storage.appdomain.cloud Endpoint: Now we can obtain the credentials. For that we need to click on the “Service credentials” menu on the left. Here we are going to click on the “New Credential” button. We can name the credential as we want. But we need to click on advanced options. Here we need to toggle on the switch to include the HMAC credential to our credential and click on add. Then our credential will be created. We can expand the credential and copy the values: and access_key_id secret_access_key At this point, we need to have the following: Region Bucket Name Endpoint access_key_id secret_access_key. With this information we can go on to the second part of this tutorial. Creating our app with Rails 6 This is simple. We are going to create the app. It’s straightforward. We need a model for the photo, a controller with 3 methods (index, new, and create), and two views. One for creating the photo and another for displaying all photos (index and new), and of course our model. In this model we need a field of the string type, because here is where we are going to save our image name. We also need to update the routes. So, let’s start. We can open a terminal in Linux (we need rails 6, bundler, and yarn). And hit this command to create our app: $ rails new my-cat-photos Inside the new folder that Rails creates for us, we can create the photos controller. $ rails generate controller photos Then, we can create the model. $ rails generate model Photo title:text description:text votes: image:string float We can start with the model ‘app/models/photo.rb’ working only with the validation of the image. In this case we need to have the title, the description, and the image to be present so we can save the record. validates_presence_of , , < ApplicationRecord class Photo :title :description :image end Then move to  the controller and the methods ‘app/controllers/photos_controller.rb’, it’s simple: @photos = Photo.all @photo = Photo.new @photo = Photo.new(photo_params) @photo.save
      flash[ ] = redirect_to root_path render private params. ( ).permit( , , , , ) < ApplicationController class PhotosController def index end def new end def create if :success 'Photo Created successfully' else :new end end def photo_params require :photo :title :description :votes :image :image_cache end end With the controller done, we can update our routes ‘config/routes.rb’. It only has three routes. The index route is the main route of our project. Rails.application.routes.draw root get , post , do # For details on the DSL available within this file, see https://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html 'photos#index' '/upload' to: 'photos#new' '/photos' to: 'photos#create' end Now we can work with the View. First the new view ‘app/views/photos/new.html.erb’ to create the photo. It's important to create the hidden field called _cache at the end. This is so if validation fails, we don't need to search the photo again. That's why this field is included in the “photo_params” function of the controller. We also need to put in the form multipart: true as an option of the HTML because we need to have the file uploaded in our form. <%= %> <% %> <%= %> <% %> <%= %> <% %> <% %> <%= %> <%= %> <%= %> <%= %> <%= %> <%= %> <%= %> <%= %> <%= %> <%= %> <% %> form_with( @photo, , { }) model: local: true html: multipart: true do |form| @photo.errors.any? if < > div < > h2 pluralize(@photo.errors.count, ) "error" </ > h2 < > ul @photo.errors.full_messages.each do |message| < > li message </ > li end </ > ul </ > div end < = > div class "field" form.label :title form.text_field :title </ > div < = > div class "field" form.label :description form.text_field :description </ > div < = > div class "field" form.label :votes form.number_field :votes </ > div < = > div class "field" form.label , :image 'Upload the foto' form.file_field :image </ > div form.hidden_field :image_cache < = > div class "actions" form.submit "Upload Your photo" </ > div end And the index view ‘app/views/photos/index.html.erb’ is simple. It only shows all the fields for every photo. At the end we have our link to the upload route (where there’s the form to upload our image). <% %> <%= %> <%= %> <%= %> <%= %> <% %> <%= %> @photos.each do |photo| < > ul < > li photo.title </ > li < > li photo.description </ > li < > li photo.votes </ > li < > li photo.image </ > li </ > ul end link_to , upload_path "Create new" Here is a simple app (don’t forget to run the migrations). We can create a photo and see all of the photos created, but if we tried to see something similar to an image it’s not going to work. We cannot see any photo, photo name, or URL. Instead in the photo.image field, we can see something similar to this We are going to solve this with the IBM Cloud. For this, we need to use three gems: #<ActionDispatch::Http::UploadedFile:0x00007fb0651ff3c0> Is a gem that simplifies for us the upload of files in ruby applications. We can see the readme here: . Carrierwave: https://github.com/carrierwaveuploader/carrierwave This gem will help us upload the file to the cloud. It uses the S3 protocol. IBM used the same protocol, so we are going to be able to upload and retrieve the images. The readme is here . Fog-aws: https://github.com/fog/fog-aws With this gem we can resize images before uploading, and we are going to use this to upload a thumb version of our main image. Here is the repository . MiniMagick: https://github.com/minimagick/minimagick We can put these gems in our gemfile. gem , gem gem # My Gems # Uploader 'carrierwave' '~> 2.0' # Help with Ibm Cloud (aws configuration) 'fog-aws' # image resizing 'mini_magick' We proceed to install these gems with this command: $ bundle install Configuring Carrierwave and Fow-aws This is the best part of this tutorial. For the configuration of carrierwave, fog-aws, and minimagick, to work with IBM Cloud, we need to have this: Region. Bucket Name. Endpoint. access_key_id. secret_access_key. The first step to do is generate the uploader for the image, the name of the uploader is up to you but I’m going to call it photo. $ rails generate uploader photo This command will generate a file called photo_uploader.rb inside the folder ‘app/uploaders’, this is a configuration file. Here we are going to change some things. Comment the storage :file to storage :fog (to use with our fow-aws gem). Uncomment the extension_whitelist function to only allow uploading images. Uncomment the version :thumb. This will use mini_magick to create a thumb version of our file. To use this gem we need to uncomment this line: ‘include CarrierWave::MiniMagick’. So our file ‘app/uploaders/photo_uploader.rb’ needs to look like this: CarrierWave::MiniMagick
  storage version process [ , ] < CarrierWave::Uploader:: class PhotoUploader Base include :fog def store_dir "uploads/ / / " #{model. .to_s.underscore} class #{mounted_as} #{model.id} end :thumb do resize_to_fit: 50 50 end def extension_whitelist %w(jpg jpeg gif png) end end After we configure our uploader we need to add it to the model. This is simple. We need to mount the uploader to one field on our model. That field needs to be a field of the string type (that's why when we generate our model we made a field called image of the string type) and attach the uploader; in this case, it’s the PhotoUploader. mount_uploader , PhotoUploader
  validates_presence_of , , < ApplicationRecord class Photo :image :title :description :image end Our next step is to configure fog (that line that we uncomment storage :fog). For that we need to create an initializer for fog. This file needs to be called carrierwave.rb and needs to be inside the folder ‘config/initializers’. So we are going to paste this placeholder code in our file ‘config/initializers/carrierwave.rb’. CarrierWave.configure config.fog_credentials = { , , , , , , }
  config.fog_directory  = config.fog_public     = config.fog_attributes = { } do |config| provider: 'AWS' # required aws_access_key_id: 'xxx' # required unless using use_iam_profile aws_secret_access_key: 'yyy' # required unless using use_iam_profile use_iam_profile: true # optional, defaults to false region: 'eu-west-1' # optional, defaults to 'us-east-1' host: 's3.example.com' # optional, defaults to nil endpoint: 'https://s3.example.com:8080' # optional, defaults to nil 'name_of_bucket' # required false # optional, defaults to true cache_control: "public, max-age= " #{ .days.to_i} 365 # optional, defaults to {} end Before configuring this code, we need to store our credentials in a safe place (if we upload the code with the credentials it can be very dangerous because in a public repo everyone can steal the credentials and that is a bad thing). So we are going to use Credentials. Credentials on Rails 6 Using credentials with Rails 6 is so simple. We have a file called credentials.yml.enc inside the folder ‘config’. This file is encrypted with our ‘master.key’ located in the same folder. That's why our master.key file always needs to be ignored for git. One use of the master.key (between many others) is to decrypt our credentials.yml.enc and use the information that is inside (generally used to store credentials of APIs). To access, decrypt, and edit credentials.yml.enc first we need our favorite editor (for example: gedit, emacs, geany, kate, kwrite, vim, mousepad, etc.) and use the name of the editor to edit the information. I’m going to use nano because I love it. We need to run this command in our terminal: $ EDITOR=’nano’ rails credentials:edit Now our favorite editor will display the information of credentials.yml.enc. Here we can simply uncomment these lines: # aws: # access_key_id: 123 # secret_access_key: 345 And add our keys without quotes, so its something like this aws:
  access_key_id: e5e4f3363d2dbd1aebf13630a26078d5
  secret_access_key: b083b1387037b87454298fc1067404b71feec88b5d945d25 We can save our file, and it will be encrypted. Now we can access that data in our Rails app. We just need to call: NameOfTheApp::Application [:keyToFetch] .credentials .nameOfTheCredential If we forget the name of the application we can find it here: ‘config/application.rb’. If I want to access key id for the name of the module (in my case is MyCatPhotos) I need this lines. MyCatPhotos::Application [:access_key_id]

MyCatPhotos::Application [:secret_access_key] .credentials .aws .credentials .aws Finish configuration Now it’s time to configure the initiliazer ‘config/initializers/carrierwave.rb’. We need to put the aws_secret_key_id and aws_secret_access_key from our encrypted credentials. use_iam_profile needs to be false (it’s the default). region is the region of our bucket. host will be nil (it’s the default). endpoint will be our endpoints. These are the parts of fog credentials. The last thing is the config.fog_directory. Here we need to put our bucket name and leave everything with its defaults. So our code needs to look like this: CarrierWave.configure config.fog_credentials = { , MyCatPhotos::Application.credentials.aws[ ], MyCatPhotos::Application.credentials.aws[ ], , , , }
    config.fog_directory  = config.fog_public     = config.fog_attributes = { } do |config| provider: 'AWS' aws_access_key_id: :access_key_id aws_secret_access_key: :secret_access_key use_iam_profile: false region: 'us-south' host: nil endpoint: 'https://s3.us-south.cloud-object-storage.appdomain.cloud' 'my-cat-photos-cos-standard-cpm' false cache_control: "public, max-age= " #{ .days.to_i} 365 end and we are almost done!. Every time we upload an image it’s going to be saved in our cloud. So to retrieve the image and show it on our page we need to access the property URL, and this will be the source of an image tag. In Rails, we can achieve that with <%= image_tag photo.image.url %> So we modify our index view a little bit, ‘app/views/photos/index.html.erb’, to show the image, if it exists. <% %> <%= %> <%= %> <%= %> <%= %> <% %> @photos.each do |photo| < > ul < > li photo.title </ > li < > li photo.description </ > li < > li photo.votes </ > li image_tag photo.image.url !photo.image.url. ? if nil </ > ul end Now our project can show the images that we upload to the cloud. We can also inspect the url of our images and they are created by default with carrierwave and fow. Looks something like this: https://my-cat-photos-cos-standard-cpm.s3.us-south.cloud-object-storage.appdomain.cloud/uploads/photo/image/1/bebudito.jpg?X-Amz-Expires=600&X-Amz-Date=20200623T205500Z&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=dbd1aebf108e4f33b3630a2e5d5363d2%2F20200623%2Fus-south%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=723299b8ee0e077a7c70265673825873002ed71838ea2ed28e8a9dc2066ad49f If we can retrieve the thumb version it’s with photo.image.thumb.url. This is the end of this tutorial. We left out a little bit of design and functionalities (like the voting). If you like I can make another tutorial about design and functionalities. I didn’t do it here because this tutorial is too long, but you can see the full app on my . repo

How To Upload and Display Images Trough IBM Cloud with Rails 6

IBM i has evolved overtime and organizations are modernizing their existing legacy systems to use the latest updates in IBM i. It is generally considered as old, obsolete and not trending just because it is in existence since 30 years. But replacing IBM i with some other technology is not worth it, instead IT teams must plan to modernize the existing IBM i systems of their organization. Now, modernizing is not as easy as it looks because the confusion here is which approach to choose among numerous options to update IBM i. The way you modernize your IBM I systems will decide the return you get after the updates. Some of the recommendations include unfolding the data and logic, improving the user interface and the software development process. Let’s consider the three scenarios 1. Unfolding the data and logic As we all know IBM i is secure, reliable and robust therefore, its integration with the eCommerce system always delivers benefits. While the eCommerce system looks after the selling of products, the IBM i takes care of the safe transactions. How can you integrate IBM i with e-commerce? Web Services IBM i has the capability to create web services and host them within the system. This helps in cost cutting as you do not have to buy any separate system or perform any extra installation
. IBM Web Sphere MQ Series It is another option to integrate IBM i with eCommerce. It is inexpensive and results into great benefits. IBM Web Sphere MQ is already there on the IBM i and optionally on the external system. Its responsibility is to provide safe and secure message delivery between the two systems. Mule Enterprise Service Bus This acts as a middle ware between two systems to carry out the process transactions between the IBM i and e-commerce systems. It is more robust and contains more features than the other options. These tools can be used to modernize IBM i and create a new system that is perfect as an e-commerce platform. 2. Modernizing the user interface When we hear about IBM i what comes to our mind is green screen. It can be easily modernized and can lead to increased productivity because working on green screen tends to be monotonous. One of the simple solutions is re-facing which means to transform the green screen into a GUI. Re-facing makes the interface quite user friendly and gives a browser-based look and feel without any programming changes. The common green screen can be enhanced by using RPG Open Access to separate the business logic from the UI, allowing the same business logic to be used on multiple UIs. Organizations which help you modernize your IBM I system’s interface are Profound Logic, Programmers.io etc. 3. Software Development Process Modernization mainly depends on updating your approach to development. You can choose this step in order to enhance the existing system. Here are some recommendations: Use new version of RPG, i.e. RPG FreeFormat coding language. It is easier to use as well as increases the productivity of your development team Adopt new tools such as IBM Rational Developer for i. It is used to provide common development and management tools across operating systems and languages. It replaces older versions of tools used for development with newer ones
. Why Modernization is important? Organizations switch to modernization only when they undergo certain incidents like legacy system failure, serious business impact etc. The delay is mostly because companies do not want to invest in technology or think ‘if the work is going on why we should bother’. This thought, later has serious repercussions. Therefore, it is recommended to modernize your existing IBM i system to latest versions before it impacts your business. Modernization does not just happen, you need a proper plan, resources and technology to complete the same. Besides this, you need to have a robust business goal to achieve the same, as results depend on it. Many organizations go for modernizing the existing system as compared to switching on to entirely new systems as it is more cost effective and also helps their developers to learn faster. They can expand the value of their IBM i investments by modernizing host-based applications to meet today’s user expectations. Programmers provides extensive modernization solutions enabling you to harness the power of IBM i systems, to add new user experiences, workflows, methodologies without any impact to the source code. Organizations are struggling today to maintain their IBM i applications as IT workers with this expertise are mostly retiring. They take their deep knowledge of these systems with them. For businesses that are completely dependent on IBM i-based systems, the resulting skills shortage can prevent them from advancing these systems to provide the usability and functionality that are required today. There is a huge requirement of changing or adapting quickly to the evolving technology so as to keep pace with the emerging customer requirements. How can Agencies help? As you know, today’s B2B and B2C users have all gone digital. Their entire business is now handled online, therefore, they expect digital experiences that provide real-time information. For instance-on the go information about account, orders placed, inventory etc. All this is now available to them on their fingertips, they do not want to login into their systems time and again to have a look at these reports and status.  If you don’t provide them with suitable technology, someone else will. To grab this opportunity and modernize their existing systems Programmers has solutions to make it possible for you.  Turn IBM i workflows and data from any green-screen application, web service, or data source into RESTful APIs. Hire best expertise to integrate the discrete functionality into new or existing web and mobile applications.

How To Modernize IBM i System

How to Build a Multi-Lingual Chatbot with IBM Translation API and Ably

IBM and blockchain consulting firm, Chainyard, have joined forces to create a new blockchain network designed to simplify supply chain management for enterprises. Today the two firms announced the launch of the “Trust Your Supplier” (TYS) network, a system built on the IBM Blockchain platform that is designed to improve supplier qualification, validation, onboarding and life cycle information management. “The validation and onboarding of new suppliers is a critical pain point for virtually any company that relies on a robust supply chain to conduct business,” David Post, Managing Director, IBM Blockchain Ventures, told me. “By moving this process onto the blockchain, we’re taking much of that burden and shifting it to the network, where it can be done more securely and efficiently. This will enable companies across a vast range of industries to recoup substantial time and resources.” IBM currently works with over 18,500 suppliers globally and will begin using the Trust Your Supplier network during the next few months, initially onboarding 4,000 of its own North American suppliers. Leading enterprises have already signed on to work alongside IBM across the TYS network to solve challenges related to supplier information management. These companies include Anheuser-Busch InBev, GlaxoSmithKline, Lenovo, Nokia, Schneider Electric and Vodafone. “Blockchain has the ability to completely transform how companies onboard and manage their supplier network for the future,” said Renee Ure, Chief Supply Chain Officer for Lenovo’s Data Center Group. “Through Trust Your Supplier, both buyers and suppliers will the see the procurement benefits of blockchain through reductions in cost, complexity and speed.” IBM procurement projects a 70 to 80 percent reduction in the cycle time to onboard new suppliers, with a potential 50 percent reduction in administrative costs within its own business. Blockchain: Creating A Digital Identity For Suppliers According to , blockchain will support the global movement and tracking of $2 trillion worth of goods and services annually by 2023. This is because traditional methods of managing suppliers often involve cumbersome manual processes, making it difficult for companies to verify identities and track documents like ISO certifications, bank account information, tax certifications, and certificates of insurance. Gartner One of the primary benefits a blockchain-based network can ensure is the creation of a permissioned-based data-sharing ecosystem. Applying blockchain technology to supply chain management allows for an immutable audit trail, creating frictionless connectivity across supply chains, while reducing the risk of fraud and errors. Specifically, the Trust Your Supplier network works by creating a digital passport for supplier identity on the blockchain, allowing companies to share information with any permissioned buyer on the network. This will help reduce the time and cost associated with qualifying, validating and managing new suppliers. “Working with IBM and Chainyard on this blockchain initiative represents a great opportunity for Nokia to further enhance our suppliers’ experience and optimize the onboarding process,” said Sanjay Mehta, Vice President Procurement, Nokia. “Using the latest technology to address a classical challenge will be of benefit for everyone, and further increase the speed of using innovative solutions.” New business opportunities among both suppliers and buyers is created here as well, since third-party validators, such as Dun & Bradstreet, Ecovadis and RapidRatings, provide outside verification or audit capabilities directly on the network. Moreover, the can connect to the Trust Your Supplier blockchain using open industry programming interfaces for access to existing verified supplier information. This means that the TYS network can connect existing procurement business networks by relaying necessary supplier data required for exchanging purchase orders and invoices. In turn, suppliers on the TYS network no longer need to enter this information in multiple different systems. IBM Supply Chain Business Network According to IBM, the Trust Your Supplier network is currently in limited availability with existing participants. The company has plans for commercial availability in Quarter 3 of 2019.

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