Field Report: Data encryption -- can you guess what it is yet?

Richard Field

Encryption gets talked about quite a lot and an increasing number of businesses now find themselves placing it, along with a whole raft of other compliance issues, as another hot topic must-have. But what are the options for encryption and how do you go about it? And in the IBM i world, what can you encrypt?

There are two main areas where encryption arises, disk encryption and backup encryption. The first involves encrypting data ‘at rest’ on disk in either a complete file or specific fields. Backup encryption, predictably enough, involves encrypting data saved to tape cartridges.

Disk encryption is perhaps the simpler of the two. At i 6.1, data can be encrypted where it sits on the disk. There are third-party tools that allow encryption of specific fields in a file (where credit card numbers are stored, for example) but IBM’s own functionality can encrypt the whole file if needed.

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Scottish colleges get with the programme to teach i skills

Seamus Quinn

Cumbernauld College and Ayr College in Scotland have joined the IBM Power Systems Academic Initiative and are offering courses on the i.

Over 1000 i-qualified graduates have been produced by the programme in Europe so far, according to Big Blue. Cumbernauld College near Glasgow is offering both operator and administrator courses as well as planning a post-graduate course next year in both i and AIX skills.

The two further education colleges' involvement comes after the Scottish Qualifications Authority first sanctioned System i certification as an academic qualification in its own right in 2007. In England, Barnfield College in Bedfordshire and Suffolk New College are among nine institutions now listed as teaching i skills on IBM's Academic Initiative website.

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Firms seek to sharpen i skills on-site

Seamus Quinn

On-site training courses are gaining popularity at System i sites as firms seek to sharpen skills during the recession.

Budget cuts have had a huge effect on IT training but Simon Lewis, IBM enablement manager for Power i, storage and networks training in the UK, says: "It’s starting to pick up now and most of the enquiries at the moment are companies wanting us to come to their location and run private classes. I think the reason for that is probably down to travel restrictions. If they’re going to send maybe two or three people on a course in London, it means that they’re out of the office for that amount of time, they’ve got to have other people covering for them and they’ve got travel and hotels as well as the price of the course."

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Events: LANSA Powers Up Windows interoperability; last call for iAdvantages

Seamus Quinn

LANSA says that it has already signed up 50 British i users to a free one-day conference on Windows interoperability in December.

The appropriately-named "Power Up Your IBM i with LANSA and Microsoft" free one-day event takes place on December 4 at Microsoft’s executive briefing centre in London. Its organisers say that the event will demonstrate how business value is gained by mixing the two environments and how LANSA products like iFusion can help. System iNetwork's expert on Windows interoperability Mike Otey will be keynote speaker.

Martin Fincham, LANSA’s chief operating officer, will discuss his firm's product roadmap, several case studies will be presented and there's a promise of free drinks at the close of play. For further lowdown and registration, see the event's website.

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