IBM's Information Archive

Just thought I'd throw this out there.  We installed IBM's Information Archive in February and it is a very powerful tool for us.  In a nutshell, Information Archive (IA) is a SAN that attaches via fibre to our System i.  We use it exclusively as tier 2 storage for our ECM images but it performs like tier 1 storage. 

IA has everything built in to protect our images.  But unlike WORM optical devices, we can implement our retention policies to purge data from IA and tape!  A big thanks goes out to Genus LLC and Ron Henkhaus from IBM for their roles in our implementation.

Locking down our System i from programmers for purpose of segragation of duties.

In our initial meeting to discuss how we shall go about the lock down I will share why we need/want to keep programmers off the production box.  Before we lock down programmer access, we need to provide them with all the tools they need to do their job like they do today.  Next, I will ask the following to start the "teaming" process:

• Why do programmers need access to production environments?
• Should we have all programmers log what they do on production environments to know where we are?
• How often do programmers have to find answers or information from production data for end users?
• Can we duplicate errors, both batch and interactive?

This process is not going to be by way of dictatorship but by way of committe.  The purpose of having a team to decide the policy and process by which we perform the lockdown is to provide ownership and influence to the programmers.  This team will consist of CIO, CTO, Infrastructure, and a developer from each business unit.  Are there other items I should discuss with them at our first meeting?