August 31, 2026
Traditional high availability software that relies on real-time replication of journals is great at protecting against conventional threats, such as natural disasters or server failures. However, HA software is not so good at protecting against emerging threats, such as ransomware. That’s a weakness that Precisely is looking to address with the upcoming launch of MIMIX 11, which adds a new continuous data protection (CDP) capability.
While the IBM i operating system is generally protected from malware designed for Windows and Linux-based systems, it’s not immune from all attacks, including ransomware attacks. If left exposed on the Internet, the Integrated File System (IFS) appears like any old Windows file share and inherits many of its vulnerabilities. And while the Db2 for i database itself stores files in the traditional QSYS.LIB library, Db2 files can also be corrupted in ransomware attacks through unprotected connections to the IFS, compromised ODBC/JDBC connectors, and other attack vectors.
There have been many documented ransomware attacks on IBM i shops over the past 10 years, when the threat began to emerge. Organizations facing encrypted files are given the choice of paying a ransom to obtain a decryption key or rebuilding their systems from scratch. If a customer had a recent backup stored in an offsite location, that could make their decision easier.
The reason that HA software doesn’t help in a ransomware attack is due to the nature of HA software itself. Since modern HA software typically uses IBM’s remote journaling technology to instantly replicate any changes made to a source database file to a target database file, it simply replicates the attack. So if an attacker manages to encrypt important business files on the source system, the HA software will dutifully replicate that encryption action on the target system.
Source: Precisely
This vulnerability has been well understood for years, but little has been done about it, since it would require a fundamental change in how HA software works. The folks at Precisely say they are making that change with the upcoming release of Assure MIMIX 11, which is due later this year.
In a blog post last month, Precisely product marketing manager Heli Vyas explains what the new CDP functionality will do.
“CDP gives IBM i teams the ability to recover to an acceptable point in time before corruption or malicious activity occurred – not just the most recent synchronized state,” Vyas wrote. “CDP creates a recovery path that isn’t dependent on the most recent state of the environment – which is exactly the capability you need when that state can’t be trusted.”
Vyas wrote that Phase one of this new ransomware protection capability will “lay the groundwork for more granular recovery options to follow.” Beyond that, Precisely hasn’t shared much about how this new functionality will work, or whether it impacts or degrades the traditional HA capability in any way. We’ll keep an eye out for more details on how this works.
MIMIX 11 will bring several other new capabilities, including more automated housekeeping, a new “migration mode,” and new AI-guided assistance.
The automated housekeeping capabilities will “handle underlying journal complexity on behalf of the administrator,” according to Vyas. When database files are added or changed, it requires changes made in MIMIX to account for the changing journals. Precisely said it will cut down on this “ongoing maintenance burden” in MIMIX 11.
The new migration mode, meanwhile, will improve the behavior of MIMIX when IBM i shops are in the middle of a migration. These migrations often involve long synchronization efforts over networks, which is something that MIMIX has supported for a while. The software will now disable a number of operations that only work when a data group is in a steady state, which will result in a “cleaner, more focused synchronization experience,” Vyas wrote.
Precisely has been adding AI-guided assistance to MIMIX for a while. With version 11, the company will bolster the generative AI-based recommendations made from the MIMIX knowledge base by getting them in front of the user when it counts.
According to Vyas, MIMIX 11 will surface context-specific AI-generated guidance “at the moment it’s needed” when an error, exception, or other message occurs. “Getting contextual guidance into the product itself reduces dependency on tribal knowledge and makes the platform more accessible to a broader team,” Vyas wrote.
MIMIX is Precisely’s flagship HA software for IBM i products. Precisely, which merged with Vision in 2017 when it was still called Syncsort (it changed its name to Precisely in 2020), owns has two other IBM i-based HA solutions on offer, including Assure iTera HA, a remote journaling-based HA offering aimed at small and midsized businesses (SMBs), and Assure QuickEDD HA, which is not based on remote journaling and is targeted at SMBs and enterprises alike.
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