Re: Why do companies partition their Power Servers?

On 6/10/2014 9:29 AM, Nathan Andelin wrote:

PCI compliance might be one good reason.

If you're referring to PCI requirements section 9 - "Cardholder data must

never be stored on a server connected to the Internet" - that doesn't
preclude you from running HTTP servers on a database server. Would anyone
suggest that running QZDASOINIT jobs and ODBC/JDBC interfaces on an IBM i
server are more secure?

No, PCI 9 means storing cardholder data on a network segment which is
different and separate from your Internet IP address. And to make the
interfaces even more secure, you might use an Apache HTTP reverse proxy on
a Linux server, forward traffic to your IBM i HTTP server - which would be
unquestionably PCI compliant.

PCI section 9 is very much like HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley: it is what
corporate legal says it is. And since corporate legal doesn't know much
about computing, they tend to get a consultant to render an opinion.
Since the consultant is afraid of being legally on the hook for bad
advice, they apply the most conservative interpretation imaginable.

So while I personally agree with your assessment of PCI section 9, I
face summary termination for violating corporate policy in this matter.
--buck