• Continuous Improvement: Within Reach, Without Fear

  October 18, 2017 Dan Burger

  There are relatively few companies with end-to-end operations that actually achieve the goal of continuous improvement. It tends to be more of a slogan than a policy for most. And it’s easily recognizable with a glimpse of the IT department. Cutting edge isn’t mandatory, but the stakes have never been higher for those that lag or, through inaction or other poor decisions, make costly mistakes — some quickly realized and others of the ticking time bomb variety.

  Keeping an IT department moving forward is no sure bet, but it helps when the company commitment to persistent progress is more than …

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• Visual Data Exploration Comes To Db2 Web Query

  October 18, 2017 Alex Woodie

  The IBM i server isn’t known as an analytics powerhouse — transaction processing is more its thing. But with the latest release of Db2 WebQuery for i, customers are getting visualization capabilities that will let them explore their data in powerful new ways.

  IBM announced Db2 Web Query for i version 2.2.1 on October 3 as part of its Technology Refreshes (TRs) for IBM i 7.2 and 7.3. While the release number would seem to indicate a minor update, the improvements are actually quite substantial, says Robert Bestgen, IBM’s product development manager for Db2 Web Query.

  “We kind of moved …

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• Why Setting IT Priorities Is So Important

  October 18, 2017 Alex Woodie

  During the Great Recession, IT professionals around the world were tasked with greater responsibilities while simultaneously working with lower budgets, a pattern that has since been ingrained as the “new normal” in tech. Now, according to a report from technology solutions provider CDW, that ongoing budget crunch is manifesting itself in new ways as organizations struggle to effectively deal with a host of IT priorities.

  In its “Power of Priority” report, CDW surveyed 800 IT decision makers from eight industries to gain a greater understanding of how organizations are prioritizing, strategizing, and executing against their IT goals. It also analyzed …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, October 18

  October 18, 2017 Dan Burger

  It doesn’t take a detective to find the visual and behavioral clues that connect mainframe and IBM i professionals and their IT environments. There’s an aging workforce, a skills depletion, and a deepening concern about modernization. Author Don Denoncourt has been knee-deep (perhaps deeper) in both environments and he has some advice about steps that need to be taken. See the top story in Monitor this week.

  Also in Monitor this week . . . taking a hard look at your IT deficiencies, finding IT leaders among C-level executives, and paying more attention to the future of mobile computing. Keep …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 41

  October 18, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  We have taken advantage of the lull in PTFs to restructure the IBM i PTF Guide. Check out the “Prior” worksheet, it is designed to let you know what the latest Cume (cumulative PTF patch stack) was on several prior releases. In many cases, these are available for order from IBM.

  We have also added a “Links” worksheet. It is a collection for the links we have found useful over the years. If you have any suggestions about what should be added for the benefit of all, send them in and we’ll add them on.

  There is one broken …

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• Java On IBM i: A Developing Situation

  October 16, 2017 Dan Burger

  IBM i developers in the Java camp have some changes in store as Java 9 replaces Java 8. First of all, there will be no IBM i support for Java 9. This break in tradition may come as a surprise for many IBM i developers, but not for those Java-holics who have been closely watching the Java 9 news. There are a couple of reasons IBM has decided not to support Java 9 on IBM i, even though IBM currently supports Java 7 and Java 8 and it has supported every Java release seemingly since Moby Dick was a minnow. …

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• IBM Unveils LTO-8 Tape Drives

  October 16, 2017 Alex Woodie

  The not-so-long wait for the latest Linear Tape-Open gear is finally over, as members of the LTO Consortium last week unveiled their latest drives capacity of storing 30 TB of compressed data. Among the first consortium members unveiling product was IBM, which announced its first two LTO-8 Ultrium drives.

  LTO-8 drives can store up to 12 TB of data on a single LTO-8 cartridge, and move data at rates up to 360 MB/sec. With 2.5-to-1 compression turned on, the capacity of LTO-8 drives jumps to 30 TB while the transfer rates increases to 900 MB/sec. That corresponds to a 100 …

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• Guru: Error Handling in SQL PL, Part 2

  October 16, 2017 Ted Holt

  In the previous episode of this exciting, action-packed series, I introduced you to the exception-handling methods that IBM has built into SQL PL. The cliff-hanger has lasted four months now, much too long. It’s high time I explained RESIGNAL, as I promised I would. I will explain SIGNAL while I’m at it.

  Before I start the syntax lesson, I need to explain a bit of philosophy. I use the hit-the-ball-drag-Harry method of exception-handling when I embed SQL in RPG and COBOL programs. That is, I execute a command, test the SQL state, execute a command, test the SQL state, …

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• Mad Dog 21/21: Big Blue’s Big Beast Boost

  October 16, 2017 Hesh Wiener

  In July, IBM announced another generation of mainframes. At first, IBM will be able to sell every box it can build. This could continue for a year or more. During this sales surge, IBM’s hardware revenue should rise. So, too, will intake from mainframe systems software and middleware. IBM’s services operations should enjoy a nice lift as well. IBM’s employees may feel more secure, its shareholders more confident, its customers pleased. Even curmudgeonly commentators will produce more prose of praise than pans.

  In the past, IBM has stimulated forward migration of its mainframe base by pricing bundles in attractive …

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• Sundry October Power Systems Announcements

  October 16, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  We had been hearing for quite some time that there might be some Power Systems announcements in October, and lo and behold there have been. They are just not what we had expected out of Big Blue.

  The big news was not related to IBM i, which just had its Technology Refresh announcements two weeks ago for the 7.2 and 7.3 releases, but rather a big update for IBM’s AIX Unix variant as well as for the PowerVM hypervisor, the PowerSC security tools, and the PowerVC implementation of the OpenStack cloud controller, which does support IBM i systems. There was …

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• IBM Updates Cloud Backup Solution

  October 11, 2017 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops are getting new options for backing up data to the cloud from IBM, which last week announced an update to the Cloud Storage Solutions as part of its Technology Refresh for IBM i 7.2 and 7.3. Representatives from IBM and Rocket Software, which actually developed the product, clued us in on the news.

  It was almost exactly one year ago when IBM first unveiled Cloud Storage Solutions for i. The offering — which was mostly developed by Rocket Software and really is just one solution — enabled IBM i customers to back up their IFS data to …

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• Agilysys And IBM i Still A Gaming Industry Force

  October 11, 2017 Dan Burger

  It’s both legacy and legendary. In Las Vegas, the gaming capital of the world, the Lodging Management System (LMS) by Agilysys has been a fixture for decades in many of the largest casinos and resorts in the town with more than 150,000 hotel rooms. Like a three-day weekend in Sin City, the key to LMS is endurance. The gaming industry made LMS what it is today and to a large degree LMS made the gaming industry what it is today, at least with regard to what IT can do for a rapidly expanding business. And the combination of LMS and …

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• IBM i Slow to Catch On, But What Does It Mean?

  October 11, 2017 Alex Woodie

  It’s been nine-and-a-half years since IBM rebranded the name of the platform from System i to IBM i on Power Systems. However, many people in the IBM midrange community call the platform by something other than its official name, according to anecdotal evidence and Web search data. Is this evidence of continued name confusion, or is there something else at play?

  IBM has been running from the iSeries name since its 2006 rebranding exercise, which replaced iSeries with System i. That name went by the wayside in April 2008, when IBM announced the Power Systems platform and the merger of …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, October 11

  October 11, 2017 Dan Burger

  Prior to the latest Technology Refresh announcements, which were just released yesterday, Tim Rowe, business architect for application development and systems management for IBM i, reviewed what was added to Access Client Solutions earlier this year. He also commented on the partnership between IBM and HelpSystems that resulted in development work on several IBM products being farmed out to the IBM i software vendor.

  Inside Monitor this week, you’ll also find articles pertaining to open source database trends, what’s holding back IT hiring, Java technology on IBM i, and IBM’s leading role in Blockchain advancements. The calendar of events has …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 40

  October 11, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  Some weeks there is a lot of PTF action, and there is a lot to say about it, and some weeks there ain’t quite so much but you need to pay attention anyway. That’s why we encourage you to create your own special PTF Patch Wednesday, which means taking a look at the IBM i PTF Guide each morning when it comes out in The Four Hundred and figuring out how to get your system current.

  Getting it current and keeping it current is the best way to keep your IBM i system safe and tuned up. The further you …

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• RDi Jumps Aboard The TR Train

  October 9, 2017 Dan Burger

  What is it going to take to convince IBM i developers that RDi, a modern Eclipse-based development environment with an impressive list of productivity enhancements, is a better development tool than the traditional green-screen tools that were designed decades ago? While IBM hasn’t upgraded the green-screen development tools in years, the investment in RDi continues. The latest Technology Refreshes, announced last week, embellished the list of productivity features RDi offers.

  Most IBM i shops that are using modern RPG coding techniques are familiar with RDi and the value of modernizing applications that are significant business assets. It is the organizations …

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• Power9 Big Iron “Fleetwood/Mack” Rumors

  October 9, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Sometimes, the universe just hands you a great title, like that one above. As the Power9 platform is rolling out across the field to various launch pads, with entry, midrange, and high-end systems in the works, word always inevitably leaks out about what Big Blue has planned with its future systems.

  In the case of the high-end machines, we are hearing rumors that the current top-end Power E880 and its half-pint Power E870, which went by the code-name “Brazos” within IBM, likely in deference to the river in New Mexico, will be replaced by a machine code-named “Fleetwood,” no doubt …

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• Guru: Making Sense of Codes

  October 9, 2017 Ted Holt

  I have most likely never seen your database, yet I can tell you with confidence that it is full of codes. We can’t live without them. Codes give us shortcuts for all sorts of types and categories. They consume less storage than the values they represent. They help us keep the database clean and consistent within itself.

  But they surely can be hard to read. Some codes are obvious. M for male and F for female, for instance. My experience is that most are not so. Look at this and see how much sense you can make of it.

  select 

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• As I See It: Free Speech in Restricted Times

  October 9, 2017 Victor Rozek

  Though it saddens me to say it, I’ve had the exact same experience of just about every president I can remember—regardless of party affiliation. Sooner or later, at some point during their administration, I just can’t stand them anymore.

  I can’t stand to see their face on TV, or hear their voice any longer. I can’t stand the lies, the empty promises, the soaring rhetoric that produces nothing of lasting value, the threats, the chest pounding, the epic incompetence, the ability to inspire but not to lead. I can’t stand the policies they represent, the compromises they make, the triumph …

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• Cost, Simplicity Driving Cloud HA Adoption

  October 9, 2017 Alex Woodie

  In years past, the IBM i community has adopted high availability software at a slow but steady pace. But the cloud portion of this market is growing at a much faster rate, thanks to the lower costs and simpler setups that cloud-based high availability brings to customers.

  Penetration of high availability software into the IBM i market is likely to hit 50 percent this year for the first time ever. That forecast can reasonably be made by looking at HelpSystems‘ 2017 IBM i Marketplace Survey, which showed a 2 percent jump in HA usage from 2015 to 2016, …

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