• IBM Boosts Prices Even Further Outside The United States

  December 9, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Back on November 4, we told you about a price increase that IBM instituted across its Power Systems, storage hardware and storage software, and Software Maintenance services. These price increases were supposedly announced on September 3, but IBM’s system did not notify us of them until October 29, and we told you about it in the subsequent edition of this newsletter. The delay didn’t matter much because the price changes are not effective until January 1, 2025.

  And now, the rest of the world is going to get an extra taste of inflation, as you will see in announcement letter …

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• Dell And Big Blue Call It Quits On Storage Driver Support For IBM i

  December 9, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It looks like IBM and sometime rival Dell Technologies are having a tiff over the licensing of technology that allows disk arrays descended from the venerable Symmetrix arrays created by EMC more than three decades ago to link to descendants of the AS/400 platform and OS/400 operating systems created three and a half decades ago.

  The fallout from what we presume is that a technology licensing fee agreement between Dell and IBM is similar, we think, to the one between IBM and the company that owns Information Builders. In October 2023, out of the blue, IBM announced that it was …

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• How ERP Giants Are Building GenAI Into Their Products

  December 9, 2024 Alex Woodie

  We are still near the top of Gartner’s hype curve when it comes to generative AI. Larger companies that have discipline and money, and startups with time and ambition, are finding success with GenAI, but many organizations are still in the planning and roll-out phase. The same could be said for ERP vendors, who have started their GenAI journeys but are expected to ramp up adoption significantly in the years to come.

  Since the dawn of the mainframe age, computers have automated the work that was previously done by people. Large armies of file clerks were no longer needed once …

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• Happy Holidays From All Of Us To All Of You

  December 9, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Every year has its own twists, turns, and challenges for any company and for the people who comprise that company. Over the years, we have had our share of adversity. 2019 and 2020 and 2024 were tough years for us, and we are all frankly happy to have pushed through the to end of this one so we can hit reset and attack 2025 with the usual vim and vigor.

  No matter where you are, everybody gets their turn with adversity, and if hard times have come to you, we just want to know that we feel you. Do your …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 47

  December 9, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  Just a reminder: For the first time in a long, long while there are pre-requisites for a Technology Refresh. Sorting out the contingencies will keep us busy for a while. Here’s the word from IBM: OSP-Technology Refresh : Prereq licensed internal code PTFs, which you can find out more about at this link. These are the pre-reqs for the Technology Refreshes:

  • IBM i 7.5: SJ02898
  • IBM i 7.4: SJ02897

  Now there is another issue you need to be aware of. Specifically: Potential to render new Feature Code EN24 / EN26 CCIN EC2A adapters inoperable, which you can find out …

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• 2024: An IBM i Year In Review

  December 4, 2024 Alex Woodie

  It’s hard to believe that yet another year is coming to a close. As 2024 rolls to its merciful end, it’s time for us to take stock of the major events and announcements that impacted the IBM i community.

  January

  News broke in late January that revenue in IBM’s Power Systems business grew for the second year in a row in 2023. TPM’s model showed $1.53 billion in external Power Systems sales for the year, which was a hair above the 2022 figure, which was a hair above the 2021 figure. It’s not 2010-era numbers, when the figure was north …

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• Innovate To Deliver Your 2025 Vision

  December 4, 2024 Richard Dolewski

  IT innovation refers to the process of introducing continuous improvement by leveraging technology, services, and solutions to empower IT service delivery. Innovation involves strategically implementing holistic solutions to enhance current and future efficiency across the organization. With fast-paced technological advances (AI, Cloud, Security, Resiliency) disrupting all industries, these future outcome-based technologies create hesitation and pause to what’s achievable, required now, and relevant to your company’s strategic plans.

  Innovation must bring changes to the core delivery of IT-related services that drive increased efficiency thus making IT services delivery less costly, less time-consuming to implement, automated to improve services levels, and further …

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• Security Top of Mind as Massive Hacks Continue

  December 4, 2024 Alex Woodie

  The calendar indicates peace and joy, but instead a sense of dread and fear permeates business, as the number and scope of security breaches grows and new regulations loom on the horizon. Ransomware, in particular, is proving itself to be a thorny issue for companies of all sizes, including IBM i shops.

  The latest mega-hack involved Chinse state actors infiltrating the American telecommunications backbone, where they not only accessed huge numbers of call detail records (CDRs) – which they used for counter-espionage purposes – but also read text messages and listened to Americans’ phone calls.

  Known as Salt Typhoon, the …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, December 4

  December 4, 2024 Jenny Thomas

  We made it! This is the final installment of Four Hundred Monitor in 2024. We have enjoyed following the news with you all year long, and while we are looking forward to more in 2025, we’re also looking forward to the holiday break. What can we expect in the new year? You’ll see in our top article below that IBM’s CEO is enthusiastic about the year ahead, and you don’t need a crystal ball to know that we will be talking about all things AI and GenAI.  Our Calendar has dried up for now, but we expect it to start …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 46

  December 4, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  First time in a long, long while there are pre-requisites for a Technology Refresh. Sorting out the contingencies will keep us busy for the rest of the year!

  Here’s the word from IBM: OSP-Technology Refresh : Prereq licensed internal code PTFs, which you can find out more about at this link. These are the pre-reqs for the Technology Refreshes:

  • IBM i 7.5: SJ02898
  • IBM i 7.4: SJ02897

  There are also a number of other issues – three to be specific – that have been reported to Big Blue and that have been issued tweaks to correct them. They are …

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• Power11 Takes Memory Bandwidth Up To, Well, Eleven

  December 2, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Last week, we went over the roadmaps for the future Power11 processor from IBM and its follow-on, the Power Next chip that we presume will be called Power 12 because, you know, history. This week we want to take a little bit of a deeper dive into the Power11 strategy and what this might mean for the systems that Big Blue will be building in the future.

  If IBM’s change in strategy with Power Systems since the Power9 generation has not been obvious to you, it perhaps bears pointing out. In the Power8 and Power9 generations, IBM was trying to …

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• Thoroughly Modern: AI Success for IBM i Organizations – Small Beginnings, Big Benefits

  December 2, 2024 John Clark

  AI is transforming how businesses operate, but for many IBM i users, the path forward feels unclear. Questions pile up: Where does one begin? How do you choose a project that delivers real results? What if AI causes more disruption than benefit?

  The challenge is real: large-scale AI projects demand significant time, resources, and expertise. There is new terminology, new skills, and a blizzard of possible tools. For most organizations, this feels out of reach. But the solution lies in starting small.

  Small AI projects solve specific problems, provide value, and build confidence without overhauls or unreasonable risk. Learn how …

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• Stop Coding In C and C++, Feds Say

  December 2, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Two federal agencies asked the IT world last month to stop developing applications in memory unsafe languages like C and C++ and to come up with roadmaps to migrate existing apps. While the security alert is unlikely to have a major impact on IBM i application development, the C family of languages does have a presence on the IBM midrange server that will be very tough to remove.

  Organizations should immediately stop developing new applications written in memory unsafe languages like C and C++, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) warned last …

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• As I See It: Gratitude

  December 2, 2024 Victor Rozek

  Tech has taken a number of hits this year, and many of them were aptly deserved. The issues are well known and thoroughly documented. What is often obscured, what is often lost amid the outrage, are some of tech’s extraordinary accomplishments. They are overlooked in part because they have become the baseline for our expectations.

  In the smartphone, for example, the least among us has access to more computing capacity than powered the first Moon landing. We hold a miracle in our hand, and get annoyed if our text message isn’t promptly delivered.

  Imagine, for a moment, living in the …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 45

  December 2, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  It was pretty quiet in PTF Land just after The Four Hundred went on publishing hiatus, and we are still playing catch up getting out the sequential changes to the IBM i patch stack and any security vulnerabilities you may need to be aware of.

  The good news this time around is that we have not run across any security issues. So carry on, and have a look at the High Impact/Pervasive (HIPER) and security patches that have been put out for IBM i 7.3, IBM i 7.4, and IBM i 7.5.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by …

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• IBM Raises The Curtain A Little On Future Power Processors

  November 13, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  We commented back in August when the Hot Chips 2024 conference was underway at Stanford University that it was odd that IBM did reveal some of the speeds and feeds of the Power11 processor that we all know is coming in 2025. And when the TechXchange 2024 partner event was held in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, we were pretty sure that IBM was working on some sort of accelerated system for GenAI applications and a week later we remembered that the obvious pairing was a Power System host with scads of IBM’s own “Spyre” AI accelerators running …

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• IBM’s Fall 2024 Code for IBM i Enhancements

  November 13, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Adoption of Code for i continues to soar among IBM i developers, as they shift from heavy, expensive integrated development environments (IDEs) to lighter, open-source options. With the latest Technology Refreshes (TRs) for IBM i, IBM is making the VS Code plug-in even more useful for RPG and COBOL developers.

  Code for IBM i is the brainchild of Liam Allan, the midrange wunderkind with an intense aversion to Rational Developer for IBM i (RDi), IBM’s Java-based flagship IDE for IBM i. As adoption of the VS Code extension grew in the summer of 2022, IBM smartly hired Allan as a …

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• Unlock Business Continuity: Strategies For Success

  November 13, 2024 Tom Horan

  Ensuring business continuity is vital in today’s rapidly evolving IT landscape. Disruptions from natural disasters, cyberattacks, or human error can severely impact organizations. To thrive amid these challenges, you need robust strategies and cutting-edge technologies. That’s where PowerVS stands out – a formidable computing platform specifically engineered to optimize and strengthen your business continuity.

  The Power Of PowerVS

  Let’s discuss why PowerVS is a groundbreaking solution. It’s more than just a computing platform; it’s a robust performance, reliability, and scalability system.

  Here’s how PowerVS can significantly enhance your IT infrastructure:

  • Reduce Downtime: Envision a scenario in which one need not

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• Four Hundred Monitor, November 13

  November 13, 2024 Jenny Thomas

  It may be a cliché to say time flies, but most of us have done it. If you’ve never fallen victim to that phrase, the next five years may change your mind. It’s been predicted that by 2030, artificial intelligence will not only have the capability to create movies, music, books, and video games, it will become the new standard, and you will suddenly find yourself remembering the good old days of 2024. The IDC has already predicted that  67 percent of the projected $227 billion AI spending in 2025 will come from enterprises embedding AI capabilities into core business …

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• IBM Power for Google Cloud Offering Gets PCI Cert

  November 13, 2024 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that want to run their workloads in the Google Cloud may be interested in the latest news out of Converge Technology Solutions, which recently announced that it has completed the PCI-DSS certification for the company’s IBM Power for Google Cloud (IP4G) platform.

  The availability of IBM Power servers in the public cloud has been growing in fits and starts over the past five years. Back in 2019, a Seattle, Washington, company named Skytap (since acquired by Kyndryl) worked to place Power servers within Microsoft Azure data centers. Connectria, one of the biggest private cloud providers, …

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