I Didn’t Know That About i

June 10, 2013 Dan Burger

Have you ever been talking with someone who believes he knows everything about IBM‘s famed AS/400? The worst of these fountains of IT knowledge are completely unaware there is such a thing as an IBM i on Power Systems platform. If you have patience, you listen politely for a few minutes until this self-proclaimed techno genius proves he doesn’t know the difference between an AS/400 and a Maytag Model 72 wringer washer.

Well, we all have a tendency to talk about things we don’t know about. But when it comes to IBM i running on Power Systems iron, most of us could probably learn something new every day for the rest of our lives without cleaning up what’s on the plate. You don’t need to be that extreme. And I’m not suggesting anyone lock themselves in a room with the entire Manta Technologies IBM i Training Library. What I’m talking about is sort of the drive-through window abbreviated version.

You can find this on the IBMi25 Facebook page.

With this daily devotional guide to learning something new about the platform, you’ll acquire some nuggets of knowledge that will help you explain to non-believers what this platform is all about. None of these vignettes, as IBM likes to call them, are lengthy or especially technical. That makes them easy to read and easy to explain to the misguided, misinformed, and those who are unaware while living on “the other side.”

Among the newest posts on this social media water cooler are insights from Dave Nelson, director of IBM i development, on what he calls “the Rochester Way.” Lynne Benedict, director of the Large User Group operations, talked about on working together to make change happen. And Tina Williams, a Level 2 tech support rep for Power Systems, wrote about system automation within IT service and support.

If you visit this page every day for just a few minutes, after a month you’ll have learned quite a bit. You can put that knowledge to use when making your next business value of the iBM i presentation to your company’s executives, or when just shooting the breeze with your IT neighbors over in Microsoftville.

Below is a preview of what you’ll find on the IBMi25 Facebook page. It is a nicely produced video featuring IBM i chief architect Steve Will discussing the future of IBM i and how it will adapt to changing technologies. You can see that video here.