Four Hundred Monitor, December 6
December 6, 2017 Dan Burger
Where there is smoke there is probably fire. The odds are not nearly as good that where you find reports there will be data analytics. What tools and capabilities are available to provide deeper insight into the data you have on hand and what difference will it make to the people using the data?
You can find the answer in Monitor this week. Read a bit farther and you’ll also find informative articles about IBM’s Bluemix and building apps on the internet, what happens when IT loses control of analytics projects, and how to avoid mistakes that lead to preventable career disasters.
Top Stories From Outside The Jungle
(IBM Systems Magazine) Companies running a majority of their business on IBM i, and storing a majority of their operational data in Db2 for i, are learning about the evolving analytics world and wondering what’s in it for them. How do you get from report writing to data analytics?
(IBM Systems Magazine) IBM Bluemix is a cloud-based platform as a service that allows developers to build applications over the Internet. With PaaS, the corporate IT department doesn’t have to install hardware or software to run these applications. The infrastructure is available on demand and can be billed on a monthly or hourly basis. Ready to know more?
(InformationWeek) Analytics is spreading out to more departments that want to optimize their operations, but that may give users a false sense of freedom from IT. Here are some dynamics currently affecting IT. So, when it’s possible just to pull out a credit card and get started with an application, why complicate things by involving IT?
(CIO) Planning your IT career in a shifting tech landscape can be difficult, especially when your big plans can be wiped like a hard drive. Learning new tech skills and networking are obvious ways to solidify your career. But what about accidental ways that could put your career in a slide? Hidden hazards — silent career killers? Some tech pitfalls may not be obvious.
Redbooks, White Papers, and Other Resources
(IBM) A small library of IBM i videos are available for your viewing pleasure at this website. They are not technical, but they provide valuable insights into what IBM i can do, and is doing, for businesses around the globe. If you need to explain to management how IBM i is built for business, you’ll get help here.
(IBM) Navigator for i provides a range of system management and performance analysis features for IBM i. Compare it to the old System i Navigator and see what there is to gain.
(IBM) An overview of IBM i 7.3 TR3 includes enhanced analytics, new security capabilities, and other new functions in IBM i and associated licensed programs.
(IBM) An overview of IBM i 7.2 TR7 includes enhanced analytics, new security capabilities, and other new functions in IBM i and associated licensed programs.
(IBM) This document provides a basic understanding of IBM i on Power Systems performance concepts, workloads and benchmarks. It includes system sizing and capacity planning, performance tools, and Power8 and virtualization performance.
Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings
December 12 & 13 — Virtual Conference – Two days of online education hosted by the COMMON user group. The session agenda includes topics such as Db2 for I, security, SQL, cloud adoption, open source, IT strategy, OS upgrade planning, and Watson integration. Registration is free and open to the public. If you can’t attend live, registering will provide you with 30 days of free access to the session recordings.
December 14 — St. Louis, Missouri – IBM I and open source topics are on the agenda of the monthly meeting of the Gateway/400 Group, a System i user group serving the greater St. Louis area. Guest speakers are Craig Jacquez and John Derr. The meeting begins with lunch at noon and the presentation following lunch. The meeting location is Spazio’s restaurant at 12031 Lackland Road. RSVP no later than Monday before the meeting date. The presentation is available via a remote hookup for those who cannot attend.
December 19 — Eden Prairie, Minnesota – Open source guru Aaron Bartell will be discussing the management of RPG source with Git and Node.js development for novices during the monthly meeting of QUSER, the local user group for IBM midrange professionals in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The meeting begins at 2 p.m. at the HelpSystems offices at 6455 City West Parkway.
January 16 –Costa Mesa, California- IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will and IBM open source wizard Kevin Adler are the guest speakers at the OCEAN user group meeting. During a CIO/executive roundtable at 3:30 p.m., Steve Will plans to discuss the IT challenges and opportunities of 2018. At the same time, developer types can learn Python tricks–like parsing CSV files, sending emails, building Excel xlsx files, modifying images, and building websites–courtesy of Kevin Adler. After dinner, Will returns with a presentation titled “IBM i in the Era of Cognitive & Cloud.” The meeting will be held at the Avenue of the Arts Hotel.
March 19-22 — Las Vegas, Nevada – Think 2018 is a new IBM conference that highlights topics such as IT transitions to the cloud, data and analytics, application development, IBM research, the Internet of Things, IT infrastructure, mobile, security, collaboration, and Watson. Programs available for C-level executives, IT managers, developers, and academics.
March 20-22 — Dallas, Texas – The twice-a-year, spring and fall, RPG & DB2 Summit returns to the Southwest for its next technical conference with an agenda of in-depth sessions that covers new and traditional topics. In addition to the three-day Summit, an optional fourth day of hands-on workshops provide intensive education into popular IBM i development technologies.
May 20-23 — San Antonio, Texas – PowerUp 18 (formerly the COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition) is the largest IBM i educational event of the year. It includes more than 300 sessions related to IBM i, as well as AIX and Linux. Open source, high availability, security, DB2, and application development are a few of the popular skill-building topics. The agenda includes all-day pre-conference workshops, open labs, and a wide variety of lecture-type sessions presented by subject matter experts. Pre-conference workshops (May 19) are also planned. An early registration discount ($1,695 for members; $1,995 for non-members) is available through December 31.
