Four Hundred Monitor, January 10

January 10, 2018 Dan Burger

Simultaneously looking forward and looking back does not require eyes in the back of your head. It does require good vision in both directions though. What we’ve learned in the past year (and the years before that) are lessons that are useful in moving organizations forward. Maybe you missed some technology that came to market under your radar. That’s where a guy like Paul Tuohy comes in handy. Tuohy doesn’t miss much when it comes to IBM i application development. Here’s what he saw in the past year that can be useful in the years ahead. And there’s more than that in this week’s Monitor.

Top Stories From Outside The Jungle

(iTalk With Tuohy) Paul Tuohy is an application development specialist. So when he looks back at 2017, his view is a panorama of app dev progress. Examples are things such as JSON functions, enhancements to Access Client Solutions, open source, cognitive computing (Watson), and the young people who are doing IBM i development.

(MCPress) To understand how IBM Watson Discovery’s services can help any enterprise gain business insights, it’s necessary to comprehend its capabilities. The core assets of IBM’s entire Watson program is the capability to use artificial intelligence to sort through masses of data (including unstructured data) to quickly gain insights it could take a human mind much longer to perceive.

(IBM Systems Magazine) Although this survey of Power Systems users acknowledges X86 as the dominant platform for running Linux, there are interesting trends taking place in the Power Systems segment. Some are more hopeful than actual, but IBM hopes this will raise the level of awareness for running Linux on Power.

(InformationWeek) On-premise systems and infrastructure-as-a-service will coexist for quite a while with large organizations moving more workloads to the public cloud, yet operating their own data centers for years to come. If the public cloud and in-house data centers are in a prize fight, the cloud seems to be gaining the advantage, but it’s not going to be a knockout.

Redbooks, White Papers, and Other Resources

(Profound Logic) This survey of the IBM i community is focused on modernization projects completed and projected. Among its findings are that more businesses have upgraded to the latest versions of IBM i and RPG compared to last year and that companies remaining on the platform are embracing options to optimize IBM i for their modern enterprise. There’s plenty here to discover and discuss.

(PSIRT Blog) This site contains important information regarding security vulnerabilities that may affect IBM products and solutions. The most recent vulnerability has a potential impact on Power processors. It doesn’t allow an external unauthorized party to gain access to a machine, but it could allow a party that has access to the system to access unauthorized data. Firmware patches for IBM i systems won’t be available until February 12.

(Remain Software) Open source and Eclipse expert, Wim Jongman, provides a technical summary about Git on IBM i. The video presentation explains source code management using Git and emphasizes the pros and cons of using Git on IBM i.

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

January 11 — Mequon, Wisconsin – Jim Denton, a senior DB2 for i consultant for IBM Systems Lab Services, will be the guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association. Denton will be discussing Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) support in Db2 for i. His presentation will include insights into the tools (part of the operating system) and the functions that improve developer productivity. The meeting begins at 4:30 and will be held at Zarletti’s located at 1515 West Mequon Road.

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.

January 16 — Schaumburg, Illinois – The OMNI User Group meeting will feature two sessions by IT Jungle’s Technical Editor Ted Holt. His sessions are titled “21st Century CL” and “The SQL Procedure Language for RPG Programmers.” Topics to be discussed in the CL session include: structured programming commands, subroutines and copybook support, additional data types, additional built-in functions, and SQL support. During the second session, Holt will present an overview of SQL PL, including a tour of the language syntax and how to put SQL to work on your system. This presentation is designed for IBM i developers who are already experienced in procedural languages such as RPG, CL, and COBOL. The first session begins at 4:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 6, and the second presentation at 7. It will take place at the IBM offices located at 10 North Martingale Road.

January 17 — North Attleboro, Massachusetts – IBM RDi specialist Charles Guarino will be the guest speaker at the New England Midrange Users Group meeting. In his presentation, Guarino will explain the advantages of the RDi debugger compared to the green-screen version that hasn’t been enhanced for years. The meeting will be held at the Red Stone Grill located at 120 Chestnut Street and begins at 5:15 p.m.

March 13 -15 — Delavan, Wisconsin – The Wisconsin Midrange Computing Professionals Association Spring Technical Conference is the largest conference in the Midwest. It features more than 50 informative presentations on current topics such as SQL, PHP, RPG, .NET and IBM administration. The tech conference includes a vendor expo and is hosted by the Lake Lawn Resort.

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.

April 23-25 – Framingham, Massachusetts – The Northeast IBM i User Group Conference features more than 70 educational sessions in seven skills categories. It offers the opportunity to learn about new technologies, engage with vendors to discuss packaged software advancements, hear IBM i executives and lead developers discuss products and roadmaps for the platform, and gain knowledge that can benefit your company and your career. The user groups that combine to organize this conference come from the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

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.