Four Hundred Monitor, January 15

January 15, 2020 Jenny Thomas

Welcome back! For many of us, this is the first real work week of the new year, full of possibilities and ambitions as we steam ahead into 2020. But just because 2019 is now in the rearview doesn’t mean we can’t take a look back at what a year it was. IT Jungle’s own Alex Woodie recently revisited the biggest IBM i stories of last year, and it’s a fun read and reminder of all that happened during our previous trip around the sun. For a peek into the future, don’t miss IT Jungle editor in chief Timothy Prickett Morgan when he joins the conversation on the results of the IBM i Marketplace Survey where the discussion will examine what we might see happen in the coming months. Get the details in the Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings section below.

Top Stories From Outside The Jungle

(IT Jungle) Our own Alex Woodie revisits the biggest IBM i stories to make news in the year that was 2019.

(ZDNet) It wasn’t a happy holiday for everyone. This story looks at a company that was forced — a week before Christmas — to send home 300 employees and advised them to look for new jobs after a ransomware attack.

(Tech Crunch) Google joins the crowd on the cloud by partnering with IBM to launch IBM Power Systems on Google Cloud.

(Nasdaq) A look ahead at IBM’s financial prospects in the coming year.

(TechRepublic) The race for quantum supremacy will continue in 2020. Here’s the latest developments from IBM.

Redbooks, White Papers, Blogs, and Other Resources

(HelpSystems) Join IT Jungle editor in chief Timothy Prickett Morgan on January 16 at the sixth IBM i Marketplace Survey webcast, hosted by HelpSystems executive vice president of technical solutions Tom Huntington. Other panelists include IBM i product offering manager Alison Butterill, IBM Lab Services division executive Ian Jarman, and, worldwide IBM i product marketing manager Brandon Pederson.

(COMMON) The website for the “world’s largest association of IT professionals that focus on IBM and related technologies” got a makeover.

(Manta Technologies) Manta’s annual year-end sale is underway. Get 30 percent off the complete library of courses for programmers, operators, system administrators, and users of the IBM i operating system. All courses are web based and run in all popular browsers.

(IBM Rational Developer for i Hub) This hub will help current and prospective users of IBM Rational Developer for i be well-informed so as to become productive and successful with our product.

(Zend) This blog shows IBM i users how community PHP compares with the PHP in Zend server.

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

January 16 – Webinar – IBM i is one of technology’s best-kept secrets, with little information available about what IBM i users are doing on this server. The IBM i Marketplace Survey was designed to solve this problem. Don’t miss this live webinar where we reveal the results of the 2020 survey! You’ll gain exclusive insights from a panel of IBM i technology experts on year-over-year trends and new data points. The expert panel includes IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington from HelpSystems, IBMers Alison Butterill, Ian Jarman, and Brandon Pederson, and Timothy Prickett Morgan from IT Jungle. All attendees will receive a recording containing their valuable commentary, plus access to the full results report.

January 17 – Webinar – According to the 2020 IBM i Marketplace Survey Results, nearly 60 percent of IBM i shops plan to upgrade their hardware or software this year, but that’s not the only reason you might need to reevaluate your server capacity. Perhaps you’re consolidating IBM i, AIX, and Linux VMs. Or possibly your boss requested an analysis on whether to run Linux on Power or Intel. Maybe you’re building a business case for the cloud or adopting GPU or another new technology and you’re not sure how it will impact capacity. This live webinar will introduce you to HelpSystems’ Performance Navigator, the preferred tool for system sizing and capacity planning on IBM’s Power platform.

March 24-26, 2020 – Dallas, Texas – The RPG & DB2 Summit heads to Dallas with new sessions, new workshops, new ideas, and new tools. Paul Tuohy, Susan Gantner and Jon Paris lead a team of 13 top experts teaching the critical skills you need to excel with modern IBM i development. SQL, RPG, Db2, ILE, open source, ACS, RDi, data analytics, web services, web and mobile apps — it’s all packed into a highly-concentrated three-day learning experience.

April 19-22, 2020 – Atlanta, Georgia – POWERUp 2020 will offer between 350-400 sessions presented by more than 100 IT professionals, and features the largest exposition of its kind. This conference structured to give you the pure education and professional connections needed to best enhance your career.

May 20-21, 2020 – Nashville, Tennessee – php[tek] is the longest-running web developer conference in the United States that has a focus on the PHP programming language. The event is broken up into multiple days. The main conference happens over the course of two days (May 20-21) and includes keynotes, talks, and networking options. It will be broken into three tracks on Tech Leadership, PHP Development, and Web Technologies. There is an optional Workshop day that precedes the conference that lets attendees take two separate in-depth half-day workshops. We also offer full-day training classes preceding the conference on May 18 on deep technical topics for independent purchase.