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  • COMMON Launches Focus, A Live Educational Series

    December 9, 2020 Alex Woodie

    COMMON yesterday kicked off the latest virtual event during this social distanced year of COVID-19. Focus is a series of half-day workshops on IBM i topics that is taking place through December 17. It’s a live event, which is good, but best of all, it’s free — as long as you are a current COMMON member.

    Focus consists of 18 half-day sessions across eight topic areas that are taking place this week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) and the same days next week. The sessions, which kick off each day at 1 p.m. CT, are presented live by real live IBM i experts from IBM, like Kent Milligan and Jesse Gorzinski, as well as IBM i experts outside of Big Blue, like Carol Woodbury and Vern Hamburg. The recordings will be accessible for the next 30 days.

    There’s something for everyone with Focus, which COMMON is targeting at newbies and experienced pros alike.

    For example, in the Basics for Admins track, attendees can learn about things like issuing commands and starting backups by Pete Massiello and his colleagues at iTech Solutions Group. Folks who are new to Access Client Solutions (ACS) can hear about basic concepts from the IBM architects themselves, including Scott Forstie and Tim Rowe.

    Those interested in exploring the world of native IBM i web services may be interested in Scott Klement’s “REST APIs and RPG” session, which takes place December 10. And Rational Developer for IBM i (RDi) expert Charles Guarino promises to tell you “All You Need to Know About RDi in Four Hours.”

    Other topics include open source, security, SQL, database engineering, career growth, and ACS. There are 26 speakers scheduled to lead classes, and the event is sponsored by 10 midrange vendors.

    Online events have proliferated this year thanks to the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has decimated in-person learning across the United States. COMMON, which is celebrating its 60th birthday this year, cancelled two physical conferences, including the original POWERUp 2020 conference scheduled for April in Georgia and a rescheduled version of that event in September in Florida. It also has held several virtual events, most notably the Virtual POWERUp 2020 in September and its COMMON iNSIGHT event in May.

    Gordon Leary, the new president of COMMON, says the Focus event provides a unique opportunity for IBM i professionals to take a deep dive into eight important skills that will be important as we get into 2021.

    “We recognized that it has been a crazy year for our members and want to do what we can to help support the COMMON community by delivering even more membership benefits,” Leary tells IT Jungle via email. “I think everyone is starting to look at 2021, and the great possibilities it holds as we, hopefully, return to some normalcy. So, we made the decision to offer this great content and event exclusively free to our 2021 members so that they can be ready for the opportunities that lie ahead in 2021 and beyond.”

    Leary added: “Of course, this event would not be possible if not for the support of our industry expert speakers and our vendor partners. Their continued contributions to COMMON have helped move us and our members forward during this challenging year.”

    Individual membership to COMMON start at $219. Only members that are current into 2021 can access the Focus event. For more information, see the event’s website at https://www.common.org/2020focusdays/home/member-2021

    RELATED STORIES

    A Guide To This Week’s Virtual POWERUp 2020

    POWERUp 2020 Pushed Online By Coronavirus Continuing Spread

    Coronavirus Takes Its Toll On The Midrange

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    Tags: Tags: Access Client Solutions, ACS, COMMON, COMMON iNSIGHT, IBM i, Rational Developer for IBM i, RDi, REST API, RPG, Virtual POWERUp 2020

    Sponsored by
    UCG Technologies

    Best Practices for Doing IBM i Cloud Backup & DRaaS Right

    In the technology business for 30+ years including more than a decade in cloud backup and disaster recovery, we’ve learned a few things along the way. Here are best practices to follow – and land mines to avoid.

    1. RELIABILITY. Up to 71% of restores from tape contain failures.
    • BEST PRACTICE: Use disk-to-disk technology for backups.

    With disk-to-disk technology, your backup data resides on disk drives, proven to be far more reliable than tapes. When your backup completes, you know the data is secure and accessible on the disk drive. With tapes you never really know if your data is usable until you try to restore it, at which point it’s too late.

    1. BREADTH OF OFFERING. Choice in product and service offerings meet your business’ needs.
    • BEST PRACTICE: Don’t settle for less than what you need.

    Vendor offerings vary widely. Some are designed primarily for consumers and others for enterprise data centers. Choose a solution that scales and offers the features you need to provide the level of service you expect. De-duplication and delta-block technologies will improve performance, reduce your data footprint and save you money. Find out if their de-duplication offering is at the file level or the block level. Make sure the solution can back up servers, PCs, and laptops as well your applications.

    1. SECURITY. 60% of organizations using tapes don’t encrypt their backups.
    • BEST PRACTICE: End-to-end encryption with no “back door.”

    Using encryption with tape makes backups run slowly and often takes too long to fit within a backup window. As a result, most people simply turn encryption off, creating a security risk. Even with the physical safety of disk-to-disk backup, encryption is essential. Look for 256-bit AES. Find a solution that encrypts your data during transmission and storage. Make certain there isn’t a “back door” that would let someone else view your data.

    1. ACCESSIBILITY. Companies waste thousands of hours waiting on tapes.
    • BEST PRACTICE: Ensure that you can get your data back with minimal delay.

    You should have direct access to your backups, with no time spent on physical transport (no trucks, no warehouses). Restores should take minutes, not hours or days. Set yourself up to work with your data, not wait for it. Make sure your solution provider can meet your Return-to-Operations (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) which determine how quickly you can recover your data and maintain business continuity. Inquire about onsite and offsite replication that provide both improved performance and a solid disaster recovery strategy.

    1. CYBER SECURITY. More than 80 percent of U.S. companies have been successfully hacked, according to a Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey.
    • BEST PRACTICE: Regular cyber security training and phishing tests for all employees using company email are essential to your organization.

    Your end-users are the weak link in your network security. Today, your employees are frequently exposed to advanced phishing attacks. Trend Micro reported that 91% of successful data breaches started with a spear-phishing attack. Be sure your vendor of choice includes cyber security training as part of their backup and DR package.

    1. SCALABILITY. Some backup systems can’t scale readily.
    • BEST PRACTICE: Invest in a data protection architecture that can grow with your business.

    You should be able to back up your data no matter how large it grows. Starting small? Look for an option that handles your backups automatically. Then, as you grow, gives you tools to manage complex environments. Look for “changes-only” and compression technologies to speed backups and save space. And insist on bandwidth throttling to balance traffic and ensure network availability for your other business applications. Make sure that their solution offerings rely on common technology to scale easily as your business––and data––grow.

    1. COST-EFFECTIVENESS
    • BEST PRACTICE: Calculate the true total cost of tape-based back up.

    A 2019 Server OS Reliability Survey found that one hour of downtime costs at least $100K for 98% of companies to over $5 million for 34% of surveyed companies. When you do the math, the dollars make sense: Go with disk-to-disk. Unlike tape, there are close to zero handling costs—no rush deliveries, loading, accessing, locating, or repeated steps. And there’s one benefit you can’t factor directly: Reputation. Reliability and security can make an incalculable difference with just one avoided breach or failure.

    1. COMPLIANCE. Most companies have problems satisfying privacy, security, and data retention regulations.
    • BEST PRACTICE: Choose a data protection partner who has deep know-how about compliance, and the technology to ensure it.
    1. Disaster Recovery. Most companies lack a comprehensive, tested plan for disasters.
    • BEST PRACTICE: Find a vendor that delivers a complete DR solution.

    You can’t say your data protection is complete until you have a disaster recovery plan that is itself complete and tested. Your backup vendor should have both the product mix and professional services team to help you prepare for a worst-case scenario. Make sure they can help configure your backups so you rebound quickly. Best bet: A vendor who can train you to deal with disasters confidently, based on your company’s actual configuration.

    1. EASE OF USE. Some companies don’t —or can’t—manage their backups from one place.
    • BEST PRACTICE: Get control and reporting you can use anywhere, with ease. Managing your backup environment should be simple, and the software you use should eliminate any guesswork that could lead to lost data. You should know at all times if your data is protected across your entire network—including remote offices—by simply looking at a dashboard. The software should be simple to configure using wizards, yet powerful enough to meet your specific needs with customizable views, job propagation, and roles-based security.
    1. OPERATING SYSTEM AND PLATFORM SUPPORT. Most backup vendors support a limited range of OS, server types, and applications.
    • BEST PRACTICE: Look for broad and deep technology that supports your complete environment. Your backup solution should accommodate your environment, not vice versa.
    1. CUSTOMER SUPPORT. Backup vendors’ product support varies widely.
    • BEST PRACTICE: Find a vendor whose support is passionate, maybe even slightly obsessed. Customer support should be one of your vendor’s main selling points. You shouldn’t have to wonder if they’ll be there to help when you need them most. Do they offer phone support or email only, and who exactly are you talking to when you call that 800 number? Find a vendor that will treat your data as if it were their own.
    1. REPUTATION. Does your backup vendor have a quality reputation and the financial resources to stay in business for the long haul?
    • BEST PRACTICE: Find a vendor with strong financial backing and customer references. There are a lot of vendors that have come and gone. When you consider a service provider, look for one that has strong financial backing, a solid business plan and the ability to be in business as long as your data needs to be stored. Ask for customer references and case studies as their customers are the best validation you can get.

     

    Visit VAULT400.com/proposal to receive a FREE analysis and proposal

    LEARN MORE:

    DOWNLOAD SOLUTIONS BRIEF:
    Best Practices for IBM i Cloud Backup & Recovery

    DURING THIS UNPRECEDENTED TIME, DON’T WAIT FOR YOUR BUSINESS
    TO SUFFER A DISASTER TO TAKE ACTION.

    Serving the US, Canada, & Latin America

    VAULT400 Cloud Backup & DRaaS is an IBM Server Proven Solution.

    800.211.8798 | info@ucgtechnologies.com| ucgtechnologies.com/cloud

    To the First Responders serving on the front-lines during the COVID-19 pandemic,
    we extend our heartfelt gratitude.

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    Four Hundred Monitor, December 9 New Release Of ACS Now Available

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TFH Volume: 30 Issue: 79

This Issue Sponsored By

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Table of Contents

  • VS Code Provides Another Coding Option for IBM i
  • New Release Of ACS Now Available
  • COMMON Launches Focus, A Live Educational Series
  • Four Hundred Monitor, December 9
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 49

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  • IBM i Software And Power Systems Upgrades Keep Rolling Forward
  • Preparing For What’s Next In A Thoughtful, Structured Way
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