Dan Burger
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IBM i Trends, Concerns, And Observations
January 23, 2017 Dan Burger
There is far more going on in IBM i shops than many non-IBM i people would expect. And the truth of the matter is that some IBM i shops might be surprised to find out what other shops are up to. The IBM i Marketplace Survey is one of our windows into that world. And it’s just been compiled for the third consecutive year. We have been watching and reporting on this survey and the trends it identifies because it is one of the best finger-in-the-wind indicators of the directions IBM i shops are headed.
There are more than a …
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IBM i Open Source Business Architect Lays Out A Plan
January 18, 2017 Dan Burger
Enterprise level application development is no place for open source languages. Can you believe it? That was once the widely accepted truth. Jiminy Crickets! Things have changed. The number of the stable open source distributions available with comprehensive support and maintenance goes well beyond common knowledge. Industry giants, successful SMB players, and mom and pop businesses are finding good reasons to use open source. Even IBM uses open source for internal business reasons.
There are reasons for you to do the same.
Before you recoil and brace for a “mind your own business and I’ll mind mine” retaliation against open …
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IBM i Modernization Gets a Newlook Accelerator
December 14, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreLegacy applications tend to outlive the predictions of their imminent demise. The trouble they cause can be costly, though, as maintenance and vanishing skills for out-of-date programming languages are problems. Modernizing applications remains a priority in many IBM midrange shops, where reuse of existing IBM i 5250 screens and RPG (and COBOL) code is being closely examined. Tools like Accelerator from Surround Technologies and Newlook from Looksoftware are getting attention, too.
The latest collaboration from these two software vendors results in the generation of an IBM i-based user interface that’s accessible from any desktop or mobile device with a browser.
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Escape From The Tape Trap
December 12, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM i storage strategy remains heavily dependent on tape. Even beyond the IBM midrange, around 75 percent of all data is stored on tape. Old habits die hard, even when alternatives become easier and less expensive to manage. A good example is the Universal Backup Device designed by LaserVault. In its original form, it’s an IBM i backup appliance that appears as a tape device. Now it works in VM environments as well.
The VM integration eliminates the cost of the LaserVault appliance and the cost of an X86 server. That’s roughly $6,000 to $8,000. Instead of requesting a
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IT Spending And Staffing Show The Effects Of Managed Services
December 12, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreLast week, an email from Computer Economics advised me of an updated report on IT spending and staffing. CE has cranked out these reports on an annual basis for many years, which is useful for long-term comparisons. These days, however, the short-term comparisons are almost microscopic. There are times when it is wise to expect the unexpected, but this isn’t one of them.
IT spending and hiring leaves a faint mark on the chart that maps business growth. The indistinct spending growth that is revealed in the CE report, indicates cloud computing has the best potential for “long-term growth and
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Maxava Prepares For DR and HA Growth Through Partnerships
December 7, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreAs we prepare to step onto the IBM midrange escalator to 2017, one of the areas of high interest is disaster recovery and high availability. Maxava, one of the leading vendors in those fields, added subscription-based, multi-platform systems monitoring to its feature set in early 2016 and as the year winds down it is expanding its managed service provider (MSP) business to take its software to a more localized level.
Most would agree the number of IBM i shops that depend on MSPs to handle some of the IT workload is expected to grow in the coming years. Disaster
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Spending Energy, Buying Results
December 5, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreIf all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got. Some people do more with what they’ve got. Some businesses do more with what they’ve got. Ake Olsson is a “do more” guy and the energy he puts into IBM i modernization projects has resulted in multiple successes. He loves to learn and travels great distances to do that . . . and to change.
Olsson is a guy who invests in staying current with technology and helping others do the same. He believes in creating new opportunities and encouraging
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Backup And Recovery Options Proliferate With New Storage Director
December 5, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreYou just escaped from a meeting on IT objectives and your backup strategy took a beating. Slow, inefficient, antiquated, completely lacking a recovery plan were just some of the stones that were thrown. So, what’s your next move? One option is virtual tape backup. If high speed, multiple server and multiple storage technology capabilities, and a redundant data recovery strategy sound good. Storage Director from Tributary Systems deserves investigation.
Storage Director was recently updated to include policy-based tiering of data storage with capabilities to replicate data to a separate site or multiple sites–both on premise and off premise–that have object-storing
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VAI Teams With Forward Thinking For GPS Truck Tracking
November 30, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreMidsize manufacturers and distributors have unique requirements when it comes to delivering their products to market. Automation and integration of business processes are playing a big role in achieving higher efficiency. For example, there was a time when GPS tracking gathered truck location and activity data for only the largest freight hauling specialists. But now there are small and midsize manufacturers and distributors that can track their own fleets, adding a customer feature that improves satisfaction rates and provides analytics that increase efficiencies.
VAI, a successful mid-market ERP software developer with IBM midrange customers in the fields of distribution,
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DB2 For IBM i: Made But Not Mastered
November 28, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM recently hosted an SAP on IBM i conference for customers and business partners. The conference is described as a showcase of best practices and advice on deployment of the latest technologies. IBM’s lineup of experts included Scott Forstie, DB2 for i Business Architect and a member of the DB2 on i Lab Services team. Forstie says interest in the new analytic features and OLAP functions available in DB2 for i surpasses anything to do with HANA.
“Many attendees come to a conference like this to concentrate on better ways to use what they already own and to get the