Dan Burger
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Any Place For IBM i In The OpenPower Clan?
November 3, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe connection between the OpenPower Alliance and IBM i is more indirect than direct, but do not miscalculate the significance of OpenPower, IBM‘s most critical, most ambitious, and most risky strategic move of the 21st century. Although this is all about scale out Linux, the cloud market, and attacking Intel, the IBM i community should be watching closely. It is a business model shift for the Power brand. From a hardware perspective, this is a trip to another galaxy.
The catch phrase “Making the Power tide go up raises all boats” is embedded in the conversations of Systems
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Knocking On Doors And Talking About Cloud
November 3, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreIt’s not quite like walking through destiny’s door, but Patrick Schutz believes he’s in the right neighborhood. Surveying the situation, Schutz confidently predicts that cloud computing is exactly what many IBM midrange shops want. They’ve just needed some time get comfortable with the idea. According to Schutz, senior account executive at Abacus Solutions, an IBM i and Power Systems oriented managed service provider (MSP), the conversations about infrastructure as a service business have changed from if to when.
“In the past year, we have seen more interest and desire,” Schutz says with regard to Abacus’ interaction with the IBM
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Say Hello To Your New IT Hire
November 3, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe COMMON Education Foundation and the IBM Power Systems Academic Initiative, along with a group of IBM i ISVs and members of the IBM i community combined efforts to bring 24 college students to the Fall COMMON Conference in Indianapolis last week. That’s the most students that have ever attended a COMMON conference and a trend that should continue.
COMMON and the IBM i community in general benefit from increased participation from a decidedly youthful audience. It makes a noticeable difference at the conference, which is good for everyone involved, but the greater good is accomplished by bringing together
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Green Screen Replacement Beats The Clock
November 3, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreEven the prettiest green-screen application is not going to win many, if any, admirers these days. The truth is that a green-screen app is going to cost money by not being used. This is particularly true if you are creating commercial software. Put a green screen on one monitor next to a GUI on another monitor and ask people to vote on their favorite. And the winner is . . . not the green screen.
Paragon Consulting Services saw software sales dry up on its 5250 application for the metals industry. Guess where the blame rested? Yep, the interface. The
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Flash Expands As Primary Storage; Market Share Still Tiny
October 27, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM‘s investment in flash technology, which was pegged at $1 billion when it was announced in April 2013, has led to a number one market position in enterprise flash-based storage. It’s not a large market. Even the grandest estimates have it at less than 10 percent of the enterprise storage business. It is undoubtedly growing though, particularly as primary storage, or what is called Tier 1 storage, in the lingo.
Since it was first introduced as an enterprise-grade alternative to spinning disk technology, flash has come up against three obstacles: price, endurance, and reliability. Michael Kuhn, vice president of
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The Age of Frustration
October 27, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreIt’s frustrating at the very least. And aggravating, too. People talk about aligning business objectives and IT capabilities, but the distance between talking and doing seldom leads to the same destination. There’s clearly more than one common denominator that steers these projects into the ditch. But inadequate project management is many times the villain. Most attack this as a people problem. That’s certainly a good place to start looking around, but it can also be a lack of tools issue. That’s worth a closer look as well.
Businesses change. If it’s handled properly, we call it evolution. If it’s sudden
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Double-Digit License Revenue Growth Continues for Manhattan Associates
October 27, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreRetail supply chain powerhouse Manhattan Associates continues to perform well as demonstrated by its Q3 financial report showing a revenue gain of $17.8 million (14 percent) and a license revenue increase of $2.1 million (12 percent) based on comparisons with Q2. License revenue, however, fell below $17 million, after three consecutive quarters above that mark. For the nine months of 2014, license revenue was $52 million, which compares to $45.1 million for the same nine-month period in 2013. Total revenue for the first three quarters of 2014 increased from $306.9 million to $361.7 million. License revenue from net new customers
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Baker College Moves IBM i Classes Online
October 27, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreBaker College has transitioned all of its IBM i-related courses from the classrooms of its multiple campuses to online. The Michigan-based school offers courses in RPG, CL, database, and enterprise architecture, among others that are Power Systems related such as Linux and AIX. The online classes are open to anyone, whether they are enrolled at Baker College in a degree program or are interested in a single class.
Michael Picerno, dean of information systems, oversees the IBM midrange computing curriculum.
“The administration at Baker determined that on-premise classes with small enrollments be taken online,” Picerno says while noting other changes.
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ARCAD’s Free-Format Conversion Tool Passes Real World Test
October 21, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe conversion of fixed-format RPG to free-format RPG has created a great deal of interest in the IBM i community since support was added in Technology Refresh 7 of IBM i 7.1 late in 2013. Barbara Morris, a member of the RPG compiler development team at IBM‘s Toronto lab has been the IBM spokesperson on the topic, drawing crowds to technical sessions online and at local user groups and technical conferences.
One of the benefits free-format RPG offers is that it modernizes RPG to the extent that it is understandable to programmers familiar with Java and .NET, but who
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iBelieve Tour Returns to Europe
October 21, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM midrange shops in Europe, be on the lookout–the iBelieve road show, an enthusiastic exercise in IBM i advocacy and “i can do” spirit, is making the rounds. You can count on it making some noise, too. iBelieve events are one-day participatory theater combining education and entertainment.
Retired IBM chief scientist Frank Soltis leads the group of iBelieve speakers that includes IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will, Product Offering Manager Alison Butterill, IBM i advocate extraordinaire Trevor Perry, Maxava‘s Matthew Ashton and Paul Hodgkinson of looksoftware. (For entertainment, you’ll get great stories from Soltis and you might get