Dan Burger
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Old Code And High Maintenance
January 20, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreThere are old RPG applications that just run and run. Minimal maintenance is required and the people who depend on these apps couldn’t be happier. But, you may have heard, this bliss is not universal. More often, application maintenance gets sloppy as the fingerprints of many coders, some perhaps with dubious credentials, takes a toll. Add a growing demand that applications do more and rely on data from multiple systems. New demands and old apps make for an odd couple.
Talk with an RPG programmer who deals with old code in a high maintenance circumstance and one that requires old
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SAP Credits Cloud, HANA For A Terrific Year
January 20, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreWith celebratory back-slapping for its fast-growing cloud business, SAP delivered good news during its preliminary Q4 and 2013 year financial report.
Based on the unaudited numbers, the company increased its annual software and cloud subscription revenue by 10 percent to €5.21 billion. The complete software and software-related service revenue grew 11 percent to €13.94 billion. By SAP’s reckoning, which seems a little over zealous, this marks the fourth year in a row that SAP has posted double-digit growth.
Overall, SAP software revenue slipped 2 percent to €1.9 billion in Q4 compared to the prior year’s quarter. Those decline is driven
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Finding The i In The Power Ecosystem And Strategy
January 13, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe IBM Power Systems portfolio covers a lot of territory. Where the IBM i portion of that very large ecosystem fits into the puzzle is often questioned, particularly when it comes to sales and marketing efforts. IBM i roadmaps are used to explain commitments to the platform and Technology Refreshes are examples of IBM investments. Growth of the platform depends on independent software vendor (ISV) solutions, where IBM investments in co-marketing activities are fuel that fills the sales gas tank.
Pumping that juice is Terri Virnig, vice president of Power ecosystem and strategy. She has responsibility for all aspects of
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IT Jungle Editor Added To RPG Summit Speakers
January 13, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreTed Holt, senior technical editor of the “Four Hundred Guru” newsletter published by IT Jungle has been selected to the cadre of speakers lined up for the next RPG & DB2 Summit, which will take place March 18 – 20, in Grapevine, Texas. Holt joins a group of instructors that includes Jon Paris, Susan Gantner, Paul Tuohy, Scott Klement, Aaron Bartell, Mike Pavlak, Mike Cain, Tom McKinley, and Barbara Morris. Paris, Gantner, and Tuohy are the proprietors of System i Developer, the training and education organization that stages the twice annual Summit conferences.
Holt has been on the
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Enterprise Software Dominates IT Spending Forecast
January 13, 2014 Dan Burger
… Read moreHow’s that IT budget for 2014 coming along? Got that executive seal of approval, or are you still noodling revision number 13? Most budgets in the IBM midrange will likely remain flapjack flat compared to a year ago, but overall worldwide IT spending is predicted to pick up speed. According to the analysts at Gartner, IT spending will tiptoe upward at a 3.1 percent pace reaching a projected total of $3.8 trillion in 2014.
One of the expected economic drivers will be enterprise software led by customer relationship management (CRM), a marketing and sales department favorite, and supply chain
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IBM i In The Middle Of Infrastructure Overhaul
December 16, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreEmerging markets are the accelerator and brakes on the IT spending bus. Countries in Latin America, India, Russia, and particularly in Asia have are expected to drive IT growth to a much greater degree than the mature markets, where businesses are advancing with one foot on the brake pedal. IBM, like any other multinational organization knows where the treasure is hidden. And the IBM i benefits from globalization just like everything else.
Asia has mature markets–Japan and Hong Kong being the prime examples–where the economy is more in line with the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, which have
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Enterprise Social Networking Finds Integration Is A Hoot
December 16, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM has a passion for social media. It’s social networking platform, Connections, is the nucleus of the social strategy that has lifted Big Blue to the leader in enterprise social software market share, as determined by IDC earlier this year. Enterprise social networking puts the emphasis on collaboration and, with a variety of social channels that enhance collaboration, the integration of those channels becomes part of the picture. Integration has arrived.
In order to tap into the full potential of enterprise social networking, the channels need to be a combination of internal and external avenues. Connections handles the internal collaborative
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Coming Soon: Connect 2014 (a.k.a. Lotusphere)
December 16, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe IBM Connect 2014 conference is coming up next month January 26-30 in Orlando, Florida. For many years this conference was known as Lotusphere, but that changed last year shortly after IBM dropped the Lotus brand. Although the name of the event has changed, the emphasis remains the same. This is all about collaborative software, with a big dose of social media, plus mobile and cloud computing.
Less publicized but still a significant portion of the event is geared toward Notes/Domino development skills, certification testing, and product roadmap insights that include the business partners as well as IBM.
Traditionally, Lotusphere
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RPG And Java At The Crossroads
December 9, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe IT director of an IBM i shop somewhere in the Midwest was walking down the street wondering about where he was going to get several programmers with modern RPG skills along with Web and mobile skills. He walks by an employment agency with a sign in the window that says “brains for sale.” So he goes inside. The first thing he sees is another sign that says “CEO brains $8 per pound.” Next to that what he sees . . .
. . . is another sign that says, “CFO brains $12 per pound.” Beyond that were signs that
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The Word Of The Day Is
December 9, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreModern–Spread The Word
Have you noticed IBM i executives are everywhere you look these days? I haven’t seen any of them on magazine covers at the grocery store checkout area, but it won’t surprise me when it happens. Steve Will, Alison Butterill, Tim Rowe, Barbara Morris and others seem to be more actively evangelizing. Conferences and local user group meetings are benefiting, many of them are blogging, but where it has picked up even more is their participation in vendor webinars.
Last week, I listened in to webinar that co-starred Rowe and Morris and was hosted by looksoftware.