Dan Burger
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The i Cloud Wasn’t Built In A Day
October 21, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM is building an IBM i-based cloud. You could say it’s already built, but it is an ongoing project. As good as the cloud services for IBM i are, there’s always work to be done to make it better. Taking a step in that direction, IBM hosted the IBM i Cloud Summit earlier this month to bring together a group of managed service providers (MSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), and business partners who are all, along with IBM, the stakeholders in the i cloud.
The fact that there even is an IBM i Cloud Summit is an indication that this
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Butterill Brings Crowd To OCEAN Meeting
October 21, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreA week after IBM i Technology Refresh 7 was announced, Alison Butterill, product offering manager for IBM i, showed up at the OCEAN user group meeting with plenty to talk about. Butterill, who travels like the wind except the wind has trouble keeping up, was asking a group of IBM midrange executives, in a roundtable discussion with software vendors, how many knew about TR7. Very few acknowledgements were signaled.
That led to a question about how many in this group were running IBM i 7.1 on Power Systems. Again, very little response in the affirmative. How about 6.1? The
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Avnet’s Madden An IBM i Guy
October 21, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreApplications and solutions were the focal point of IBM when Tony Madden began his career. As he grew up, professionally speaking, his best friend was the AS/400. After 20-plus years with IBM helping to establish the AS/400 and later the iSeries as the quintessential midrange computer, Madden joined Avnet, where he is currently the partner representative, the conduit, between Avnet and IBM on a global basis. Avnet is IBM’s number one distributor and IBM is Avnet’s number one supplier. Together they put IBM products in more than 30 countries.
When IT gurus and industry pundits talk about the new
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ARCAD Converter Turns Old RPG into Modern RPG
October 15, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreThere’s a world of difference between old RPG and modern RPG. For one thing, if your code is written in RPG III or an earlier version, almost no one except for veteran RPG programmers can make much sense of it. And because all modern codes are modular, the old stuff doesn’t mix well with the new. That, in a nut shell, is why ARCAD Software, in conjunction with IBM Rational, created its RPG converter tool for migrating legacy RPG to free form RPG.
The capability to use free-form-style coding is an important modernization language feature that boosts productivity, lessens
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Oh, Ruby! What You Do To Me (On Rails)
October 14, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreWhy would an RPG programmer have any interest in a language called Ruby and an architectural framework called Rails? I dunno. Why does anyone go where he or she has never been before? Because it sounds like fun, appeals to a sense of adventure, and holds some degree of promise (like Web programming, for instance)? If you haven’t stopped for a look at Ruby on Rails, there’s no better time than the present.
Why now? For one reason, because IBM just announced support for Ruby as part of the Technology Refresh 7 for IBM i. Ruby is on the
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IBM Training: The New Plan Advances
October 14, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM‘s goal is to triple the number of people that are touched by its training and education programs between now and the end of 2015. That sounds pretty ambitious, but part of IBM’s plan is already in place. Big Blue is transitioning its T&E program to four business partners with the goals of increasing penetration into regions it has never been and adding convenience in major markets.
The Global Skills Initiative, as this education and training move from IBM to the business partners is called, got under way in July when it was rolled out in 10 countries: Canada,
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COMMON Presentations Deadline Approaches; Scholarship Sponsorships Sought
October 14, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read morePreparations for the 2014 COMMON Annual Meeting & Exposition are a year-round activity, but one of the most important deadlines–the call for presentations–is coming up in just 16 days on October 30. COMMON’s education team is searching for sessions, labs, and all-day workshops related to IBM Power Systems, IBM i, AIX, and Linux.
Of particular interest are show-and-tell sessions designed so attendees experience a narrowly defined task from start to finish in step-by-step fashion. The use of live demonstrations or extensive screen shots is expected. The education team also has a priority to add new sessions on AIX, Linux, mobile
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Linoma Automates IFS Encryption
October 8, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreProtecting sensitive information takes a well-developed plan and a variety of skills and strategies. Not only are the operators of IBM midrange computers learning more about tightening down the security of their systems, they are also deploying data encryption to provide another barrier between sensitive information and those who are coming after it. Linoma Software‘s CryptoComplete is an encryption product designed to protect sensitive information and its automation features should give more companies a reason to take a closer look.
Encryption can be a hairy monster that adds complexity and manual processes to security efforts. Keeping things simple is
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RPG, Database Top Enhancements In IBM i 7.1 Technology Release 7
October 7, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM i Technology Refresh 7 is bound to make some people bark. Any time you mention these three letters–RPG–the ears of the IBM midrange community perk up like a half sleeping dog that notices a cat cutting across his territory. And RPG is going to get some attention as people hear about TR7, which officially will be released tomorrow, October 8.
This all begins, simply enough, with new free format options being added to RPG IV. RPG free-form was introduced with i5/OS V5R4 in 2001. That’s more than 12 years ago. During that time IBM made free form its RPG
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IBM i Educational Grant Denied
October 7, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreA Department of Labor grant application that would further the development of a standardized IBM i curriculum that could be implemented at participating colleges and universities has been rejected, sending the grant writing team of IBM midrange advocates back to the drawing boards. Jim Buck, who guides the IBM i educational curriculum at Gateway Technical College in Wisconsin, advised me of the setback last week.
To bolster the grant application, 119 companies participated in a survey that prioritized skills that college graduates could possess that would make them candidates for job opportunities. An email was sent to the companies (78