Dan Burger
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SaaS HR And Payroll Powered By i Proves Popular
September 9, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreMaking the choice to deliver its human resources and payroll application in the software as a service (SaaS) package was a gamble for NorthgateArinso (NGA), but the idea has fit the bill for thousands of companies that are attracted by the software features and the SaaS subscription-based replacement for software licensing. Most of these companies have no idea the software runs on the IBM Power7 hardware and the IBM i platform, but it has worked out well for NGA.
Renting rather than buying mission-critical applications is still pretty rare in the IBM midrange community, but it is not the IBM
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IBM Re-Emphasizes Software And Services To The Channel
September 9, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreIn his keynote address at the Avnet and IBM Executive Directions meeting last month, Steve Mills told a roomful of folks in the sales channel that their greatest opportunities for future success would be in software and services. That’s not a new tune the general manager in charge of the converged Software and Systems Group was singing, but in this business setting where hardware sales is the sentimental favorite, Mills would like to make sure the choir is singing his song.
Mills carefully built a bridge that connected the old reseller sales approach that led with hardware sales by saying
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RPG & DB2 Summit Registrations Rise, Signals Progress In IBM i Shops
September 9, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreRPG & DB2 Summit Registrations Rise, Signals Progress In IBM i Shops
The skills gap for IBM midrange professionals may be narrowing. At least there’s an indication that may be true. Tech conferences in general have reported attendance as mostly flat over the past several years and more are shriveling than blossoming. But at the same time, companies are scrambling to solve business issues and looking to IT for the answers. Solutions, in many cases, require new skills. In-house IT investment can’t be overlooked.
The most promising indicator of an upswing in skills comes from System i Developer, the
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Avnet’s Solutions And Services Strategy Adjusts To IT Buying Changes
August 26, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreWe’ve heard it from IBM and all the major analyst companies: companies are no longer buying products; they are buying solutions. IT vendors that have depended on hardware sales for the bulk of their revenue are shifting to a more services-oriented style. Just two weeks ago, at the Avnet Compass conference for the business partners of that giant IT reseller, the services story was emphasized again and again. The way organizations consume IT is changing. Avnet is changing, too.
There was a time when Avnet’s business on the IT side–it also has a large electronics components business, of course–was mostly
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Avnet Introduces Utility Pricing on Hardware
August 20, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe capital expense of buying servers and storage has some companies wondering how they can keep up with IT modernization. It’s a question that has Avnet eager to talk about pay-as-you-go solutions. The giant IT distribution company has a program called “Capacity Now” that could be called capacity as a service, if we didn’t already have too many “as a service” offerings to juggle in our lexicon.
This is a payment model that allows Avent’s partners in the reseller channel to go to IBM midrange shops with an infrastructure purchase option on a utility payment plan. Customers get the option
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New Design Tool Available from looksoftware
August 13, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreIf you are an RPG programmer with more than a gallon left in your tank and the idea in your head you’ll be working for the foreseeable future, taking your development skills from green screen to GUI is advisable. Modern RPG skills are not all about a pretty presentation–plenty of architecting is left to be done–but a modern design tool gets you where you need to go. That’s why the latest design tool from looksoftware deserves your attention.
Looksoftware calls its core development IDE newlook, and this is version 10. It’s been four years since look released version 9, which
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Steady Growth For The Connectria Cloud
August 12, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreOwning and managing IBM midrange hardware is moving from on-premise IT departmental responsibility to service providers. This is not a question. It is happening. The furniture movers have arrived. But to what extent remains mostly unknown. Companies are picking and choosing their managed service providers and, if that works out, they are adding pieces of infrastructure and applications to the cloud. They may be saving money and they may be outsourcing skills that are in short supply.
It’s always been true that the decision to move hardware, infrastructure, and applications off site requires a load of trust. For IBM i
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A New IBM i Team Is Needed
August 5, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreSparks will fly when application development teams get this news. Someone set the stun gun for high voltage. Let the yowling begin. Management has decided that following an IT strategy that was begun in the last century is not appropriate for this one and a decision has been made to move from application centric development to data centric development. IBM midrange shops shudder at the thought of this, but here’s a scenario where it could come to pass.
Mergers and acquisitions have put a small to midsize company into a much bigger arena. And in this hypothetical situation let’s say
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Modern RPG Tops List of Essential Skills
August 5, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreFor the past six weeks, IT Jungle has encouraged readers to take a brief survey that would measure the boundaries and intensity of the IBM i skills shortage. Jim Buck, the tenacious outrider for IBM i education, is monitoring the survey responses and last week he emailed me to report the number of IBM midrange shops participating in the survey now totals 111. He also provided some indicators of areas of widespread concern.
At the top of the most wanted list was advanced RPG skills. You might think that with so many RPG programmers in the IBM i community, and
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Fall COMMON Conference Just One Month Away
August 5, 2013 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe COMMON Fall Conference and Expo is only one month away and the last opportunity to get a $200 discount on the registration price is Thursday, August 8. The annual fall event is rolling into St. Louis, Missouri, from September 9 through 11. This year there will be more than 100 sessions covering a wide variety of topics under the IBM Power Systems umbrella.
The majority of sessions will be aimed at the traditional IBM i professionals, but COMMON is built to accommodate the multi-platform propellerheads who like a little AIX and Linux on their plates as well. Two all-day