Timothy Prickett Morgan
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Admin Alert: The 4 GB Access Path Size Time Bomb
November 6, 2013 Joe Hertvik
… Read moreMany IBM i shops run enterprise software originally created more than 10 years ago. While this allows you to run older applications on newer hardware, older apps can also cause issues with files that are no longer suitable for today’s processing. This week, let’s look at one older file parameter that if not changed, can stop application processing dead in its tracks: The 4 GB Access Path Size Time Bomb.
Time Bomb, What Time Bomb?
The time bomb I’m referring to is the Access path size (ACCPTHSIZ) parameter in some application files. In older versions of the OS/400 operating system
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Allow Repeated Change With Before Triggers
November 6, 2013 Paul Tuohy
… Read moreRecently, during a modernization project, I have been making use of the Allow Repeated Change (ALWREPCHG) option with before triggers. ALWREPCHG allows a before trigger to make changes to the record being inserted or updated, and that lets you do some really powerful database magic!
The Scenario
A table contains a date that is stored in a packed numeric column. The requirement is to change the data type of the column to a proper date data type. This change will require coding changes to at least 20 programs.
The “big bang” approach of changing, testing and implementing the 20-plus programs
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IBM Cuts Storwize Array Disk And SSD Prices
November 4, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan
… Read moreThe new Storwize V5000 arrays were just announced, as we reported elsewhere in this issue of The Four Hundred, and IBM is already tweaking the prices on disk and flash drives for the machines. IBM has also cut prices on disks and SSDs for its V7000 arrays and for SSDs used in the SAN Volume Controller and the Flex System V7000 array.
The price cuts were revealed in announcement letter 313-103. As usual, I have plowed through the IBM Sales Manual to figure out what features are affected by the price changes:
IBM did not cut prices on
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IBM To Move SmartCloud Enterprise Customers to SoftLayer
November 4, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan
… Read moreIBM launched its SmartCloud Enterprise infrastructure cloud service back in the spring of 2011, and it was at that time five years behind industry juggernaut Amazon Web Services. In part to make good on its promises to grow cloud revenues and in part to get a broader set of customers and technologies, IBM bought cloud provider SoftLayer in June. And now it is warning customers that they will have to move to SoftLayer clouds.
The rumors about the transition from SmartCloud Enterprise to SoftLayer popped up late last week after some industry analysts caught wind of the forced–and entirely expected–migration
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IBM Chops High-End Power CPU And Memory Prices
November 4, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan
… Read moreThe fourth quarter is well under way and everyone now knows that Power8 systems are not going to start rolling out until the middle of 2014 or so. And this means IBM has to do some wheeling and dealing, particularly at the high-end where the Power7-based Power 795 machines are looking a little long in the tooth. This is because IBM did not provide a Power7+ bump at the high end of the Power Systems line in late 2012 or early 2013, and it has no plans to, either.
IBM generally does not provide a “plus” bump to its high-end
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The Sales Pitch For The PureFlex For IBM i Bundle
November 4, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan
… Read moreIn last week’s issue of The Four Hundred, we told you about the new PureFlex Solution for IBM i bundle that Big Blue rolled out as part of the October announcements. This bundle is based on the Power7+ processor and the p260+ two-socket server node in the PureFlex system and is a more suitable setup than a similar bundle announced in June using the quad-socket p460 node, which is based on the Power7 chip. Just how good of a deal is this new bundle?
The machines cost about the same on the hardware front. The p460 bundle had a
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Cloud and HANA Grow, Software Slows At SAP In Q3
October 28, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan
… Read moreThe shift from software licensing for internal use to renting software on a cloud continues apace at application software giant SAP. In its third quarter, SAP’s software license sales were down and its cloud sales were up, and cloud revenues rose fast enough to more than offset license declines.
In the period ending in September, SAP had €975 million in software license revenues, down 5 percent, but cloud subscriptions and support more than tripled to €191 million. SAP now has cloud revenues in excess of a €1 billion annual run rate, and has 33 million seats on its cloud.
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Avnet Makes Up Server Decline With Software, Storage, And Services
October 28, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan
… Read moreThe Technology Solutions group at master distributor Avnet is one of the largest middlemen in the server distribution racket, and as expected, with Intel in the middle of processor transistors for its Xeon line, it was a bit tough going for system reselling in the first quarter of fiscal 2014 for the company. But sales of software, storage, and services were a different story.
In the quarter ended in September, Avnet’s overall sales were $6.35 billion, up 8.1 percent, and net income was $120.6 million, up 20.3 percent thanks to product mix and cost-cutting initiatives launched earlier this year.
In
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Reader Feedback On Modern, Free-Form RPG New Bloods
October 28, 2013 Hey, Alex
… Read moreWell, maybe!
As an IBM SE for many years, I found that business types could relate well to RPG as it was what it was, and they were not looking for bells and whistles. They were looking for solutions to problems for their companies.
The new programmer learns on Windows and in most cases may know an awful lot but have little respect for the business of business.
I loved helping these business types who were anointed to become programmers. I helped them know how to solve business problems with a business programming language. It was not so bad back
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IBM Wraps Up New PureFlex For IBM i Bundle
October 28, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan
… Read moreBack in June, IBM put together a bundle of hardware, software, and services that was aimed at customers who wanted to run the IBM i operating system on PureFlex converged systems. The deal offered some pretty good discounts, and it really had to because the underlying Power Systems platform was based on a quad-socket p460 server node. This is a bit too much iron for many IBM i shops, and the node is also in the P10 software tier.
To IBM’s credit, the fact that the p460 node is in the P10 tier rather than a P20 tier just