• Thoroughly Modern: The Looming Talent Crisis In IBM i Management

  September 9, 2024 Lief Morin

  In today’s fast-evolving technology landscape, IBM i systems remain a bastion of reliability and efficiency for countless enterprises. Yet, as these systems continue to serve as the backbone of critical operations, a troubling trend is emerging – the professionals who know how to manage them are retiring. With an aging workforce and a scarce influx of new talent, organizations face the risk of operational disruptions.

  Picture this scenario: your last seasoned IBM i system administrator is about to retire, and the remaining team lacks the deep expertise required to manage complex system needs. This isn’t just a minor hiccup; it’s …

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• IBM Introduces Mapepire, The New Db2 For i Client

  September 9, 2024 Alex Woodie

  IBM has released a new client for connecting applications to the Db2 for i database. Dubbed Mapepire, the open source client is designed to be faster, lighter weight, and easier for developers to work with compared to existing ODBC and JDBC database clients, especially in cloud environments.

  Building an application-side database client using existing Db2 for i’s database drivers, such as ODBC and JDBC (included in the JTOpen Java toolbox for IBM i) typically entails cramming a lot of overhead into the client component, says Liam Allan, who helps develop new open source development tooling at IBM.

  “For example, jtopen …

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• As I See It: Unintended Consequences

  September 9, 2024 Victor Rozek

  In the classic movie Inherit the Wind, Spencer Tracy plays a character fashioned after Clearance Darrow in a re-enactment of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. It acquired that reductive moniker because the defendant was a teacher accused of teaching evolution.

  In his closing summation Tracy, as the defense attorney, argues that there has always been a price for achieving progress. New knowledge often challenges old beliefs; progress inevitably displaces what came before; and, more often still, it leaves in its wake a wash of unintended consequences. “Mister,” says Tracy, “you may conquer the air, but the birds will lose …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 33

  September 9, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  We are back to the Quiet Time again in PTF Land, and we are beginning to wonder if the slowdown in patches has anything to do with the recent closures of the research and development labs by China, which we report on elsewhere in this issue. Probably not. But maybe.

  Fact is, there is not a lot going on this week, and thankfully no security vulnerabilities that we could see.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level since we last published:

  PTF Groups 7.5:

  • HIPERs (High Impact/Pervasive)
  • Java
  • RPG Café

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • HIPERs (High

  …

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• Could a CrowdStrike-Type Outage Hit IBM i?

  August 21, 2024 Alex Woodie

  It’s been a month since CrowdStrike caused a massive IT outage that took down large swaths of the Internet, causing billions of dollars in damage. The CrowdStrike outage was a Windows-only affair, but it’s worth asking: Could a similar incident impact IBM i?

  The largest IT outage in history began the morning of July 19, when a poorly configured update to CrowdStrike’s endpoint security software, called Falcon, caused 8.5 million Windows computers to crash, resulting in the dreaded blue screen of death (BSOD).

  For computer users of a certain vintage, the BSOD is – or at least was – …

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• How Managed Service Providers De-Risk Technologies For Customers

  August 21, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  When you run your own IT shop, you can only absorb new techniques and technologies as fast as your people can learn about them. Managed service providers, on the other hand, generally have a higher level of expertise and they spread the cost of learning about and investing in new technologies across hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands of customers, and they can develop expertise across different solutions, targeting various industries and use cases.

  But perhaps more importantly, MSPs take the risk out of you trying something new, which makes it far more likely for you to deploy technologies …

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• Is It Worth Investing in IBM i and RPG?

  August 21, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Nobody is mistaking the IBM i server as a brand-new system. It can’t hide from its status as a legacy platform. But does that mean that it’s no longer worth investing in IBM i and RPG? That’s the focus of a new paper by the outsourcing company DDC FPO.

  DDC FPO is an Evergreen, Colorado-based business process outsourcing company that serves the trucking industry and specializes in things like freight billing and customer service for truckers. Considering the continued popularity of the IBM i server in the trucking business, it’s not surprising that DDC has taken an interest in the …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, August 21

  August 21, 2024 Jenny Thomas

  The temperatures are high, the kids are going back to school, and the team at IT Jungle is about to go on a brief end-of-summer hiatus to rest, restore, and get ready for the rush to the end of the year. There is a lot of news to look forward to as fall conference season gets underway next month, but for now let’s get caught up on the news of the week, starting off with IBM’s continued role in the U.S. Open. Then be sure to make your way to the Calendar to make your final conference plans for the …

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• Getting A Handle On What GenAI Might Cost

  August 21, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Because of my other day job at The Next Platform, I can give you a pretty good idea about what it costs to train an AI model or run inference against it once it is trained. But I have seen very little data that tries to give any of a sense of what it costs to add generative AI functionality to applications.

  But interestingly, Gartner analysts embedded some such data in a report about how it expected many GenAI projects to be abandoned by the end of 2025 after their proofs of concept fail. That so many PoCs will …

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• IBM Kills Off Fax/400, But Alternatives Are Available

  August 19, 2024 Alex Woodie

  IBM will cease supporting Facsimile Support for i, commonly known as Fax/400, with the next release of the IBM i operating system, it announced last month. That tees up an opportunity for third-party vendors like Fresche Solutions and others to fill the void for a communication technology that is still used by businesses.

  The IBM Facsimile Support for i (5798-FAX) product was not among the group of 16 IBM i products that IBM initially withdrew from sales and support with its discontinuance of support letter back on May 7, the same day that it announced the latest technology refreshes (TRs) …

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