• The Power Systems Decline Did Not Have To Be This Bad

  April 24, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Thirteen weeks ago, when IBM reported its financial results for its final quarter of 2016, we said that the Power Systems business would decline in every quarter ahead of the Power9 launch, and while this is not a hard thing to predict, it has certainly turned out to be true in the first quarter of 2017. Both IBM’s Power Systems and Systems z machines and their related operating systems were hit by gut-wrenching declines.

  The good news, as we have pointed out time and again, is that IBM’s true systems business is distinct from and is a superset that …

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• Native Open Source: Why It’s Time for IBM i

  April 19, 2017 Alex Woodie

  When you think about open source software for IBM i, chances are good you envision PHP applications or Ruby code or even Node.js, all of which were adapted from other platforms to run on IBM i. But there’s a new movement afoot to spur more development of open source software that runs natively on IBM i.

  Make no mistake about it: getting PHP, Ruby, Python, Node.js and the others to run on IBM i is a good move by IBM. The work Big Blue has done to bring these technologies to IBM i – much of which is delivered …

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• ARCAD Strengthens IBM i Modernization Portfolio

  April 19, 2017 Dan Burger

  Two IBM i modernization products have been added to IBM’s eConfig ordering system, signaling an increased emphasis helping customers move forward on the modernization path. The additions come from ARCAD Software and pertain to the conversion of fixed-format RPG source code to free-format code and the analysis of existing IBM i applications.

  The conversion of legacy code to modern free form syntax is accomplished by the ARCAD Converter product. The process is recognized as a progressive step toward RPG code that is more easily understood by programmers from outside the RPG world and, therefore, more easily integrated and more easily …

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• Connecting IBM i Into A Broader Security Web

  April 19, 2017 Alex Woodie

  In the on-going war between cybercriminals and everybody else, there’s no place for lone wolfs. The strength of any individual company’s security is largely dependent on the collective posture of multiple groups of actors. Luckily for IBM i shops, there are defined paths to plug into the broader shield that’s constantly evolving to keep us safe.

  The idea of collective security is nothing new. Every anti-virus engine you’ve ever owned for the past 25 years is kept up-to-date by groups of security researchers who constantly stay on the lookout for new pieces of malware and new forms of attacks.

  But …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, April 19

  April 19, 2017 Dan Burger

  As an IBM i programmer or manager of programmers, how do you instill the mindset of be better today than you were yesterday and be better tomorrow than you are today? It’s not rocket science or brainwashing. See today’s Monitor for how it’s done.

  Last week, IT Jungle published a story titled Blockchain: A Link in Your Long Term IBM i Plan. This week, it’s Technology Review writing about blockchain and a conference called the Business of Blockchain. Setting aside the over-inflated expectations and the white hot hype that we’ve come to expect with the next big thing, blockchain …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Numbers 13 And 14

  April 19, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  IT Jungle took a hiatus with the Wednesday edition of The Four Hundred last week, so this week we are publishing two issues of the IBM i PTF Guide at the same time.

  In Volume 19, Number 14, Content Manager was the only new group with fixes during the week, so there was not much happening in the world of PTFs ahead of the Easter holiday. (And probably for that very reason.) When this happens – the “doldrums of fixes” – it generally means that there will be a deluge in the near future. We would like to urge you …

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• IBM Gives AIX Some Of The Integration Spice Of IBM i

  April 17, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Sometimes I just have to laugh. One of the best things about the IBM i platform, and the thing that truly separates it aside from its sophisticated single memory storage architecture is the fact that it is an integrated system that is easy to deploy and even easier to administer. So many functions of the system are automated that companies that don’t want to hire database experts can do a very good job of coding applications and running their business with far fewer techies than other platforms require.

  The same has never been said of AIX, and it certainly cannot …

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• Secrets Of IBM i Magic Act Revealed

  April 17, 2017 Dan Burger

  Can IBM i shops find a way to replace their RPG-oriented staffs with magicians? The answer, in many cases, is that they already have. The RPG staff members are the magicians. They’ve abra-ka-dabra-ed their way to doing more with less for something like 30 years. The clever companies employing these magicians have parlayed this IT staff magic into new technology investments that perpetuate the more for less phenomenon.

  One of those technologies is the modern managed services provider, which causes system management to disappear and gives the IT magicians something new to work on . . . like database modernization, …

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• Guru: SQL Facts Of UNION And ORDER BY, Take Two

  April 17, 2017 Ted Holt

  Hey, Ted:

  In last week’s tip, you mentioned that expressions are not allowed in the ORDER BY clause of a union. You can use the union as a subquery to allow the use of an expression for the ordering. An extra layer, but it gives you the result you are looking for.

  –S. Sims

  Sims is correct. I was so focused on the fact that the ORDER BY of a union does not allow expressions that I completely forgot about a workaround. His (her?) technique is probably the most common way to deal with this limitation. I’ve seen numerous examples …

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• S4i Systems Embraces Open Source Project

  April 17, 2017 Dan Burger

  Open source development on IBM i bodes well for the platform and all those who look to the future as well as recognizing the value of the past. RPG development isn’t threatened by open source options. It’s stimulated by open source. The modernization of RPG, C, or COBOL investments gets a boost from open source. There are people writing applications on IBM i that would not be within shouting distance of the platform if open source language options were not available.

  When Web services, mobile applications and other Web technologies become more closely aligned with i, the community benefits. The …

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