• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 11

  March 22, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  The IBM i PTF Guide has a lot of meaty stuff this week. So brace yourselves. First, there are new Cumes (Cumulative updates) for IBM i V7R2 and V7R3; for V7R2 is it is C7068720 and for V7R3 it is C7061730. Also, Tech Refreshes are out for V7R2 and V7R3 – TR6 on V7R2 and TR2 on V7R3 – and these are out a week earlier than expected.

  Some words of caution on installing these. As we pointed out last week, if you are two more TR levels behind the level you want to go to – for example, if …

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• The Lowdown On Pricing For The Power S812 Mini

  March 20, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Back on Valentine’s Day, IBM rolled out geared down variant of the entry Power S812 single-socket Power8 system for its IBM i and AIX customer bases, giving some of the low-cost love that it has heretofore reserved for its growing base of Linux customers on Power iron. The new machines are welcome, and we are told that they are about 20 percent lower cost than equivalently configured Power S822 and Power S824 machines.

  We are setting about to try to see if this is true, and as a first step, we have been hunting around for weeks to get configured …

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• IBM i Has A Cup Of Coffee With Watson

  March 20, 2017 Dan Burger

  As IBM steers its cognitive computing technology toward a profitable business process necessity, we are feeling the presence of Watson in the IBM i community. IBM’s business-oriented path forward for Watson should be well-suited to the “i for Business” installed base, or at least that portion of the installed base that believes IT is a competitive advantage.

  Analysts foresee a river of business software flowing from embedded cognitive capabilities. They say deeper data analysis leading to smarter workflow efficiencies have the attention of business managers. And they predict three-quarters of new business software will include artificial intelligence features by …

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• Conditional SQL I/O, Take 2

  March 20, 2017 Ted Holt

  Bob writes, “Hey, Ted! I hope you can teach an old dog a new trick. I am trying to replace the CHAIN operation with SQL. I chain once to a file to read a certain record. If that record is not found, I chain again to retrieve a default record. How can I make SQL do a second read to the same file?”

  This is not a hard thing to do, as SQL has no problem joining more than once to the same table. I’ll show you two methods to retrieve your data. The first method is the easier one, …

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• One On One With HelpSystems’ Debbie Saugen

  March 20, 2017 Alex Woodie

  HelpSystems scored a big win in the business resiliency department last month when it announced the hiring of IBM veteran Debbie Saugen to head up its new business continuity services offerings. IT Jungle caught up with Saugen and HelpSystems CEO Chris Heim last week to discuss what the move means for Saugen, how it will impact HelpSystems, and how customers will benefit.

  IT Jungle: Debbie, please tell me about your background at IBM. Have you always been involved in backup and recovery?

  Debbie Saugen: I spent over 37 years at IBM and I was the technical owner of IBM i …

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• The Dark Side Of Automated Systems Is Bright

  March 20, 2017 Dan Burger

  Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates have each waved a red flag regarding the risks that could arrive with future artificial intelligence systems. To not be concerned is reckless and ignorant of the data that suggests the potential for harm. This isn’t a fear that machines with super smart operating systems will become the new Manifest Destiny with humans subjugated to supporting actor roles, but it does have its sinister bearing.

  The fear factor grows from the continual eroding of jobs lost to automation and the economic disaster that result. Cries of “we have nothing to fear but fear …

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• Digital Transformation Drawing Crowds In Rocket’s Road Show

  March 15, 2017 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops may be relatively conservative technologically and generally resistant to bandwagons. But midrange professionals are eager to learn about digital transformation, according to Rocket Software executive Dan Magid, who’s the point man for a global roadshow dedicated to the topic.

  “How do I take part in digital transformation and do it with my IBM i? It’s a very hot idea,” Magid said from the San Francisco International Airport this week as he prepared to travel across the country to meet with more customers.

  Digital transformation is a relatively new concept that’s taking the business world by storm. It’s …

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• Vote On New IBM i Functionality With RFE Community Program

  March 15, 2017 Alex Woodie

  IBM is rolling out a new program that will not only allow IBM i customers to submit requests for enhancements (RFEs) over the Web, but allow the IBM i community to vote on them. Dubbed IBM RFE Community, the developerWorks program provides another venue for informing the Rochester Lab about a problem or asking them to build a new feature into the IBM i product.

  The new IBM RFE Community program for IBM i, which we told you was coming last August, is based on other RFE programs the company has had in place for other software products. Armed …

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• Vision Bolsters Data Replication, Rebrands Under MIMIX

  March 15, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Vision Solutions may have moved out of the Windows and Linux high availability market following the sale of its Double-Take business. But the company is still building and supporting software for replicating data to and from these important platforms in real time. And with last month’s release of MIMIX Share 5.4, the Windows and Linux data replication story gets better.

  Vision Solutions unapologetically doubled down on its Power Systems HA business following the sale of the Double-Take to Carbonite. With three IBM i-based HA products under its wing — including MIMIX and iTERA HA, which are under development, and …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, March 15

  March 15, 2017 Dan Burger

  What do you need from IBM i that you are not getting? If you have a thing or two in mind, IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will wants to hear from you. Here’s his phone number . . . Just kidding. The proper procedure is to use a request for enhancement. Learn more about that in today’s Monitor.

  Along with an article about making change happen are a couple of articles on dealing with changes as disruptive technology and managed services reshape organizations and workforces. And speaking of change, did you see IBM’s surprising makeover at SXSW a few …

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