• Big Blue Profits, Poised For The Power9

  October 23, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Let’s just cut straight to the good news. Even though IBM’s revenues have declined for the 22nd quarter in a row, and its profits are declining even faster, the substantial investments that Big Blue has made in its System z14 mainframes and Power9 systems is about to start paying off.

  The System z14 mainframes made their debut in July and start shipping in the middle of September, converting from a drain on the company to a fairly large flow of cash. Power9 chip development ceased a while ago, and we presume most of the system engineering is done, and even …

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• Continuous Improvement: Within Reach, Without Fear

  October 18, 2017 Dan Burger

  There are relatively few companies with end-to-end operations that actually achieve the goal of continuous improvement. It tends to be more of a slogan than a policy for most. And it’s easily recognizable with a glimpse of the IT department. Cutting edge isn’t mandatory, but the stakes have never been higher for those that lag or, through inaction or other poor decisions, make costly mistakes — some quickly realized and others of the ticking time bomb variety.

  Keeping an IT department moving forward is no sure bet, but it helps when the company commitment to persistent progress is more than …

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• Visual Data Exploration Comes To Db2 Web Query

  October 18, 2017 Alex Woodie

  The IBM i server isn’t known as an analytics powerhouse — transaction processing is more its thing. But with the latest release of Db2 WebQuery for i, customers are getting visualization capabilities that will let them explore their data in powerful new ways.

  IBM announced Db2 Web Query for i version 2.2.1 on October 3 as part of its Technology Refreshes (TRs) for IBM i 7.2 and 7.3. While the release number would seem to indicate a minor update, the improvements are actually quite substantial, says Robert Bestgen, IBM’s product development manager for Db2 Web Query.

  “We kind of moved …

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• Why Setting IT Priorities Is So Important

  October 18, 2017 Alex Woodie

  During the Great Recession, IT professionals around the world were tasked with greater responsibilities while simultaneously working with lower budgets, a pattern that has since been ingrained as the “new normal” in tech. Now, according to a report from technology solutions provider CDW, that ongoing budget crunch is manifesting itself in new ways as organizations struggle to effectively deal with a host of IT priorities.

  In its “Power of Priority” report, CDW surveyed 800 IT decision makers from eight industries to gain a greater understanding of how organizations are prioritizing, strategizing, and executing against their IT goals. It also analyzed …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, October 18

  October 18, 2017 Dan Burger

  It doesn’t take a detective to find the visual and behavioral clues that connect mainframe and IBM i professionals and their IT environments. There’s an aging workforce, a skills depletion, and a deepening concern about modernization. Author Don Denoncourt has been knee-deep (perhaps deeper) in both environments and he has some advice about steps that need to be taken. See the top story in Monitor this week.

  Also in Monitor this week . . . taking a hard look at your IT deficiencies, finding IT leaders among C-level executives, and paying more attention to the future of mobile computing. Keep …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 41

  October 18, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  We have taken advantage of the lull in PTFs to restructure the IBM i PTF Guide. Check out the “Prior” worksheet, it is designed to let you know what the latest Cume (cumulative PTF patch stack) was on several prior releases. In many cases, these are available for order from IBM.

  We have also added a “Links” worksheet. It is a collection for the links we have found useful over the years. If you have any suggestions about what should be added for the benefit of all, send them in and we’ll add them on.

  There is one broken …

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• Java On IBM i: A Developing Situation

  October 16, 2017 Dan Burger

  IBM i developers in the Java camp have some changes in store as Java 9 replaces Java 8. First of all, there will be no IBM i support for Java 9. This break in tradition may come as a surprise for many IBM i developers, but not for those Java-holics who have been closely watching the Java 9 news. There are a couple of reasons IBM has decided not to support Java 9 on IBM i, even though IBM currently supports Java 7 and Java 8 and it has supported every Java release seemingly since Moby Dick was a minnow. …

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• IBM Unveils LTO-8 Tape Drives

  October 16, 2017 Alex Woodie

  The not-so-long wait for the latest Linear Tape-Open gear is finally over, as members of the LTO Consortium last week unveiled their latest drives capacity of storing 30 TB of compressed data. Among the first consortium members unveiling product was IBM, which announced its first two LTO-8 Ultrium drives.

  LTO-8 drives can store up to 12 TB of data on a single LTO-8 cartridge, and move data at rates up to 360 MB/sec. With 2.5-to-1 compression turned on, the capacity of LTO-8 drives jumps to 30 TB while the transfer rates increases to 900 MB/sec. That corresponds to a 100 …

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• Guru: Error Handling in SQL PL, Part 2

  October 16, 2017 Ted Holt

  In the previous episode of this exciting, action-packed series, I introduced you to the exception-handling methods that IBM has built into SQL PL. The cliff-hanger has lasted four months now, much too long. It’s high time I explained RESIGNAL, as I promised I would. I will explain SIGNAL while I’m at it.

  Before I start the syntax lesson, I need to explain a bit of philosophy. I use the hit-the-ball-drag-Harry method of exception-handling when I embed SQL in RPG and COBOL programs. That is, I execute a command, test the SQL state, execute a command, test the SQL state, …

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• Mad Dog 21/21: Big Blue’s Big Beast Boost

  October 16, 2017 Hesh Wiener

  In July, IBM announced another generation of mainframes. At first, IBM will be able to sell every box it can build. This could continue for a year or more. During this sales surge, IBM’s hardware revenue should rise. So, too, will intake from mainframe systems software and middleware. IBM’s services operations should enjoy a nice lift as well. IBM’s employees may feel more secure, its shareholders more confident, its customers pleased. Even curmudgeonly commentators will produce more prose of praise than pans.

  In the past, IBM has stimulated forward migration of its mainframe base by pricing bundles in attractive …

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