• GraphQL’s Emerging Role in Modernization of Monolithic Applications

  August 30, 2021 Alex Woodie

  Every now and then, a technology emerges that lifts up everything around it. GraphQL has the potential to be a technology like that, and that’s good news for customers running older, established applications, such as those that run on IBM iron.

  IBM’s mainframe and its midrange IBM i server often are maligned as old, washed-up, legacy platforms, but people who say that are missing a key distinction: it’s usually not the server that’s old. In most cases, it’s the application that was first deployed in the Clinton Administration (or earlier) that is the problem.

  Companies typically have many reasons for …

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• Software Change Management Starts – And Ends – With Security

  August 30, 2021 Alan Brown

  In science fiction, the problem with networked computers is that eventually they get smart. In the real world, and at least so far in the 21^st century, the problem with network computers is that the very act of networking them means that they can be hacked into, and then ransomware and other kinds of malware can wreak their havoc.

  There is a lot to be said for open source software and the comfort that comes from having lots of eyes looking over the code for any potential weirdness. While we acknowledge that not all open source software is written …

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• Guru: Another Red Flag – Joining On Expressions

  August 30, 2021 Ted Holt

  One would think that a given datum, for example a sales order number, would be defined identically in the various database tables in which it is found within an organization, but one might be wrong. I have on many occasions faced the challenge of joining two or more tables on unmatched data types.

  But it gets worse than that. Sometimes joins involve expressions, which may consist of mathematical operations and/or invocations of functions, both intrinsic and user-written. As with the word DISTINCT in a SELECT, the presence of expression in a join sends up a little red flag that …

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• As I See It: Anatomy of Failure

  August 30, 2021 Victor Rozek

  Decades before the term “woke” became a thing, a couple trained in psychology expanded their portfolio to include corporate consulting. Among other offerings, they taught a seminar called “Conscious Business Practices,” during which they identified three principal reasons why corporations fail.

  Their names are Gay and Katie Hendricks, and they are book-writing machines. Those who actually still read books may recognize some of their enduring before-the-turn-of-the-century offerings: Conscious Living, At the Speed of Life, and The Corporate Mystic.

  I first wrote about their work over 20 years ago, a time barely recognizable now. And I was curious …

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• Forecast: Systems Spending Steady, Up For Services And Software

  August 30, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The individual IT budgets at the companies we work at exist in relation to – and often in stark contrast to – the overall market and to companies that are the same size as ours or in the same industry we play in. In this sense, IT spending forecasts from the several major IT market researchers set the pace for expectations, and people being what they are, they are affected (metaphorically speaking) in a relativistic fashion (size warps space and time) and in a quantum fashion (watching an experiment changes it). It gets hard to separate causes from effects in …

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• Public Cloud Dreams Becoming A Reality for IBM i Users

  August 23, 2021 Alex Woodie

  For years, IBM i professionals have looked on as their X86 colleagues moved data and applications to the cloud, where they take advantage of sophisticated analytics and AI offerings, while they dutifully tend to their Power Systems boxes, as they have for years. But with IBM i runtimes in at least two public clouds (and possibly more in the works), IBM i shops are finally starting to realize their public cloud dreams.

  The nature of the IBM i cloud solution that Meridian Group International is offering has changed over the years. Like many other IBM business partners, the Deerfield, Illinois, …

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• Reliability: An Added Value Of IBM Certified Pre-Owned

  August 23, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  There are many different kinds of reliability that are important in IT infrastructure. There is the obvious one that has to do with the literal quality of the hardware engineering, testing, and manufacturing processes as well as the quality of the systems software that runs atop servers or storage.

  But the other kinds of reliability that are equally important is knowing that the manufacturer is standing behind the equipment, supporting it whether it is new or certified pre-owned, in the event that something goes wrong. And as Murphy’s Law tells us and as all system administrators know full well, something …

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• Guru: Set Beats A Loop

  August 23, 2021 Ted Holt

  Hey, Ted:

  I’m sending you some RPG source code that I put into one of our inquiry programs and would like to have your insight. Instead of using the SETLL, DOW and READE opcodes to loop through a group of selected records, I used the SQL SET statement. This seems to me much easier for someone else to understand and follow. Is this good practice?

  — Mike

  I was glad to see Mike’s email in my inbox, as always. He and I met in person at the RPG & DB2 Summit a few years ago, and I’ve enjoyed getting to …

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• The Other IBM Big Iron That Is On The Horizon

  August 23, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The Hot Chips conference is underway this week, historically at Stanford University but this year as was the case last year, is being done virtually thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. There are a lot of new chips that are being discussed in detail, and one of them is not the forthcoming Power10 chip from IBM, which is expected to make its debut sometime in September and which was one of the hot items at last year’s Hot Chips event.

  The one processor that IBM is talking about, however, is the “Telum” z16 processor for System z mainframes, and unlike …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 34

  August 23, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  It is the middle of August and we expect for the software patches to slow down a bit, not so much because software is kind to our aspirations to have some vacation before the new season of school, harvest, and system upgrades begins anew but because frankly unless the system is on fire, no one cares about updating its operating system or related systems software in these weeks before Labor Day.

  But, there are a few things you need to be aware of. There are some new HIPERs and some new defectives this week. Let’s go to the video tape. …

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