• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 45

  November 10, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  Don’t get hyper, but there are new High Impact/Pervasive PTFs that you need to take a look at for the supported releases of the IBM i platform. Those are HIPERs in the IBM lingo. There are also some patches for Temporary Storage PTFs that you also need to be aware of.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level:

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • HIPERs
  • Temporary Storage PTFs

  PTF Groups 7.3:

  • HIPERs
  • Temporary Storage PTFs

  PTF Groups 7.2:

  • HIPERs

  PTF Groups 7.1:

  • Nothing going on here, as is typical but not always true.

  New (or Updated) Links for …

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• Inside The IBM “Denali” Power E1080 System

  November 8, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  With Big Blue not really shipping its Power10-based big, bad “Denali” Power E1080 system in full volume and with full configurations until December, we knew we would have some time to dig down into the architecture of the Denali systems. And with other things out of the way, which also needed to be covered, including our initial coverage on the Power E1080 machine on September 8 and some follow-on stories, we are now eagerly taking the lid off the Denali machine and taking a hard look at it for you.

  Seriously. Here is the machine with the lid off of …

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• Thoroughly Modern: Infrastructure Challenges And Easing Into The Cloud

  November 8, 2021 Marcel Sarrasin

  There is an old saying, purportedly a Chinese curse but never proven to be anything but a saying by English diplomats who interfaced with the Middle Kingdom: “May you live in interesting times.” There is an equally mistaken etymology that the word for “crisis” in Chinese is comprised of two Mandarin words for “danger” and “opportunity.”

  Even though people misunderstand the source of these sayings, and the latter one is just simply not true at all, it is still the case that there has never been a more interesting time in the information technology sector in general and …

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• Guru: Abstract Data Types and RPG

  November 8, 2021 Ted Holt

  An abstract data type (ADT) is a type of data and a set of operations defined over that type of data. Using ADTs allows a programmer to work with data in terms of functionality rather than physical representation. The ADT is the basis of object-oriented programming. Does that mean that abstract data types don’t apply to procedural languages like RPG? Not at all. Quite the contrary.

  Before I show you how you can use abstract data types in RPG-based applications, let me further illustrate abstract data types with another, non-OO object — the user profile. The user profile is a …

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• IBM Offers Free Security Check for IBM i

  November 8, 2021 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that are concerned about security – and really, who isn’t concerned about their security these days? – may be interested in receiving a free security check from the experts at IBM Systems Lab Services.

  The IBM i Security Quick Check, as the free offering is called, was introduced by IBM in October as a way to help IBM i shops pinpoint the areas where their servers are susceptible to external attacks, insider threats, and malware.

  The security check will let organizations know where the security vulnerabilities exist in their IBM i configurations, according to a blog post …

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• Gartner Revises IT Spending Forecasts Upward For 2021 And 2022

  November 8, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  With a market as large as the information technology racket, small changes rack up to tens of billions of dollars up or down in global spending. Any increase is generally seen as good news because so many of the individual IT budgets are gauged against the global average. So, in a sense, it just got a little bit easier for you to argue that your own IT department should be spending more dough on IT because the prognosticators at Gartner have just raised their forecast for IT spending in 2022.

  It’s not much of an increase, mind you. So don’t …

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• Warning Signs: Inside Travis Perkins’ Failed ERP Migration

  November 3, 2021 Alex Woodie

  When UK construction supplier and home improvement retailer Travis Perkins announced last month that it had selected Oracle Fusion Cloud’s Financials as the core of its new ERP deployment, it marked the latest in a long series of decisions about the company’s computing infrastructure. Unfortunately, it came after many poor decisions and failed ERP migrations along the way. Hopefully they will serve to educate others who might travel the same path.

  Travis Perkins’ current ERP woes began in 2016 at Infor’s annual Inforum user conference in New York City. The UK company’s then CEO, John Carter, announced that it …

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• A Preview Of The Comarch Cloud Calculator

  November 3, 2021 Tomasz Wachnicki

  For many IBM i shops, the cloud is a new consumption model and cloud-based applications and infrastructure is still a new way of doing things. If the cloud means anything, it means reducing the friction of buying and using capacity and moving from capital expenses that have to be amortized to utility-style consumption that does not have to be. But there are a lot of moving parts, and customers have to be aware of how these things plug together and how they are priced so they can reckon what their cloud bill will be each hour, day, week, month, and …

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• Precisely Ships MIMIX 10

  November 3, 2021 Alex Woodie

  Precisely last week unveiled Assure MIMIX 10, the latest release of its high availability software for IBM i. With this release, Precisely has simplified the initial setup and configuration of the journal-driven replication at the heart of the product. It also has broken the product up into three distinct packages.

  After a slew of acquisitions of IBM i-based high availability software providers by Vision Solutions (now Precisely) over the years, Assure MIMIX 10 remains the flagship HA offering in the company’s lineup, particularly when it comes to providing application and data continuity for larger enterprises.

  With version 10, Precisely …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, November 3

  November 3, 2021 Jenny Thomas

  Fast foodies might have caught the recent news the IBM is working with McDonald’s to help automate the drive-thru window. It’s hard to ignore that this development will eliminate jobs, but artificial intelligence makes for interesting reading for our audience so we figured it was worth mentioning. Turns out, McDonald’s has already piloted an AI drive-thru system in 10 stores in Chicago. Those restaurants saw 85 percent order accuracy, with only one-fifth of orders needing a human to intervene and help. It’s rage inducing to leave a drive-thru without everything you ordered, so those numbers are not super impressive, but …

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