• IBM Grants Amnesty On Software Maintenance After License Charges

  April 20, 2020 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Ask and ye shall receive. Last week, we were asking for Big Blue to wake up and provide a stimulus package for its Power Systems business in general and its IBM i business in particular. And one of the things we asked for – an amnesty canceling so-called after license charges for Software Maintenance for IBM i and AIX platforms was actually quietly announced to business partners – unexpectedly at that – on April 13, the same day our essay ran and three days after we wrote it.

  We think this is a coincidence, not causation. And it’s a …

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• Database Enhancements Galore In Technology Refresh

  April 20, 2020 Alex Woodie

  Db2 for i is the beating heart of the IBM i server. There’s no doubt about that. So when IBM delivers the next set of Technology Refreshes (TRs) for IBM i 7.3 and 7.4 next month, you can bet that they’ll be loaded with new and improved features to keep the database humming.

  To get up to speed with the database-related enhancements in IBM i 7.4 TR2 and IBM i 7.3 TR8, IT Jungle caught up to Scott Forstie, a senior technical staff member at IBM’s lab in Rochester, Minnesota, and the database architect for Db2 for i.

  There’s …

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• Guru: A Simple, Effective Way To Compare Data Using SQL

  April 20, 2020 Ted Holt

  One thing I have learned over the years is that no matter how much technology changes, people always ask the same questions like: “Why does the computer say we have 50 widgets when we only have 45?” and “Can you tell me who changed the due date of order number 12345?” and “How do sales of widgets this year compare to the same time last year?” It is the last of these that I wish to address today.

  Comparing data is a very common activity. Everybody compares data: sales people, production people, purchasing people, and of course management people. This …

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• COVID-19 Response: Manta Cuts Training Prices, Offers Freebies

  April 20, 2020 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Everybody is doing their part to try to cushion the blow of the coronavirus outbreak and also to stay in business themselves. It’s a delicate balance, and one that we are all trying to manage.

  Manta Technologies, which has been providing IBM i training for nearly the past three decades and online training for other platforms for more than four decades now, is doing its part. For nearly 20 years now, Manta’s library of more than 130 IBM i courses has been available online, and people all over the world use it to brush up on existing skills and …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 16

  April 20, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  Hello good people of IBM i Land. Just a reminder: The Technology Refreshes for IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4 are not going to be available until the middle of May, so the IBM i PTF Guide will not reflect the changes that are coming until then – even though they have been announced. However, the TR link in the Guide will provide insight into the info on the web about the upcoming TRs. So check it out.

  Also: Resaves are announced but not available yet. See TR link in Guide. And IBM i Access Client Solutions V1.1.8.4, …

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• Here’s What’s In the Latest IBM i Technology Refreshes

  April 15, 2020 Alex Woodie

  As expected, IBM today officially unveiled its spring Technology Refreshes for IBM i. Among the goodies that will become available for IBM i 7.4 TR2 or IBM i 7.3 TR8 (or both) are enhancements to Db2 Mirror, a new approach to tape library virtualization, improvements to open source, and new features and functionality around Db2, RPG, RDi, and security, too.

  Months ago, IBM execs circled April 14 on their calendars as the day for the big IBM 7.4 TR2 and IBM i 7.3 TR8 reveal, with the idea that the following week’s POWERUp conference in Atlanta, Georgia (now canceled, but …

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• Thoroughly Modern: Digital Transformation Is More Important Than Ever

  April 15, 2020 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  There are very few things in life that don’t have some kind of distribution across behavior patterns. Some phenomena are driven by bell curves or inverted bell curves or some other kind of distribution – including random. And as such, we all know that the companies that comprise the IBM i base fall on different parts of the spectrum of behavior with regard to how up to date their systems and their applications are.

  In normal markets, where some of the pressures are not so intense, it might not matter as much to have a modern system, software, and application …

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• IBM i 7.3 Encryption Bolstered With TR8

  April 15, 2020 Alex Woodie

  Customers running IBM i 7.3 got some good news on the security front when IBM announced that the operating system would get support for the latest Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, version 1.3. And that’s not the only security-related enhancement this group of users received with the new Technology Refreshes.

  Last year, IBM gave IBM i shops the ability to use TLS 1.3, which is strongest publicly available encryption protocol used on the Internet today. TLS 1.3 debuted in the summer of 2018 and has since been adopted by nearly a quarter of sites on the Web, according to surveys. …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, April 15

  April 15, 2020 Jenny Thomas

  While COVID-19 continues to dominate headlines worldwide, there is still much happening in the world of IBM i. Last week we told you about the new CEO of IBM, Arvind Krishna, taking the helm, and this week we fill you in on the latest Technology Refresh on what’s become available for IBM i 7.4 TR2 or IBM i 7.3 TR8. As much as we would all like for all business to get back to usual, it is nice to have some semblance of normal with the Spring announcements. We’ve got that story and the latest news below, followed by our …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 15

  April 15, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  Big Blue has been busy fixing some issues with the firmware (sometimes called microcode) and licensed internal code (LIC) for Power Systems platforms and the IBM i operating system.

  The new firmware is available on the following Power Systems machine types and models: 9008-22L; 9009-22A; 9009-41A; 9009-42A; 9223-22H; 9223-42H. You can find out more about the microcode update at this link.

  In addition, IBM has issued the LIC change as well: MA47553 – LIC QPFRADJ Hangs During Main Storage Pool Adjustment. You can learn more at this link, and here is the rundown of the patches by IBM …

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