• Db2 For i Innovation: Expect The Unexpected

  July 23, 2018 Alex Woodie

  When it comes to planning the future of the database at the heart of the IBM i platform, there’s a lot to be said for taking a conservative approach. Why mess with success? But that’s not necessarily the route taken by IBM’s architect for Db2 for i, Scott Forstie, and the IBM i community is the better for it.

  As the business architect in charge of Db2 for i, it is Forstie’s job to ensure the database meets the needs of IBM i shops around the world. IBM has a duty to protect the investment that its clients have made …

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• Outsourcing Comes Back Home

  July 23, 2018 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Getting a full-time job at a company that uses an IBM i platform as its main backend system is not any easier now that it was a decade or two ago, but getting work in the field – particularly as an independent contractor or one working from an outsourcing provider located within the United States – seems to be looking up.

  To get a feel of what is going on out there in the IT job market, we had a chat with Harley Lippman, founder and chief executive officer at Genesis10, which provides job placement services as well as …

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• Guru: Serve Web Pages Safely Using A Reverse Proxy

  July 23, 2018 Alan Seiden

  If you are hosting a website or API from your IBM i server, but wish to reduce your worry about allowing access from the Internet, we often recommend a reverse proxy (or “gateway”) server. An industry-standard solution, a reverse proxy server acts as a layer of safety between your production server and your firewall. On IBM i, the IBM HTTP Server (powered by Apache) for i can act as a reverse proxy server, so there’s nothing additional to install.

  While there are several ways to set it up, one approach is to put the reverse proxy or gateway in a …

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• The Frustration Of Not Knowing How We Are Doing

  July 23, 2018 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The old adage from management guru Peter Drucker is that you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and it is something that organizations take to heart to run themselves. There is such a thing as taking this all too far, where you spend all your time measuring and managing and not enough time getting actual stuff done, and then there is not having enough information to actually manage well.

  The Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates public companies, does not, to my knowledge, have explicit guidelines as to how companies report their product and divisional categories. And thus, with each …

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• IBM Sunsets Big Iron Power8 Engines As Power9 Engines Loom

  July 23, 2018 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Big Blue must be getting an itchy launch finger for the high end of the Power Systems lineup, and you can usually tell the company is ready to launch the new thing when it starts warning customers they better get their checkbooks out to buy the old thing while it is still available.

  In announcement letter A18-0567, which came out on July 17, the warning was a bit shorter than usual, and we are not sure why. Perhaps IBM meant to give a warning and didn’t realize it was running out of certain Power8 processors aimed at Power E880 …

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• RPM And Yum Are A Big Deal For IBM i. Here’s Why

  July 18, 2018 Alex Woodie

  By now you’ve probably heard about Yum and RPM, the new processes that IBM will use to deliver open source software to IBM i customers. But you may have questions about how the process works, and what the benefits will be. IT Jungle talked with IBM’s open source guru Jesse Gorzinski to get the low down on why the new tech is so important to the platform.

  RPM, which stands for Red Hat Package Manager, is a piece of software created more than 20 years that allows customers in that Linux community to more easily distribute and install the various …

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• Bringing IBM i WMS To The ‘Boss’

  July 18, 2018 Alex Woodie

  Boss Manufacturing Company, a 125-year-old manufacturer of boots, gloves, and other workwear, has selected the IBM i-based warehouse management system (WMS) from Logimax to improve the efficiency of its operations, the software company announced last week.

  Boss Manufacturing Company got its start in the late 1880s when a farmer in Kewanee, Illinois, named H.H. Perkins had enough with the current approach to husking corn. His solution was to attach a metal hook a leather strap that would be worn like a glove. Perkins called this invention the Perkins Boss Husker, and it would be the first product for Boss Manufacturing …

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• PTC Refines Handling Of IBM i Database Logic

  July 18, 2018 Alex Woodie

  More organizations are moving business logic from RPG and COBOL programs into the DB2 for i database, which most community members agree is a good thing. The IBM i server’s core strength is its integrated a database, after all. However, when business logic moves into the database, it requires customers to rethink how they’re managing the code, which is a mantle that PTC has taken up with its Implementer software change management (SCM) tool.

  When it comes to application modernization, fancy HTML5 screens and mobile apps usually grab the spotlight. We’re often moved by the things we can see, and …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, July 18

  July 18, 2018 Dan Burger

  The heat wave that has been crushing the U.S. in recent weeks hasn’t cooled off action in the IBM world. This week we catch up on Big Blue’s winning streak in earnings and the fight it is getting ready to mount in the courts. Of course, blockchain remains a hot topic throughout IT and Big Blue is getting some more competition in that arena. Now is also the time to start planning for those fall trips, so take a look at the Calendar for opportunities to keep up on those skills.

  Top Stories From Outside The Jungle

  (Reuters) IBM is …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Number 20, Volume 28

  July 18, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  Some weeks are crazier than others, and this is one of those weeks with the PTF Guide. We just checked in on PTF Land in Monday issue, but already there are more changes to report. Not the predicted deluge of PTFs we thought we might see, but there are some new HIPERs and WebQuery fixes you will want to look into. There are also a couple of new parms on the TELNET command to check out.

  Here is a look at the Temporary Disk Space Recommended fixes in V7R2:

  Date Added	Fixes			Product	Description
  03/01/2018	MF64483	5770999	Data base run-time 

  …

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