• Litmis Spaces Pitches Price, Monthly Contracts To Cloud Shoppers

  January 30, 2017 Dan Burger

  There are plenty of places an IBM i shop can turn to for cloud computing services. The list of IBM i managed service providers (MSPs) is longer than the line to get free adult beverages at the COMMON conference vendor reception. One of the choices is Litmis Spaces, a host for IBM i development space that has a hankering to grow into a full-service MSP. The company’s $157 per month IBM i access is maybe the next best thing to a free adult beverage.

  The low monthly fee buys a single-tenant Power8 machine (meaning that you are the only …

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• What Was Discussed At the Big LUG Meeting

  January 25, 2017 Alex Woodie

  About 100 representatives from the biggest IBM i shops in the world are at the  IBM lab in Rochester, Minnesota, this week for the first of three meetings of the Large User Group (LUG) scheduled for 2017. Judging by the agenda for the week-long meeting, security and storage concerns will dominate the agenda.

  The LUG is one of the most influential user groups in the IBM i community, if not one of the most secretive. The group is composed of about 100 of the biggest companies to use the IBM i server. Their exact names aren’t known, but you can …

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• IBM i Productivity: A Plan For Better Yields

  January 25, 2017 Dan Burger

  Businesses have many tools in their arsenals to increase productivity. Two of the best examples are technological innovation and the education and training of workers.

  Many organizations are taking a short-sighted approach to revenue enhancements without investment. This is wise up to a certain extent. Reducing the total cost of ownership is an important asset for the IBM i Power Systems platform. However, underutilizing the system, including the people who run it, is the same as ignoring potential productivity.

  A viable solution for IBM i shops is to reach out to schools and establish a long-term relationship. That’s a lot …

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• More IBM i Predictions For 2017

  January 25, 2017 Alex Woodie

  The great thing about crystal balls is everybody gets their own view. One man’s (or woman’s) view of the future is different from the next. When prophesizing about the IBM i platform, people tend to have different viewpoints, which is part of what makes this exercise so much fun (well that, and all the extra coffee and donuts we editors enjoy while letting you do all the work).

  We gave you a taste of things to come with our first installment of 2017 IBM i predictions. Back by popular demand, here’s round two of IBM i predictions, beginning with the …

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• Linoma Gets Graphical With Journal Entries

  January 25, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Prolific is one word that describes the IBM i platform’s aptitude at writing journal entries. The volumes are truly astounding. But searching through this machine-generated data using a green screen is a tedious task that’s better for inducing eyestrain than generating results. That’s why Linoma Software is proffering up a new graphical interface for working with journal entries in Surveyor/400.

  Surveyor/400 is a handy multi-tool that does a little bit of everything for programmers, administrators, and end-users alike. The Java-based product lets users explore IBM i through a Windows Explorer-like interface; query DB2 for i data with a File Editor; …

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• UCG And HelpSystems Make Acquisitions

  January 25, 2017 Alex Woodie

  A common prediction for the New Year is that we’ll see more mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in the IBM i marketplace. That refrain struck a truthful note just a week into 2017, with two IBM i vendors, UCG Technologies and HelpSystems, making deals of their own.

  UCG Technologies wheeled and dealed to buy E-Safe Technologies, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based provider of IT services that counts IBM i as a specialty. Formerly known as Premiere Technologies, E-Safe was founded in 1989, and had more than 250 customers located from Pittsburgh to the Great Lakes area, including a good number …

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• IBM i Trends, Concerns, And Observations

  January 23, 2017 Dan Burger

  There is far more going on in IBM i shops than many non-IBM i people would expect. And the truth of the matter is that some IBM i shops might be surprised to find out what other shops are up to. The IBM i Marketplace Survey is one of our windows into that world. And it’s just been compiled for the third consecutive year. We have been watching and reporting on this survey and the trends it identifies because it is one of the best finger-in-the-wind indicators of the directions IBM i shops are headed.

  There are more than a …

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• Drilling Down Into IBM’s System Group

  January 23, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It is a new year, and we are all looking forward to a growing economy and some much needed competition for compute in the datacenter as there is a resurgence of interest in the Power processor and a growing probability that ARM server chip makers, particularly Qualcomm and Applied Micro, are going to see some traction this year.

  It is with this in mind that we ponder IBM’s fourth quarter financial results, which were announced last Thursday, and more specifically think about what may be in the cards for the Power Systems platform in 2017 and beyond. First, let’s go …

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• Guru: How To Use Global Variables In SQL Scripts

  January 23, 2017 Michael Sansoterra

  Hey, Mike:

  I’m writing SQL scripts to do some administrative work. These scripts are run in iNavigator’s RunSQL scripts utility and use the special CL: directive to execute an IBM i command. I stumbled across the CREATE VARIABLE statement and wondered if I could use an SQL variable to substitute a library name within the OS commands.

  For example, if I define something like the following in iNavigator:

  CREATE OR REPLACE VARIABLE QGPL/LIB CHAR(10) DEFAULT 'JOE';
  

  Can I then use the LIB variable in a CL: command as follows?

  CL:  DSPLIB LIB(LIB) OUTPUT(*PRINT);
  

  –Guru Reader

   

  Unfortunately, GLOBAL VARIABLES cannot …

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• Doctor Frank Talks Power With Vision

  January 23, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Vision Solutions landed a pretty popular guest for the inaugural episode of its new PowerTalk podcast last month. Former IBM chief scientist Doctor Frank Soltis, the Father of the AS/400, shared stories about the sudden popularity of memory-oriented architectures, the limitations of the System/38, and the origins of the MIMIX product.

  Becky Hjellming, Vision’s director of product strategy, was excited to have such a distinguished IBMer on her very first PowerTalk podcast. She started out by asking Soltis about his recent COMMON Europe tour, during which he made several predictions about how the computing world is about to change in …

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