• Power Systems At The Center Of Texas A&M Research

  February 3, 2014 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Power Systems At The Center Of Texas A&M Research This is the kind of deal we expect to see more of now that IBM has made it clear to the world that it wants to focus more on its own Power platforms and less on the X86 platforms based on processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. That said, the deal also shows how hard it is to just peddle Power-based machines. Under a broad arrangement with Texas A&M, the ag school that is also the largest research institution in the state, IBM is installing lots of Power-based gear

  …

  Read more

• The Case Of The Late Night FSM Explorer

  January 29, 2014 Jeff Waldbillig

  It was a quiet night on a network that knew how to keep its secrets. I was working the graveyard shift at the help desk, and this night I was still waiting for my first call. Marge Stetson, my supervisor, walked by and after seeing the glazed look in my eyes, told me she’d cover the phones for a few hours if I wanted to do some technical education. Marge knew that a product called the IBM Flex Systems Manager (FSM) was being deployed in our network, and she expected us to field some questions in the next few weeks

  …

  Read more

• DB2 For i, Java, And Regular Expressions

  January 29, 2014 Michael Sansoterra

  In today’s world, IBM i developers often find themselves working with more than the relational data stored inside their trusty DB2 database. Coders can find themselves tasked with parsing many kinds of text data including: SMTP email, file contents of an IFS Folder, Java Properties files, free form comments imported from other systems, OCR data for invoices, resumes, XML, HTML, code fragments (RPG, COBOL, C, Java, SQL, VBA), and application logs. While there are many tools available to examine plain text, a regular expression engine provides one of the best generic text processing engines available. Yipes, it’s been over 10

  …

  Read more

• Admin Alert: Four Ways To Move An IBM i Partition, Part 3

  January 29, 2014 Joe Hertvik

  The last two issues, I’ve discussed different ways to move an IBM i partition from one location to another. I talked about using traditional backup and restore techniques, as well as using logical replication High Availability (HA) software for partition migration. This week, let’s finish the series by looking at using externally connected storage including SANs, PowerHA SystemMirror for IBM, and Live Partition Mobility for moving partitions. The Four Ways To Move An IBM i Partition To recap, there are four basic ways to move an IBM i partition. Restore the partition in place or to a new location using

  …

  Read more

• What The System x Selloff Means To IBM i Shops

  January 27, 2014 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  As has been rumored for nearly a year and suspected for the past five years by many of us, IBM has finally gone and done it and sold off its System x server business to Lenovo Group for $2.3 billion. The details of the deal are complex, and there is no guarantee that the U.S. government will approve it, but given the strong presence that Lenovo has in North Carolina by virtue of its acquisition of IBM’s PC business in late 2004, the odds favor the nod from Uncle Sam. With that move, Lenovo becomes the number three shipper of

  …

  Read more

• RPG OA: Open Opportunity, Open To Interpretation

  January 27, 2014 Dan Burger

  If Tim Rowe, the business architect for application development at IBM, had one wish it might be that application modernization would flourish in the IBM i community. Last week, he was the guest speaker at OCEAN user group meeting in Orange County, California. He agreed to talk with me on the topic of RPG Open Access, a technology that was introduced with much fanfare with the IBM i 7.1 release of the operating system. That was in 2010. Rowe is a vocal proponent of modernizing RPG applications. He believes RPG OA will play an important role in application modernization

  …

  Read more

• Ricoh Gets Into MSP Business With mindSHIFT Buy

  January 27, 2014 Alex Woodie

  If you thought that all Ricoh did was make copiers, printers, and cameras, think again. Last week, the Japanese company announced an agreement to buy mindSHIFT Technologies, an American managed service provider (MSP) with a considerable IBM i hosting business. Ricoh is well-known for its line of multi-function printers and–since its $725 million acquisition of IBM‘s InfoPrint division-product–production printers, too. But in addition to manufacturing things that print and scan, the $20-billion company also develops document management software and offers a range of IT services. And in Japan, it is an IBM server reseller that hawks Power Systems

  …

  Read more

• As I See It: MLK And The NSA

  January 27, 2014 Victor Rozek

  For those of us who lived through those terrible days, it would be impossible not to reflect on the life of Martin Luther King as the nation again commemorates his birthday. But there are now two-plus generations who were not yet born when King was assassinated. They know him in sound bites, as a civil rights leader who had a dream. They perhaps notice that every year, shortly after Christmas, he is prominently mentioned in the media. But what happened 50 years ago is shrouded in the haze of history. Over time, legacies are encapsulated by granting a day off

  …

  Read more

• Power Systems Sales Power Down In The Fourth Quarter

  January 27, 2014 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Taking over the helm of a giant such as IBM is never easy, and like many company leaders, Ginni Rometty, who has been in charge of Big Blue for the past two years, took over just as massive change was sweeping the industry. The way infrastructure is built, bought, and sold is changing, and IBM is taking more than its share of hits at the moment. That could mean IBM is a canary in the coal mine, being affected by change ahead of its peers. Or that its strategy and products are misaligned to the market. I don’t have enough

  …

  Read more

• Reader Feedback: Finding The i In The Power Ecosystem And Strategy

  January 27, 2014 Hey, Dan

  First, thanks for writing up the interview. It’s always interesting to see what IBM‘s marketing people believe versus what I see from a customer perspective. Terri Virnig indicates that we can tell IBM is dedicated to investing in the platform because they posted a graphic indicating they would like to continue supporting the platform beyond 2020. However, I read the news, and I see continued layoffs of the development team behind IBM i. When I discuss new features with developers, I’m told about budget constraints and requests being bumped back into the OS release that comes after 7.2.

  …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles