• Four Hundred Monitor, February 9

  February 9, 2022 Jenny Thomas

  In Monitor, we love helping you keep up on what’s happening in the world of computing, but sometimes we also love to refocus back in our own IBM i ecosystem. Which is why this week we wanted to call your attention to a conversation our Editor Tim Prickett Morgan had with Ken King, who quietly took over as general manager of Power Systems last July. Their conversation, in case you missed it on Monday, is listed as our Top Story below. Also, don’t miss the Calendar at the bottom of this column – it is really filling up as our …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 24, Number 6

  February 9, 2022 Doug Bidwell

  Hey, guess what? There are no new Security Bulletins this week (at least as of when we are going to press) and there are no new known security vulnerabilities for any part of the software stack of the IBM i platform. We doubt very much that Windows Server can ever say the same thing, and even Linux, which is the only volume operating system that matters, usually has something going on because, like IBM i and Windows Server, it is more than a kernel but a complete set of thousands of programs and tens of millions of lines of code. …

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• Talking IBM i Shop With New Power Systems GM Ken King

  February 7, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Every new general manager of the AS/400 division and its successors all the way up to the current Power Systems division – which hopefully is no longer called Cognitive Systems in the financials but nowhere else – inherits a unique configuration of that business in time and space and after one, two, or three years leaves it in another configuration.

  In all of our years of writing The Four Hundred, we have made an effort to get to know each and every one of them. Last July, ahead of the spinout of the Kyndryl managed services business in November, …

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• Solving The Power9 Dilemma

  February 7, 2022 Jason Hardy

  Purchase hardware, depreciate hardware, and repeat.

  After four years on the market, the Power9 processor is in the process of being replaced by the Power10 chip. Whether you are an early adopter of CPUs or a laggard, the challenge for many companies is the timing of the refresh. As leases on the Power9 machines are expiring, companies are struggling with how to bridge the gap between the end of their current Power9 system lease and the release of the Power10 systems. Their typical options include lease renewals, lease buyouts, or purchasing a new Power9 server, but some companies just want …

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• Former Power Systems GM Joins FalconStor For IBM i Push

  February 7, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Virtual tape library software provider FalconStor, which has been in the market for more than two decades, has tapped a former manager of IBM’s Power Systems division – namely Doug Balog, who ran Power Systems from 2013 through 2017 – as a strategic advisor as it begins a more aggressive push into the IBM i market.

  Balog is a familiar to long-time readers of The Four Hundred, of course. He ran System x server development at IBM from June 2004 through December 2009, significantly the BladeCenter converged blade server platform, then did a few years running IBM’s storage business, …

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• Digital Integration Hubs Emerge To Accelerate Transformations

  February 7, 2022 Alex Woodie

  A new design pattern called a digital integration hub is emerging to help organizations with legacy applications reap the benefits of digital transformation — not by moving off battle-hardened platforms and legacy ERP systems, but by piping data from them into a fast, new data store that interfaces with Web services.

  Former Gartner analyst Massimo Pezzini is credited with popularizing the digital integration hub (DIH) concept in 2019. The DIH essentially is a fast database, often implemented atop in-memory technology, that stores the data required to serve new applications implemented as part of a digital transformation project, such as big …

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• The Real IBM i Legacy Is The People

  February 7, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  I will never for the life of me understand why the word “legacy” has such a bad connotation in the IT business when in all other aspects of life it means something good. We talk about legacy systems, usually systems of record, a lot here at The Four Hundred, because we are focused on the AS/400 platform and its successors over the past three and a half decades. But the applications – and the people who extend and support them – that run on modern IBM i iron and some vintage predecessor systems have a heritage that extends back …

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• Security Again Top Concern in HelpSystems Marketplace Study

  February 2, 2022 Alex Woodie

  If you’re concerned about cybersecurity in your organization, you’re not alone. According to the latest IBM i Marketplace Study from HelpSystems, cybersecurity and ransomware were the top concern of IBM i customers, beating out HA/DR, application modernization, and IBM i skills.

  About 450 IBM i shops from around the world participated in HelpSystems 2022 IBM i Marketplace survey, the eighth year in a row the survey has been conducted. Security has been the number one concern of survey-takers for the past five years, during which security has garnered anywhere from 69 percent to 75 percent of respondents’ votes.

  For the …

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• Infor Touts Benefits of Industry-Specific ERP

  February 2, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Infor executives took to the digital airwaves last week to discuss the company’s strategy for delivering industry-specific ERP solutions, which they claimed can deliver better functionality to customers in less time, with lower costs and fewer risks.

  The fear of time-consuming, expensive, and risky customizations is palpable among enterprises, Infor CEO Kevin Samuelson said during a roundtable with fellow Infor executives at last week’s Inforum Digital event.

  “The reality is, when we go in to talk to a customer, they’re nervous because there’s a reputation for projects taking too long, costing much more than expected, and companies ultimately not getting …

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• No Kyndryl Involved in IBM i Tech Support, Jarman Says

  February 2, 2022 Alex Woodie

  The org chart has been on an extended spin cycle lately at IBM, with the spin out of the Global Technology Services (GTS) business into Kyndryl as well as the merging of IBM Lab Services and the Services and Support Group. But unless you’re signed up for its IBM i cloud service or had some other arrangement with GTS, you likely won’t be calling on Kyndryl for technical support.

  The question of Kyndryl’s current role with the IBM i customer base came up during the recent webinar HelpSystems held to discuss its 2022 IBM i Marketplace Report. Ian Jarman, …

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