• Want to Talk IBM i OSS? Head Up the Ryver

  September 1, 2021 Alex Woodie

  The world of open source moves quickly, and it’s no different on the IBM i platform, where open source is being rapidly adopted by companies large and small. IBM i professionals who want to keep up to speed with the latest may want to check out a community of IBM i open source enthusiasts that was created on Ryver.

  Ryver (pronounced “river”) is a next-gen communications portal that’s taking on Slack, Microsoft Teams, and others. Like chatrooms and mailing lists, Ryver allows people to have open discussions, as well as private chats and focused conversations. There is also the …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, September 1

  September 1, 2021 Jenny Thomas

  The pages of the calendar keep turning as we grind our way through this year and slip into September. As we head into the homestretch of 2021, the news cycle seems to be picking up and we have the fall conference season to look forward to, and while many events remain virtual, it’s still a great way to link up with colleagues and keep up with the latest around the industry. We’re also seeing things look up for IBM, as you’ll note in some of our Top Stories below, with the exception of some trouble in Texas. Read on to …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 35

  September 1, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  The summer is coming to a meteorological and practical end as we approach Labor Day, and then we make the long run to the end of the year. With new Power10-based machines around the corner, we expect to see updates to the IBM i platform in the coming weeks. But for now, it is pretty quiet with some minor tweaks here and there.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level:

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • HIPERs (High Impact/Pervasive)
  • Backup Recovery Solutions

  PTF Groups 7.3:

  • HIPERs (High Impact/Pervasive)
  • Backup Recovery Solutions

  PTF Groups 7.2:

  • HIPERs (High Impact/Pervasive)
  • Backup

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• GraphQL’s Emerging Role in Modernization of Monolithic Applications

  August 30, 2021 Alex Woodie

  Every now and then, a technology emerges that lifts up everything around it. GraphQL has the potential to be a technology like that, and that’s good news for customers running older, established applications, such as those that run on IBM iron.

  IBM’s mainframe and its midrange IBM i server often are maligned as old, washed-up, legacy platforms, but people who say that are missing a key distinction: it’s usually not the server that’s old. In most cases, it’s the application that was first deployed in the Clinton Administration (or earlier) that is the problem.

  Companies typically have many reasons for …

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• Software Change Management Starts – And Ends – With Security

  August 30, 2021 Alan Brown

  In science fiction, the problem with networked computers is that eventually they get smart. In the real world, and at least so far in the 21^st century, the problem with network computers is that the very act of networking them means that they can be hacked into, and then ransomware and other kinds of malware can wreak their havoc.

  There is a lot to be said for open source software and the comfort that comes from having lots of eyes looking over the code for any potential weirdness. While we acknowledge that not all open source software is written …

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• Guru: Another Red Flag – Joining On Expressions

  August 30, 2021 Ted Holt

  One would think that a given datum, for example a sales order number, would be defined identically in the various database tables in which it is found within an organization, but one might be wrong. I have on many occasions faced the challenge of joining two or more tables on unmatched data types.

  But it gets worse than that. Sometimes joins involve expressions, which may consist of mathematical operations and/or invocations of functions, both intrinsic and user-written. As with the word DISTINCT in a SELECT, the presence of expression in a join sends up a little red flag that …

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• As I See It: Anatomy of Failure

  August 30, 2021 Victor Rozek

  Decades before the term “woke” became a thing, a couple trained in psychology expanded their portfolio to include corporate consulting. Among other offerings, they taught a seminar called “Conscious Business Practices,” during which they identified three principal reasons why corporations fail.

  Their names are Gay and Katie Hendricks, and they are book-writing machines. Those who actually still read books may recognize some of their enduring before-the-turn-of-the-century offerings: Conscious Living, At the Speed of Life, and The Corporate Mystic.

  I first wrote about their work over 20 years ago, a time barely recognizable now. And I was curious …

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• Forecast: Systems Spending Steady, Up For Services And Software

  August 30, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The individual IT budgets at the companies we work at exist in relation to – and often in stark contrast to – the overall market and to companies that are the same size as ours or in the same industry we play in. In this sense, IT spending forecasts from the several major IT market researchers set the pace for expectations, and people being what they are, they are affected (metaphorically speaking) in a relativistic fashion (size warps space and time) and in a quantum fashion (watching an experiment changes it). It gets hard to separate causes from effects in …

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• Public Cloud Dreams Becoming A Reality for IBM i Users

  August 23, 2021 Alex Woodie

  For years, IBM i professionals have looked on as their X86 colleagues moved data and applications to the cloud, where they take advantage of sophisticated analytics and AI offerings, while they dutifully tend to their Power Systems boxes, as they have for years. But with IBM i runtimes in at least two public clouds (and possibly more in the works), IBM i shops are finally starting to realize their public cloud dreams.

  The nature of the IBM i cloud solution that Meridian Group International is offering has changed over the years. Like many other IBM business partners, the Deerfield, Illinois, …

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• Reliability: An Added Value Of IBM Certified Pre-Owned

  August 23, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  There are many different kinds of reliability that are important in IT infrastructure. There is the obvious one that has to do with the literal quality of the hardware engineering, testing, and manufacturing processes as well as the quality of the systems software that runs atop servers or storage.

  But the other kinds of reliability that are equally important is knowing that the manufacturer is standing behind the equipment, supporting it whether it is new or certified pre-owned, in the event that something goes wrong. And as Murphy’s Law tells us and as all system administrators know full well, something …

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