• IBM Deal Prices Current Power8 Compute Like Future Power9

  November 6, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The old proverb, “Ask, and ye shall receive,” is thankfully and just a little bit humorously applicable. In last week’s issue of The Four Hundred, there was a certain amount of weeping and gnashing of teeth about the fact that IBM is not shipping shiny new Power9 machines here in the fourth quarter and will not until early 2018. Given that fact and that the Power8’s are very long in the tooth, we fully expect for Big Blue to cut IBM i customers some kind of deal. There is a small deal for those buying Linux-only versions of the …

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• Database Modernization: Methodology To Solve Problems

  November 6, 2017 Dan Burger

  Innovation is a combination of tools and processes. Big mistakes get made when there is too much emphasis on the tools and too little on the processes. Innovation in a can, a bottle or a box isn’t reality-based strategy, although it’s often thought of that way, particularly at the executive level where the goal of competitive advantage is sometimes tied to specific products and technologies.

  Tools and processes support innovation. They aren’t the innovation. Not at the individual business level where competitive advantage is differentiated and honed with years of experience. Too often experience is discounted or even disregarded when …

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• Guru: At Last! A Tool To Search an Output Queue!

  November 6, 2017 Ted Holt

  As far as I’m concerned, a technician can’t have too many tools! I appreciate the good people of IBM for the software tools they provide to help us do our jobs. I also appreciate those people who freely share software tools they’ve written. I’m pleased to pass along a tool from faithful reader Tim Swearingen.

  The tool is a CL command called Search an Output Queue (SRCHOUTQ), and it fills a gap. You can use SRCHOUTQ to look for a string inside the spooled files of an output queue. The search, I am happy to say, is case-insensitive. Here’s more …

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• Mad Dog 21/21: Classics Then And Now

  November 6, 2017 Hesh Wiener

  In the first century BC, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, a Roman, wrote De Architectura. In it, he described the proportions of great buildings and the mathematics of the human form. During the late 1400s, Leonardo da Vinci studied the Roman’s work and drew Vitruvian Man. A century later, the architect Andrea Palladio reprised Vitruvian design principles in buildings across Veneto. Palladio’s seminal The Four Books of Architecture inspired Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and countless other structures the world over. Analogously, in computing, John von Neumann or Alan Turing reprised Vitruvius, enabling IBM to serve as information technology’s Jefferson.

  Long before …

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• Should Spark In-Memory Run Natively On IBM i?

  November 6, 2017 Alex Woodie

  There’s a revolution happening in the field of data analytics, and an open source computing framework called Apache Spark is right smack in the middle of it. Spark is such a powerful tool that IBM elected to create a distribution of it that runs natively on its System z mainframe. Will it do the same for its baby mainframe, the IBM i?

  So, what is Apache Spark, and why should you care? Great questions! Let’s introduce you to Spark.

  Spark came out of UC Berkeley’s AMPLab about five years ago to provide a faster and easier-to-use alternative to MapReduce, which …

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• Functionality Trumps Glitz in ERP Decision

  November 1, 2017 Alex Woodie

  What do you look for in a new ERP system? For the folks at Veterinary Purchasing Company, which is transitioning away from its homegrown S/36-era ERP system, the decision came down to a preference for proven substance over hollow glamor.

  Veterinary Purchasing Company is a member-owned company that was founded in 1972 by a group of veterinarians who wanted to increase their purchasing power by buying in bulk on the wholesale market. The company, which employs about 210 people at its headquarters in St Mary, Ontario, also sells to non-shareholder vets and animal hospitals across Canada.

  In the mid-1970s, VP …

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• IBM i Vendor Breaks Into Gartner Magic Quadrant

  November 1, 2017 Dan Burger

  Finding an IBM i software vendor in the Gartner Magic Quadrant is sort of like finding a four-leaf clover. It doesn’t happen very often and it feels like a lucky day when you do. Last week, ARCAD Software made it into the coveted quad in the Application Release Automation category.

  ARCAD, which considers DevOps the centerpiece of its software business, has expanded from what was once a more narrowly defined application change management software developer servicing the IBM midrange market. The IBM i customer base still represents 95 percent of ARCAD’s business; however, its software support has expanded to include …

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• Indian Firm Takes Over Notes/Domino Development

  November 1, 2017 Alex Woodie

  The Indian IT services company HCL Technologies will have a big say in the future of IBM’s Notes/Domino and be relied upon to develop the next major release of the collaboration software due in 2018, Big Blue announced last week.

  IBM announced the “strategic partnership” with the $7 billion New Delhi firm October 25 in a blog post on its website. The deal to outsource development work to HCL Technologies shows IBM’s “level of commitment to stakeholders,” writes Inhi Cho Suh, the general manager of IBM Collaboration Solutions. “The goal of the partnership is to drive future development of the …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, November 1

  November 1, 2017 Dan Burger

  Most IBM i shops are comfortable being one or two releases behind the latest IBM i operating system. But for those on i 7.1, it’s time to plan your next move. If you are on something older than 7.1, you should be drinking stronger coffee. You may have your reasons for staying where you are, but in this issue of Monitor we’re pointing you to some reasons to upgrade.

  We also have an article that will get under the skin of relational database advocates, plus some Watson integration with IBM i insights, and a link to an IBM i video …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 43

  November 1, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  Hold onto your Halloween candy, there are new cumes on IBM i 7.2 and 7.3! You are going to need some sugar. And there is a formal announcement of the new Tech Refreshes, which we announced last week. The corresponding group (SF99717 for V7R2 and SF99727 for V7R3) can now be ordered. Yeah, those numbers are correct, one off for ease of remembering.

  This week we also have:

  • New Backup and Recovery and Performance Tools groups for all three supported releases
  • New DB2 groups for 7.2 and 7.3
  • New WAS V8.0 groups for 7.2 and 7.1.

  Also, keep an eye …

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