• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 6

  February 15, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  Every two weeks, IBM updates the High Impact and Pervasive, or HIPER, PTFs that are so critical to the system that in Big Blue’s opinion they should be on every system as quickly as possible. In general, any HIPER PTF that affects any operating system releases is fixed as long as support for that IBM i release is still on support.

  In the example below, from this week, the three problems are fixed on all three current IBM releases, that being 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3. The interesting part here is that OpenSSH 6.9 is vulnerable and that vulnerability is fixed …

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• More Insight Into The Rumored Power Mini System

  February 13, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Back in the day, when IBM wanted to get customers to move ahead to new iron and the Moore’s Law increases in processing capacity meant that it needed to gear down boxes to bring customers forward, IBM actually did something about it and offered a cut-down machines with lower – and competitive – prices.

  Remember the AS/400 Model 150 machines launched two decades ago, and then the breakthrough “Invader” AS/400 Model 170 machines, using the “Apache” and then “Northstar” PowerPC processors that followed them in 1998 and 1999? These systems, in a very real sense, saved the AS/400 business. Back …

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• Unwinding Python’s Data Science Potential On IBM i

  February 13, 2017 Alex Woodie

  There’s a revolution occurring in the world of big data analytics and data science at the moment, and Python is playing a starring role. Python is one of the languages that IBM has brought to the IBM i platform, so that’s clearly a good thing for midrange shops. But is enough being done to grow Python’s potential on IBM i? The answer to that question is not clear.

  Python was originally conceived by Guido van Rossum as a “hobby” programming language to keep him busy over the 1989 Christmas break. “My office. . .would be closed, but I had a …

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• Guru: SQL PL Labels

  February 13, 2017 Ted Holt

  SQL PL, the powerful, easy-to-learn procedural database language that IBM ships with all versions of DB2, allows you to identify any executable statement or compound statement with a label. I can’t think of a better day than today for us to think about why we might want to do that.

  As a minimalist programmer, I avoid useless code, and that includes unnecessary labels. In the following paragraphs, I will list only the cases that require labels.

  But first, a few ground rules.

  • As with CL, a label name is followed by a colon when used to identify a statement.

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• Mad Dog 21/21: The Next (And Maybe Last) Mainframe

  February 13, 2017 Hesh Wiener

  For the past several mainframe generations IBM has announced new large systems about every three years. The current line of big iron, the System z13, emerged in 2015, so it wouldn’t surprise anyone if the z14 or whatever it is called reaches customers next year, in 2018. Meanwhile, this year Ginni Rometty turns 60, IBM’s traditional CEO retirement age, and, like her predecessor, she could stick around one more year as the company’s chairman.

  The upshot: Rometty’s successor as CEO will enjoy the sales boost of a fresh mainframe product cycle. And if IBM is making money …

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• ERP Modernizations, Migrations, And Maturations

  February 13, 2017 Dan Burger

  There are many reasons to re-evaluate business processes. And one of the first places to look is the current state of your ERP software. How old is it and what are its strengths and weaknesses? A character-based interface might have been appropriate when the software was purchased, but for many shops it has wounded productivity and efficiency by stalling process improvements and technology implementations that could be adding value to your organization.

  The interface, however, doesn’t deserve all the attention. It’s just a visual cue like grey hair and wrinkles. A lot of value can be found behind the inescapable …

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• Debugging IBM’s New ‘Executive Guide’ For IBM i

  February 8, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Explaining the value of IBM i to a business executive is not an easy thing to do. Because so much of the computing world today runs on the Intel X86 architecture, many execs aren’t even aware there are alternatives. But there are, and the IBM i server, along with the System z mainframe, are among the last of a dying breed.

  IBM recently rolled out an online resource designed to help IBM i professionals explain this weird thing called IBM i. Weighing in at nearly 7,000 words, the IBM i Strategy and Roadmap attempts to lay out the basics of …

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• With RPG Nearly Excised, Infor Ponders ERP’s Future

  February 8, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Would a multi-tenant cloud version of Infor XA fly? That’s one of the questions that Infor’s senior product manager Ross Freeman is pondering as the company gets closer to completing the Java rewrite the ERP system written in RPG by IBM so many years ago.

  The clock is ticking on RPG, not just for Infor XA (formerly MAPICS), but for all of the company’s IBM i-based ERP systems. Infor XA is just further along the process of being re-written in Java using the Infor Development Framework (IDF).

  “The version [of Infor XA] coming out this year or the middle of …

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• ARCAD Upgrades DevOps Software For IBM i

  February 8, 2017 Dan Burger

  For IBM i shops that have been using change management software for years, DevOps looks very familiar. Both improve quality and lower risk. And both make use of a framework and collaborative achievements. The major distinction for DevOps is that the collaboration involves a much wider universe of contributors. It takes into account other IT platforms and blows up the individual siloes by integrating tools and processes. And it further integrates IT and business with incremental improvements and enhancements continuously tested and put into production.

  ARCAD Software, a company with a history in IBM i change management, includes DevOps …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, February 8

  February 8, 2017 Dan Burger

  While IT Jungle is pretty thorough when it comes to covering the IBM i and Power Systems market as well as adjacent areas that will ultimately affect the IBM midrange community, we are not the only source of information out there.

  That was why we created Four Hundred Monitor so many years ago: to make you aware of all of the other relevant content out there on the Internet as well as to have a list of new resources and a calendar of events, all in one place. Now, Four Hundred Monitor is being incorporated into our flagship publication, The …

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