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What’s Legacy Now: WSDLs and Stored Procedures
July 1, 2015 Alex Woodie
Thanks to the breakneck speed that information technology is evolving, the definition of what is “legacy” in computing is constantly changing. For example, 10 years ago, organizations that were coding stored procedures into their databases and exposing mainframe business logic as WSDL-based Web services were following best practices in development. But some people are now lumping those objects into the legacy computing camp, along with old RPG and COBOL programs.
The folks at OpenLegacy aren’t interested in starting a war by labeling stored procedures and first-generation WSDL-based Web services as legacy. The software modernization vendor–which last week announced a new
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Top Five New Technologies On IBM i
June 29, 2015 Alex Woodie
One of the great things about the IBM i server is it adapts to the times. While the platform often gets tagged with the “legacy” name, that’s merely because there’s still a lot of vintage iron running antique software in the real world. But the little elves way up north in IBM‘s Rochester toyshop have been hard at work bringing new capabilities to the platform.
Here are the top five new things that IBM brought to the IBM i platform in 2014 and 2015:
1. Native Flash Storage
IBM added support for native flash storage in the latest round
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For OpenLegacy, Modernization Is All About the APIs
June 1, 2015 Alex Woodie
Modernization means different things to different people. For some in the IBM i space, being modern means adopting a model-view-controller architecture or having a Web user interface, while for others it may mean having a “mobile first” development strategy or using SQL in the database. For the folks at OpenLegacy, modernization means exposing existing business processes using the emerging lingua franca of network-powered computing: The API.
While OpenLegacy is, ostensibly, a provider of open source legacy modernization tools for IBM i and z/OS shops (it’s right there in the name), the path to modernization that it prescribes is by
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Mobile Access To IBM i Makes The Grade
May 18, 2015 Dan Burger
When a Technology Refresh gets rolled out, we find all sorts of things rolled in. Some of the items, like those picked by IBM execs Steve Will and Alison Butterill two weeks ago in an IT Jungle story, are the front runners for most valuable enhancements. But the list goes on and opinions vary. Tim Rowe puts the addition of mobile support for IBM i Access for the Web, SQL services, and new REST-based Web services at the top of the list.
A big part of the IBM i reputation is its easy access to its file system, to printers
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It’s TR Time: What’s Next For The IBM i Database?
April 20, 2015 Dan Burger
Web application development depends on two document formats for the interchange of business data: XML and JSON. The smaller (lighter weight), quicker to transmit, and more efficient is JSON. XML has been a good choice and has served its purpose well. It continues to do so. However, the popularity of JSON indicates it is the new favorite in IBM i shops, just as it is on other platforms. JSON has done well enough to get noticed on the IBM radar. It showed up in the release of IBM i 7.2 in October and it’s certain to make some noise with
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OpenLegacy’s Modernization Approach Impresses New Partner
April 15, 2015 Alex Woodie
With its commercial open source business model, OpenLegacy is breaking the rules when it comes to the traditional ways that IBM i and mainframe software vendors sell their wares. But according to Treehouse Software‘s chief business development officer, it was the underlying technology in its application modernization suite that ultimately led it to become one of OpenLegacy’s first North American business partners.
Treehouse Software’s Wayne Lashley first encountered OpenLegacy about two years ago, when the company was still in its infancy. “I was intrigued by the idea,” he tells IT Jungle. “But I felt they were a little
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Orchestrating Your API-Enabled Assets On IBM i
February 11, 2015 Alex Woodie
OK, so you’ve API-enabled your IBM i applications and joined the ranks of modern applications. You are definitely going to benefit from simplified integration for both data and application. But now there’s a bunch of SOAP and REST calls flying all around, and it’s getting hard to keep track of them. That’s an area that CM First Group is hoping to address with a new business process management (BPM) tool imported from Europe.
CM First is now reselling the Axon.ivy BPM Suite, a business process modeling and management tool originally developed by its business partner, AXON IVY of Germany. The
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Infor Cloud EDI . . . DocOrigin Replaces JetForm . . . Empowered with Web Services . . .
February 4, 2015 Alex Woodie
Infor takes a very industry-focused approach to software, and that is no different with its latest EDI cloud offering. If you’re looking for document management software to replace Adobe JetForm, DocOrigin would like to speak with you. Web services are popping up everywhere these days, including in the application development power tool from mrc.
Infor Launches EDI Cloud for Auto Manufacturing
Infor last month unveiled EDI Managed Service, a cloud-based EDI offering designed specifically for companies in the automotive supply chain.
According to Infor’s announcement, the new service combines an EDI translator from its partner Rocket Software along with its
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DB2 Enhancements, Free Form RPG, Modernization Top Rowe’s ‘Big Hits’ List
February 2, 2015 Dan Burger
If you build it, they will come. It was a prophecy that came to be in a movie called Field of Dreams, but it’s no guarantee in the world of business computing and software development. Sometimes customers come and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they come, but it’s at a pace that makes tortoise racing seem like speed skating. So I asked a guy who is up to his ears in IBM i software development what he thought were IBM‘s biggest success stories.
The guy I went to was Tim Rowe, IBM i business architect for application development and
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IBM Redpaper Guides You To IBM i Modernization Tools
February 2, 2015 Alex Woodie
When it comes to building modern IBM i applications, there’s no shortage of tools available on the market. Depending on your requirements–whether you’re staying in the comfy confines of RPG or are comfortable with something like .NET, whether you’re looking just for Web tools or adding mobile too–there are different directions you can go. A recently published IBM Redpaper can help guide you to a better understanding of the third-party tools on the market.
IBM put a big focus on IBM i application modernization last year. After months of work and collaborating with the top experts in the field, it