• Inside IBM i’s New Geospatial Functions For Db2

  October 24, 2022 Alex Woodie

  One of the more interesting elements of the recent IBM i Technology Refreshes is the addition of Watson-based geospatial functions to the Db2 for i relational database. According to IBM, the new capabilities will make it simpler and easier to incorporate advanced geospatial functions into IBM i applications.

  As its name implies, Db2 for i’s new geospatial functions allow people to compute data that has a geographical aspect to it. In this case, the geographical data takes the form of latitude and longitude readings on the Earth, and the functions provide ways to manipulate those points (as well as lines …

  Read more

• Finally, IBM i Cloud Dev Instances That Are Powerful And Cheap

  October 24, 2022 Chuck Paolillo

  Back in the old days, when IBM had relatively inexpensive entry AS/400 and iSeries machines and was willing to lease them at special low rates to developers, it was possible for software houses and independent code slingers to get their hands on machinery to create and modify applications. Those days are long gone, and it has been very difficult to replace that cheap and usable functionality in the marketplace.

  With Windows Server and Linux platforms, things are a lot easier because developers can create a variant of their X86 server environment right on their desktops or laptops, and if need …

  Read more

• Guru: String Manipulation Using SQL

  October 24, 2022 Mike Larsen

  Recently, I was working with an employee file where first and last name were concatenated with a comma separator. A requirement of the project was to parse the name and populate a different table where first and last name are separate columns. I won’t address the design of the employee file, but I will show how I completed the request.

  In Figure 1, I use the position string function via SQL to extract the first name.

  

   

   

  Figure 1. Extract first name

   

  In this example, I use the trim, substring, and posstr functions to position to the first …

  Read more

• Power Systems Revenues Look To Grow In 2022

  October 24, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It was a pretty good third quarter for Big Blue on many fronts if you overlook a $5.76 billion writedown as it has transferred some of its pension obligations for retired employees to a third party to get them off its books forever. This is the second straight quarter that, ignoring this massive hit to the books, which was actually offset by some tax benefits IBM cashed in at the same time, the company has shown both revenue and profit growth.

  This may not be the IBM of our salad days, but it is a far cry better from the …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 24, Number 43

  October 24, 2022 Doug Bidwell

  We are happy to report that there are no new security vulnerabilities in the IBM i stack and related open-source software this week – at least as far as we know. So, rejoice in that. There are a bunch of HIPER PTFs and fixes for Java that span the current IBM i releases on support and extended support, so be aware of those.

  And just a reminder to keep checking out The Four Hundred in each issue as we drill down into new details related to the Tech Refreshes announced this month, and that are coming in December.

  Now, here …

  Read more

• Use A Pathfinder And Choose Your Path To Modernize Your IBM i

  October 24, 2022 Jose Caso Jacobs

  When you are moving into a new frontier, it always helps to have a guide who has been there before and who knows the lay of the land and literally where all of the pitfalls are. We have just such pathfinders, and they want to help.

  One guide is Mike Mahan, who is global sales director at LANSA and who has a wide range of sales and management experience across many IT vendors in his more than three decades in the industry. The other guide is Eugene King, who is a senior sales engineer at LANSA.

  If your IT organization …

  Read more

• On the Spectrum of Application Modernization

  October 19, 2022 Alex Woodie

  What is application modernization? If you ask 10 people in the IT world, you’re likely to get 10 different answers. For organizations looking to keep their IBM i assets relevant in an increasingly digital world, being aware of the spectrum of options available will help them make the best choice for their particular situation.

  Every organization is unique when it comes to its IT journey. Some may have large in-house development teams and would never think of running packaged business applications, while others have no developers and lean on their vendors and partners to keep things running. Some organizations may …

  Read more

• Doing Disaster Recovery Planning Right For Your IBM Power Iron

  October 19, 2022 Jason Hardy

  As I was writing this article, I saw this in my LinkedIn news feed, according to Axios.com: “billion-dollar weather disasters now happen once every 18 days.” My perception was that the United States was getting more frequent significant weather events and it turns out that data from the National Weather Service backs that up.

  Now add in hardware/software failures, cyber security events and local disasters (fire, water damage, power outages) and it makes sense that disaster recovery is one of the top challenges facing CIOs today. If this is a topic you are contemplating, here are a few questions to …

  Read more

• IBM Bolsters Availability, Backup with Latest TRs

  October 19, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Nobody wants downtime or data loss, but companies’ appetite for both are on the decline as customers increasingly demand 24/7 service. IBM i shops have a lot of solutions to choose from when it comes to ensuring uptime and avoiding data loss, both of which have been enhanced with the latest round of Tech Refreshes (TRs) from IBM.

  IBM unveiled updates to its two flagship availability offerings for IBM i with the October 11 announcement of IBM i 7.5 TR1 and 7.4 TR7, including Db2 Mirror and PowerHA SystemMirror for IBM i. It also brought new features to Backup and …

  Read more

• Four Hundred Monitor, October 19

  October 19, 2022 Jenny Thomas

  It’s been a busy week here in the Jungle as our team works hard to put together all you need to know from last week’s Tech Refresh for IBM i announcement. IBM unveiled updates to its two flagship availability offerings for IBM i with the October 11 announcement of IBM i 7.5 TR1 and 7.4 TR7, including Db2 Mirror and PowerHA SystemMirror for IBM i. You can get all the details here in the top story of this issue. But if you’re looking for the top stories of the week, look no further. We’ve got your weekly roundup for what …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles