• Evading the Big Blue Name Police

  June 8, 2022 Alex Woodie

  The name “Merlin” conjures up an image of a magical place where wizards cast spells against evil spirits and fairies fly through the air. In other words, the exact opposite of the button-down image of business computing that IBM tries its best to exude. That’s what makes the story of how the newest member of the IBM i product lineup got its name so unlikely.

  Twenty-two months ago, the folks at the IBM Rochester had an idea for a new product that would help to modernize development and operations processes on IBM i. In addition to Web-based IDE based on …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, June 8

  June 8, 2022 Jenny Thomas

  The business partners and resellers have now been briefed about the impending Power10 entry and midrange server launches, and it is just a matter of time before some of the details start leaking out. We look forward to seeing the new machines and convergence of cloud-style packaging and pricing for on premises and cloudy versions of these machines.

  If you know something, say something. . . .

  No matter what, we will have in-depth coverage and analysis as soon as the jig is up.

  Top Stories From Outside The Jungle

  (Data Center Dynamics) Some step-by-step advice about integrating IBM i …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 24, Number 23

  June 8, 2022 Doug Bidwell

  Welcome to this week’s edition of the IBM i PTF Guide. We start out with a correction to the Technology Refresh tab in the spreadsheet, where the “LIC Resave” values that were for 7.4 TR6 and 7.3 TR12 were based on an IBM site that was itself incorrect. That site has since been corrected, and now we have corrected the information in the sheet. Many thanks to Jeff at IBM for catching this!

  And now, a bevy of Security Bulletins – four different vulnerabilities that affect the IBM i platform, to be specific.

  First, we have Security Bulletin: IBM …

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• Why Steve Will’s Promotions Are A Big Deal For IBM i

  June 6, 2022 Alex Woodie

  As chief architect for IBM i, Steve Will has long been the recognizable face of the IBM i development team in Rochester, Minnesota. Recently, he added two more titles to his cv, including IBM i CTO and distinguished engineer. While the labels are certainly good for Will and an acknowledgment of his hard work, they’re also good for IBM i and bode well for the future of the platform.

  A year after earning a master’s degree in computer science at Purdue University in 1984, Will joined IBM and immediately went to work on the IBM midrange line, first as a …

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• IBM i Licensing, Part 1: Operating System Subscriptions

  June 6, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Every vendor that sells systems and/or the systems software that runs atop that machinery has had to cope with myriad transitions in product packaging and pricing with the establishment of the cloud. The transitions are difficult for both companies and their customers, but in the long run, pricing will be more flexible and equitable – and far more predictable for both vendors and users alike.

  Big Blue has offered several licensing models over the years for the OS/400, i5/OS, and IBM i platforms. In the early years, every piece of software had a perpetual license tied to a machine, usually …

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• Guru: IBM i Experience Sharing Case 4 – Investigating Time-Sensitive Transaction Issues

  June 6, 2022 Satid Singkorapoom

  Among the central processing hardware resources in a computer system – CPU, GPU, memory, disk, PCI-Express I/O bus – disk has always been the slowest component. Even the latest flash disk or NVM-Express flash drive or card is slowest, but not by much. Back in the days of hard disk, disk I/O was the most popular cause of performance problems. From experience, I always looked at it first in my investigation.

  The modern SAN flash disk can still be the performance bottleneck when it is not deployed properly, as I shared in Guru: IBM i Experience Sharing, Case 3 – …

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• As I See It: Unwritten Rules

  June 6, 2022 Victor Rozek

  Organizational change is always a bastard. Getting hundreds – if not thousands – of people rowing at the same speed in the same direction is about as problem-free a proposition as . . . well, nothing. Getting people to agree is never easy. But they like to be employed, too, because eating is a good habit.

  Companies generally have a stated vision, imparted goals and formal policies, but they tend to morph over time or are superseded by regime and marketplace changes. Alternately, they are simply ignored. Although desired behavior and motivation are outlined in job descriptions and employee handbooks, …

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• IBM i And The 2039 Two-Digit Date Problem

  June 6, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  As most of you remember, the shift to four-digit dates at the turn of the millennium was a big pain in the ass, but the world did not come to an end because people got said asses in gear and rectified the problem. (Almost pun int-ended.)

  Anyway, as it turns out, there is another date problem that happens in 2039 in a lot of operating systems, and this one also affects the IBM i platform. IBM had certain system values that had a two-digit date, and they natural could only span 100 years – all you can do …

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• More IBM i Merlin Details Emerge at POWERUp

  June 1, 2022 Alex Woodie

  We are getting a more complete picture of IBM i Merlin, the DevOps offering that IBM introduced last month with the launch of IBM i 7.5. Among the most interesting revelations at COMMON’s annual POWERUp conference last week is that Merlin will be a vehicle for delivering a range of functionality to the platform in the future, not necessarily limited to app dev.

  IBM i Modernization Engine for Lifecycle Integration, or Merlin, is a new offering from IBM. The software, as it exists in its first incarnation, enables users to develop IBM i application in ILE languages through an …

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• Kill Three Cloud Scenario Birds With One StorSafe Stone

  June 1, 2022 Larry Bolhuis

  It is a rare event when you can kill two birds with one stone. But thanks to a new partnership between IBM and FalconStor Software, you may have the opportunity to take down three with one stone. And it’s an opportunity I know well since I collaborated with the FalconStor and IBM teams to bring it forward.

  Last month, IBM and FalconStor announced a strategic partnership to make the IBM i platform a better player in the hybrid cloud world that I believe will increasingly be a reality for IBM i users who rely on the platform to support their …

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