• VACAVA’s Low-Code Approach To Modernization

  July 9, 2018 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops have lots of options when it comes to application modernization. At one end of the spectrum are screen-scraper tools, which can provide a quick fix for shops tired with the 5250 interface. IBM i shops with more time, money, and inspiration may choose to completely rewrite their application on a new platform. Somewhere in between lies RapidBIZ, a low-code modernization affair from VACAVA.

  The folks at VACAVA knows a thing or two about the IBM i platform. For starters, the company is based in Rochester, Minnesota, home of the world-famous IBM lab where the AS/400 was created …

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• Raz-Lee Debuts Anti-Ransomware For IBM i

  June 18, 2018 Alex Woodie

  Despite its reputation as a secure digital fortress for back office automation, the IBM i server is subject to all manner of modern security threats. That includes ransomware, which can work its way onto mapped IFS drives and render business documents stored on the IBM i server useless. Raz-Lee Security recently launched a new solution aimed at combatting the spread of ransomware on IBM i.

  Today’s business environment rewards companies that embrace openness. Companies are encouraged to open up their mainframes and IBM i servers and leverage the data and business processes they contain using APIs, microservices, and modern user …

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• Guru: DB2 For i XML Composition And The IFS

  June 11, 2018 Michael Sansoterra

  Hey, Mike! Regarding Composing An XML Document From Relational Data, Part 1, I have built an XML document using DB2 and i. When I run the query, I get a worthless result set. How do I use the SQL XML functions to get a usable XML file?

  This question comes from reader RA, and he doesn’t exaggerate. The result set from his XML-based query looks like this:

  ....+....1....+....2....+....3....+....4....+
  ************Beginning of data************** 
  
  XMLDATA 
  -------- 
  #CGULIB#
  
    1 RECORD(S) SELECTED.
  
   ************End of Data********************
  

  Notice that DB2 for i does nothing to make the XML attractive to human eyes as the entire XML …

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• Guru: How To Override Query Options

  May 21, 2018 Ted Holt

  QAQQINI is a physical file with which you can control certain behaviors of the DB2 for i query engine. For a list of the query options that you can change, visit the IBM Knowledge Center. Normally you don’t have to use it, as the engineers of IBM have done a great job designing an optimizer that does a great job.

  At times you may want to change a query attribute for a certain job. There is no need to build many QAQQINI files to handle all possibilities. Instead, you can temporarily override query attributes within a job. DB2 for …

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• 30 Years And Just Getting Started: IBM i Celebration Looks Ahead

  April 4, 2018 Dan Burger

  It’s been said many times that you can’t move forward if you keep looking back. What you’ve accomplished is not the end point. It’s the foundation for building toward the future. You can look back to see what you’ve missed, but it takes forward thinking to make up for it.

  This week is the beginning of a lengthy celebration spotlighting “30 years of innovation and we’re just getting started.” The IBM i team launched a website yesterday with a focus on the future, an emphasis on innovation and a reliance on social media (and IT Jungle) to spread the …

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• The Road Ahead For Power Is Paved With Bandwidth

  March 26, 2018 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The gap between what most IBM i customers need from Power Systems hardware – particularly when it comes to compute capacity – and what Big Blue can deliver has been widening since about the Power7 generation back in 2010. But, thanks in large measure to the slow down in Moore’s Law advances in chip manufacturing processes, the gap is going to start closing. Not so much because IBM wants it to, but rather because of the limits of physics.

  And, given that the IBM i platform is a database platform that mainly does transaction processing and analytics, IBM’s shift away …

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• Insurer Chooses IBM i Database Re-Engineering Over Migration

  March 26, 2018 Dan Burger

  How do you want your database designed for the future and what problems have you created in the past that need to be fixed before you can think about the future? Old databases, originally designed for a business environment that has changed and continues to change, are not compatible. You may not be feeling any pain today and you may have no plans to change your business/IT alignment in the future, but much of the technology-driven business world is changing, which at some point will leave you alone on an island with a boat but no motor and no paddle. …

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• Tooling Around With IBM i Access Client Solutions Announcements

  February 21, 2018 Dan Burger

  Access Client Solutions (ACS) received several feature/function enhancements when the Technology Refreshes were announced last week with a little something for end users, system administrators, and database engineers. Although nothing stands out as a major item, this is an incremental release fulfilling user-requested features.

  The 5250 emulator is a good example. It’s a key technology that is likely the most used component in ACS, but it’s been around for so long it’s easy to think there’s nothing new in emulation. But users never seem to cease to ask for something new: support for Chinese CCSID 1371 is one of those …

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• NGS And LightEdge Provide New Entry To The Cloud

  February 12, 2018 Dan Burger

  When does the time come to consider moving your IBM i on Power off premise? Many IBM i shops remain unmoved. An uneasy feeling about losing control or applications and data remains a top concern. Fears of production server accessibility on someone else’s watch persist. After years of successfully running your core business apps on a reliable server, why change what’s working great?

  Well, there are IBM i shops discovering compelling reasons and making the move. Gradually is the word that describes it. It’s not unobservable or insignificant. The reasonableness is not universal, and moderation seems to be the mindset. …

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• Rimini Street Finally Finds Its Way to Wall Street

  January 15, 2018 Alex Woodie

  As 2017 was coming to a close, Rimini Street quietly completed its quest to become a publicly traded company. But the firm, which provides third party support for DB2 for i and JD Edwards customers, didn’t go public through an initial public offering. Instead, it landed a listing on the Nasdaq by acquiring a company that already had one.

  In October, Rimini Street completed the merger with GP Investments Acquisition Corp, a so-called “blank check” company that was formed in 2015 specifically for the purpose of effecting a merger or acquisition in the United States or Europe. The company had …

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