• Is The Cloud On Your IBM i Horizon?

  September 20, 2023 Alex Woodie

  It’s almost impossible to ignore the enormous pull that the cloud is exerting on the software industry today. Companies that run the IBM i server are also subject to that gravity, although it has different ramifications for their technological future, as well as the decisions they’ll make if they want to run their operations in the cloud.

  IBM i shops, almost by definition, are not running on the cloud today, at least not in the public cloud the way it is normally defined. While there are a handful of managed service providers (MSPs) offering private cloud IBM i runtimes, and …

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• Fighting Fake News in Digital Transformation

  August 16, 2023 Alex Woodie

  It’s not news that businesses across the globe are embarking upon ambitious digital transformation projects, which are often advertised as an imperative to commercial survival. While these projects can be successful and profitable, they can also lead to business disruptions and losses thanks to unscrupulous vendors that aren’t attuned to customer needs. That’s why it’s so important to highlight the fake news and misinformation that’s so rampant in digital transformation.

  ERP projects are notorious for going off the rails, and modern-day digital transformation projects are no different. In fact, more than half of digital transformation projects experience a “material disruption” …

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• Infor Marketplace Offers Solutions for IBM i

  July 26, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Infor, which is the biggest ERP vendor for IBM i, didn’t forget about the IBM i when it updated its Infor Marketplace recently. In fact, the software market features a range of solutions that can run on IBM i and work with Infor ERP solutions running on IBM i, the software company says.

  Infor originally launched the Infor Marketplace in January 2022 with the goal of streamlining the process of searching for and obtaining software that augments operations for its 65,000 customers. Third-party solutions available at the launch included Avalara’s tax automation software and talent management software from Visual …

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• What Keeps IT Leaders Up At Night? Rocket Seeks Answers

  July 12, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Want a tough job? Then consider becoming a CIO, who are under enormous pressure to use IT to help their businesses. To better gauge what’s keeping them up at night during a period of economic uncertainty, Rocket Software surveyed 275 senior IT leaders at large companies. The responses might surprise you.

  With all the hype surrounding technologies like generative AI, 5G, and virtual reality, it may be a surprise to learn that IT directors and vice presidents of American companies have a largely defensive mindset. Instead of implementing the latest and greatest technologies to leapfrog their competitors, Rocket Software’s …

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• The IT Balancing Act

  May 1, 2023 Bill Langston

  Medical research suggests that how well you can maintain your balance is a powerful predictor of your longevity. Balance is also a good indicator of longevity for your IBM i environment. The challenge is striking the right balance between “vertical” technology that helps your company work efficiently and accurately, and “horizontal” technology that reduces risk.

  Over the past few years, unprecedented forces shifted IT priorities and may have knocked your company’s IBM i environment off balance.

  Enabling IT Balance

  IBM i exists because of how well it runs complex business applications and manages data. We take for granted that the …

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• PSGi Offers Field-Level Encryption for IBM i Database

  April 19, 2023 Alex Woodie

  IBM i professionals who are concerned about the disclosure of sensitive data in their legacy applications may be interested in a new field-level encryption utility from Precision Solutions Group (PSGi). The software essentially functions as an easy-to-use wrapper for IBM’s native Field Proc for database encryption, delivering flexible data protection for legacy applications.

  PSGi has made a name for itself by providing third-party maintenance and support for aging IBM i-based ERP systems. Customers running older applications like JD Edwards World, PRMS, PRISM, and KBM rely on PSGi to keep their ERP systems running well decades after they were first created. …

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• Generative AI: Coming to an ERP Near You

  March 22, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Don’t look now, but generative AI technology like ChatGPT is spreading into every aspect of computing, including the large enterprise applications at the heart of business. The technology may not be on IBM i-based ERP suites yet, but it’s just a matter of time.

  The sophistication of AI technology has been building steadily for the past 10 years, thanks to the adoption of massive neural networks that can be trained on huge amounts of unstructured data, such as text and images.

  Dubbed deep learning, the brute-force approach paid handsome dividends for two computational problems in particular: computer vision and natural …

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• Rocket Rolls Out IBM i Modernization Bundle

  March 6, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Rocket Software last week unveiled a new collection of tools designed to help IBM i shops elevate their game across multiple IT disciplines. Dubbed the Rocket Modernization Suite for IBM i, the new bundle brings together existing Rocket offerings in the DevOps, APIs, test automation, HA/DR, terminal emulation, and Web-enablement spaces. It’s all about lowering the barrier to adopting Rocket tools and improving customer productivity when they do, the company says.

  Like other software vendors in the space, Rocket Software has accumulated somewhat of a disparate collection of tools for the IBM i server. The Massachusetts vendor started its IBM …

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• Why Maxava High Availability?

  February 27, 2023 Ash Giddings

  Software-based logical replication for IBM i remains a popular solution for high availability and disaster recovery due to its ability to adapt over the years to changing environments like co-locations and the cloud. Maxava HA is known for its efficiency and scalability, but what else sets it apart for large enterprises worldwide?

  Negligible CPU Consumed On Production Server

  The Audit Journal (QAUDJRN) is a valuable tool for protecting the IBM i server with over 70 auditable events. However, in large environments, it can become overwhelmed with hundreds of thousands of entries every minute. Some logical replication solutions heavily rely on …

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• Fresche Nabs Silveredge for Application Services

  February 8, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Silveredge Consulting, the Chicago-based provider of application support services, has been acquired by Fresche Solutions, the Montreal-based IBM i software and services business. The deal nets Fresche a respected consulting shop with a long record of supporting IBM i-based ERP systems such as BPCS and PRMS and two-and-a-half dozen senior RPG programmers.

  Founded in 1987, Silveredge Consulting developed a solid reputation as a provider of application support services. The company started out supporting manufacturers in the Chicago region that ran on the BPCS and PRMS packages, which were also developed in the area. Over the ensuing 35 years, the company …

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