• The Case For Software-Based IBM i HA/DR

  July 25, 2022 Ash Giddings

  Software-based replication surfaced in the 1990s and continues to be a very popular choice for IBM i shops of all sizes, across an array of industry sectors. But what are the benefits of using software solutions versus hardware alternatives for HA/DR? There are a number of benefits that are an outgrowth of an HA/DR strategy that go beyond HA/DR and where the software approach is better than the hardware approach.

  The first one is business intelligence.

  Due to its reliability, powerful integration capabilities and ability to secure, many choose Power Systems running IBM i as their main database server or …

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• ATS Group Looks For Patterns In The IT Chaos With Galileo Suite

  July 20, 2022 Alex Woodie

  If you’re having trouble keeping track of a busy IT environment, you’re not alone — many organizations are in the same boat as you. But when you check out many observability tools, you’ll often find they don’t even know how to spell “IBM i.” That is not the case with Galileo Suite, a collection of IT monitoring and observability tools from Advanced Technology Service Group that supports a range of operating systems, including IBM i.

  IT Jungle caught sight of Galileo Suite at the recent COMMON POWERUp conference in New Orleans, where the company behind the suite, ATS Group, …

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• What Happens To IBM i In A “Zero Datacenter, Zero Mainframe” FedEx?

  July 18, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Federal Express, the pioneer in overnight document delivery for business founded in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1971 by Frederick Smith, did not start out in the ground shipping business. But it did start its datacenter operations on IBM mainframes, as any company needing complex and intense computing would at the time, and it chose Memphis, Tennessee, in the heart of America, as its headquarters and base of operations in 1973 when the company moved from a PhD thesis at Yale University to a true business.

  In 1983, FedEx made history by being the first company in the United States to …

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• The Power10 Machines That Will Take IBM i To 2025

  July 12, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  IBM i shops that have been waiting for an upgrade path that will take them to the other half of this decade do not have to wait any longer. Finally, after a change of foundry (to Samsung) and process technology (from 10 nanometers down to 7 nanometers) as well as a new implementation of the Power instruction set packed with all kinds of vector and matrix math goodies that are perfect for embedding AI into commercial applications, Big Blue is ready to start shipping the entry and midrange Power Systems machines based on the Power10 processor.

  We made it, despite …

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• Thoroughly Modern: With Cloud, You Need To Crawl, Walk, Then Run

  July 12, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The idea that all workloads are going to move to the cloud is a fallacy, and so is the idea that there will be only one cloud.

  Some workloads will, by necessity due to issues of governance and data sovereignty, remain in the corporate datacenter; some will run in hybrid mode across local and cloud infrastructure; and some will be in the cloud for the rest of their electronic lives. And because of the breadth and depth of applications in the enterprise and the long-established relationships that companies have with their IT suppliers and business partners, there will be many …

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• We Still Want IBM i On The Impending Power E1050

  June 27, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In March last year, as Big Blue was finishing up the development of the Power10 family of Power Systems machines, we wrote an essay explaining that we wanted IBM i to be a first-class operating system citizen on the four-socket Power E1050 machine, which we finally expect to see launch on July 12 if the rumors are correct.

  We never did like that IBM i was not supported on the Power8-based Power E850 four-socket server, and then also not supported on the Power9-based Power E950 four-socket server. And we equally do not like the fact that, if the rumors we …

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• A Frank Solstice

  June 20, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  When you are born in Minnesota, the seasons matter. Unfortunately, as Frank Soltis, the former chief architect of the AS/400 system and the creator of the single-level storage architecture of the System/38 and the AS/400 that is still a marvel, once quipped to us: “There are only two seasons in Minnesota: Winter, and Getting Ready For Winter.”

  And so, you have two options: Play hockey when you aren’t farming, or design excellent computer systems. That’s how supercomputer genius Seymour Cray did it from nearby Wisconsin.

  The AS/400 for which this publication was founded 33 years ago was born on the …

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• The Inevitable Wave Of Power9 Withdrawals Begins

  June 20, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  With the entry and midrange Power10 servers coming in a few weeks, and with the supply chains for chip, board, and system manufacturing having more kinks than a Slinky left in the hands of a group of seven-year-olds for several days, it is only natural for Big Blue to focus on lining up all of the parts needed for its Power10 iron and to stop worrying so much about Power9 features and peripherals. Even though it will be selling Power9 iron for quite some time and supporting it for a very long time.

  And that is exactly what will be …

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• Getting A Firm Handle On Power Systems And Storage Firmware

  June 15, 2022 Richard Warren

  Back in the old days of the AS/400 and the iSeries, most customers had a single box or maybe two, one for production applications and databases and one for development of high availability. And everything that box needed was inside of itself.

  And at most, you applied two kinds of PTFs – those for the operating system and those for the microcode – to the machine, and you did that maybe once or twice a year and every once in a while you might add some group PTFs to update security or other important features.

  But the world has changed …

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• IBM i Licensing, Part 2: Subscriptions Change Everything

  June 13, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In a very funny way, the licensing of the IBM i platform is coming full circle with the advent of subscription pricing – with some funny curlicues along the way with over three decades of software licensing history and an even longer history of Big Blue renting, rather than selling, its software. When IBM first delivered its punch card machines, way way back, they were only available for rent, not for sale. The long arm of the law taught IBM to have some optionality, and it thus sold mainframes and minicomputers as well as leasing and renting them.

  But before …

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