Four Hundred Monitor, June 21

June 21, 2017 Dan Burger

If you’re on top of your game, you see this coming. But even the best prepared are sometimes surprised. When the time comes for a platform evaluation at your organization, can you defend what you do and why you are doing it? Before you get caught with your pants down, read this advice from someone who knows how to cover his technology assets.

This week’s Monitor also includes articles on accurately accessing emerging technology while facing a hurricane of hyperbole, measuring your Digital IQ (the results won’t be made public), and what’s behind the Oracle to DB2 database migrations. We believe in the need to read.

Top Stories From Outside The Jungle

(You and i) Be prepared for the dreaded platform re-evaluation. Sometimes you know it’s coming and sometimes you don’t. Your bosses will be looking for useful information, so help them realize the best option is to keep the IBM i platform. Know your technology assets and be able to explain their value.

(CIO) Emerging technology represents a series of potential investments—in pure capital, time and energy—that have massive implications for the enterprise. CIOs have an obligation to keep their eyes to the technological horizon. They must be judicious when assessing the emerging technology landscape, advocating for the smart calls that will help secure their respective organizations’ futures.

(InformationWeek) The ability to harness and use technology is referred to as Digital IQ. There’s always been early adopters, those who wait and see before proceeding, and those who are tagged as laggards. But in the modern culture of innovation, the pressure is on to go with the digital mindset and keep up with emerging technologies or go home. Here’s what the 2017 Global Digital IQ Survey has to say.

(Techspective) Enterprise database migrations are often painful due to the complexity and business criticality of the assets involved. Replacing a database platform has ramifications that can extend across the organization for years. But Oracle migrations to IBM DB2 are increasing. Do you want to know why?

Redbooks, White Papers, and Other Resources

(Seiden Group) This handout from Alan Seiden’s presentation titled “PHP for Batch Tasks on IBM i” includes tips for improving Web application performance. It focuses on front-end performance including topics such as request-response protocol, caching, creating favicons, the “KeepAlive” setting, compression to decrease file size, and tips for JavaScript and cascading style sheets.

(S4i Systems) Better Object Builder is a free and open source build system for the IBM i platform that is used to build native “QSYS” objects. It compiles objects that need recompiling (i.e., new or changed source code) and understands the relationships between objects—so, if an item changes, then it and everything depending on it will be rebuilt.

(Connectria) This recorded webinar on IBM i trends and directions presented by IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will discusses the strategy for IBM i on Power Systems, the IBM i roadmap, IBM i growth, and the IBM i place in cloud computing.

(Remain Software) This report examines how business changes influence IT and how application functionality can keep up with changing business systems. It also reveals the challenges faced by software development teams, how they relate to the competitiveness of your organization and what can be done to reduce the cost of IT.

(IBM) The details of building cognitive applications with visual recognition are covered in volume three of a seven-piece collection of IBM Redbooks titled Building Cognitive Applications with IBM Watson Services. The series includes getting started, conversation services, visual recognition, natural languages classifier; language translators; speech-to-text and text-to-speech; and natural language understanding.

(TL Ashford) This paper examines three approaches to automated data collection integration with IBM System i. It identifies the integration traps commonly experienced by business and examines a better approach using native IBM i labeling software specifically designed for the IBM i architecture.

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

June 22 — Webinar – The IBMiTech local user group based in Atlanta, Georgia, is hosting an online session pertaining to IBM i security. IBM i security expert Robin Tatam will lead the discussion. Will’s presentation will be a state of the union overview of IBM i. The session begins at 9 a.m. It is not necessary to be an IBMiTech member to attend.

July 20-22 — Costa Mesa, California – The OCEAN Tech Conference is featuring more than 45 sessions and more than 20 speakers over three days. Topics include SQL and DB2, systems management, RPG, RDi, open source, cloud and professional development. Standard sessions and a vendor expo take place on Thursday and Friday. Workshops and hands-on labs are scheduled Saturday. The list of presenters includes: Ted Holt, Scott Forstie, Jesse Gorzinski, Scott Klement, Alan Seiden, Charles Guarino, Aaron Bartell, and Mike Pavlak. The conference location is National University located at 3390 Harbor Boulevard near Orange County Airport.

October 17-19 — Minneapolis, Minnesota – The twice-a-year, spring and fall, RPG & DB2 Summit returns to the upper Midwest for its next technical conference with an agenda that expands to cover new topics such as Python for RPGers, how to bring the power of Watson to RPG applications, and SQL aggregation. It also incorporates sessions that will introduce hidden gems in DB2 for i as well as anticipated Q4 2017 updates to the database. In addition to the three-day Summit, an optional fourth day of hands-on workshops October 16, provides intensive education into four technology areas — SQL, RSE/RDi, Service Programs or PHP. Workshop attendees choose one topic for the “deep dive.” An early registration discount is available through August 31.