Four Hundred Monitor, September 27
September 27, 2017 Dan Burger
Total cost of ownership comparisons have always been an important tool for combating the high up-front cost that competitors use against the IBM i on Power system. Updated reports — one for midsize companies and one for enterprise companies — recently hit the streets. Two weeks ago, you may have seen an IT Jungle story on these reports. This week their importance is noted in Steve Will’s blog.
Mention IBM marketing at a gathering of IBM i users and watch the sparks fly. Now IBM has its own Watson Advertising division. This should be interesting. Find out more about Watson Advertising in Monitor this week.
Top Stories From Outside The Jungle
(You and i) Chief Architect and prolific blogger Steve Will discusses several new reports that put IBM i in a good light. Total cost of ownership comparisons—one for the midsize market and the other for the enterprise — get most of the attention. The most current IBM i Strategy and Roadmap whitepaper is the other report to put on your reading list. It is due to arrive next month.
(iDevelop) On the way to becoming the Jon Paris that many people in the IBM i world know today, the programming wizard and training heavyweight waded through some primitive IT jungles. It’s been a 50-year journey.
(Advertising Week) I didn’t see this coming. IBM just launched Watson Advertising. The new division incorporates data, media and technology services and will offer a suite of AI products that includes data analysis and media planning to content creation and audience targeting.
(CIO) Looking to avoid monthly cloud sticker shock? A cloud cost management strategy that makes use of containers, capacity pre-purchases and more will help you contain runaway cloud spending.
Redbooks, White Papers, and Other Resources
(ProData) The need for cross-platform access to remote databases from all IBM i is an integral part of the strategy to increase productivity and implement real time processing in a distributed database environment. This paper explains how RPG, CL and COBOL applications can access remote databases using record-level access.
(IBM) IBM i Access Client Solutions consolidates the most commonly used tasks for managing an IBM i environment into one simplified location. This website includes information on the features, a video intro to the product, and a download of the base package.
(IBM developerWorks) The IBM Rational Developer for i Hub is a place for the RDi community to mingle and discuss all things RDi. It also provides a library of useful RDi information and resources.
Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings
September 27-29 — Virginia Beach, Virginia -The Mid-Atlantic Group of IBM i Collaborators (MAGIC) IBM i User Conference is a three-day event with sessions and hands-on labs and is highlighted by three presentations by IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will. Topics for the lab sessions include PHP, .NET, RDi, Git, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. A complete list of all sessions, speakers and vendors is available online. MAGIC supports the IBM i users in the Mid-Atlantic area: Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Eastern Pennsylvania. Registration is $320 for MAGIC members and $400 for non-members.
September 27 — Westbury, New York – Scott Forstie, the DB2 for i Business Architect, will be the guest speaker at the Long Island Systems Users Group monthly meeting. Forstie will present three sessions on SQL: SQL Views for Dummies at 3:30 p.m., SQL for the Security Officer at 5 p.m., and DB2 for i Tools at 8 p.m. In between sessions two and three, there will be time for networking, cocktails, and dinner. LISUG meetings are held at the Westbury Manor located at 1100 Jericho Turnpike.
September 27 — North Attleboro, Massachusetts – NoSQL data and the IBM i platform will be the featured topic at the monthly meeting of the New England Midrange Users Group. Guest speaker is Jim Mason, senior product architect for DMX Web Platform. His discussion will include the distinctions between relational data and NoSQL data and when to use NoSQL. The meeting begins at 5:15 p.m. at the Red Stone Grill located at 120 Chestnut Street.
September 28 — Webinar – This online session demonstrates how your RPG/SQL knowledge can be put to work building IBM i mobile apps. Topics on the agenda include: tangible business return on investment, relying on RPG programming skills to create great mobile apps, and redefining business workflows for today’s mobile workforce. The presentation begins at 1 p.m. Central Time.
October 2-4 — St. Louis, Missouri – The COMMON Fall Conference features technical sessions, workshops, certifications, networking opportunities, and a vendor expo. The session grid and speaker lineup has yet to be posted, but you can expect a mix of fundamental skills and new technologies. An early registration discount is available and hotel reservations can be made.
October 16-17 — Minneapolis, Minnesota – The CIO Summit, an event focused on exploring ways to leverage IBM i investments, is open to a limited number of CIOs. Topics of discussion include common challenges faced by IBM i CIOs and IT directors, managing new technology, evaluating the cloud, hiring the right skills, delivering enhancements, and completing integrations and new applications on time and on budget. Requests for invitations are being handled online.
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.
October 16-20 — New Orleans, Louisiana – The IBM Power Systems and Storage Technical University agenda will include more than 600 technical sessions delivered by top IBM developers and experts. Topic areas include IBM i, AIX, Linux on Power, Open Power, Power hardware and software, and storage. Sessions and demos are geared to all skill levels. Take advantage of networking opportunities to connect with product developers and industry leaders and join in discussions on real-world IT challenges and successes
October 21 — Costa Mesa, California – IBM i expert and educator, Jim Buck, will lead this workshop on developing an SQL/Service program using free form RPG and RDi. This combined lecture and lab will demonstrate how to take a traditional subfile program and convert the disk I/O to SQL then move the database I/O to a service program. Learning objectives include the utilization of the RDi screen designer, use of free format RPG, use of SQL in an RPG service program, and use of subprocedures, modules and service programs in modern RPG applications. The fee for this one day of training is $50 for OCEAN user group members and $75 for non-members. It includes continental breakfast, lunch, and end-of-session hors d’oeuvres.
October 23–26 — Las Vegas, Nevada – ZendCon offers authoritative sessions, in-depth technical tutorials, exhibit hall activities, and informal opportunities to spotlight the best in enterprise PHP and open source development, focusing on the latest for PHP 7, the evolution of frameworks and tools, API excellence, and innovations on many open source technologies related to the web. It includes a track specifically for IBM i development.
October 24 — Mississauga, Ontario, Canada – A one-day workshop on modernizing RPG applications will be presented RPG subject matter expert Paul Tuohy. This workshop will focus on modern programming practices and tools that can transform old monolithic RPG applications into a modern, modularized form that makes them useful in the years ahead. During this session, attendees will take a sample application and follow it through the conversion process from RPG/400 (basic RPG IV) to RPG IV and ILE features, modularizing the code, adding DB2 UDB features and replacing the green screen with a graphical or browser-based interface. Registration is $249 for Toronto User Group members and $299 for non-members.
