Four Hundred Monitor, November 15
November 15, 2017 Dan Burger
IT strategic planning is an oxymoron at many organizations. Controlled chaos is often the oxymoron that better describes the situation. A fast-changing business environment combined with a constant flow of technology hype can make strategy sessions difficult. A “we don’t do things that way” status protection system can also be a strategy barrier. But some find the process of developing a strategy as valuable as the strategy itself.
This week in Monitor we also have articles on the risks and advantages of BYOD mobile policies, integrating security in DevOps, and keeping a watchful eye on the facts and fiction regarding blockchain technology. You have to keep it real.
Top Stories From Outside The Jungle
(CIO) As the rate of business and technology change has accelerated, some of the past static, rigid, and disjointed approaches to IT strategic planning fail to keep pace. Developing and executing a business-aligned IT roadmap is more important than ever so CIOs must be willing to embrace new approaches to planning that are more business-driven, flexible, and frequently revisited.
(MCPress) Let’s assume your enterprise has decided on bring your own device (BYOD) mobile strategy. To make the advantages outweigh the risks, the experience of early adopters of BYOD has shown it’s best to establish a strong and comprehensive policy from the outset, train all staff in the policy’s use and implications, and enforce the rules once you’ve formulated them.
(Wired) Organizations are streamlining the development process by combining multiple steps into a single, automated process — this is the essence of DevOps. IT pros from all areas working together from the beginning to dramatically reduce the time to release a product. Instead of security continuing to exist as a standalone, isolated entity, DevOps will integrate security into IT processes from inception.
(ZDNet) Following blockchain technology feels a little like living in two parallel universes: One is the world of press and vendor hype, fueled in equal measure by commercial self-interest and a genuine desire for innovation, and which remains firmly in the phase of irrational exuberance. The other is the world of enterprise business and technology professionals actually working on blockchain projects; this world is firmly anchored in the phase of rational assessment, and everyone’s agreed that large-scale, widespread deployment of blockchain-based (or indeed blockchain-inspired) networks isn’t imminent.
(ComputerWorld) While blockchain appears ready to upend business processes and trust models across a myriad of industries, it’s still in its early days and the various iterations of the distributed ledger already in use are far from vetted. While the technology has great potential, CIOs and their business counterparts who are exploring blockchain should expect setbacks in deploying it.
Redbooks, White Papers, and Other Resources
(IBM) A small library of IBM i videos are available for your viewing pleasure at this website. They are not technical, but they provide valuable insights into what IBM i can do, and is doing, for businesses around the globe. If you need to explain to management how IBM i is built for business, you’ll get help here.
(IBM) Navigator for i provides a range of system management and performance analysis features for IBM i. Compare it to the old System i Navigator and see what there is to gain.
(IBM) An overview of IBM i 7.3 TR3 includes enhanced analytics, new security capabilities, and other new functions in IBM i and associated licensed programs.
(IBM) An overview of IBM i 7.2 TR7 includes enhanced analytics, new security capabilities, and other new functions in IBM i and associated licensed programs.
(IBM) This document provides a basic understanding of IBM i on Power Systems performance concepts, workloads and benchmarks. It includes system sizing and capacity planning, performance tools, and Power8 and virtualization performance.
Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings
November 15 — North Attleboro, Massachusetts – Among the many modernization technologies available on IBM i, SQL is perhaps the one best known by RPG developers. This session, hosted by the Northeast Midrange User Group, will focus on how to write scripts that combine SQL statements into procedures that encapsulate database access and core business logic. Guest speaker is RPG and Web development expert John Valance. The presentation begins at 6 p.m. with dinner afterward. The meeting will be held at the Red Stone Grill located at 120 Chestnut Street.
November 15 — Westbury, New York – The Long Island Systems Users Group monthly meeting will include two presentations by IBM i PHP expert Alan Seiden. At 5 p.m., Seiden will discuss bringing RPG and COBOL business logic to the Web with the PHP toolkit. At 7 p.m., he will explore the use of Db2 and SQL with open source languages on IBM i. In between the sessions is time for networking, cocktails, and dinner. LISUG meetings are held at the Westbury Manor located at 1100 Jericho Turnpike.
November 16 — Edina, Minnesota – Wayne Bowers, advisory software engineer for IBM i, will present the latest and greatest enhancements to Access Client Solutions and Navigator for IBM i and future plans for ACS at the monthly meeting of QUSER, the local user group for IBM midrange professionals in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The meeting begins at 2 p.m. at the Sirius Computer Systems offices located at 7760 France Avenue South.
November 21 — Costa Mesa, California – The OCEAN User Group meeting features a session on VB.NET and RPG on IBM i presented by Craig Pelkie. Tools, development techniques and database-driven applications will be discussed. Remote access to the webinar is free for OCEAN members and non-members. Dinner and networking begins at 5:30 p.m. with the presentation at 6:30. The meeting location is National University located at 3390 Harbor Boulevard.
November 28 & 29 — Rochester, Minnesota – IBM & COMMON are teaming up for a second conference on IBM i and Watson. The “IBM i Driveway to Watson” sessions highlight the integration of cognitive and cloud platforms to solve real problems and drive business value with applications, infrastructure and services. IBMers Tim Rowe and Jesse Gorzinski will be making presentations and several hands-on labs are on the agenda. The conference takes place at the IBM Executive Briefing Center. The $349/person registration fee includes breakfast and lunch both days.
November 29 — Mississauga, Ontario, Canada – The Toronto User Group meeting will feature educational sessions on security and Rational Developer for IBM i. The 5 p.m. session examines best practices to protect mission-critical information from data loss or a security breach presented by Jim Kandrac, president of UCG Technologies. The 7 p.m. session covers the enhancements in the coming release of RDi, presented by RDi developer Eric Simpson from IBM’s Toronto Labs. In between the two sessions is time for dinner and networking.
November 29 — Southfield, Michigan – The Southeast Michigan IBM i User Group meeting will feature a recorded webinar with IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will followed by an open discussion period with IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington. Steve Will’s webinar includes IBM i development strategies in progress at IBM, Watson integration with IBM i, key takeaways from the AS/400 days and a roadmap of strategic innovation. The meeting location has not been determined yet.
