Four Hundred Monitor, March 11

March 11, 2020 Jenny Thomas

As if you need another reminder of the ubiquitous COVID-19, even our IBM i ecosystem is not immune to the march of this illness. Big Blue has been taking steps to protect employees and prevent the spread, and it’s been lending some computing power to the search for treatments or maybe even a vaccine. At IT Jungle, we already work remotely so we are isolated from a workplace environment, although all of us have school-age children so we aren’t exactly comfortably wrapped in a protective bubble. There are still many safe activities that you can do without fear of the coronavirus. For instance, like reading on for the news of the week . . . .

Top Stories From Outside The Jungle

(IBM News Room) The U.S. Department of Energy has employed Summit to help in the battle with COVID-19.

(The Mercury News) IBM may be helping with the COVID-19 outbreak, but it’s also taking precautions, including cancelling its Think event.

(Forbes) Changes to the FlashSystems product line has simplified storage for IBM customers.

(Fortune) IBM’s Chairman, President, and CEO, Ginni Rometty, was among the 15 women who shared the personality trait that they feel is the key to their success.

(Fast Company) IBM makes the top 10 list of most innovative companies of 2020 for IBM Garage.

Redbooks, White Papers, Blogs, and Other Resources

(Fresche Solutions) How are you leveraging your systems and innovating for the future? Fresche’s 2020 IBM i in Business Survey will provide critical understanding into the role that IT plays in business. Participants will receive a report and invitation for a live session about the results.

(IBM IT Infrastructure Blog) What does IBM Power Systems means for SAP? This blog has some ideas.

(Profound Logic Software) Do you have an opinion on modernization? Profound wants to hear it. The goal of this survey is to get a clearer picture of the state of IBM i modernization in today’s businesses. Your responses will help to paint a picture of how the platform is being used, and what the future of the platform looks like.

(COMMON) This blog has some thoughts about the road to AI.

(Magic Software) Many manufacturers believe their legacy systems are a barrier to industry 4.0. This blog says modernization can be the answer.

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

March 17-19 – Delavan, Wisconsin– The Spring Technical Conference of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association (WMCPA) features workshops and talks from a variety of IBM i experts.

March 23-24 – Dallas, Texas – The CIO Summit is a complimentary event for IT executives, hosted by IBM i Champion Alan Seiden. Participants exchange tips and brainstorm ideas for addressing common challenges faced by IBM i CIOs and IT Directors, such as managing new technology, hiring the right skills, and keeping IT aligned with business. Special guest Heidi Schmidt, leader in IT generational change and knowledge transfer, will join in to share her experience in creating more efficient, innovative IBM i development teams.

March 24-26 – Dallas, Texas – The RPG & DB2 Summit heads to Dallas with new sessions, new workshops, new ideas, and new tools. Paul Tuohy, Susan Gantner and Jon Paris lead a team of 13 top experts teaching the critical skills you need to excel with modern IBM i development. SQL, RPG, Db2, ILE, open source, ACS, RDi, data analytics, web services, web and mobile apps — it’s all packed into a highly-concentrated three-day learning experience.

March 25 – Webinar – Join Profound Logic for a webinar to learn about the power of Node.js and NodeRun, and how you can: quickly create data-driven business dashboards; reduce software development time-to-market with a streamlined approach that requires fewer developers; create applications to access data from multiple sources, including relational databases and RESTful API; and make the data visually appealing with charts, grids, and other widgets

April 6-8 – Framingham, Massachusetts – Join the Northeast User Group (NEUGC) Conference where attendees will be saying cheers to 30 years. NEUGC is the largest technical conference in New England for IBM i.

April 19-22 – Atlanta, Georgia – POWERUp 2020 will offer between 350-400 sessions presented by more than 100 IT professionals, and features the largest exposition of its kind. This conference structured to give you the pure education and professional connections needed to best enhance your career.

May 12-14 – Orlando, Florida –The nation’s leading ERP software event, the ESS – Enterprise Software Showcase for Manufacturers and Distributors heads to Orlando, May 12-14. Formerly known as the Vendor Shootout, this is the longest running event of its kind. ESS brings together ERP software buyers and vendors to facilitate the software selection process. Created by Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC), and hosted by TEC and Godlan, Inc. ESS is a learning hub for businesses to see live demos from 5 of the top ERP Software packages all in one place – all while gaining an understanding and getting tips on how to make informed, smarter software decisions.

May 20-21 – Nashville, Tennessee – php[tek] is the longest-running web developer conference in the United States that has a focus on the PHP programming language. The event is broken up into multiple days. The main conference happens over the course of two days (May 20-21) and includes keynotes, talks, and networking options. It will be broken into three tracks on Tech Leadership, PHP Development, and Web Technologies. There is an optional Workshop day that precedes the conference that lets attendees take two separate in-depth half-day workshops. We also offer full-day training classes preceding the conference on May 18 on deep technical topics for independent purchase.