Four Hundred Monitor, May 13
May 13, 2020 Jenny Thomas
I thought it might be nice this week to scour the headlines for some non-COVID-19 related stories as a bit of a respite from the ongoing pandemic. That didn’t work out so well, despite the fact that many states are beginning to slowly allow businesses to open back up and restrictions are starting to ease. This week is a little different, though, as much of the news is about how businesses are adapting, and we are seeing many changes in the Calendar as organizations bring their events online, postpone, or even cancel. The day has not yet come where the coronavirus isn’t at the forefront of our conversation, but that day will come, and in the interim we wish you good health.
Top Stories From Outside The Jungle
(ZDNet) CIOs everywhere have risen to the challenges brought about by COVID-19, but the job’s not over yet.
(Forbes) COVID-19 has caused disruptions in nearly every aspect of our lives. This article looks at the changes we can expect at manufacturing companies.
(CMS Wire) IBM CEO Arvind Krishna kicked off Think 2020 last week by sharing how the company is helping customers respond to the COVID-19 crisis, and how to succeed going forward.
(Computerworld) Layoffs for IT professionals have seen an uptick as companies scale back in reaction to the pandemic.
Redbooks, White Papers, Blogs, and Other Resources
(Profound Logic) This is the final week to participate in this annual survey that uncovers valuable data on the IBM i industry. The results will be especially important this year as COVID-19 sweeps across IBM i businesses. Take 10 minutes to fill out the survey and get entered to win prizes. The survey ends this Friday, May 15
(Zend) The IBM i learning center offers free hands-on exercises for gaining experiencing with various PHP and Open Source topics.
(IBM IT Infrastructure Blog) According to this blog, the most important step for ensuring more accurate insights from AI is data preparation.
(PluralSight) The role of the CIO is rapidly evolving, and will continue to do so in order to adapt to the needs of society and technology. This paper looks at three ways the CIO will change by 2025.
(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.
(COBOL) Join this Facebook group of COBOL programmers to find a heap of oldies, newbies, everyone in between and a lot of fun.
Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings
May 14 – Webinar – This webinar from ARCAD software will feature a demonstration of a full CI/CT/CD flow using automated, integrated solutions to continuously check your IBM i source code against established quality rules, isolate security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection risk or calls to unsafe APIs, execute unit tests to catch elementary defects during development, and generate regression tests to isolate defects at the data level and pinpoint the code lines at fault.
May 14 – Webinar – The Mid-Atlantic Group of IBM i Collaborators (MAGiC) will hold its May meetings online. Get more information on “Rapidly Create Responsive Web Applications” at this link. Membership is not required to attend these free meetings.
May 14 – Webinar – The May 2020 WMCPA meeting will feature IBM Champion Mike Pavlak. The meeting is free for members and will be done via webex.
May 19 – Webinar – During this session “Revolutionize IBM i Apps With Low-Code” you will learn what low-code is, the benefits of creating applications with low-code and why Visual LANSA paired with the IBM i revolutionizes app creation.
May 19 – Webinar – Learn content management, process automation, and the elimination of paper deliver business benefits in this webinar from IntelliChief, “Frictionless Automation Strategies to Enhance Business Performance.”
May 19-June 18 – Webinar Series – The Summit Lunch & Learn series is free online technical sessions for IBM i developers. RPG & DB2 Summit teammates Jon Paris, Paul Tuohy and Susan Gantner host live sessions led by guest instructors, including IBM Champions, IBMers from the Rochester and Toronto labs, and ISVs with developer-focused tools. Review and register for any or all of the topics here.
May 21 – Webinar – The Mid-Atlantic Group of IBM i Collaborators (MAGiC) will hold its May meetings online. Get more information on “The Zen of Using PHP without Zend Server” at this link. Membership is not required to attend these free meetings.
CANCELLED – June 1-3 – Framingham, Massachusetts – Due to the ongoing global health crisis, the Northeast User Group (NEUGC) board has decided to cancel the 2020 Conference scheduled. Instead, look forward to celebrating at the 2021 Conference scheduled for May 3-5, 2021.
June 10-11 – Virtual Event – i-UG’s annual conference is going virtual and it’s free! Get the details and register here. On each day you will be able to choose from two streams of 45-minute presentations on topics relevant to today by industry specialists, some familiar and some new to i-UG conferences.
June 22-23 – Livonia, Michigan – The Michigan IBM Power Systems Technical Education Conference (MITEC) is still scheduled to take in June and will feature more than 45 sessions covering topics such as system architecture, application development, mobile applications, RPG, Python, business intelligence, disaster recovery, and performance monitoring.
July 22-24 – Virtual Conference – OCEAN TechCon20 is three days of inspiration and innovation featuring such many expert speakers including Liam Allan, Patrick Behr, Rob Bestgen, Jim Buck, Erwin Earley, Charles Guarino, Mark Irish, Scott Klement, Doug Mack, Aaron Magid, Dan Magid, Eamon Musallam, Mike Pavlak, Steve Pitcher, Alan Seiden, and Carol Woodbury.
POSTPONED – August 31-September 3 – Tampa, Florida – 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.
POSTPONED TO FALL – May 12-14 – Orlando, Florida –The nation’s leading ERP software event, the ESS – Enterprise Software Showcase for Manufacturers and Distributors 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 five 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 3-5, 2021 – Framingham, Massachusetts – Plan now for the 2021 Northeast User Group (NEUGC) Conference. NEUGC is the largest technical conference in New England for IBM i.
COVID-19 Response Updates
(cheddar) IBM creates a blockchain solution in assist with the medical supply shortage resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
(IT Jungle) Our own Timothy Prickett Morgan takes a look at the IBM I before and after the pandemic.
(IntelliChief) This blog looks at the push by many businesses to go paperless in response to COVID-19.
(Raz-Lee Security) In an effort to help organizations keep their employees and families safe while continuing business operations, Raz-Lee is offering its iSecurity Anti-Ransomware solution for free until July 1, 2020.
(iTech Solutions) This Q&A session offers some tips and tricks for working from home with your IBM i. Keep an eye on iTech Solutions website for more webinars to help you through the lockdown.
(COMMON) A new series aimed to help bring together COMMON community members with IBM i and remote work experts is happening on Wednesdays.
(IT Jungle) Will we make it through the current pandemic storm? Out editor-in-chief Tim Prickett Morgan has some thoughts.
(IT Jungle) Tim Prickett Morgan and Alex Woodie team up to profile how IBM i vendors are adapting to the new normal with news from Maxava, CNX, Rocket Software, New Generation Software, Infor, Raz-Lee Security, ARCAD Software, System i Developer, iTech Solutions Group, and COMMON.
(IT Jungle) Chordia Consulting offers our readers a significantly reduced rate for a remote IT healthcheck with a variant tuned specifically for IBM i shops and their special characteristics.
(Maxava) High availability software maker Maxava is making its Monitor Mi8 product, available free of charge to customers using its Maxava HA clustering software so they can monitor and manage their machines remotely
(IT Jungle) Our own Alex Woodie looks at how companies and conferences from our ecosystem is coping with the global pandemic.
(Fresche Solutions) A special deal for free licenses to Presto web development tools for IBM i to help companies with cope with remote workforces.
(System i Developer) RPG & DB2 Summit is planning to replace its March conference with a virtual conference beginning April 1.
(SQL iQuery) Stay in the know with Bob Cozzi’s map of the latest U.S. COVID-10 coronavirus statistics.
