Four Hundred Monitor, September 22

September 22, 2021 Jenny Thomas

I was having a conversation with our fearless leader, IT Jungle president and editor-in-chief Tim Prickett Morgan, recently and we were lamenting the fact that it seems like fewer people want to talk on the phone. The exchange of phone numbers in email signature tags isn’t standard operating procedure for everyone these days, as people seem to prefer electronic communication that they can control when it is convenient rather than dealing with the interruption of a phone call. Having come up in the days where everything was done by phone (and fax, for those of us who remember), the adjustment to solely email conversation leaves us missing the human interaction. Which is probably why this week’s Top Story about replacing laptops and phones caught my eye. While it isn’t an IBM i story, it is relevant to everyone no matter the platform because we all have to adapt with the times, and as this story muses, the time of the phone may be running out.

Top Stories From Outside The Jungle

(ComputerWorld) The argument for tablets over laptops and phones.

(CIO Magazine) Could AI help you find the perfect employee? Maybe not.

(TechRadar.pro) No matter what you do, it’s next to impossible to stop all malicious emails from slipping through.

(CRN) Watson continues to get upgrades in AI.

(Business Standard) An IBM exec reveals how much of your data IBM can actually see, and you will like the answer.

Redbooks, White Papers, Blogs, and Other Resources

(iTech Solutions) A simple IBM i penetration test can offer some lessons for your organization.

(HelpSystems) The annual IBM i Marketplace Survey is now open through October 15th. Participate and help answer the question of how will you use IBM i in 2022?

(faq400) A recent blog demonstrating the new SQL HTTP functions arriving in IBM i 7.3 TR11 and 7.4 TR5

(COMMON) POWERUp is just around the corner, but without the in-person option. You can still attend virtually, so register today for nearly 300 education sessions on IBM i and Power Systems with led by industry experts.

(IBM) A discussion of Power and how it can help lead to a successful hybrid cloud strategy and digital transformation.

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

September 23 – Webinar – Value Stream Management (VSM) has become one of the hottest topics in the move to DevOps over the last couple of years. In this webinar, Understanding Value Stream Management (VSM) in an IBM i World, ARCAD Software will look at what’s driving this adoption and why VSM is so vital to DevOps performance and to the IBM i world in particular.

September 28 – Webinar – Mobile security threats can affect both Android and iOS devices. In this webinar, (ISC)2 and Comarch will explore the most dangerous security vulnerabilities on these platforms.

September 29 – Webinar – Paul Tuohy, Susan Gantner, and Jon Paris present Top 10 Skills for Today’s RPGers, freely open to the IBM i community. Join them as they take IBM i developers and management through their list of top 10 skill sets practiced by most successful modern RPGers, explaining the importance of each, and providing resources to brush up on each topic.

September 30 – Webinar – PHP 7.3 enters end-of-life this year. In this free online briefing, IBM’s open-source guru Jesse Gorzinski and Alan Seiden discuss why the new PHP RPMs make the migration to 7.4 easier and more rewarding, technical tips from several recent client migrations, and best practices for open source maintenance. Barry Brown, CTO at JDS Industries, will describe how PHP 7.4 improved stability and speed for their busy ecommerce site.

October 4-6 – Online Event – The 2021 IT Executive Conference was created with the needs of IT managers and decision makers in mind to provide content and insight on leading topics that impact business. With a focus on strategic issues, ITEC attendees will hear from, and network with, IBM executives, industry recognized experts and peers on how to maximize IT investments.

October 4-7 – Online Event – Virtually join friends and colleagues in the COMMON community at  POWERUp 2021 and enjoy the best in Power Systems and IBM i education over the course of four days. Choose from nearly 300 sessions, which cover a broad range of IT topic areas.

October 5 – Webinar – Register for PTC’s live webcast to learn more about the new Implementer v12.5 release and how this premier software configuration management and deployment solution for IBM i offers a variety of improvements to ease the stress of critical change management and development processes. Topics include: security and cyber attacks; open source and closed source; third-party Java libraries; Tomcat server; RDi plugin open-source jar files

October 12 – Online Event – Join the Central Texas IBM i User Group for a free online presentation by Andy Youens. Andy will show how easy it is to get into Open Source on the IBM i, from getting packages installed and using them. We will also look at some to the tools we need to make our open-source journey more enjoyable. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. CT.

October 13 – Webinar – Steve Will’s Keynote address for the RPG & DB2 Summit, Next Gen IBM i Apps, will be freely open to the IBM i community. The Chief Architect for IBM i will use this platform to detail what “IBM i Next Gen Applications” look like, shining headlights on the road ahead for software development. His briefing will help IBM i teams envision future business needs so they can identify key skills they will need to implement those initiatives.

October 20-26 – LIVE Online Training – At the RPG & DB2 Virtual Summit, hosts Paul Tuohy, Susan Gantner, Jon Paris and other top IBM i Champions share their best tips and techniques for building modern IBM i applications. SQL, RPG, Db2, open source, web services, ACS, RDi, web and mobile apps – it’s all packed into a fun, interactive, and very productive five-day learning experience.