Dan Burger
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ARCAD And GitHub Prepare For A Paradigm Shift
May 17, 2017 Dan Burger
One platform. One island. One epic story of survival. That may be over dramatizing the IBM i environment, but it makes a point about the dangers of single-platform thinking in a world that is multi-platform oriented. That thought occurred to me when I first heard that ARCAD Software, an IBM i vendor specializing in application development and DevOps, was partnering with GitHub, a collaboration-oriented software company focused on code sharing and reducing software delivery schedules.
Until locking hands with ARCAD, GitHub was missing an IBM i integration point and ARCAD was relying on Rational Team Concert (RTC) for its …
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Four Hundred Monitor, May 17
May 17, 2017 Dan Burger
For many IBM i local user groups, existence is hanging on by its fingertips. There are exceptions though and this week Monitor points you to an article highlighting a local user group success story. You’ve probably read the IT Jungle stories that have chronicled events surrounding the COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition in Orlando, Florida, last week.
And for those of you without a care in the world (We can pretend, can’t we?), we’ve included scary articles about bring your own device warnings and the loss of IT control nightmares.
Top Stories From Outside The Jungle
(IBM Systems Magazine) Most …
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Open Source On IBM i: Let It Grow
May 15, 2017 Dan Burger
The evaluation of open source software is nowhere near conclusive when it comes to enterprise grade application development. Decisions remain in the exploratory phases. Roadmaps are incomplete. Most are without clear routes to a destination. Some are without destinations. However, it would be wrong to assume roads are not being built.
There is no way that the future of application development – on IBM i or anywhere else – can handle everything that is coming down the pike without open source. That’s not a mandate to jump on a band wagon. It’s an awareness wake-up call. The IBM i community …
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COMMON Looking Youthful In 2017
May 15, 2017 Dan Burger
Professional organizations like COMMON exist to unite members, improve skills, provide information, encourage active participation, and promote professionalism. It takes more than meeting minimal requirements to stay on top of the fast-changing technology field and so agility is an attribute for COMMON.
For the coming year, the association has a few new focus items, a new president, and two new board members. At the Annual Meeting last week in Orlando, Florida, out-going president Jeff Carey and executive director Manzoor Siddiqui discussed plans to improve COMMON and the benefits it offers its members.
Personnel-wise Justin Porter is taking over as president. …
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Profound Digs Deeper Into Node.js
May 10, 2017 Dan Burger
All things considered, most IBM i shops would prefer to retain and enhance their investments in a stable, secure and proven system than accept the risk and expense of rewriting applications in another language or migrating from the platform. And why not? The IBM i is a modern business computing system capable of handling sought after technologies such as mobile, analytics, open source and cognitive.
For companies aiming to enhance their IBM i environments, Profound Logic Software has just released Profound.js 2.0, a methodology for enhancing applications that uses a combination of Node.js and RPG in an agile development environment. …
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Four Hundred Monitor, May 10
May 10, 2017 Dan Burger
Why would anyone want to move on-premise IBM i infrastructure to the cloud? Utility pricing, moving a development environment off the production server, and establishing a disaster recovery plan are a few things that come to mind.
This edition of Monitor also includes articles on the top CIO challenges (business and IT alignment is a big one) and the nightmares brought on by H1-B visa program. You’ll also find useful resources and a calendar of events that includes tech conferences and local user group meeting agendas. If you are not a member of a local user group, you’re missing out …
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Watson Puts On A Show At COMMON
May 8, 2017 Dan Burger
Watson, the anthropomorphic face of IBM cognitive computing, is used to being on the big stage. Fame came quickly and easily with the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Then there was recognition for work in cancer research and fighting cybercrime. IBM has invited Watson to all its major conferences and even changed the name, and some of the focus, of its Power Systems group into the Cognitive Systems business unit.
Yesterday, Watson showed up at the COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition, the world’s largest gathering of IBM i professionals. The first impression was a good one. It emphasized easy integration …
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COMMON Opening Session Highlights Excellence
May 8, 2017 Dan Burger
IBM i innovation and community service were singled out during the opening session of the COMMON Annual Meeting and Expo, which opened yesterday and continues through Wednesday in Orlando, Florida. Anan Ayyad, a recent graduate of Purdue University Northwest was the top student innovator for his work on an automotive data acquisition system. The Grand Rapids, Michigan, Association of Realtors received the Innovation Award for a modernization of its website that included WordPress running on IBM i and open source development in conjunction with RPG.
COMMON president Jeff Carey and IBM Cognitive Systems executives Stephanie Chiras and Steve Sibley presented …
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Multi-Platform App Dev Capabilities Tops List Of Midrange Dynamics Priorities
May 3, 2017 Dan Burger
Most of the time, we don’t go looking for the unexpected. And maybe the last place you’d look for it is in the IT department of an IBM i shop, where things are normally predictable. That mold is being broken though by organizations moving forward with multi-platform development environments.
There’s a new playing field and Midrange Dynamics is hearing about it from the most innovative shops in its customer base. “Since IBM now supports distributed version control systems such as Git on IBM i, progressive development organizations like to have options regarding where their native and non-native source repositories are …
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Four Hundred Monitor, May 3
May 3, 2017 Dan Burger
Watson is a hive of activity with a swarm of across-the-board capabilities released rapid fire. One of the latest examples, Cognitive Visual Inspection, is designed to help manufacturers streamline their assembly line inspection process by finding and classifying faults in the manufacturing process. We have that story inside this week’s Monitor along with a few others that should be on your radar.
Did you know it’s been five years since IBM last recorded an increase in revenue on its quarterly financial reports? That’s one heck of a losing streak. How long can that continue? Plus stories on old programs, old …
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