Dan Burger
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IBM VP Dishes Up Statistics For Infrastructure Growth
March 8, 2017 Dan Burger
The metamorphosis of IBM has been a journey from typewriters to mainframes, to mini-mainframes to PCs, to infrastructure, to cloud computing, to big data analytics and most recently to cognitive computing. IT infrastructure for cognitive workloads was on the mind of Tom Rosamilia as he spoke to the IBM Business Partners several weeks ago at the PartnerWorld conference in Las Vegas.
Rosamilia, the senior vice president of IBM Systems group, emphasized the delivery of cognitive insights would depend on infrastructure and that partners would help create the solutions, while customers would choose how they want to deploy it – most …
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Four Hundred Monitor, March 8
March 8, 2017 Dan Burger
It’s just an observation, but it seems Rational Developer for i (RDi) is more closely aligned with the desires of IBM i shops since it left the IBM Software Group and moved in with the IBM i development team. An example can be made of the latest RDi enhancements.
A little bit of play time with RDi helps developers understand the benefits that come with modern development. The same can be said about open source. It doesn’t seem i-oriented until you get a little closer to where the action is. Seeing may not be believing, but give it a fair …
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The Missing RPG OA Puzzle Piece
March 6, 2017 Dan Burger
RPG Open Access is a technology that was introduced with much fanfare with the IBM i 7.1 release of the operating system. That was in 2010. A handful of software vendors showed what it could do by using it in their application modernization tool kits as a means to get beyond screen-scraping and actually control the user interface.
Now RPG OA is seven years old and not a lot has changed. A few more vendors have incorporated it as a method for creating user interfaces. The potential for RPG OA is mostly unrealized and it remains unrecognized by the majority …
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VAI And HelpSystems Integrate ERP And Document Management
March 1, 2017 Dan Burger
The paper chase continues. File cabinets stuffed like sausages. Purchase orders, invoices, adjustments, and correspondence in an archive and retrieval system that’s been used since the horse and buggy days. Electronic document management has yet to arrive at a surprising number of midsize businesses.
Data management begins here at the intersection of modern ERP and digital business processing. “Companies in every industry are looking for ways to streamline business processes,” says Joe Scioscia, vice president of sales at VAI, an ERP software company that has added a document management component via a partnership with HelpSystems. Workflow efficiencies are …
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Four Hundred Monitor, March 1
March 1, 2017 Dan Burger
If you put the IBM i community under a microscope, you might see a few little squiggly things that generally unseen by the naked eye. Those things would be database engineers. Seldom seen doesn’t mean they are of little consequence. DB2 for i is the heart of the system. If you run the system, you should make sure it’s heart healthy.
Back for its fourth consecutive year, the Women in IT conference is a professional development eye-opener for all IT pros. A look back at last year’s conference might inspire you to attend the upcoming repeat event. For additional events …
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IBM i Community To Get Closer Look At Watson
February 27, 2017 Dan Burger
The cogs in cognitive are turning. And there are indications that IBM is ready to go beyond the story of how it works to stories about it is working. The messengers remain somewhat tight lipped, but we can expect cognitive to be a celebrated technology at the COMMON conference in early May.
Watson, the face of IBM cognitive computing, is highly recognizable. Bluemix, IBM’s cloud platform for building, running, and managing apps and services, including Watson, is getting more attention. And the number of APIs that pull this together with integration points for all platforms, including IBM i, …
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What’s Wrong With Modern RPG?
February 27, 2017 Dan Burger
IBM continues to enhance RPG. If it wasn’t being improved on a regular basis, there would be cause for concern, but some people find cause for concern in everything. Satisfaction is on the other side of the fence, even after they’ve crossed the fence. That’s not an endorsement for “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” There’s always room for constructive criticism and honest assessments of the circumstances.
That brings us to the RPG enhancements in the recently announced Technology Refresh identified as IBM i 7.2 TR 6 and IBM i 7.3 TR …
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Linoma Climbs the File Transfer Ladder
February 22, 2017 Dan Burger
Linoma Software has taken its managed file transfer software up another notch with its latest release of GoAnywhere Version 5.4.2. The basic aptitude of managed file transfer (MFT) products cover the secure and automated transfer of files inside and outside of organizations. That includes sharing data among the various platforms from IBM i to Windows, Linux, Unix, mainframe, and Mac OS.
With its latest refresh, Linoma‘s GoAnywhere updated its SSL cipher configuration picklist for the admin server, HTTPS/AS2 server, FTP server and FTPS server. Just six weeks ago, SOAP and RESTful Web Services were added with the introduction of …
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Four Hundred Monitor, February 22
February 22, 2017 Dan Burger
A few weeks ago, Jesse Gorzinski was featured in an IT Jungle story. This week the IBM business architect of open source technologies shows up as the author of new blog called Open Your i. Open source can be really good for IBM i. And since we’re all accustomed to acronyms, OYi has a nice ring to it. We’ll be keeping an eye on Jesse.
Monitor is also pointing to stories on cloud security mythology, IT budget advice for a bigger piece of the pie, testing your mental strength when taking on new projects, dialing into the top ten …
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SQL And Database Shine As Next Tech Refresh Approaches
February 20, 2017 Dan Burger
Twelve inches of fresh snow has piled up on your driveway and all you have is a shovel. That’s minimal functionality and, depending on your fitness level, your snow removal performance may be less than desirable. At best, you’re on the low end of the functionality and performance continuum and you’re wishing for better.
So it is with the DB2 for i database and the programmers who shovel data there. Any help moving data from where it is to where it’s needed will likely be appreciated. Ditto for accelerating application behavior and gaining application functionality.
This brings us to the …
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