Dan Burger
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Is It RDi Time Yet?
September 19, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreIt would be great fun to begin this article with news that IBM i enthusiasts were virtually lined up like box cars on freight trains to download Rational Developer for i (RDi), the modern graphical design tool for application development. It’s not that dramatic. Sheer numbers don’t tell the entire story, however. There’s a bit of detectable momentum. What are the chances IBM will help that momentum grow? It’s actually better than the pessimistic answer: slim and none.
One reason for optimism stems from the Rational for i team escaping IBM Software Group in 2015 and finding a more welcoming
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New Service Combats Complacency In IT Security
September 19, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe chilling reality of IT security weaknesses is widely overlooked and often assumed to be something that only affects someone else’s business. A close look at our own organizations makes us uncomfortable. So do stories that include expert opinions that every business should begin its security review with the realization that a security breach has already occurred. That’s how real the threat is. And your current security policy, if you even have one, is probably obsolete.
Security is an ongoing process. It’s not inherent in the system, not even the legendary IBM i platform.
“Attackers and their targets and objectives
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Ingenuity And Integration Meet In IBM i Data Warehouse
September 12, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreIt’s not uncommon for people to overlook the IBM i Power Systems platform when it is data warehouse project planning time. Laura Hamway sees things differently. Hamway is a consultant who works primarily with manufacturing companies running Infor‘s LX ERP systems, which most people refer to as BPCS, the name of the software before the Infor acquisition. She helps these organizations consolidate data from multiple systems, which allows a single, summary view. More analysis. Less inefficiency. Better business.
There’s too much data for ease of use in transactional applications like BPCS, MAPICS, JD Edwards and other ERP software that
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Howdy, Partner. Welcome To The IBM i Modernization Ranch
September 12, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe IBM i community is best known for its RPG programmers and its steadfast loyalty to a computing platform with blue-collar traits such as handling heavy workloads without a flock of nannies tending to its special needs. Behind the uncomplaining “workforce in a box” is a mix of application development environments and programs that are a combination of packaged products from the IBM midrange vendor community and home grown application handiwork.
Software vendors have long relied on establishing business partners–resellers, integrators, and sources of referrals–to expand their sales channels. At the same time, organizations on the buying side of IT
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We’re All IBM i Storytellers
August 29, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreEveryone has a story. Alison Butterill has quite a few. They’re all about i. She didn’t make them up. You did. Or, at least, some of you did. These are stories only you can tell. Butterill, the widely traveled IBM i product offering manager, just repeats them. Storytelling was part of her session titled IBM i in the Digital World, which I sat in on at the OCEAN Technical Conference last month in Orange County, California.
The reason you are the only ones who can tell them is because they’re about you and your IBM i. Butterill collects them
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Time For Tapeless? LaserVault Tempts The SMB
August 29, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM midrange shops with dedicated system operators that manage backup media and drives are few and far between these days. The common staffing arrangement has programmers or maybe network admins juggling backup duties along with their other responsibilities. Of course, lean staffing invites human error into IT operations. Automating backup procedures can provide welcome relief. Data at risk is a problem that Electronic Storage Corporation is addressing with a new appliance it calls Backup SAVSmart for i.
Electronic Storage Corporation is the maker of LaserVault backup and recovery solutions.
SAVSmart uses the newest version of the LaserVault Backup software, which
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IBM i Power8 Migrations Flourish, Say Service Providers
August 22, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreIBM‘s second quarter financial report was an icy description of Power Systems revenue. It exposed a shivering 24 percent decline compared to a year earlier. Despite that biting insight, there’s a warm glow in the midrange market that is predicted to continue through the third quarter. Migrations to Power8 boxes are finding momentum in the IBM i-dominated small to midsize market, where purchases have been delayed, but are now occurring at an accelerated pace.
With hardware migrations comes downtime, so it’s interesting to take a peek at how the migration/downtime dilemma is being handled.
Bob Johnson, an executive vice
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Knocking On The Old Database Door
August 22, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreKeeping up with technology should be systematic and efficient. Avoidance behavior will only reduce your anxiety for so long. At some point, the limitations companies have learned to live with and consider “good enough” will prevent them from keeping up with the herd. Here are three organizations that realized it was time to take on database modernization, after discovering their existing databases lacked documentation, defined relationships and normalized procedures.
The three examples are projects that involve Resolution Software, a company that specializes in database modernization services and developed software that automates much of the labor intensive work in the
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Cilasoft Offers No Cost Job Log Exploration Tool
August 17, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe IBM i equivalent of a mountain avalanche is the job queue file. It’s a mass of files with the potential to eventually bury system admins as they search for good jobs that have gone bad. When job logs are thousands of pages in length and contain many similar entries, the search for specific troublesome job logs can become tedious, aggravating, and time consuming. About this time, users start wishing for a tool that efficiently sorts job log information.
You might happily pay for a tool that reduces the amount of time it takes to track down jobs that are
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No Seats At Cruikshank’s SQL Database Sessions
August 15, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreDan Cruikshank’s presentations at the OCEAN Tech Conference last month were packed. Conference attendees had plenty of session options running opposite of Cruikshank, but his topics enticed IBM i advocates like free ice cream cones in the park on the Fourth of July. The seats are filled by folks hungry for technical advice on SQL, database efficiency, and business value. He gave them sessions on database re-engineering, reusable SQL procedures, modernizing IBM i applications, and data-centric programming.
Based on “hands-up” session surveys during similar sessions he presents around the world, Cruikshank is convinced that programmers are increasing their efforts to