Dan Burger
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From Green Screens To Web Services: An ROI Story
February 8, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreThere are times when we find ourselves in the wrong place, but it turns out to be the right time. Les Peebles can tell you about that. During a presentation on webfacing 5250 screens, a technology that Peebles was not in favor of implementing, he was introduced to a web services option that came to be a solution to the IBM i and Windows integration issues he was grappling with. The wrong place was now the right place.
Peebles began his IT career as an RPG developer. In the years that followed, he learned Java and web development. He also
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App Dev Evolution Opens Doors For Midrange Dynamics
February 8, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreApplication development continues to be the name of the game in IBM midrange shops. What’s changing is the integration of development environments. RPG development remains the meat and potatoes, but a growing list of side dish environments are on the table. Change management software helps maintain order as these diverse entities cross paths, but it also takes on more responsibilities beyond the strictly app dev assignments. Take Midrange Dynamics, for example.
Its latest release of MDCMS, Version 7.4, features cross-system tracking capabilities at the top of the priority list. Workflow, troubleshooting, and deployment improvements have been added, but the
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Ain’t Nobody’s Business But Your Own
February 1, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe distance between the IT department and the executive suite in some IBM midrange shops makes a trip to Mars seem like a hop, skip, and a jump. How do you close that gap? How do you explain to the decision makers the difference that IT can make within the organization? You know what could be accomplished with investments in IT, but executive sign off on IT strategy never materializes. You’re spinning your wheels.
You want to get traction? Build a financial foundation for the project. That’s easy to say, but harder to do. You’re going to need help. Going
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Coding Is Never Without A Reason; PHP Has 10
February 1, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read morePHP is the open source success story for IBM i. Its support by IBM and particularly Zend Technologies has given it quite a boost. And it’s proved to be capable of leveraging the IBM i operating system, DB2 for i, and RPG code. Beyond that, it is compatible with almost every operating system and hardware platform you can name, which provides the cross-platform capabilities that demolishes siloed information.
Several IBM i independent software vendors offer PHP development tools. Two of them, BCD Software and Zend Technologies, released an e-book last week titled Top Ten Reasons to Choose PHP for IBM
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Web Portal Not An IBM i Modernization Bit Player
January 25, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe portal piece of modernization projects seldom gets top billing. All eyes are on the graphical user interface and efforts to scour the green screen out of sight from those who believe it is the work of the devil. But dagnabbit, it’s the portal that unifies information and applications from a galaxy of diverse sources and displays it in an orderly fashion. It’s the key to proprietary information that’s shared among authorized users.
“We see a lot of B2B companies building portals,” says Marcel Sarrasin, vice president of marketing at Quadrant Software, the parent company of BCD Software, one of
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Baseline Data Boss Predicts Steady Stream Of Outsourced Production Environments
January 25, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreIf there is a demand for managed services in the IBM midrange market, you can begin measuring it 20 years ago. It’s not a new thing, but some of the services are new. For many companies, those contracting for managed services as well as those that provide the services, the managed services relationship has been long established. Usually it’s based on a disaster recovery service. But what about the new demand?
We’ve written about this before in IT Jungle articles. When will the managed services business become more than the disaster recovery business? It already has. Nearly every managed service
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The Data-Centric Depiction Of IBM i
January 18, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreYou have data. You’ve been collecting it in pretty much the same fashion for years. The only thing that has changed is you have more of it. But are you getting more out of it? I’m not talking about data analytics. The world doesn’t need another person talking about data analytics. This is about improving business information integration and the role IBM‘s DB2 for i has played and will play in the future.
Data-centric development is not a new concept. It hovers in the background of the IBM i roadmap, but is maybe the most critical element to the
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Profound Survey Adds To ‘Why i Matters’ Discussion
January 18, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreShock therapy was once considered to be a cure for a variety of disorders. It’s generally not thought of as something that applies to executives of organizations that run mission critical applications on IBM i. But maybe that’s about to change. For the second consecutive week, IT Jungle is reporting the results of a survey that delivers insights into the IBM midrange community that, when it finds its way to the C-level offices, may result in positive behavior modification.
Profound Logic, one of the leading application development tool vendors in the IBM i community, shared a glimpse at a
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Finding IBM i: A Game Of 40 Questions
January 11, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreFrom the operating system to the programming languages to the expanding or contracting footprint of IBM i environments, we are learning more about the IBM midrange community from surveys conducted by HelpSystems, one of the largest of the IBM i independent software vendors (ISVs), and assisted by IT Jungle and PowerWire, two sources of IBM i news and analysis. Last week, the results of the second IBM i Marketplace Survey, based on the participation of 834 IBM i shops, were released.
The IBM i is sometimes referred to as IBM’s best-kept secret. Unfortunately, that keeps many IT professionals,
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ARCAD Sets Out To Modernize German Midrange
January 11, 2016 Dan Burger
… Read moreIn theory, modernization is an ongoing process. It’s the opposite of aging. And as we all know, getting old sucks. There are a lot of successful companies that have managed to postpone IT modernization. But eventually age takes its toll and that’s what we see happening in IBM midrange shops, where IT modernization is a big concern. Helping companies modernize is the reason ARCAD Software, the IBM i software vendor, is opening a subsidiary office in Germany.
The IBM i market in Germany is estimated to be the largest in Europe. It is largely defined by a half dozen