Dan Burger
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Four Hundred Monitor, December 6
December 6, 2017 Dan Burger
Where there is smoke there is probably fire. The odds are not nearly as good that where you find reports there will be data analytics. What tools and capabilities are available to provide deeper insight into the data you have on hand and what difference will it make to the people using the data?
You can find the answer in Monitor this week. Read a bit farther and you’ll also find informative articles about IBM’s Bluemix and building apps on the internet, what happens when IT loses control of analytics projects, and how to avoid mistakes that lead to preventable …
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Fresche Plan: Guidance Leads To Growth
December 4, 2017 Dan Burger
Without wings, an airplane has no chance to fly. A legacy-based IBM i shop is like an airplane without wings. During the past few years, more companies have recognized that IT modernization is necessary. It’s a complex problem with many moving parts and deserves a strategic approach for best results. At the same time, the transition has become an easier problem to solve.
Tools have evolved and much of the manual labor that was once required has been automated. And service providers have stepped up to handle work that companies are ill-equipped to take on themselves. Companies that are quick …
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Mainframe And IBM i Share App Dev Testing Tool
November 29, 2017 Dan Burger
The integration of disparate IT systems is on the priority list for many companies aggravated by the duplication of effort and the cost tooling for each development environment. It’s fueled the rise of DevOps and the big picture view emphasizing speed and collaboration. For IT environments that share mainframe and IBM i platforms, we have uncovered software that allows applications written in COBOL, PL/I, EGL, RPG and Assembler to share a single tool for testing programs.
The tool is called XaTester and it’s available through IBM and the company, Xact Consulting, that created it. Xact Consulting is an international …
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Four Hundred Monitor, November 29
November 29, 2017 Dan Burger
The modernization of RPG applications begins with modern RPG development skills. There are several ways to upgrade RPG skills or introduce developers to RPG for the first time. One of them is to connect with Jim Buck. He has 15 years of teaching RPG at the collegiate level, co-authored an RPG textbook, and anchored the team that established the RPG certification test.
This week in Monitor, we have the transcript of Paul Tuohy’s interview with Buck, along with articles on the rise container-style application development, dealing with digital transformation disruption, and both sides of the looming FCC decision on net …
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Data Analytics And Business Intelligence: Too Little, Too Much, Too Late?
November 27, 2017 Dan Burger
There’s no slowing down the amount of data and the number of data sources. Drinking from that informational firehose is a success for a few, an in-progress experiment for others, and an incentive to find some other way to quench analytical thirst for many. Improving the data mining, to use a term that was popular before the big data firehose was turned on, of structured data continues to be a useful endeavor for many IBM i shops. And, by the way, that doesn’t make them dinosaurs stumbling down the path of extinction, unless you get your news from press releases. …
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Bring Docker To IBM i
November 15, 2017 Dan Burger
One of the fundamental shifts in the way people think about building applications is the use of containers, packages that include: code, runtime, system tools, system libraries, and settings. Containerized software runs equally well regardless of the environment. Docker is the most popular of the container platform providers. And there is a group of IBM i advocates who would like to see Docker support added to IBM i.
One of those supporters is Kim Greene, a Domino on IBM i consultant, with clients who would benefit from Docker support. Specifically, Greene sees an opportunity for supporting Verse on Premises (VOP) …
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Four Hundred Monitor, November 15
November 15, 2017 Dan Burger
IT strategic planning is an oxymoron at many organizations. Controlled chaos is often the oxymoron that better describes the situation. A fast-changing business environment combined with a constant flow of technology hype can make strategy sessions difficult. A “we don’t do things that way” status protection system can also be a strategy barrier. But some find the process of developing a strategy as valuable as the strategy itself.
This week in Monitor we also have articles on the risks and advantages of BYOD mobile policies, integrating security in DevOps, and keeping a watchful eye on the facts and fiction regarding …
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Coming Attractions: The IBM i App Dev Multi-Platform Show
November 13, 2017 Dan Burger
Multi-platform development is more vision than reality. Application development is still a siloed environment as programming work remains more isolated and less collaborative than visionary thinkers wish it to be. Therefore, the existence of multiple programming environments within an organization seldom reaches the goal of operating as a team. Much of the potential benefit of teamwork lingers out of reach. Instead of a single team with common operations, there are individual teams with individual operations.
The good news is that it’s better than it used to be. Still, the fabric of multi-platform unity and the efficiencies it would bring to …
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HVR Data Integration Has A Place For IBM i
November 8, 2017 Dan Burger
Data integration is powering changes in enterprise computing. And although it doesn’t get talked about a lot, relational databases are major factors in the enterprise business analytics. Transactional processing systems that are the workhorses of enterprise applications such as ERP are rock solid and critical to data analytics regardless of the hoopla and hyperbole that “modern” databases create.
Fitting a relational database into a heterogeneous environment that is pumped full of continuous data integration from a variety of sources can be a problem, but lessons are being learned as data integration becomes more platform inclusive at more companies.
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Four Hundred Monitor, November 8
November 8, 2017 Dan Burger
All things must pass. The pending sale of the IBM Rochester campus plays a sour note in the Minnesota town where it was once a landmark facility of civic pride. IBM has kept a small piece of what once was, but it’s a shadow of its former self.
Monitor points to a couple of security-related feature articles this week. Controlling data in the cloud and measuring risk rather than vulnerabilities are two subjects worth closer examination. And under the heading of “Everyone has to Start Somewhere,” there’s the story of where it all began for Susan Gantner, one of the …
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