Jenny Thomas
Jenny Thomas is the Publisher and Advertising Director for Guild Companies' IT Jungle newsletters. Thomas has 25 years of experience in the publishing industry and has worked as an editor and writer in several industries, including the IT and medical fields. Thomas has a bachelor's degree in journalism from San Diego State University.
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Four Hundred Monitor, March 13
March 13, 2019 Jenny Thomas
This week, our own ITJ editor extraordinaire Alex Woodie takes on the omnipresent dinosaur perception that, even with so much new and exciting tech happening, the IBM i just can’t shake. It all began with a story about the city of San Francisco and the tax property assessment tool it run on “a Cobol-based system called AS-400.” That quote might make you cringe, but Alex points out “the problem isn’t so much the platform, but the applications that run on it.” You can find the links to both articles below and have your own debate, as well as find links …
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Four Hundred Monitor, March 4
March 4, 2019 Jenny Thomas
“Dear March, come in!” Readers of Emily Dickinson might recognize the first line of one of her many poems. Although it is unlikely she was thinking of the computing industry as she welcomed the new month, the sentiment is fitting as we already enter the last month of the first quarter of the year. 2019 has been a busy one for IBM as it continues to make headlines throughout the computing world, which will hopefully result in good numbers coming out of Q1. You can count on IT Jungle to be watching for that news, and in the meantime, you …
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Four Hundred Monitor, February 25
February 25, 2019 Jenny Thomas
At IT Jungle, our business is writing. We write about the latest news and trends. We offer analysis, opinions, and tech tips. We work hard every day to be a reliable resource for everything you need or want to know as it relates to the IBM i. Part of being a good writer is being a good listener. So we were all ears when we heard IBM Champions Liam Allan and Josh Hall were starting up their own podcast where they can chat about whatever is on their minds regarding the IBM i and its ecosystem. The link for details …
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Four Hundred Monitor, February 18
February 18, 2019 Jenny Thomas
I’m sure you’ve been the recipient of a backward compliment (or maybe even inadvertently given one before). The IBM i has definitely had its share of unintentional insults, as recently as our top story below where our beloved platform was dubbed “likely the safest and most powerful server platform you’ve never heard of.” Awkward for those of us already in the know, but the intention here was good and we’ll definitely take the props where we can get them. In fact, IBM had a lot of good news to share this week, which we have wrangled and condensed for you …
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Four Hundred Monitor, February 11
February 11, 2019 Jenny Thomas
The cloud is booming for IBM, which has recently said it has closed $3 billion in cloud deals already this year. The latest deal is covered in the first Top Story below, and Big Blue has got to be big happy to see the its cloud investments paying off. IBM also had more news on the AI front, revealing plans for a new AI research hub in New York. Now is a good time for you to start thinking about investing in yourself. There are plenty of good opportunities listed in our Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings section …
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Four Hundred Monitor, February 6
February 6, 2019 Jenny Thomas
AI. AI. AI. That is not the chorus of a new song, but the sound of the IT tech news this week. But it isn’t just our industry that is hyper focused on artificial intelligence. If you watched the Superbowl this past Sunday, perhaps you noticed the trend of commercials featuring robots and AI nods, including spots from TurboTax, Michelob Ultra, and Amazon’s Alexa. While entertaining, it is also demonstrates how pervasive AI has become in everyday life. Since there’s no escaping AI, at least we can learn from what others are doing as your company tackles how to best …
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Four Hundred Monitor, January 28
January 28, 2019 Jenny Thomas
This week we are seeing a lot of news on the cloud and blockchain technologies. It is no coincidence that IBM is firmly rooted in both of these areas, and Big Blue is starting to see rewards from the seeds it has been planting and tending so carefully. While the IBM i doesn’t always weigh prominently in these conversations, good news for IBM is good news for our ecosystem, too. We also got to take a look at IBM’s final earnings report from last year and their expectations for the year ahead. Overall, the future looks bright . . . …
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Four Hundred Monitor, January 23
January 23, 2019 Jenny Thomas
While most of us are still transitioning into the New Year, according to Ginni Rometty, IBM’s CEO, Big Blue is already a company of the future. After heavily investing in the future in the recent past, Rometty says it is now time for consistent performance. You can watch her entire discussion about what’s to come for IBM and tech in general in 2019 at the first link below. Here in the Jungle, the New Year brought new life to some old tech tips in the most recent of Four Hundred Guru Classic. Find the link to the latest issue …
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Four Hundred Monitor, January 14
January 14, 2019 Jenny Thomas
With 2018 firmly behind us, we are already looking into the future to guess what we might look ahead to in the months ahead. Our very own Editor-In-Chief Tim Prickett Morgan will be leading this charge when he joins a panel of experts, including IBMers Alison Butterill and Ian Jarman, to dissect the results of the 2019 IBM i marketplace survey. Tune in to this webinar to hear (instead of read) what Tim thinks is next for our little ecosystem. You can find the link in the “Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings” section below.
Top Stories From Outside
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Four Hundred Monitor, January 7
January 7, 2019 Jenny Thomas
The New Year is underway here in the Jungle. As much as we all appreciated (and needed) some downtime to reflect on last year and recharge for the months ahead, we are just as happy to be back delivering the news to our community. It turns out not everyone in the IBM i ecosystem has been on hiatus, as we see many informative webinars coming up this month and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty on deck to deliver the keynote at CES this week. We have a small favor to ask before you start digging back in to projects at work. …
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