Timothy Prickett Morgan
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We Still Want IBM i On The Impending Power E1050
June 27, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
In March last year, as Big Blue was finishing up the development of the Power10 family of Power Systems machines, we wrote an essay explaining that we wanted IBM i to be a first-class operating system citizen on the four-socket Power E1050 machine, which we finally expect to see launch on July 12 if the rumors are correct.
We never did like that IBM i was not supported on the Power8-based Power E850 four-socket server, and then also not supported on the Power9-based Power E950 four-socket server. And we equally do not like the fact that, if the rumors we …
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A Frank Solstice
June 20, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
When you are born in Minnesota, the seasons matter. Unfortunately, as Frank Soltis, the former chief architect of the AS/400 system and the creator of the single-level storage architecture of the System/38 and the AS/400 that is still a marvel, once quipped to us: “There are only two seasons in Minnesota: Winter, and Getting Ready For Winter.”
And so, you have two options: Play hockey when you aren’t farming, or design excellent computer systems. That’s how supercomputer genius Seymour Cray did it from nearby Wisconsin.
The AS/400 for which this publication was founded 33 years ago was born on the …
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The Inevitable Wave Of Power9 Withdrawals Begins
June 20, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
With the entry and midrange Power10 servers coming in a few weeks, and with the supply chains for chip, board, and system manufacturing having more kinks than a Slinky left in the hands of a group of seven-year-olds for several days, it is only natural for Big Blue to focus on lining up all of the parts needed for its Power10 iron and to stop worrying so much about Power9 features and peripherals. Even though it will be selling Power9 iron for quite some time and supporting it for a very long time.
And that is exactly what will be …
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IBM i Licensing, Part 2: Subscriptions Change Everything
June 13, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
In a very funny way, the licensing of the IBM i platform is coming full circle with the advent of subscription pricing – with some funny curlicues along the way with over three decades of software licensing history and an even longer history of Big Blue renting, rather than selling, its software. When IBM first delivered its punch card machines, way way back, they were only available for rent, not for sale. The long arm of the law taught IBM to have some optionality, and it thus sold mainframes and minicomputers as well as leasing and renting them.
But before …
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Looks Like July 12 For Power10 Announcements, Maybe July 27 for Shipments
June 13, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
Those of us who have been waiting for the entry and midrange Power10 machines to be announced and start shipping, and thus beginning a new hardware cycle and a new opportunity to get IBM i shops on current hardware and software, will not have to wait long.
According to the latest rumors, it looks like the announcements of the entry Power10 machines – to be known as the Power S1014, the Power S1022s, the Power S1022, the Power L1022, the Power S1024, and the Power L1024 – and the Power E1050 midrange machine will happen on July 12. Which, as …
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Let’s Celebrate The Diamond Jubilee Of COMMON Europe
June 13, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
Europe is a collection of countries that, over centuries of commerce, cultural exchange, and war have learned to come together and create a community of common interest. And so it is not a surprise at all that COMMON Europe, which is celebrating its 60th year – it’s Diamond Jubilee – and that is something that very few organizations in the world ever attain.
And so, as the COMMON Europe Congress gets underway today in Alicante, Spain, we wanted to offer our congratulations and celebrate that longevity and continuity. (If you have a hankering to travel this week, you can …
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IBM i Licensing, Part 1: Operating System Subscriptions
June 6, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
Every vendor that sells systems and/or the systems software that runs atop that machinery has had to cope with myriad transitions in product packaging and pricing with the establishment of the cloud. The transitions are difficult for both companies and their customers, but in the long run, pricing will be more flexible and equitable – and far more predictable for both vendors and users alike.
Big Blue has offered several licensing models over the years for the OS/400, i5/OS, and IBM i platforms. In the early years, every piece of software had a perpetual license tied to a machine, usually …
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IBM i And The 2039 Two-Digit Date Problem
June 6, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
As most of you remember, the shift to four-digit dates at the turn of the millennium was a big pain in the ass, but the world did not come to an end because people got said asses in gear and rectified the problem. (Almost pun int-ended.)
Anyway, as it turns out, there is another date problem that happens in 2039 in a lot of operating systems, and this one also affects the IBM i platform. IBM had certain system values that had a two-digit date, and they natural could only span 100 years – all you can do …
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How Committed Is Big Blue To The IBM Cloud?
May 23, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
Before you get all nervous, I did not ask how committed is Big Blue to the Power Virtual Server. So don’t jump to the wrong conclusion. But we are beginning to wonder just how committed IBM is to the idea of operating a globe-spanning X86 server cloud that competes with the likes of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, and Baidu Cloud.
What got us to thinking about this was an announcement by IBM that it has signed a “strategic collaborative agreement” with AWS, which is just facing the facts that AWS is the …
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Inflation Pumps Up Global IT Spending, Supply Chain Deflates It
May 23, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan
This is not a newsflash, but it is a bit crazy out there on Earth right now. Predicting what spending will be in any industry and for any durable good or service is extremely difficult. But, prediction is what humans do, and the prognosticators at Gartner have done their best to try to figure out where IT spending is going to go in the next two years.
As far as they can tell, global IT spending actually rose by a remarkable 9.5 percent to $4.26 trillion in 2021, with spending being particularly brisk for software and devices (which includes PCs, …
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