• How Far We Have Come

  June 26, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  When the AS/400 turned 29 last week – and yes, I know the stack is called IBM i and I know that it now runs on what IBM calls Cognitive Systems based on Power processors – I happened to be on an airplane coming back from Frankfurt, Germany, after attending the International Supercomputing Conference. As it turns out, the Power9 processor married to Nvidia’s Tesla coprocessors using its “Volta” GPUs was one of the hot topics of conversation, and so was the coherent, shared memory architecture that will lash CPUs and GPUs into a shared memory space of sorts that …

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• Seven Bright Spots To Ponder On The AS/400’s 29th Birthday

  June 21, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Today is the 29th birthday of the AS/400. If the box was a person, it would be pondering the big three-oh coming next year, and perhaps taking one last year to bask in the glory of youth. While the IBM i platform is no youngster, it’s far from the grave.

  Here are seven bright spots that could potentially illuminate the platform’s path forward into middle age:

  All About Those Apps, Apps, Apps

  IT decision makers typical don’t start using a particular computer platform because of the platform itself, but because of the applications. Applications drive server sales.

  The IBM i …

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• IBM i, Watson & Bluemix: The REST Of The Story

  June 21, 2017 Dan Burger

  Integrated Web Services is nothing new for IBM i. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing new in Web services. A couple of years ago, IBM introduced Bluemix, an integration framework that, among other things, allows applications on other systems to connect with business logic running on i. The Bluemix tooling was designed to consume REST APIs, which can be used to connect Watson and IBM i. That’s where the newness is evident.

  The plumbing that’s necessary to make these things happen is being built by the IBM i development team led by Tim Rowe, business architect for IBM i …

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• Dell EMC Revs All-Flash Arrays

  June 21, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Dell EMC shipped new releases of its VMAX All-Flash array last month that supports IBM i and other platforms. Specifically, the computer giant rolled out a new entry-level array that stores up to 1 petabyte, as well as a 4 PB monster designed for the most demanding operational and analytic workloads.

  Dell EMC has a long history of providing enterprise-class storage for the IBM i server and its predecessors, starting with the old EMC Symmetrix arrays and continuing with today’s flagship VMAX All Flash frames. In fact, Dell EMC is the only other provider of native storage for IBM i …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, June 21

  June 21, 2017 Dan Burger

  If you’re on top of your game, you see this coming. But even the best prepared are sometimes surprised. When the time comes for a platform evaluation at your organization, can you defend what you do and why you are doing it? Before you get caught with your pants down, read this advice from someone who knows how to cover his technology assets.

  This week’s Monitor also includes articles on accurately accessing emerging technology while facing a hurricane of hyperbole, measuring your Digital IQ (the results won’t be made public), and what’s behind the Oracle to DB2 database migrations. We …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 24

  June 21, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  It is interesting to note in this week’s IBM i PTF Guide that support for Samba Windows-style System Message Block (SMB) file serving has been added (in 5733-OPS, Option 11) and that it is being patched as needed. The Security PTF is because the Samba project has added bug and security fixes into the Samba 3.6 source that need to be included in the IBM i PASE package.

  Additionally, the HIPER and Security Group PTFs are being updated on V7R3 and V7R2, and the HIPERs on V7R1. As always, its recommended you stay as current as possible on at least …

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• Ought To Be Committed

  June 19, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Reassurance is a paradoxical phenomenon. If we are secure about something, we don’t look to be reassured about someone’s commitment to that thing; if we have our doubts, reassurance can help calm our nerves and soothe our fears, but ironically, the very act of reassurance can, in a way, undermine our confidence even as it helps reinforce it.

  Funny, isn’t it?

  It is with this irony in mind that we ponder some recent statements by IBM concerning its commitment to the RPG and COBOL compilers and Rational for i development tools for the IBM i platform. To be specific, back …

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• Will AI Replace ERP?

  June 19, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Programmers in the midrange space are used to coding IBM i applications, like ERP, supply chain, and retail management systems, using RPG, Java, and COBOL. It’s simply what they do. But what happens when machines program themselves and react to events in real time? One impact, according to prominent members of the software industry, is the end of the enterprise software business as we know it.

  Led by Web giants like Google and Facebook, the computing industry is making rapid advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The advent of deep learning techniques, such as convolutional neural networks, …

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• Guru: How Do You Do That With RDi? Part 3: Complex Compiles

  June 19, 2017 Susan Gantner

  In an earlier tip I tried to convince RDi users to give up compiling in PDM because the RDi compile interface has the time-saving Error List to offer. I offered some tips that help me with my compiles in RDi. Here I’ll continue my “Compile in RDi” campaign by offering some additional ideas for those who have more complex compile processes.

  There are two common issues I hear that keep people returning to PDM for their compiles. One is that their library lists aren’t set up correctly for the compile and the other is that they need to do something …

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• Mad Dog 21/21: Nervous Nellies

  June 19, 2017 Hesh Wiener

  IBM has about 375,000 employees. Five years ago, the company’s payroll covered roughly 430,000 employees, some 55,000 or around 15 percent more than today’s estimates. IBM didn’t simply trim its workforce. Rather, IBM dismissed tens of thousands but also hired many others. The corporate headcount numbers reflect the net impact. Meanwhile, in every single quarter since 2012, IBM’s revenue declined compared to the year earlier period. So, to cut costs, IBM may continue to pare its payroll. Many IBM employees are worried. Yet they may be the lucky ones: They still have their jobs.

  The potential for sweeping layoffs at …

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