• HATS Finds A RESTful ‘Swagger’

  November 13, 2017 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops will gain access to new API tooling on Thursday, when IBM ships a new release of its Rational Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) software that supports Swagger, a popular open-source specification for designing, generating, documenting, and consuming REST-based APIs.

  APIs built using the Representational State Transfer (REST) protocol have become the primary way that companies expose their applications and data in a programmatic way. By defining one’s application program interfaces (APIs) in the RESTful style – as opposed to, say, the older, XML-heavy Simple Object Application Protocol (SOAP) style – companies can join in, and partake of, …

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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.

  HVR Software …

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• IBM Teaches ACS New Tricks

  November 8, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Last month’s Technology Refreshes for IBM i 7.2 and 7.3 brought a number of enhancements to the operating system and the database. But one should not overlook the new stuff coming to IBM i Access Client Solutions (ACS), including changes to the 5250 emulator, extensions for database access, and security enhancements.

  ACS, in case you forgot, is the new go-to client interface that administrators, developers, engineers, and power users alike can use for handling a range of IBM i tasks. The Java-based product, which IBM unveiled back in August 2012, bundles a bunch of useful goodies into a single product, …

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• IBM Champions Deadline Is Next Week

  November 8, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Who would you like to see become an IBM Champion? If there’s somebody in the IBM i or Power Systems community that you think can make a difference, then you have less than a week to nominate them.

  Every year, IBM selects a new group of champions across five areas, including analytics, cloud and cloud integration, collaboration solutions, Power, and IBM z. To be considered for the 2018 class of IBM Champions, a person must be nominated by Monday, November 13.

  So, what is an IBM Champion? According to IBM, the program “recognizes innovative thought leaders in the technical …

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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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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 44

  November 8, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  The action this week in the IBM i PTF Guide is all in HIPERs for all three releases and in the Security groups for IBM i 7.2 and 7.3. Also, there is a recommended fix for IBM i 7.2, one of the baddies. The QMGtools were also updated for all releases.

  Also, we have an important reminder: Java 6 will be going out of support on December 31, 2017. So be sure to update your Java applications to Java 8 or Java 7 to ensure a safe and secure application environment.

  The PTF updates this week are as follows:

  IBM …

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• IBM Deal Prices Current Power8 Compute Like Future Power9

  November 6, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The old proverb, “Ask, and ye shall receive,” is thankfully and just a little bit humorously applicable. In last week’s issue of The Four Hundred, there was a certain amount of weeping and gnashing of teeth about the fact that IBM is not shipping shiny new Power9 machines here in the fourth quarter and will not until early 2018. Given that fact and that the Power8’s are very long in the tooth, we fully expect for Big Blue to cut IBM i customers some kind of deal. There is a small deal for those buying Linux-only versions of the …

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• Database Modernization: Methodology To Solve Problems

  November 6, 2017 Dan Burger

  Innovation is a combination of tools and processes. Big mistakes get made when there is too much emphasis on the tools and too little on the processes. Innovation in a can, a bottle or a box isn’t reality-based strategy, although it’s often thought of that way, particularly at the executive level where the goal of competitive advantage is sometimes tied to specific products and technologies.

  Tools and processes support innovation. They aren’t the innovation. Not at the individual business level where competitive advantage is differentiated and honed with years of experience. Too often experience is discounted or even disregarded when …

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• Guru: At Last! A Tool To Search an Output Queue!

  November 6, 2017 Ted Holt

  As far as I’m concerned, a technician can’t have too many tools! I appreciate the good people of IBM for the software tools they provide to help us do our jobs. I also appreciate those people who freely share software tools they’ve written. I’m pleased to pass along a tool from faithful reader Tim Swearingen.

  The tool is a CL command called Search an Output Queue (SRCHOUTQ), and it fills a gap. You can use SRCHOUTQ to look for a string inside the spooled files of an output queue. The search, I am happy to say, is case-insensitive. Here’s more …

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• Mad Dog 21/21: Classics Then And Now

  November 6, 2017 Hesh Wiener

  In the first century BC, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, a Roman, wrote De Architectura. In it, he described the proportions of great buildings and the mathematics of the human form. During the late 1400s, Leonardo da Vinci studied the Roman’s work and drew Vitruvian Man. A century later, the architect Andrea Palladio reprised Vitruvian design principles in buildings across Veneto. Palladio’s seminal The Four Books of Architecture inspired Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and countless other structures the world over. Analogously, in computing, John von Neumann or Alan Turing reprised Vitruvius, enabling IBM to serve as information technology’s Jefferson.

  Long before …

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