• Should Spark In-Memory Run Natively On IBM i?

  November 6, 2017 Alex Woodie

  There’s a revolution happening in the field of data analytics, and an open source computing framework called Apache Spark is right smack in the middle of it. Spark is such a powerful tool that IBM elected to create a distribution of it that runs natively on its System z mainframe. Will it do the same for its baby mainframe, the IBM i?

  So, what is Apache Spark, and why should you care? Great questions! Let’s introduce you to Spark.

  Spark came out of UC Berkeley’s AMPLab about five years ago to provide a faster and easier-to-use alternative to MapReduce, which …

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• Functionality Trumps Glitz in ERP Decision

  November 1, 2017 Alex Woodie

  What do you look for in a new ERP system? For the folks at Veterinary Purchasing Company, which is transitioning away from its homegrown S/36-era ERP system, the decision came down to a preference for proven substance over hollow glamor.

  Veterinary Purchasing Company is a member-owned company that was founded in 1972 by a group of veterinarians who wanted to increase their purchasing power by buying in bulk on the wholesale market. The company, which employs about 210 people at its headquarters in St Mary, Ontario, also sells to non-shareholder vets and animal hospitals across Canada.

  In the mid-1970s, VP …

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• IBM i Vendor Breaks Into Gartner Magic Quadrant

  November 1, 2017 Dan Burger

  Finding an IBM i software vendor in the Gartner Magic Quadrant is sort of like finding a four-leaf clover. It doesn’t happen very often and it feels like a lucky day when you do. Last week, ARCAD Software made it into the coveted quad in the Application Release Automation category.

  ARCAD, which considers DevOps the centerpiece of its software business, has expanded from what was once a more narrowly defined application change management software developer servicing the IBM midrange market. The IBM i customer base still represents 95 percent of ARCAD’s business; however, its software support has expanded to include …

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• Indian Firm Takes Over Notes/Domino Development

  November 1, 2017 Alex Woodie

  The Indian IT services company HCL Technologies will have a big say in the future of IBM’s Notes/Domino and be relied upon to develop the next major release of the collaboration software due in 2018, Big Blue announced last week.

  IBM announced the “strategic partnership” with the $7 billion New Delhi firm October 25 in a blog post on its website. The deal to outsource development work to HCL Technologies shows IBM’s “level of commitment to stakeholders,” writes Inhi Cho Suh, the general manager of IBM Collaboration Solutions. “The goal of the partnership is to drive future development of the …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, November 1

  November 1, 2017 Dan Burger

  Most IBM i shops are comfortable being one or two releases behind the latest IBM i operating system. But for those on i 7.1, it’s time to plan your next move. If you are on something older than 7.1, you should be drinking stronger coffee. You may have your reasons for staying where you are, but in this issue of Monitor we’re pointing you to some reasons to upgrade.

  We also have an article that will get under the skin of relational database advocates, plus some Watson integration with IBM i insights, and a link to an IBM i video …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 43

  November 1, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  Hold onto your Halloween candy, there are new cumes on IBM i 7.2 and 7.3! You are going to need some sugar. And there is a formal announcement of the new Tech Refreshes, which we announced last week. The corresponding group (SF99717 for V7R2 and SF99727 for V7R3) can now be ordered. Yeah, those numbers are correct, one off for ease of remembering.

  This week we also have:

  • New Backup and Recovery and Performance Tools groups for all three supported releases
  • New DB2 groups for 7.2 and 7.3
  • New WAS V8.0 groups for 7.2 and 7.1.

  Also, keep an eye …

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• IBM Wheels And Deals For Power Linux, But Where Is IBM i?

  October 30, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The whole point of the convergence of the RS/6000 and the AS/400 families of systems – including pSeries and iSeries and System p and System i – was not only to get a common, converged hardware platform that made IBM’s life easier, but to also – or so we have always believed – give a consistent deal to customers using AIX or OS/400-i5/OS-IBM i.

  “A foolish consistency is,” as Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, “the hobgoblin of little minds.” While that may be true, a smart consistency is the Spider-Man of great minds. Or at least those that think alike. …

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• Navigator For IBM i On A Zigzag Journey

  October 30, 2017 Dan Burger

  Navigator for IBM i provides system administrators with tools that prevent them from losing their marbles, or at least delaying that outcome until the boss mentions that grounds maintenance and window washing have been added to the list of sys admin responsibilities.

  Navigator continues to receive updates and enhancements, mostly based on filling in holes in the features and functionality that the product it replaced already possessed. IBM also takes requests from current users, which also find their way into future enhancement. But for the unskilled user trying to climb the learning curve, Navigator can be a frustrating stumble from …

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• Guru: Logging SQL Errors And Warnings

  October 30, 2017 Birgitta Hauser

  If something goes wrong with an embedded SQL statement or an SQL routine (a trigger, stored procedure or user-defined function), the system does not crash. Instead, DB2 returns a negative SQL code and an SQL state that starts with something other than 00, 01, or 02. If the routine does not handle the error, the program continues to run.

  It is good practice to log errors to a table, especially unexpected ones. Before you can log any errors, you need to know how an SQL error can be trapped and handled. You need to know how to write a condition …

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• IT Horror Stories

  October 30, 2017 Alex Woodie

  Let’s face it: IT can be downright scary. From unpatched servers and failed ERP implementations to clueless CIOs and that clown in the server room, information technology is a business fraught with danger. Here are a few IT tales that could keep you up at night.

  Are hackers lurking in your system? It’s more likely if you haven’t kept up on your patches. That’s the horrific lesson learned by Equifax, which recently disclosed that it lost sensitive data for 143 million consumers after bad guys worked their way into the system through a vulnerability in some open source middleware that …

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