• Digital Integration Hubs Emerge To Accelerate Transformations

  February 7, 2022 Alex Woodie

  A new design pattern called a digital integration hub is emerging to help organizations with legacy applications reap the benefits of digital transformation — not by moving off battle-hardened platforms and legacy ERP systems, but by piping data from them into a fast, new data store that interfaces with Web services.

  Former Gartner analyst Massimo Pezzini is credited with popularizing the digital integration hub (DIH) concept in 2019. The DIH essentially is a fast database, often implemented atop in-memory technology, that stores the data required to serve new applications implemented as part of a digital transformation project, such as big …

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• The Real IBM i Legacy Is The People

  February 7, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  I will never for the life of me understand why the word “legacy” has such a bad connotation in the IT business when in all other aspects of life it means something good. We talk about legacy systems, usually systems of record, a lot here at The Four Hundred, because we are focused on the AS/400 platform and its successors over the past three and a half decades. But the applications – and the people who extend and support them – that run on modern IBM i iron and some vintage predecessor systems have a heritage that extends back …

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• Security Again Top Concern in HelpSystems Marketplace Study

  February 2, 2022 Alex Woodie

  If you’re concerned about cybersecurity in your organization, you’re not alone. According to the latest IBM i Marketplace Study from HelpSystems, cybersecurity and ransomware were the top concern of IBM i customers, beating out HA/DR, application modernization, and IBM i skills.

  About 450 IBM i shops from around the world participated in HelpSystems 2022 IBM i Marketplace survey, the eighth year in a row the survey has been conducted. Security has been the number one concern of survey-takers for the past five years, during which security has garnered anywhere from 69 percent to 75 percent of respondents’ votes.

  For the …

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• Infor Touts Benefits of Industry-Specific ERP

  February 2, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Infor executives took to the digital airwaves last week to discuss the company’s strategy for delivering industry-specific ERP solutions, which they claimed can deliver better functionality to customers in less time, with lower costs and fewer risks.

  The fear of time-consuming, expensive, and risky customizations is palpable among enterprises, Infor CEO Kevin Samuelson said during a roundtable with fellow Infor executives at last week’s Inforum Digital event.

  “The reality is, when we go in to talk to a customer, they’re nervous because there’s a reputation for projects taking too long, costing much more than expected, and companies ultimately not getting …

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• No Kyndryl Involved in IBM i Tech Support, Jarman Says

  February 2, 2022 Alex Woodie

  The org chart has been on an extended spin cycle lately at IBM, with the spin out of the Global Technology Services (GTS) business into Kyndryl as well as the merging of IBM Lab Services and the Services and Support Group. But unless you’re signed up for its IBM i cloud service or had some other arrangement with GTS, you likely won’t be calling on Kyndryl for technical support.

  The question of Kyndryl’s current role with the IBM i customer base came up during the recent webinar HelpSystems held to discuss its 2022 IBM i Marketplace Report. Ian Jarman, …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, February 2

  February 2, 2022 Jenny Thomas

  I have read that February is the border between winter and spring, which should come as good news for much of the U.S. as the East Coast lies in the grip of some frigid temperatures. But neither the month nor the temps are of consequence to IBM, which has charged into the new year with renewed vigor. As we check in on the latest news regarding Big Blue, we see that the charge is on to refocus after the split from Kyndryl, with the hybrid cloud being the first order of business. Once you’ve caught up on the news, don’t …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 24, Number 5

  February 2, 2022 Doug Bidwell

  Another week, another security vulnerability. This time, there is one in the Db2 stack for IBM i. Specifically, we present to you Security Bulletin: IBM Db2 Mirror for i is vulnerable to denial of service due to gson 217225, which you can read in full at this link. As the Db2 Mirror database clustering technology is only available on IBM i 7.4, this is the only IBM i release that is affected.

  The IBM i Group PTF number containing the fix for this vulnerability follows: Release 7.4 – SF99668 level 17.

  Just a reminder that there is a new …

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• The IBM i Cloud Just Got More Frictionless With Virtual Serial Numbers

  January 31, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If the cloud is to be successful, it has to do more than provide a new deployment and pricing model for IT organizations. It has to also maintain and retain some of the important practices in use by the IT department. One of the big disconnections between on premises IBM equipment and capacity sold in the cloud has been the serial number that identifies a machine, which is a kind of birth certificate and Social Security number for each box that comes off the IBM factory lines.

  That serial number is used to identify the machine for technical support purposes …

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• Learning To Drive Fast On The DevOps Roadmap

  January 31, 2022 Andrew Ireland

  Maturity doesn’t come with the passing of time, but with experience, whatever age you may start doing something. So it is with DevOps. In many ways IBM i teams have been ‘ahead of their time’, deploying small code increments to production fast and often.  However we are seeing that requirements in integration and hybrid cloud are pushing the boundaries in DevOps transformation, and that to avoid costly, high-risk migration projects in the future it is important to act now and start taking further steps on that IBM i DevOps maturity journey.

  Full DevOps maturity depends on sharing development methods and …

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• Focal Point Buys UCG Technologies, On The Hunt For More IBM i Deals

  January 31, 2022 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  There is a wave of acquisitions underway in the managed service provider (MSP) and technical support services businesses of the IBM i market, with companies trying to amass the skillsets to provide a more complete stack of services to IBM midrange shops. The acquisitions are also being fueled by a business model of cross-selling across merged company portfolios and getting the size necessary to expand into new geographies and to find new customers as IBM i shops confront the growing complexity of their infrastructure and looming shortages in skilled IBM i personnel.

  That, in a nutshell, is why Focal Point …

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