• Why The Journey To The Cloud Is Different For The IBM Power Systems Owner

  June 28, 2023 Tom Horan

  The world of business is evolving rapidly, and one of the most significant transformations is the adoption of cloud computing. Cloud technology offers a wide range of benefits, including scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency. However, all organizations embark on unique journeys when it comes to the cloud.

  IBM Power Systems customers have never had so many different choices for how they deploy their infrastructure. With the cloud options becoming more and more validated and the massive shift in how many companies operate, migrating to the cloud has become the center of the conversation.

  The Cloud Evolution

  Before diving into the distinct …

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• Dr. Frank Reminisces on 35th Anniversary, Looks to Platform’s Future

  June 28, 2023 Alex Woodie

  The IBM i community came out in force last week for the 35th anniversary of the creation of the AS/400 back in 1988. IBM corralled a handful of IBM i authorities to speak during three webcasts it held for fans around the world. During a call with European community members, Frank Soltis, who developed the architecture for the S/38 and AS/400, kicked things off by declaring there was really just one platform.

  “I think one of the distinct distinctions that I have is that I worked for IBM for 45 years before retiring,” Soltis, the retired IBM chief scientist told …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, June 28

  June 28, 2023 Jenny Thomas

  Talk about going all in. IBM dropped $4.6 billion in cash this week to pick up technology spend-management platform Apptio. Compared to the $34 billion Red Hat deal of 2019, this might seem like small potatoes, but that was then and these days even IBM has had layoff and hiring freezes, so Big Blue must be feeling very confident this pick up will bolster its capabilities in cloud and automation. “Technology is changing business at a rate and pace we’ve never seen before,” IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in the release. “To capitalize on these changes, it is essential to …

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• ALL400S Survey Continues, Goes International

  June 26, 2023 Alex Woodie

  John Rockwell, the driving force behind the ALL400S survey, was close to giving it up. Fewer and fewer people were taking the survey, and so he started telling people this would probably be his last go around. Turns out, that notice may have helped to spur a surge of interest in the survey, which is now underway. And now he’s taking the survey international, too.

  Rockwell, an independent, semi-retired IBM i programmer from Florida has been trying to accumulate a list of every IBM i shop on the planet. He shares this work openly through his ALL400s website and the …

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• Integrate 2023, The Lyrics

  June 26, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  When I was at the POWERUp conference in Denver back in late April along with my co-editor, Alex Woodie, we were sitting in the opening keynote address when Alison Butterill, IBM i offering manager, and Steve Will, IBM i chief architect, were on stage talking about the AS/400 launch and how the platform has evolved over time, there was a point in the presentation when a slide went up that listed some of the key features of the platform. I remember seeing “Innovate” and “Integrate” at the top of the list, and that sent my brain down an internal monologue …

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• Why IBM i Remote Managed Services Is The Future Of IT Support

  June 26, 2023 Christine McDowell

  Struggling to manage and safeguard your IBM i systems? Do you find yourself dealing with retiring and limited IBM i resources and unable to support growing business demands? Well, you are not alone.

  According to a recent Fresche survey, more than 70 percent of organizations that rely on IBM i are dealing with resource retirement and IT backlog — with many administrators unable to even take a vacation. IT leaders shared that they are single threaded with limited abilities to keep up and no time to innovate.

  These sentiments were echoed at this year’s POWERUp 2023 conference in Colorado where …

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• Making Git Part of Your Modernization Strategy

  June 26, 2023 Daniel Magid

  Maybe the most important part of your IBM i modernization strategy should be modernizing the tools you are using to develop and maintain your applications. Most of the application development world has moved to tools centered around using Git for version control. There is no reason IBM i developers cannot do the same thing. IBM is solidly behind this strategy with their new Merlin product and most of the change management vendors have some kind of Git integration.

  By adopting Git for version control, IBM i applications can be managed with the same tools that are being used for development …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 26

  June 26, 2023 Doug Bidwell

  In this week’s edition of the IBM i PTF Guide, I have added a Ref tab, which contains general, pertinent information not found elsewhere in the Guide. I also wanted to point out that with a PTF for Advanced Job Scheduler server side, which is SI83469 and which is included in HTTP group PTF update June 2023, AJS will support processing of Set ASP Group when enabled. Finally, IASP support built in!

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level since we last published:

  PTF Groups 7.5:

  • Backup Recovery Solutions
  • IBM HTTP Server for

  …

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• Talking System Architecture With The Frank Soltis

  June 21, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In a very funny way, the System/38 and its AS/400 and following progeny are the product of coincidence and brilliance. In 1962, had Frank Soltis taken that summer job at an aerospace company that he wanted to work for in Southern California, first of all, he might have ended up with a tan, and second of all, whatever followed the System/34 almost certainly would not have had single level storage, much less the architecture that we still know today, in modified form, as the IBM i platform.

  Lucky for us that Frank’s father, who ran a parts distribution operation for …

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• We Are Filling Our Talent Pool Because Yours Is Going To Drain

  June 21, 2023 Ron Venzin

  Back in the early days of corporate computing, when it was called data processing, the people who managed and programmed what became known as IT systems came from all walks of life. More times than not, the VPDP – that’s Vice President of Data Processing, a title that predates the concept of Manager of Information Systems and was decades earlier than the idea of Chief Information Officer – often came from the accounting department. But the people who worked for the VPDP were a hodge-podge of smart and curious people looking for something new and interesting to do.

  Here …

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