• IBM i Momma Bear Retires

  December 4, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Alison Butterill is probably the most famous IBM i visage in the world. For as long as we can remember – which is not necessarily any kind of test we realize – Butterill has been front and center, calming and thoroughly explaining the IBM i platform, being the interface between customers and engineers steering its development, and being its official spokesperson alongside of IBM i chief architect Steve Will.

  We are sad to report that Butterill retired as worldwide IBM i offering manager from Big Blue on November 30. And in a manner that is absolutely consistent with her calm …

  Read more

• IBM Pushes Storage Limits With Storage Scale 6000

  December 4, 2023 Alex Woodie

  IBM recently unveiled a new high-end all-flash storage array that pushes the limits of I/O. Dubbed the IBM Storage Scale System 6000, the new array gives users 1.44 PB of storage in a 4U chassis with up to an eye-watering 256 GB/sec of bandwidth and 7 million input/output operations per second (IOPS) of performance.

  Few IBM i shops have the need for that sort of performance with traditional business applications. Indeed, with its Storage Scale parallel file system (the new name given to IBM’s General Parallel File System, or GPFS, which also previously went by the name Spectrum Scale), the …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 48

  December 4, 2023 Doug Bidwell

  It was the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States when we put together this issue of the IBM i PTF Guide, and you can be thankful that not much was going on. If we know one thing, we know that it will not stay that way. In the meantime, there are a few things to take a look at. We will see how the rest of the year plays out.

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

  PTF Groups 7.5:

  • Nothing

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • Nothing

  PTF Groups 7.3:

  • Nothing

  Tip …

  Read more

• IBM i Development Is Getting A Fresche Start With Some Ground-Breaking Subscriptions

  November 27, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Cash flows into and out of a business, and capital expenditures are always interrupting those flows. They are yanked out of the revenue streams and depreciated over long periods of time, meant to reflect the value these expenditures deliver. In most cases in the IBM midrange, the machines sit around longer than the depreciation schedule the accountants use, and that is perceived as a kind of free money when it is really a kind of mounting technical debt as machinery and the software that runs upon it fall behind both technically and economically.

  Eventually, the technical debt bill always comes …

  Read more

• CloudSAFE And Focal Point Solutions Group Combine Services, Unify Brands

  November 27, 2023 Doug McMaster

  IT solutions providers Focal Point Solutions Group and CloudSAFE are unifying under the CloudSAFE brand. Both providers have a history of delivering outstanding IT services, so joining forces follows a natural progression for both organizations.

  “This unification represents a transformative step forward not just for us, but for our customers. By merging Focal Point’s specialized expertise in IBM technologies with CloudSAFE’s comprehensive IT service offerings, we are uniquely positioned to meet and exceed our customers’ evolving IT needs,” says Ron Venzin, chief executive officer at CloudSAFE.

  Creating A Comprehensive Service Provider

  Focal Point’s specialization in IBM technologies, including IBM i, …

  Read more

• Guru: Partitioning Result Sets Using SQL

  November 27, 2023 Mike Larsen

  While working on a project recently, I needed to retrieve attributes of an item. While that sounds like a simple task, there was a twist. While reviewing the contents of the item master table, I noticed there could be multiple rows for the same item and each row was active and valid from a business perspective.

  I won’t get into the business end of it, but my goal was to return the most recent iteration of the item for further processing in the program. After doing some research and trying some potential solutions, I came across the SQL partition by …

  Read more

• As I See It: Elusive Connections

  November 27, 2023 Victor Rozek

  Between the ages of 2 and 6, I formed a deep attachment to a small stuffed bear. I played with it, talked to it, and slept with it. It was my constant companion and before I moved on in my development, I had loved much of its fur off.

  America, according to mental health experts, is experiencing a loneliness epidemic. On a planet straining with the weight of 8 billion people, it seems that an uncanny number lack meaningful connection. A problem not likely to be solved by embracing stuffed animals.

  In a study commissioned by healthcare/insurance giant Cigna, “more …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 47

  November 27, 2023 Doug Bidwell

  Happy Belated Thanksgiving, welcome back to work, and pass the turkey and cranberry sauce leftovers if you don’t mind.

  Speaking of leftovers, there are some new patches for IBM i 7.2, which were updated on November 14. You can check out SF99719 720 Group HIPER – level 237 at this link and SF99718 720 Group Security – level 126 at that link.

  There is also a security vulnerability you need to be aware of, specifically Security Bulletin: Multiple Vulnerabilities in IBM Java SDK affect IBM WebSphere Application Server and IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty due to the October 2023 …

  Read more

• AWS Inks Deal With Connectria To Have a Power Play

  November 15, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The long road of history has not been made impassible by the charred marketing tanks and flaming sales assault vehicles of those who have tried to breach Fortress Rochester, but there are a whole lot of rusting machines off on the horizon cluttering the road and more than a few smoking machines nearby as well as some sizable holes in the ramparts out on that cornfield in Minnesota.

  While the proprietary minicomputer businesses and the Unix server businesses of the competition of the AS/400 and IBM i platform have all been destroyed and that IBM is indeed the last bastion …

  Read more

• IBM i Shops Have Alternatives to Db2 Web Query

  November 15, 2023 Alex Woodie

  The sudden demise of Db2 Web Query has sent customers looking for alternatives. The good news is that IBM i software vendors offer a number of pre-built solutions that can fit the bill.

  Here are some potential business intelligence tools from vendors that could serve as replacements to Db2 Web Query. We’ll take a look at open source alternatives in a future article.

  Cozzi Research SQL World

  Cozzi Research develops two query tools for IBM i, including SQL iQuery and SQL Tools, and bundles them both in a single product called SQL World.

  Cozzi positions SQL iQuery as a native …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles