• Please Take The IBM i Marketplace Survey

  October 16, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Can you believe it? This is the tenth year that Fortra, formerly known as HelpSystems, is taking a survey of the IBM i customers base so it can put together a report to tell us what is going on in the community surrounding the platform that we are all depending upon in some fashion.

  The IBM i Marketplace Survey and its accompanying report and the webinar that goes over the results of the survey, which are both presented each February, are an invaluable resource for the IBM i community. This is particularly so since IDC, Gartner, Forrester, and the other …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 42

  October 16, 2023 Doug Bidwell

  Welcome back to work this week. IBM i 7.2 has two new PTF groups even though it has been in extended support from Big Blue since April 30, 2021. The IBM i 7.2 release is still on extended support until April 30, 2024, which is why the security and HIPER group PTFs have been updated for this release. Specifically, that is:

  • SF99718 720 Group Security – level 124, which you can find out more about here.
  • SF99719 720 Group HIPER – level 235, which you can find out more about there.

  As we reported last week in The …

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• Fall 2023 IBM i Tech Refresh Brings Something For Everyone

  October 11, 2023 Alex Woodie

  As expected, IBM yesterday unveiled its fall Technology Refresh (TR) for IBM i, with updates starting to become available on November 17. IBM announced no new products as part of the fall 2023 TR cycle, but it did spread the love around by giving just about everybody something to cheer about in IBM i 7.5 TR3 and 7.4 TR9.

  Lots of different products that make up the IBM i environment will see some pretty meaningful enhancements with this release. If you spend a lot of time in Navigator for i or ACS, you will see new stuff. We haven’t had …

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• The Science Of Lifting And Shifting To The Cloud

  October 11, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Companies in Japan have a long and deep history with IBM computing systems, both its mainframe and its midrange platforms. And in some cases, they have moved from one to the other to maintain the IBM style of integrated systems while attaining the benefits of what many customers still consider the more integrated, less expensive, and easier to use platform that Big Blue offers: Namely, the AS/400 launched in 1988 and its progeny up through the current IBM i generation.

  Such is the case with Kosei Securities Co Ltd, which was founded way back in 1961 in Osaka, a …

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• IBM Suddenly Pulls The Plug On Db2 Web Query for i

  October 11, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Well, that was a bit of a surprise, but to be fair we had a few days of forewarning about it before it happened so it really wasn’t. Yesterday, on October 10, IBM abruptly announced the end of marketing for all variations of the Db2 Web Query for i data analytics tool. You can read about it in announcement letter AD23-0691. But don’t get too excited. That announcement letter doesn’t tell you much.

  On Friday, October 6, we got a message from a director of information technology at a logistics and business services provider that his IBM business partner …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, October 11

  October 11, 2023 Jenny Thomas

  When it comes to AI, every day seems to bring some new potential catastrophe for humanity. Except today, because after saying AI would automate many back-office tasks and result in job loss for humans, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna now says it is not correct that increases in productivity have to lead to job losses. In fact, he believes AI will create more jobs that it will eliminate. In our Top Story below, Krishna explains IBM has plans to increase the number of software engineering and sales roles in the next three to four years. And then conceded there would be …

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• Profound Bolsters Security, Authentication in Node.js Dev Tools

  October 11, 2023 Alex Woodie

  IBM i developers working with Profound Logic’s Node.js Web application and API development tools will be greeted with new security and authentication features when they move up to version 7, which was unveiled last month.

  The new features are found in version 7 releases of Profound Logic’s Profound.js, which enables developer to create Node.js-based applications that run on IBM i, as well as Profound API, a variant of its Node.js tool for writing API-based applications that run on IBM i and access its database.

  One of the changes that will greet users with Profound.js 7.0 is support for user-defined …

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• Thoroughly Modern: What’s New In IBM i IT Planning

  October 9, 2023 Chris Koppe

  When you picture a successful IT strategy, what comes to mind? Most would say that they picture the plan that defines how you approach your technical environment or a project. But after working on IBM i strategy and roadmaps for hundreds of organizations, I see it differently. Creating a successful strategy is all about asking the right questions. By taking the time to analyze your current situation, determine your desired outcome, and understand the reasoning behind it, you’ll be able to find a quicker and more cost-effective solution to achieve your goals. Strategy development is a conversation that leads to …

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• Guru: Search Source Code For Strings Using SQL

  October 9, 2023 Bob Cozzi

  The IBM-supplied Find String Using PDM (FNDSTRPDM) command and PDM option 25 are how most developers scan for a simple value in a list of source file members. But what if you need more? For example, what if you want to find something complex, such as the field named “CUST” but not the field named “CUSTNAME” “CUSTOMER” or “CUSTNO”? Go ahead, I’ll wait?

  While I do use FNDSTRPDM all the time, I now use the SQL READSRC (Read Source File Member) Table function more often.

  READSRC SQL UDTF

  The READSRC SQL Table function or UDTF (User-defined table function) uses an …

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• IBM Releases Db2 For i Extensions For VS Code

  October 9, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Interested in developing new ILE applications in VS Code that utilize the Db2 for i database? Then you’re in luck, because IBM recently created and released vscode-db2i, an open source database extension for Code for IBM i, the uber popular development environment that enables ILE programming in VS Code.

  It is tough to overstate the popularity of Code for IBM i, which Liam Allan created and released just over two years ago. The open source plug-in provides ILE functionality for Microsoft’s VS Code, enabling programmers to write and edit RPG, COBOL, C, and CL code in the lightweight, browser-based …

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