Point and modification releases to IBM i have given way to the Technology Refresh, but nothing can replace a good program-maintenance strategy.

Written by Chris Smith

The term PTF, or "program temporary fix," has been part of the IBM vernacular for many years. It goes along with the conservative image Big Blue has cultivated of assigning a dignified term to what any other software developer would call a "bug fix." In years past, customers used to say that PTF stood for "permanent temporary fix" or "probably this fixes" since the PTF would become a permanent part of the software—if it actually fixed the customer-reported problem.

How midsize businesses can addresses inherent challenges in today's competitive market by minimizing both costs and risk.

Written by IBM 

The following article is an extract from the white paper "ITG Executive Summary: Value Proposition for IBM Power Systems Servers and IBM i: Minimizing Costs and Risks for Midsize Businesses" available for download free from the MC White Paper Center.

The challenges faced by midsize businesses remain daunting. Weak markets, competitive pressures, cost-reduction mandates, and demands for greater operating efficiency and productivity are the norm in most industries. In many, globalization continues.

Information technology has become central to meeting these challenges. Even relatively small organizations now have enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence (BI), e-commerce, and other state-of-the-art systems. The number of "must have" solutions continues to expand.

Learn to evaluate the future viability and potential challenges of IBM i on Power Systems, as well as IBM legacy midrange systems, to determine your organization's strategy for the platform.

Written by Connectria Hosting

The following article is an extract from the white paper "Assess the Appropriateness of the iSeries/IBM i in My Business" available for download free from the MC White Paper Center.

Many organizations are apprehensive about buying or staying with the IBM i (iSeries) due to a perception that it is a dying platform.

"The perception is that it is older technology," says Jeff Lutgen, vice president of IT at Delta Dental of Wisconsin. "You need to look past that when evaluating this platform. We could move to a new system that is thought to be more current, but it may be more prone to downtime, be less efficient, and cost more overall," he says.

Let's review the advantages of getting current.

Written by Jon Paris and Susan Gantner

We're not really "bleeding edge" people. Whenever a new version of one of our favorite tools comes along, we rarely update immediately. We let others suffer the "new release blues" for a month or three and then make the move once we are convinced that the release is stable and offers functionality that we want and need. Even then, Jon generally acts as the company's designated guinea pig, boldly going where Susan fears to tread. She takes the approach that when Jon has stopped swearing at something (yes, he does occasionally use words like "bother" as hard as that may be to believe) for three or four months, then it is probably safe for her to upgrade too.

What would you like to see in RPG and on the IBM i?

Written by Tom Snyder

I don't know about you, but I am very curious to see the new capabilities that will be available with the latest enhancements that will be coming on the IBM i. Here is my top 10 list of things that I would like to see in a new RPG and on the IBM i in general.

PowerVM-enabled virtualization is a means to control costs, improve performance, and enhance IT flexibility.

Written by Henry Martinez

In a business environment that demands that we all find ways to do more with less, virtualization has been accurately promoted as delivering a number of benefits, including the following:

The company's statement of direction for Version 7.1 will affect RPG programmers, among others.

Written by Chris Smith

IBM announced an interim release of the IBM i operating system this week—6.1.1—and gave highlights on a statement of direction for the next major release in 2010 (Version 7.1) in which it said RPG would start to be "decoupled" from the 5250 data stream.

The announcements were broad and detailed but can be broken down into the following main categories:

Using event notification triggers is a smart, simple, cost-effective way to improve productivity.

By Bob Gleisner

The concept behind event notification triggers is fairly simple. As the name suggests, the goal of implementing event notification triggers is to provide "notification" to someone when a significant business "event" occurs. This is a proactive means of "pushing" information from the system. This may come in the form of a simple email message. However, the benefits of a simple message are limited.