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In its most recent report on insights-driven businesses, Forrester found that those with advanced business intelligence infrastructure are confidently growing by at least 20%. These are organizations that have been successfully enabling smarter and faster decision-making across the board through technology and data governance.
By LANSA, An Idera Inc. Company
Intelligent use of data analytics is key to optimized business processes, high customer satisfaction rates, and increased profits. With the ability to closely monitor performance and trends, companies are able to respond faster to the market – even make reliable forecasts and ultimately gain a competitive advantage.
Compared to data centers as we’ve known them, it’s the former, but some projections say it could be the latter by 2030. Resolving this environmental conundrum will likely shape cloud computing’s future over the next few years.
By John Ghrist
Cloud computing has enabled a transition in business computing from a situation where most transactions are handled by in-house infrastructures to one in which a majority of compute-intensive activities are handled by independent Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). A Gartner Group study published in June 2022 estimated that in 2021 alone, the cloud services market for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) grew by more than 41 percent, with 80 percent of the market being taken up by just five companies (Amazon, Microsoft, Alibaba, Google, and Huawei). Obviously, this kind of migration has been going on for a number of years.
Maybe these companies were able to pivot easily because IBM i doesn’t require the daily hand-holding required to keep other platforms working.
By Steve Pitcher
It’s easy to look at the year 2020 with contempt.
I’ve done it. Most all of us probably have. There’s no reason to do a recap of 2020. It started with a near-miss war with Iran, and it hasn’t let up since. I was joking the other week that the only thing we’re missing in 2020 is the equivalent of the Ten Plagues of Egypt. And we still have a couple of months for that to unfold.
So far, we have hacked through basic /Free structure and the control statements that can be used to tame it and bend it to our will.
By David Shirey
Editor's Note: This article is excerpted from chapter 6 of 21st Century RPG: /Free, ILE, and MVC, by David Shirey.
But what about files? So far, we have not really talked about them. How cruelly unfair, as files are at the heart of everything we do. But that is about to change.
As we shall see, most of the changes are to do with RPG I/O, not the way embedded SQL is used, but we will talk about that briefly also. SQL in full is definitely another topic for another day and has very little to do with /Free per se.
In this second and final part of this short series about mobile app dev, let’s talk about grids and glyphicons.
By Jan Jorgensen
In a previous article, I covered how the grid system in Bootstrap works, so in order not to bore you I will try not to repeat myself.
The grid system in version 4 is still based on a maximum of 12 columns! But even though the grid system seems the same from version 3 to 4, something has changed under the hood. In Bootstrap 3, the grid system was based on floats, but that changed in Bootstrap 4; it is now based on flexbox.
Many organizations are under the impression that if they simply configure their end-user profiles to be limited capabilities (LMTCPB(*YES)) and set their initial menu to *SIGNOFF, that their end-users will be confined to a menu, can’t run commands and, therefore, are restricted in what they can access.
By DXR Security, LLC
DXR Security’s Penetration Testing for IBM i can give you peace of mind and help you determine whether your limited users truly are limited. We do that by performing “gray box” pen testing. In other words, we use information about security-relevant system values as well as the authority settings of application libraries and database files together with user profiles that represent a cross-section of end-user roles as input to our tests. Then, we’ll attempt to gain access to and perform tasks on your IBM i. Penetration Testing for IBM i is a great add-on to network penetration tests which identify open ports and unsecure protocols. DXR Security takes penetration testing to the next level by attempting to run various tasks directly on the system with the intent of determining whether limited users truly are limited. Once testing is complete, we’ll provide an easy-to-read report describing the results and provide specific recommendations for hardening security, should any vulnerabilities be identified.
Current Events All Events
April 6, 2023
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. CST
Why are more organizations interested in single sign on (SSO)? Is it because IT teams are tired of managing passwords? Or perhaps it’s because they’re frustrated with employees reusing passwords that have previously been compromised, leaving their organizations vulnerable.
Regardless of the reason, the use of single sign on is on the rise and we’d like to give you the opportunity to learn more about what it is and what it can do for your organization. Join us on April 6th and we’ll walk you through:
- Security/productivity concerns with traditional password management
- What SSO does to alleviate these concerns
- How to get started implementing SSO
Take a step towards simplifying password management!
- 06 April 2023 - 06 April 2023
- World Wide Web
Ghosts and witches—they’re kid stuff. But there really are other things to be afraid of.
By Victoria Mack
This being October, Steve Pitcher has a bit of a Halloween scare for you. But this goblin isn’t a fantasy. It’s real. IBM has announced end of support for the exceptionally popular POWER7 machines. Will IBM offer extended hardware maintenance? Who knows? It hasn’t happened yet. Read Steve’s article to see his perceptions of what some may consider a truly horrifying announcement.
Not all projects are created equal. There are large projects and small projects, complex projects and simple projects, short-term projects and long-term projects, top secret projects and open source projects
By Colleen Garton and Erika McCulloch
Editor's Note: This article is excerpted from chapter 3 of Fundamentals of Technology Project Management, by Colleen Garton and Erika McCulloch.
The list could go on and on. There are many different perspectives on which projects belong in which categories. If a company usually works on projects with a duration of three to six months, it would consider a year-long project to be long-term. An organization such as NASA would likely consider a year-long project short-term. A long-term project for them might be twenty or thirty years! Complexity is also subjective. What one company would consider complex another may consider simple. For these reasons, I am not going to try to specify what these terms mean. Each company will have its own definition for these terms and their meaning within the organization. If you are starting a new job as a project manager, you will need to ask for clarification on the terminology used within the organization. That way you can be sure that you are using the correct terminology and categorization for projects.
These days, consumers expect retailers to provide information tailored personally just for them.
In the industry’s current disruptive environment, retail and consumer product companies are competing with new business models and being forced to refresh their consumer experiences and brand engagements to be more relevant.
A new IBM study finds retailers' current strategies to deliver engaging brand experiences are not keeping pace with what customers’ expect and want out of their brick and click shopping experiences.
Do you realize how many of your personal or business devices are connected to the Internet? Let's talk about that.
By Jan Jorgensen
The Internet of Things (IoT): You've heard somebody talk about it; or you've read about it in a newspaper, in a tech magazine, or on a website; or you've attended a seminar or conference where somebody told you about the next big thing.
SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS
By HelpSystems
Editor's note: This article introduces the February 2022 Report: 2022 IBM i Marketplace Survey Results, which is available to download from the MC White Paper Center.
Cybersecurity continues to top the charts as the main concern when planning an IT environment.
Perhaps the most consistent data point in the IBM i Marketplace Survey Results is the ongoing cybersecurity threat. Over the past six years, cybersecurity has been the main concern for people planning their IT environment, and this year was no exception. Although it has decreased since last year’s results, 62% of respondents still said this was their number one concern. And although organizations prioritizing security seem to be implementing multiple solutions, it is still alarming that, on average, almost 30% of respondents do not plan to implement each of the surveyed cybersecurity solutions. If your organization has concerns over IBM i cybersecurity skills, managed security services could be a way of filling in any holes.
IBM Notes Domino gets a new future with HCL Technologies.
By Steve Pitcher
On October 25, 2017, IBM announced (well, they blogged it) that they were entering into a strategic partnership with HCL Technologies to give the following products a new lease on development life: