Software vendor chides IBM for allowing a marketing vacuum to develop around the IBM i platform.
Written by Chris Smith
The iManifest movement received a high-energy drink in one gulp last week as Business Computer Design (BCD) and its outspoken director of sales and marketing gave the organization a cash donation and committed to promoting the young organization's logo on all future marketing materials.
The company's refresh of its Systems Operations Suite adds application monitoring to an already-rich collection of message, monitor, and automation functions.
Written by Chris Smith
Think of the recession as an adventure in which you have to improvise and test your imagination and resourcefulness in ways that you haven't been challenged to do before. Talk about making an organization lean and mean—yikes. Pretend you're out there on the road and all you've got going for you is a good Swiss Army knife; could you survive?
Frequent business presentations in the Mideast clearly articulate the benefits of the i operating system.
Written by Chris Smith
With all the talk about iManifest in Japan, Europe, and the United States, we couldn't help but notice a report out of Saudi Arabia last month about a series of IBM promotional events called "Move Up to i Roadshows."
IBM expands Web-based email while teaming with Canonical to introduce a new Linux-based software package for desktops.
Written by Chris Smith
IBM introduced a new business-class Web-based email and calendaring service last week that promises to simplify email administration, while still offering flexible and robust services. The announcement came at the same time that IBM said it was teaming with Canonical on a new personal computing software package for notebooks and other thin-client devices. The trend is toward lean and mean, and IBM is betting it will get a big reception in countries unable to pay high prices for proprietary desktop software.
Registering gets you a free stay at one of Las Vegas' best hotels, the Rio All-Suite.
Written by Chris Smith
There are a few things that you don't do in a down economy. Number one, you don't pass up an opportunity for the government to give you $4,500 for your old jalopy. Number two, you don't pass up the chance for an $8,000 government grant toward a new home for yourself or your first-time-buyer kids. And number three, you don't pass up a limited opportunity for a free hotel stay at next month's iSeries DevCon 2009.
It's time for us in the U.S. to step up to the plate.
Written by Jeff Olen
I've been developing applications on IBM midrange systems for over 20 years. I started on the System/34 and progressed through all the incarnations up to and including IBM i (or whatever it's being called today). In all that time, two things have remained consistent. First, IBM has always under-marketed IBM i and under-estimated the midrange market. Specifically, IBM i, under all its various names, seems to have been left floundering while other systems were marketed to death (lesser systems in this author's opinion). Second has been the almost fanatical loyalty of the IBM i users, including me. While IBM seems content to allow IBM i to ride off into the sunset, we, the users, are decidedly not. But are we willing to do anything about it?
IBM's Ian Jarman talks with MC Press Online editors and says that while the platform is enhanced to run three operating systems in a virtualized environment, many customers will continue to buy the more traditional solution.
Written by Chris Smith
Editor's Note: I'm traveling this week, but below is one of my more popular articles, which first appeared in the March 17, 2008, issue of MC Systems Insight. It is an interview with Ian Jarman, manager of IBM Power Systems Software, in which Jarman lays out the future of the Power Systems platform, including RPG and IBM i OS, as envisioned by IBM. We invite readers to express their views in the MC Press Online forums about whether the vision expressed here more than a year and a half ago is coming to pass or whether there have been more abrupt changes in direction of the platform.
American workers may wish to invest in education while waiting for government help.
Written by Chris Smith
The employment figures for August will be released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the figures are likely to be similar to those we got in July—several hundred thousand more jobs lost. The average monthly job loss from May through July was 331,000, and it's likely the figures for August will reflect another 300,000 or so jobs that have disappeared during the past month. Today, there are 14.5 million people out of work in the United States, which has an unemployment rate of 9.4 percent. If you are fortunately not one of the statistics, you probably are related to someone who is or certainly have friends who have lost their jobs—and more.
If your business is thinking about modernizing your legacy IBM i (also known as AS/400 or iSeries) applications, you will want to read this white paper first!
Download this paper and learn how Node.js can ensure that you:
- Modernize on-time and budget - no more lengthy, costly, disruptive app rewrites!
- Retain your IBM i systems of record
- Find and hire new development talent
- Integrate new Node.js applications with your existing RPG, Java, .Net, and PHP apps
- Extend your IBM i capabilties to include Watson API, Cloud, and Internet of Things
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More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation.
Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects.
The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the companyare not aligned with the current IT environment.
Get your copy of this important guide today!
2022 marks the eighth edition of the IBM i Marketplace Survey Results. Each year, Fortra captures data on how businesses use the IBM i platform and the IT and cybersecurity initiatives it supports.
Over the years, this survey has become a true industry benchmark, revealing to readers the trends that are shaping and driving the market and providing insight into what the future may bring for this technology.
Brunswick is the leader in bowling products, services, and industry expertise for the development and renovation of new and existing bowling centers and mixed-use recreation facilities across the entertainment industry. However, the lifeblood of Brunswick’s capital equipment business was running on a 15-year-old software application written in Visual Basic 6 (VB6) with a SQL Server back-end. The application was at the end of its life and needed to be replaced.
With the help of Visual LANSA, they found an easy-to-use, long-term platform that enabled their team to collaborate, innovate, and integrate with existing systems and databases within a single platform.
Read the case study to learn how they achieved success and increased the speed of development by 30% with Visual LANSA.
Progressive Web Apps allow you to reach anyone, anywhere, and on any device with a single unified codebase. This means that your applications—regardless of browser, device, or platform—instantly become more reliable and consistent. They are the present and future of application development, and more and more businesses are catching on.
Download this whitepaper and learn:
When it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed.
Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:
Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.
In this white paper, you’ll learn how to think of these issues as opportunities rather than problems. We’ll explore motivations to migrate or modernize, their risks and considerations you should be aware of before embarking on a (migration or modernization) project.
Lastly, we’ll discuss how modernizing IBM i applications with optimized business workflows, integration with other technologies and new mobile and web user interfaces will enable IT – and the business – to experience time-added value and much more.
Having trouble getting management approval for modernization projects? The problem may be you're not speaking enough "business" to them.
This Developer Kit provides you study-backed data and a ready-to-use business case template to help get your very next development project approved!
IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators is small.
This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn:
Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. In Part 2, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Attend this webinar to learn:
In this session, IBM i security expert Robin Tatam provides a quick recap of IBM i security basics and guides you through some advanced cybersecurity techniques that can help you take data protection to the next level. Robin will cover:
Don't miss this chance to take your knowledge of IBM i security beyond the basics.
In today’s threat landscape, upper management is laser-focused on cybersecurity. You need to make progress in securing your systems—and make it fast.
There’s no shortage of actions you could take, but what tactics will actually deliver the results you need? And how can you find a security strategy that fits your budget and time constraints?
Join top IBM i security expert Robin Tatam as he outlines the five fastest and most impactful changes you can make to strengthen IBM i security this year.
Your system didn’t become unsecure overnight and you won’t be able to turn it around overnight either. But quick wins are possible with IBM i security, and Robin Tatam will show you how to achieve them.
Malicious programs can bring entire businesses to their knees—and IBM i shops are not immune. It’s critical to grasp the true impact malware can have on IBM i and the network that connects to it. Attend this webinar to gain a thorough understanding of the relationships between:
There are a number of ways you can minimize your exposure to viruses. IBM i security expert Sandi Moore explains the facts, including how to ensure you're fully protected and compliant with regulations such as PCI.
DB2 Field Procedures (FieldProcs) were introduced in IBM i 7.1 and have greatly simplified encryption, often without requiring any application changes. Now you can quickly encrypt sensitive data on the IBM i including PII, PCI, PHI data in your physical files and tables.
Watch this webinar to learn how you can quickly implement encryption on the IBM i. During the webinar, security expert Robin Tatam will show you how to:
Despite the many options IBM has provided to protect your systems and data, many organizations still struggle to apply appropriate security controls.
In this webinar, you'll get insight into how the criminals accessed these systems, the fallout from these attacks, and how the incidents could have been avoided by following security best practices.
You will learn the steps you can take to avoid the mistakes made in these examples, as well as other inadequate and misconfigured settings that put businesses at risk.
When it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed.
Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:
Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.
Part 1 will teach you what Node.js is, why it's a great option for IBM i shops, and how to take advantage of the ecosystem surrounding Node.
In addition to background information, our Director of Product Development Scott Klement will demonstrate applications that take advantage of the Node Package Manager (npm).
Watch Now.
The Biggest Mistakes in IBM i Security
Here’s the harsh reality: cybersecurity pros have to get their jobs right every single day, while an attacker only has to succeed once to do incredible damage.
Whether that’s thousands of exposed records, millions of dollars in fines and legal fees, or diminished share value, it’s easy to judge organizations that fall victim.
Join this webinar to learn about the biggest errors made when securing a Power Systems server.
This knowledge is critical for ensuring integrity of your application data and preventing you from becoming the next Equifax. It’s also essential for complying with all formal regulations, including SOX, PCI, GDPR, and HIPAA
Watch Now.
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Robot automates the routine tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:
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Managing messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events?
Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:
- Automated message management
- Tailored notifications and automatic escalation
- System-wide control of your IBM i partitions
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Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing.
Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:
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- View online without delay
- Browser interface to make notes
- Custom retention capabilities
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For over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i.
Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:
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