05
Sat, Oct
2 New Articles

Building a Sound Investment Strategy Through Technology

Commentary
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

At their core, all companies must be careful investors.

 

Editor's Note: This article is an introduction to the white paper "Building a Sound Investment Strategy Through Technology" free for download from the MC White Paper Center.

Combining IBM Power Systems hardware (System i, iSeries, AS/400) and reliable automation software is a powerful investment strategy for companies that increases revenue, reduces expenses, improves their bottom line, and enhances customer experience.

At their core, all companies must be careful investors. They need to invest in stable growth commodities and carefully monitor their return on investment (ROI).

The IBM Power Systems server hardware platform (System i, iSeries, AS/400), with its operating system software (IBM i, i5/OS, OS/400), is a sound investment strategy for a number of reasons:

  • It is stable and available, with more than 99.9% reliability.
  • It can be expanded to meet future needs (known as scalability) from a basic 2-core processor, up to a massive 256 processor server, in many cases without having to invest in a new server.
  • It can balance resources and workload between applications running on the same system, and between physical systems, to maximize the efficiency of processing resources.
  • It has solid, built-in security features, like auditing, in its operating system. This was the first general-purpose system to attain the Department of Defense (DoD) C2 rating. And its operating system (IBM i) has never been successfully attacked by a virus.
  • It offers high availability (HA) and hardware mirroring (redundant hardware) tools, such as IBM PowerHA technology, to prevent downtime and speed up disaster recovery.
  • It provides multilingual capability for international markets.
  • It is easily automated, with a rich command set and programming inter­faces (called application program interfaces, or APIs) that simplify customization.
  • It offers many integrated vendor solutions for companies.

Solid Hardware: Invest in a High-Tech World

It's a strange paradox: most institutions should be careful, conservative investors, yet they must provide their customers with a high-tech, leading-edge experience. Complete online banking solutions, secure online retail experiences, and elec­tronic healthcare records are just a few features that customers now rely on constantly.

The Power Systems platform running IBM i is the “behind the scenes” system that makes these customer conveniences possible. This platform can host a website, support sophisticated software applications, provide AIX (UNIX) or Linux operating systems in separate partitions (physical or logical disk space areas), and offer powerful hardware and software functions such as virtual partitioning and shared processors, memory, and disk resources.

Meanwhile, the platform continues to support legacy applications that organizations have used for years to process and analyze the data that results from customer interactions.

Scalable

Mergers and consolidation are a way of life in business. The Power Systems architecture offers an easily scalable platform to help organizations grow cost-effectively. For example, a single partition can manage a huge workload; a single system can manage a large number of partitions that share a pool of CPU and disk resources. That means efficiency and lower hardware costs, both in manpower and energy requirements. And that ultimately translates to a lower cost of ownership with an easy-to-manage, integrated, secure system.

Balanced

Another cost-saving factor is the platform's ability to balance resources (and workload) between applications running on the same system (using subsystems), between system partitions, and even between physical systems (servers).

Commands can move memory and processing resources between workloads on a single system by taking advantage of the subsystem structure, the operating system's built-in performance tuner, and the hardware's capacity-on-demand feature. For example, capacity-on-demand can automatically activate and deactivate processor resources based on processing times, such as peak daily processing, or month-end or year-end processing. This helps institutions meet service-level expectations, shorten response times, and maintain Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between other companies and themselves.

Secure

Security on this platform is powerful and easy to implement. By securing against unapproved data access from inside or outside an organization, companies guar­antee that their customers' data remains confidential—good risk management.

Built-in tools (such as the DB2 database and secure system audit journals that track changes) work with vendor tools to enhance and organize built-in security features. Organizations can better secure and monitor their environment while they deal with strict regulatory requirements such as Payment Card Industry (PCI), Health Care Reform Act (HCRA), Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), and others.

The operating system (IBM i) is strongly virus-resistant because it is an object-oriented system. Unlike in the Windows or UNIX world, one object type cannot morph into another type, so viruses have a difficult time existing.


Chuck Losinski

Chuck Losinski is Director of Automation Technology for the Robot product line. He has more than 25 years of experience with IBM i systems. Chuck¹s background includes system implementation, programming, operations, and support. He is certified as an IBM System Administrator and has helped customers automate business applications from InFor, JDE Enterprise One, HBOC, RxClaim, Infinium, Jack Henry, and more.

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 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. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More 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 company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) 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:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. 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:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. 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:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA 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.

  • LANSAWhen 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:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic 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.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? 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: