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A question for software companies that charge an unreasonable fee when you simply change your hardware: what the heck is wrong with you?

steve pitcherWritten by Steve Pitcher

I have two new six-core IBM Power Systems S814 boxes on the way to my data center as I write this. These machines will replace our two existing six-core Power Systems 720s that are getting a little long in the tooth. We put them in place in 2010 and got a good four-plus years out of them. With all six cache batteries having been replaced and about six disk drives replaced, she's starting to show her age. Plus we're about ready to move onto a new vendor-supported ERP, replacing our homegrown systems we've built and customized ourselves for the last 40 years or so. Exciting times and a lot of hard work ahead.

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The value of a user group is usually gauged by the collaboration within it's members. Let me tell you why COMMON does one better.

steve pitcherWritten by Steve Pitcher

The first weekend of each December is when this brave columnist and his fellow Common Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) members brave the cold and travel to Rochester, Minnesota, to meet with IBM for two days of meetings where we represent the collective community of the COMMON Americas User Group. While I can't discuss in specific detail what we talk about, I will tell you that there is a tremendous amount of collaboration between the CAAC and IBM. This benefits independent software vendors (ISVs), IBM Business Partners, and most certainly Power Systems customers. The CAAC has a counterpart organization affiliated with COMMON Europe that gives IBM a perspective from the European Power Systems community as well.

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Our community deserves so much better than to languish about managing our systems via the green-screen.

steve pitcherWritten by Steve Pitcher

I was at the COMMON User Group Fall Conference and Expo a few weeks ago, where I presented a session called "Modernizing Systems Management with IBM Navigator for i." The overall turnout for the conference was pretty good, considering it was a fall conference and Indianapolis isn't the warmest place on Earth at the tail end of October.

 

I had a number of purposes for this session. The first was to update perceptions of IBM i administrators. While there is a time and place for the command line, the idea of managing a modern system exclusively through a text-based interface is old school.

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Hiring new people may not be as complicated as we make it out to be.

steve pitcherWritten by Steve Pitcher

My task this spring was to hire a developer. We knew which way the business wanted to grow and needed some additional full-time development help to begin with. We had some "legacy" IBM Domino applications that desperately needed a refresh in terms of functionality and web enablement, plus we needed to be more flexible in doing custom development to augment the primary ERP systems. Also, the ability for new apps to be built with a responsive design was a must-have, given our growing demand for mobile computing.

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In the spirit of last week's article regarding IBM's on-premises intentions for IBM Mail Next, we need to simplify and fix Domino SSL. It's going to break.

steve pitcherWritten by Steve Pitcher

A few months ago, I renewed my wildcard SSL certificates from GoDaddy.com and began the process of updating both types of HTTP servers in my shop: IBM HTTP Server and IBM Domino. I usually do Domino first and then IBM HTTP Server, the latter of which is a bit of a struggle. I'll get to that.

 

Updating Domino is always a journey as it involves importing a new certificate into the Domino keystore and then updating the existing proprietary *.kyr key file in my primary Domino server's data directory.

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When it comes to the future of email, we need to all be on the same page. But are we even reading the same book?

steve pitcherWritten by Steve Pitcher

Last week, I was on a webcast for IBM's forthcoming email product, IBM Mail Next. While on the webcast (and any webcast actually), I was also plugged into a number of social media outlets, Skype chats, and the like in order to discuss the content of the presentation with industry peers and get a feel for their thoughts and insights into what IBM deems as the future of email.

 

I first wrote about Mail Next after IBM Connect 2014 in January. My sentiment at the time was entirely positive.

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When apps attack, memory is the weakest link.

steve pitcherWritten by Steve Pitcher

IBM announced the new 4-core POWER8 S814 on June 10. While the new P05 iron works well for many shops, I think a lot of customers could benefit from added memory capabilities if IBM were able to do it.

 

Back when IBM announced the first round of POWER8 boxes in April, a number of people were wondering where the true SMB box was. By SMB, I mean in the P05 software tier. Most of the IBM i on Power Systems market is around the P05 size, small machines with a couple of cores running the small side of the small-to-medium businesses. Those are the IBM i bread and butter customers right there.

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Who knows what's best for your company's technology future? It's the people in the trenches who get their fingers dirty crawling under your desks: your faithful IT department. And they need to be freed from stagnating budgets.

steve pitcherWritten by Steve Pitcher

Why is it so hard to fund the mandatory?

 

A few months ago, I heard from a peer of mine who was tickled pink because she was able to bring on two new full-time IT resources; one is a developer, and the other is a business intelligence reporting guru. Those are two new positions, not replacements. For a small shop like hers, it's an extremely big deal. By small, I mean they have a CIO, four pure tech people, and two peripheral workers that have IT-related duties. That group supports about 600 users. By a big deal, I mean that it took her close to three years to cost-justify the positions and get them approved.

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