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IBM i 2023: Guided Tours, the 35th and More

Happy New Year, everyone! I’ve decided to start 2023 off right by telling you a bit about what’s coming in 2023, while also telling you a bit about some things we did last year that you might want to know about. Let’s get started. In 2021 and 2022, IBM started selling Power10-based servers—with IBM i […]

Recruiting Untapped Mainframe Talent

One of the biggest challenges in the world of legacy technology is the talent gap. While venerable systems such as mainframes still run the world, it is incredibly difficult to find people to run and manage them. This creates a precarious situation for CIOs and CTOs who are under constant pressure to help their teams […]

IBM, Lenovo and HPE Servers Deliver Strongest Security as Data Breaches Surge

A 52% majority of enterprises cannot determine the amount of time it took their businesses to identify, isolate and shut down a security attack

The Evolution of N2i

Richie Palma, Marina Schwenk and Anna Marrah highlight the COMMON N2i group—from how it started to where it’s going

A Look at Upcoming COMMON Events

COMMON is the preeminent organization offering the best educational opportunities for IBM Power Systems professionals. We’ve been busy setting up 2023, so let’s look at what is coming this year.  iHAXLABS Kicking off the year is a LoopBack Hackathon that is being held in conjunction with Common Europe and is branded as iHAXLABS. This event […]

Node.js Is Here for the Long Haul

Charlie Guarino: Hi everybody. This is Charlie Guarino. Welcome to another edition of TechTalk SMB. Today I’m very happy to have with me—well if I look at the bio, I see a software developer at IBM working on enabling open-source software packages for IBM i. But quite literally in the last 30 minutes or so […]

A Look at the Latest AIX 7.3 Enhancements

In December 2022, AIX 7.3 Technology Level (TL) 1 became available. Many new features and functions were delivered with this TL. You can find the official list of announcements and “what’s new” information at the following links: I wanted to take a moment to talk about some of the new enhancements that caught my attention […]

Leveraging AI in the Marketing Realm

I love visiting my Grandmother, and over the years I’ve grown to love Waverly, Iowa. But it’s been even more pleasant visiting over the last few years, ever since a little coffee shop moved in less than a mile from her home. Until then, it was nearly impossible to get a latte or any kind […]

IBM i Services Update

I am happy to announce that IBM delivered another round of updates to IBM i Services with the Db2 Group PTF released earlier this month. This blog reviews my favorite enhancements. QSYS2.COMMAND_INFO is a new service to return command information similar to DSPCMD. With no WHERE clause, you can populate a list of all commands […]

Delivering Cyberresiliency for Mainframes

Cyberresilience is essential for operational and business continuity: it’s part-and-parcel of providing continuous protection for the business and maintaining a hardened security stance. How can you develop and deliver the right strategy to ensure this resilience, secure your mainframe systems and data from attack and other threats and, crucially, resume operations quickly and effectively in […]

Monitoring IBM i With Prometheus

In my previous blog post, I demonstrated how to deploy a simple dashboard using Grafana, an open-source visualization tool. Today, we will explore a different approach. Rather than using a Grafana backend running on IBM i, we will leverage Prometheus. Prometheus defines itself as “an open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit.” We can use Prometheus […]

IBM, Lenovo, HPE and Huawei Servers Remain Most Reliable Despite Security and Supply Chain Challenges

According to a 2022 ITIC survey, the zSystems mainframe and LinuxONE III recorded 3.15 seconds of unplanned per server/per minute annually—making IBM servers the most reliable

Insurance for Db2 for z/OS

Log-On Software’s Total Utility Control can automate many database tasks, as the North Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company recently discovered

Overcoming Misconceptions to Unlock Data Potential

Mainframes and IBM i systems are still as vital as ever, with the number of transactions they process increasing every year. Today, mainframes process 90% of all credit card transactions, and 71% of the Fortune 500 trusts them to run their most critical business applications—ensuring security, reliability and scalability. But as businesses are becoming increasingly […]

How to Navigate Ransomware Attacks

We know from the IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report that the average time to identify and contain a data breach is 277 days–207 days to identify the breach and 70 days to contain the breach. The report also found that the average cost of a data breach is $4.35 million. And we know […]

IBM i Security in the Hybrid Workplace

According to a recent AT&T work survey, “Hybrid work will be the foremost working model by 2024, with 56% of work done offsite.” Many companies that deployed remote work solutions during the pandemic found that employees working remotely can be as productive as being in the office. In addition, employees are demanding the flexibility to […]

Cloud, IBM Support, AIX History and More

Recently my wife and I traveled cross-country via car. We spent time with family in Virginia and then drove north through Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York state. After celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday, we circled back through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico before returning home to Arizona. Over two weeks, we covered […]

Scott Forstie on SQL Services and IBM i 7.5 Capabilities

Spotlight for the B side: IBM’s Scott Forstie on SQL services, geospatial functions and IBM i 7.5 capabilities

Peter Fandel on DevOps and Open System Collaboration

Reg Harbeck: Hi, this is Reg Harbeck and today I’m here with Peter Fandel, who is the director of product management at Rocket Software. Peter, welcome. How did you end up in the world of mainframe? Peter Fandel: Ah, well thank you for having me today. How did I end up in the world of […]

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Leveraging AI in the DevOps Process

Through the DevOps process, organizations can deliver value and innovation to meet business and customer demands. However, a flawed development project can have a disastrous effect on a brand’s reliability and revenue. Quality assurance (QA) teams are tasked with ensuring the quality, completeness and accuracy of a project before it’s distributed. But with rapidly changing […]

Moving Mainframe Apps to the Cloud: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

Over the last few years there’s been a noticeable push from the big public cloud data center providers to encourage enterprises to move their zSystems mainframe applications to the cloud. Cloud providers are offering a mix of support to entice companies, including development and runtime environments, systems integration tools and expertise—plus assurances that moving to […]

Ways to Work With Your JVMs in Navigator for i

One of my very first i Can blogs was “Work With Your JVMs,” written when the JVM CL commands (WRKJVMJOB, DSPJVMJOB, PRTJVMJOB, and GENJVMDMP) were added in the 6.1 release. Since that time, IBM added additional ways to work with your JVMs. This post provides updated information on the features available in Navigator for i […]

Sudharsana Srinivasan on Mainframe Advocacy and Education

Reg Harbeck: Hi, I’m Reg Harbeck and today I’m here with Sudharsana Srinivasan, who is the IBM zSystems Advocacy program manager. Sudharsana, welcome. Great to have you on the podcast.   Sudharsana Srinivasan: Thank you so much Reg. It’s great to be here, looking forward to our conversation.   Reg: Yeah, so you and I […]

IBM Diamondback Tape Library: Storage for the Future

In an age when data capacity is growing rapidly, the need for smart, sustainable, resilient storage solutions is growing just as quickly. Enter: IBM Diamondback Tape Storage. Released in October 2022, Diamondback is a next-generation, sustainable, ultra-high-density storage solution designed to protect against the constant threat of ransomware and data breaches in hybrid cloud environments. […]

Building for Successful Modernization and Operationalization

As IT environments evolve, so do security and modernization strategies. And while no “one-size-fits-all” modernization solutions exist, there are certainly ways to position your organization for a successful IT environment modernization plan poised to meet business needs.   According to Ensono’s Oliver Presland, for example, successfully laying out your modernization plan begins with asking yourself […]