IBM Announces IBM z/OS V2.5
July 28, 2021
According to an IBM Institute for Business Value study “Application modernization on the mainframe” released today, 71% of executives surveyed say mainframe-based applications are central to their business strategy; and in three years, the percentage of organizations leveraging mainframe assets in a hybrid cloud environment is expected to increase by more than 2x. With this in […]
ArticlesWhat Does the Future Hold for Open Source?
July 23, 2021
Jesse Gorzinski kicks off his “Open Your i” blog series on TechChannel. Learn what’s been going on with open source on IBM i, and what the future brings.
ArticlesThe Pandemic and Modernizing Your Mainframe
July 21, 2021
The press often seems filled with stories about how mainframes were first available in the 1960s and implies that the technology hasn’t advanced since then—ignoring the fact that cars and jet planes are even older, and they can be seen to be updated all the time. So, why wouldn’t mainframes have been updated to give […]
ArticlesSurvey Says: The Truth About COBOL and the World Economy
July 19, 2021
On June 14, 2021, the COBOL Working Group (CWG) of the Linux Foundation Open Mainframe Project (OMP) had the opportunity to present at the Marist Enterprise Computing Community (ECC) conference about a topic that shouldn’t be so surprising if people didn’t overlook how interesting and compelling it is—COBOL. Ah, COBOL: Common Business-Oriented Language—a name for […]
ArticlesAIX Patch Management With Ansible, and the Broader Benefits of Automation
July 15, 2021
Waiting on a Replacement Part, the Latest With OpenSSH, a Bold Client Choice and a VIOS Webinar
ArticlesUnderstanding Disk Space Utilization With IBM i Navigator Performance Tasks
July 14, 2021
Disk space utilization is simply how much of your available disk space is in use. Understanding disk space utilization is something all shops need to do since disk space utilization tends to creep up over time. In my experience, those who are not proactive in understanding where their disk space is going often end up […]
ArticlesWhat You Need to Know About Hiring for IBM i in 2021
July 14, 2021
A major shift in the workforce since the pandemic hit in 2020 has greatly impacted just about every industry, including IBM i. With the shift to work from home and many industries negatively affected by cutbacks and closures, numerous professionals are seeking less traditional means of employment. For the IBM i industry, these changes can […]
ArticlesBest Practices for AIX in a SAN Environment: Part 2, I/O Configurations
July 14, 2021
In my last article I explained the best practices for AIX in a SAN environment from a SAN perspective. I explained some best practices for SAN topologies, multipathing, FC-HBA configurations, among other recommendations. In this article, I’ll explain the best practices for the I/O configuration from the AIX perspective—that is, recommendations for data layout, filesystems, flash caches configuration […]
E-BooksTechChannel E-book: From Bootcamps to Digital Badges: How to Effectively Develop Mainframe Skills
July 12, 2021
As the existing mainframe workforce gradually ages out of the industry, effective mainframe training has become top of mind for the IBM Z ecosystem. But what strategies seem to work best, and where is there room for improvement? When it comes to mainframe training, there’s not going to be a “one size fits all” answer. […]
ArticlesOvercoming Unconscious Biases on COBOL and Women in Technology
July 12, 2021
TechChannel is excited to announce an upcoming monthly video series featuring conversations with women of COBOL, all of which will be moderated by (and is the brainchild of) Misty Decker, product marketing director, Micro Focus. Decker’s broad expertise within the mainframe ecosystem, along with her dedication to correcting misinformation and shifting unconscious biases, ultimately led […]
ArticlesHow to Use JSON in Your z/OS Program
July 7, 2021
First created in 2001, JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) has become the preferred way of creating structured data. Not limited to JavaScript applications, JSON formats can be found in web requests and responses and NoSQL databases. So, it makes sense that we will want our traditional z/OS programming languages (COBOL, PL/I, Assembler, C and REXX) to […]
ArticlesIBM i Navigator System Monitors
July 6, 2021
Everyone should be proactively monitoring key metrics on IBM i. If you’re not already monitoring your system, I recommend getting started with IBM i System Monitors, which are included with Navigator for i. The feature article, Monitor Your IBM i Application and System Health, reviews why you should proactively monitor your system; this blog post shows you how to get […]
ArticlesOf Stacks, Binding and Other Ambiguous Computer Jargon
July 5, 2021
One of the strangest things about the mainframe is our jargon, sometimes shared with other parts of IT, and based, somewhat oddly, not in Latin, Greek, or even German or French, but in that messiest of common languages: English. Yes, despite valiant efforts by other languages to inhabit computer hardware, software and programming languages (for […]
ArticlesRegister for the ‘Unmasking Our ‘Whole Self’: Can We Create Inclusive Psychologically Safe Spaces in the Workplace?’ Webinar
July 1, 2021
In the third webinar installation of the Making Our Strong Community, Stronger collaborative initiative on diversity, equity and inclusion, ‘Unmasking Our ‘Whole Self’: Can We Create Inclusive Psychologically Safe Spaces in the Workplace?’ we look at how the pressures of the pandemic have heightened racial, gender and additional inequalities. This webinar will take place on July 28 at 9:00 […]
PodcastsDerek Britton on the Language and Application of COBOL
July 1, 2021
Reg Harbeck: Hi, this is Reg Harbeck and today I'm here with my colleague Derek Britton who is a very active member of the enterprise computing community and especially the COBOL community. Derek, maybe if I can get you to start by tell us how did you end up being such an aficionado of both COBOL […]
PodcastsSteve Bradshaw Discusses the Global IBM i Community and NVMe
July 1, 2021
Paul Tuohy: Hi everyone and welcome to another iTalk with Tuohy. I'm delighted to be joined today by my friend and IBM Champion Steve Bradshaw. Hi Steve. Steve Bradshaw: Hey Paul, how you doing? Paul: I'm doing well thank you. I hope you're the same. Steve, I've done an iTalk with you before, but I just […]
PodcastsSusan Gantner, Jon Paris and Paul Tuohy on the Future of Virtual Conferences
July 1, 2021
Charlie Guarino: Hi everybody. Welcome to another edition of TechTalk. This is Charlie Guarino and today we are doing a departure from our traditional podcasts. In the past, it's always been one on one where we have one person, and we have an entire interview about that, but we're doing a different format today. If I […]
ArticlesBest Practices for AIX in a SAN Environment: Part 1
June 24, 2021
AIX supports different SAN topologies, switches and storage servers from multiple vendors. This represents challenges, due to the fact the interoperability among vendors is less than ideal. Therefore, one important aspect to get a reliable AIX is to follow the best practices for the SAN environment. In this article, I want to explain the major […]
ArticlesMainframe Connectivity: What’s Missing?
June 21, 2021
We can, perhaps, all remember a time when a simple 3270 terminal emulator was all we needed to access the mainframe without needing a directly-connected terminal. And we were really pleased that we could work from anywhere using this simple solution to our communication problem. It worked and our expectations were not very high. Next, […]
ArticlesHorses for Courses: Choosing the Right Player, Platform and Tool in the COBOL World
June 21, 2021
“OCCURS DEPENDING ON” is a wonderful clause in COBOL that resonates powerfully with a favorite answer that IBMers like to give to big, generic questions about how to choose and configure their technology: “It depends … ” In the first case, the programmer may be asking for arrays, while in the latter the IBMer is […]
Articles5 Reasons to Choose Open-Source Solutions for Software Development
June 16, 2021
Open source has revolutionized the software development industry. Open source means that the software created is released under a license that allows anyone to use it. The code is also distributed along with the software. Some of the most commonly used software systems in the world are open source. For example, the Firefox web browser […]
ArticlesPower Systems Best Practices Doc Updated, dnf, New IBM Customer Support Portals and More.
June 15, 2021
The Power Implementation Quality Standard for Commercial Workloads document has been updated. Get the details from Rob McNelly here.
ArticlesPowerVM Upgrades and Top 12 Tips for Maintaining Your VIO Servers
June 15, 2021
PowerVM v3 has now been out for some time. In this article, I’ll go over what you should think about when maintaining VIO servers. I’ve noticed that once a VIO server is installed, people tend to ignore it until they are forced to upgrade it—this is not recommended. So, here are my top 12 tips […]
ArticlesWhere to Find the Next Generation of IBM i Developers
June 14, 2021
Finding qualified developers is the single most important issue employers on IBM i face today. The issue is two-fold: there are less people in the workforce with IBM i experience and many developers with experience don’t have the modern knowledge to stay current. Today’s college degrees very seldom, if ever, contain IBM i education leaving very […]
ArticlesConsolidate SQL Educational Resources With the SQL Tutor
June 8, 2021
Developers often use SQL to access data in Db2 for i. With the ever-increasing number of IBM i Services, system administrators have a need to learn SQL as well. Regardless of whether you are new to SQL, or an experienced SQL developer, there is always more learn. A relatively new resource, the SQL Tutor, is available […]