Andrea Fletcher, Software Developer, Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company
January 8, 2018
Name: Andrea Fletcher Title: Software developer Company Name: Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company Company’s Function: Final expense insurance HQ: Phoenix Years in IT: 3 The biggest challenge our data center is facing today is the rest of the company’s perception of what IT does. My favorite activity outside of work is any DIY activity. I […]
ArticlesThings to Consider When Doing a Network Redesign
January 2, 2018
When I started my career, my assignment was singular: Support CICS/VS on the mainframe. My clients were few, because online processing was relatively new, but two of the clients had grown into major players in online and were significantly expanding outside their home offices. In fact, these clients had offices spread across a substantial portion […]
ArticlesIBM Z Addresses GDPR Compliance With Pervasive Encryption
January 2, 2018
Personal data should be treated as important, guarded information. The European Union (EU) has underscored this fact by establishing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into effect May 25. Cindy Compert, IBM cybersecurity leader, U.S. Public Sector Market, and CTO, data security and privacy, IBM Security, prefers to more informally call the GDPR “the […]
ArticlesIBM z14 Pervasive Encryption Protects All Data
January 2, 2018
In reality, encryption is largely absent from corporate data centers. The IBM z14 is poised to change that.
ArticlesOpen Source is Changing Businesses
January 2, 2018
Some revolutions begin with a bang. But not the open-source revolution. In 1991, Finnish inventor Linus Torvalds was working on a computer project with the sole purpose of providing a challenge for himself. Liking what he saw, Torvalds showed the software that was to become Linux* to other programmers. Soon, many programmers began to contribute, […]
ArticlesYour Partner in the Cloud
January 2, 2018
McKinsey & Company predicts that enterprises building multiclouds with infrastructure on-premises are expected to double provisioned workloads by 2018 (bit.ly/2iz4a5k). Private clouds, when designed with the right technology, can deliver the simplicity associated with public cloud solutions, while retaining the security, availability and freedom traditionally associated with infrastructure fully under your control. IBM Power Systems* […]
ArticlesPosting Tweets from IBM i
January 1, 2018
More and more, social media provides an avenue to share information. It’s very easy to read your Twitter feed or post a Tweet using a smartphone, PC, etc., but what if you want to post Tweets automatically or on a schedule? Maybe you have a new product to promote or perhaps you want to advertise […]
ArticlesUSAA Integrates Applications and Data Across Platforms Using RESTful APIs
January 1, 2018
UP CLOSE Customer: USAA Headquarters: San Antonio Business: Financial services Challenge: Integrating applications and data across platforms Solution: Using RESTful APIs to open communications channels between backend and client-side resources Hardware: Eight IBM z13 systems Software: IBM WebSphere Application Server “There’s gold in them thar hills!” an old and enduring U.S. miner saying goes. It can apply today, as organizations are finding […]
ArticlesAn Application View of Data Is Important for a Point-in-Time Recovery
January 1, 2018
Hardly a week goes by without another report of data being stolen, lost or corrupted. Black hats working for organized crime or unfriendly governments often perpetrate these events, but many are the result of poor planning, carelessness or outright neglect. While most data centers with mainframe footprints have a disaster recovery (DR) strategy with a […]
ArticlesWhat’s New in RDi With V9.6
January 1, 2018
IBM i developers got an early Christmas gift in 2017—a new version of RDi to play with! Here’s an overview of some of the changes that we’ve found so far.
ArticlesThe Art and Science of AIX Performance: The Stats Utilities
January 1, 2018
An article series dedicated to AIX and the methodology of attacking and resolving performance problems.
PodcastsAndrew Hicks Celebrates Interest in the Mainframe and Building 3-D Printers
January 1, 2018
Reg Harbeck: Hi. I’m Reg Harbeck and today I’m here with Andrew Hicks who is a new IBMer who is involved with the mainframe and a vast number of other really interesting things. I met him at SHARE and every conversation we’ve had has been so interesting that we absolutely had to do a zTalk […]
ArticlesTrevor Perry on Slide Decks and IT Strategy
January 1, 2018
Paul Tuohy: Hi everybody and welcome to the first iTalk with Tuohy of 2018. To kick off the year, I think no better person to maybe look back at 2017 with and to kick off the new year is my friend, my colleague, my fellow IBM Champion and general AS/400 evangelist, Trevor Perry. [Laughs] I […]
ArticlesActive Memory Pools with Navigator for i
December 21, 2017
On the “green screen” you can see what pool a job is running in with Work with Active Jobs (WRKACTJOB); press F11 one time and you’ll find a column with the pool number. That’s nice, but you need to know the description of the pool that number is associated with. Using Work with System Status […]
ArticlesManaging Emerging Technologies
December 18, 2017
In this post, I finish up my focus on the management theme from the previous four weeks of posts, with a concentration on the management of emerging technologies like robots and artificial intelligence (AI). There’s been much written about jobs being lost to new technologies like computerized algorithms (at this time) and autonomous vehicles (in […]
ArticlesA Focus on Cloud Management
December 11, 2017
In this post, I keep my focus on the management theme from the previous three weeks of posts with concentration on cloud. What is different with cloud as compared to system, network and application management? Don’t cloud services require system and network management? Don’t cloud services run an application so isn’t application management useful? Time […]
PodcastsConnor Krukosky Talks About His Unconventional Path into Mainframes and IBM
December 11, 2017
Reg Harbeck talks with Connor Krukosky, young mainframe enthusiast, about how he got into mainframes and what he loves about the IBM Z platform. Listen to the interview via the orange play button or read the transcript below. Reg Harbeck: Hi. This is Reg Harbeck and today I have the honor and pleasure of being […]
ArticlesIBM i Open Source and the Talent That Follows
December 6, 2017
James Hodgkinson shares his company’s experience with open-source technology.
ArticlesDevOps Tricks: Integrate UrbanCode Deploy With zD&T for Software Deployments
December 4, 2017
IBM z Systems Development and Test Environment (zD&T) simplifies infrastructure requirements for mainframe development and testing.
ArticlesREXX Language Helps Ensure Consistency of Applications Across Platforms
December 4, 2017
The fact that the REXX programming language has a long history is an asset. It speaks to its stability, growth and expansion to different platforms and multiple versions. REXX has earned its reputation as a small, easy-to-learn language, just 23 instruction statements, that can be used to write programs for a wide variety of needs. […]
ArticlesA Comprehensive Approach to Application Management
December 4, 2017
In this post, I explore the discipline of application management, which is an IT management process with tools focused on the availability, performance and manageability of applications. Applications that have files, databases and other resources distributed over multiple OS images can be a challenge to manage. When suddenly some part of the application isn’t working, […]
ArticlesTo Attract and Retain Millennials, Organizations Must Appeal to Their Unique Wants and Needs
December 1, 2017
Millennials grew up with technology. From an early age, they’ve used mobile devices, computers and the internet. As a result, they aren’t afraid to push technology to new limits. This is why when millennials are exposed to the mainframe, they typically embrace it and see its benefits. As baby boomers who spent their careers on […]
ArticlesOptimize Memory to Enhance Speed of CICS Functions
December 1, 2017
This article focuses on CICS performance across all platforms. On the mainframe CICS is known as CICS Transaction Server (TS), but on other platforms it’s called TXSeries, with CICS Transaction Gateway providing standardized CICS interfaces and secure access. All products are developed and supported by CICS development, and interact with each other via facilities like […]
ArticlesThe Future for Enterprise Optimization is a Mainframe and Cloud Strategy
December 1, 2017
Mainframe workloads continue to grow in both magnitude and business value. As a matter of fact, the platform destined for extinction isn’t the mainframe, as predicted, but rather on-premises distributed infrastructure. That’s why the optimal future architecture for large enterprises includes only two platforms: the mainframe and the cloud. Those seeking to optimize the performance, […]
ArticlesIBM PowerAI Brings Together AI Solutions for Enterprises
December 1, 2017
When you’re big, it’s tough to be quick. The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has sent some startups soaring into the future, but it’s left some big enterprises planted in the past. “Every industry is being disrupted by AI startups—FinTech tools in the banking industry, self-driven cars in the auto industry—these new companies are using AI […]