Glad to have you back for this week's IBM i Pulse! Each week we will be taking a deeper look into this week's IBM i news. This week we are looking at some fresh faces, an interview with an IBM VP, and a set of backup strategies. But First...
Ted Holt is at it again with his Guru Insight on the IBM i. This week he is discussing Conditional SQL Unions. Great work Ted!
Source: https://www.itjungle.com/2017/07/17/guru-conditional-sql-unions/
Promoting IBM i - Fresh Faces!
by Steve Will
Previously we have showcased Steve's post about how to promote the importance of your IBM i to your executives (see that blog post here). This time Steve is showing you how to promote the IBM i by promoting others! Staffing is always a concern and a topic that executives talk about. Getting younger developers to join your company to help supplement the need for more man power, or simple take over responsibilities once the current developers want to retire is one of the biggest worries for IBM i shops.
There has been a "youth movement" so to speak lately and this has been highlighted by the IBM Power Systems program called, "Fresh Faces." This program highlights the younger generation of programmers and developers who are new to the platform. Profound Logic's own Liam Allan is one of the Fresh Faces... check out what Steve has to say about Liam:
"Liam Allan is an example of a Fresh Face who knows RPG because he learned it himself, and he also works extensively in open source languages. He’s taking advantage of the tight-knit community which surrounds IBM i. One significant advantage we have, as a community, is the existence of user groups—both online and in person—filled with people who help one another."
Knowing RPG can be a huge advantage for young developers, but companies shouldn't only look for new faces who only know RPG. The youth movement today has brought out a group of people who are highly trained and highly skilled and can adapt in any modern environment.
Keeping your executives focused on this "Youth Movement" can alleviate their fears of replacing retiring developers and needing to expand due to to work flow.
Source: http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/Blogs/You-and-i/July-2017/Promoting-IBM-i-%E2%80%93-Fresh-Faces!/
Sibley Elaborates on 'Synergy' of ILE Compiler Move
by Alex Woodie
Steve Sibley, the VP and business line executive for IBM Cognitive Systems, wrote an open letter to the IBM i customers and partners last month to announce the development of the Rational programming tools for IBM i and ILE RPG and ILE COBOL compilers would move into the IBM i development organization at the IBM labs in Minnesota. Sibley cited synergy as the main reason for the switch. Alex spoke with Sibley and asked him to elaborate on the change and here is some of what he said:
- “While the IBM i Compiler and Tools Development tools teams have always had a close relationship with the IBM i Development team in Rochester, bringing the team into the same organization enables a more streamlined focus on IBM i priorities."
- “Moving the compilers and tools under IBM i development allows requests for enhancements and additional function from our clients to be reviewed in context of the IBM i client base versus a broad brush of all IBM clients, which was the constituency that was supported by Rational as a separate organization.”
- “The IBM i push to enhance and extend the open source environments are reflected now in the beginning integration of Git with the RDi tools. Git plug-ins are supported within RDi and can work today with RPG code stored in the IFS. This will continue to be a direction;"
To ready all of Steve's quotes on the move, check out the full post below:
Source: https://www.itjungle.com/2017/07/12/sibley-elaborates-synergy-ile-compiler-move/
FIve Security-Related Reasons to Care About Your IBM i Backup Stragegy
by Carol Woodbury
Every IBM i shop should have an extensive back up strategy for your i, if you don't, this article will give you 5 reasons why you should! Take a look at these 5 reasons you will want to make sure your backup strategy is in place today:
- Data Retention Due to Regulatory Requirements - Specifically the retention of audit journal receivers. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requires you to hold onto 1 year of data. In addition, New York just passed a law that requires audit journal receivers be kept for 3 years. This is widely thought to be the standard that is coming in the near future.
- Recovery from System Failure - IBM i is extremely reliable, but there is always the potability of something catastrophic happening. Do you know what happens to your data in an emergency?
- Recovery from Making Changes - When purging the system of outdated data and user information, make sure that the data and users that you do want to keep are properly backed up.
- Breach Recovery and Investigation - If you don't back up your data properly you could do some major harm to your business if there is ever a breach. You may never look at a journal, but it's better that it is there then not. Also back up data helps during any investigation that might stem from an incident like a breach.
- Recovery from Malware - Hopefully this never happens to you, but a normal back up routine can help you recover from Malware quickly and effectively. Instead of setting you back years!
To read all of Carol's thoughts on each of these topics, check out the post below.
One of our focuses for 2017 is the continued adoption of Node.js in IBM i shops. Click here to read our white paper on Why Node.js Is The Solution Your Company Needs.
Also, Profound.js 2.0 has been released! See how Profound.js 2.0 can help modernize your IBM i today!
And there, you're all caught up! Sounds like we have an interesting 2017!
