02
Sat, Nov
2 New Articles

IBM i Growth Up, Escape the Family with New Redbook on IBM i 7.1

General
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

The product of more than 100 people, the latest IBM Redbook dissects IBM i 7.1 into a thousand bite-sized pieces.

 

The Great Recession may have put a crimp in many people's lifestyles, but apparently it has only renewed interest in IBM i, according to Steve Will, chief architect for the venerable OS. According to Will, companies have been forced to reevaluate all their IT systems with an eye toward efficiency, and the numbers don't lie; IBM i on Power Systems delivers to companies a top-tier service at a very competitive price.

 

"As the economy declined in 2008-9, many businesses were forced to delay purchases and upgrades," Will writes in his blog, "You and i: IBM i Trends and Strategies." But he notes that "many also took a cold hard look at which platforms were really delivering for them." The customers with whom he talked "concluded that IBM i was right at the top of their list for cost-effective IT service delivery."

 

Finally, someone is starting to care about total cost of ownership! I guess when you have money to burn, it's not that big of a deal what you do. Tighten the purse strings a bit, and guess what? We've just re-discovered this great system! In any case, Power Systems third-quarter sales were great, with 15 percent growth year over year.  The really good news, however, is that IBM i software sales grew at an even better pace—19 percent YTY, which, as Will notes, was "faster than the platform itself." The results made for four consecutive quarters of growth for IBM i.

 

It's no secret that the hassles involved in moving to IBM i 6.1 have slowed adoption of the latest IBM technologies. However, that pause is giving way to a new momentum, according to Will, who reports that many companies are moving directly from V5R4 to IBM i 7.1 and skipping 6.1 altogether.

 

"In 2011, we have seen an acceleration of people going direct to IBM i 7.1," says Will. "The reason? It's just as easy to go directly from 5.4 to 7.1; you miss having to do another upgrade, and you also get easy access to new technologies with the Technology Refresh delivery mechanism we provide with 7.1." Customers who make the leap directly to 7.1 will wind up having a longer support window and get faster access to new hardware and virtualization enhancements.

 

For readers who want to easily catch up with the latest 7.1 technology, you're in luck. A new IBM Redbook was just released last month that goes into delicious detail about all the technical goodies to be found in 7.1. So if you are still stuck on V5R4 of i5/OS but you know an upgrade is in your future, you may want to download this new Redbook titled IBM i 7.1 Technical Overview, Including Technology Refresh Updates – November 2011, and you can then talk the talk and walk the walk.

 

This Redbook has no fewer than seven authors, and we would like to give them a little recognition, so I'm going to point out that Hernando Bedoya, Systems and Technology Group Lab Services and Training, Rochester; Ahmed Mansour, IBM Lab in Cairo, Egypt; Michael Harper, ANZ Techline in Australia; Robert Jacobsen, Global Technical Services Delivery Data Center, Rochester; Matias Centeno Lozada, Latin America SW Support Center, Buenos Aires; Jiri Sochr, IBM Delivery Centre Central Europe, Brno, Czech Republic, and Tom Vernaillen, senior IT specialist in Belgium—along with about 100 other IBMers—apparently burned a few midnight candles on this one. That's because this tome is 688 pages of blissful technical terminology covering everything from backup and recovery to virtualization and everything in between. From one publisher to another—allow us to extend our compliments to the chef!

 

In the Redbook, you've got your DB2 section, your Power HA section, your storage management portion. You've got security, including encryption, and, wait…"Application Development on IBM i Enhancements." This section discusses additions and modifications to 7.1 relating to C/C++, ILE RPG, ILE COBOL, and CL. It also goes into OS enhancements for PHP on IBM i, including a discussion of Zend Server Community Edition for IBM i as well as the full Zend Server and the Zend IDE Zend Studio. Readers will find enhancements pertaining to the IBM Toolbox for Java JDBC, native API support for zip files, support for Lotus, and the new Application Runtime Expert for IBM i, a GUI that collects and verifies attributes on the system's applications, runtime environment, and other features and settings.

 

The Redbook is filled with diagrams, code examples, charts, commands, and everything to help get the message across—short of a DVD with video. Yes, you will have to actually read it. But look at it this way: you'll be getting ahead in your career in the process. Plus, you have an excuse to get away from the spouse and kids for a few hours a day (it's far too cold to play catch out in the backyard in December, anyway).

 

And, as always—and this is one of the best things about these great Redbooks—it's free.

Chris Smith

Chris Smith was the Senior News Editor at MC Press Online from 2007 to 2012 and was responsible for the news content on the company's Web site. Chris has been writing about the IBM midrange industry since 1992 when he signed on with Duke Communications as West Coast Editor of News 3X/400. With a bachelor's from the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in English and minored in Journalism, and a master's in Journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Chris later studied computer programming and AS/400 operations at Long Beach City College. An award-winning writer with two Maggie Awards, four business books, and a collection of poetry to his credit, Chris began his newspaper career as a reporter in northern California, later worked as night city editor for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and went on to edit a national cable television trade magazine. He was Communications Manager for McDonnell Douglas Corp. in Long Beach, Calif., before it merged with Boeing, and oversaw implementation of the company's first IBM desktop publishing system there. An editor for MC Press Online since 2007, Chris has authored some 300 articles on a broad range of topics surrounding the IBM midrange platform that have appeared in the company's eight industry-leading newsletters. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: