02
Sat, Nov
2 New Articles

Out of the Blue: Midrange Perspectives

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

It is a hot August morning in Florida. The humidity is already high as the sun struggles to climb above thick cloud cover. Over the Atlantic, winds kick up random patterns of whitecaps. Two miles inland, in a modest residential neighborhood, Louis Garrida is getting ready to go to work at his building supply store...

Let's face it, a sudden power outage can visit a heap of bad juju on your data. To prevent such visitations, IBM offers a variety of products and services that provide diverse layers of protection against the vicissitudes of technology and nature. Residents in many parts of the country endure electrical storms, unreliable public utilities and other disruptions to the dependable flow of electricity. If a predictable power supply is indispensable to computing, so then are the devices that help ensure it.

The IBM Battery Power Unit is designed to span brief power outages and to allow an orderly shutdown of your system during extended power failures. If power is not restored after four minutes, the unit automatically executes a memory dump to disk. There is good and bad news in that. The good news is that a memory dump can save your work; the bad news is that the AS/400 is the only thing that can read it. The unit comes as a standard feature on D and later 9406s and is optional on the 9402 and 9404.

...Garrida arrives at work, a smallish cinder-block building with a large paved lot surrounded by a high, chain-link fence. Several customers are already waiting. He opens the thick Yale padlock and slides back the gate. Piles of lumber and hundreds of sheets of plywood are stacked in neat rows. He unlocks the office, moves quickly to the back room and powers up the AS/400. The point- of-sale terminals spring to life. Back in the yard, Garrida looks up. The sky is darkening and the wind is flexing the tops of nearby palm trees...

The next level in power protection for the AS/400 is an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). Typically, any UPS system will provide about 10-15 minutes of backup battery power in case of a blackout. But more battery packs can be added to the unit if additional time is required.

The Smart-UPS series, manufactured by APC, offers reliability up to 5000VA, and the AS/400 interface kit-included in the price of purchase-is able to perform unattended system shutdowns. The unit protects against brownouts and lightning surges, and includes a battery self-test which issues an automatic replacement warning. APC provides up to a five-year warranty and backs it with a $25,000 lifetime protection guarantee.

For state-of-the-art technology and superlative reliability, Fortress UPS offers a unit that boasts a mean time between failures of more than 11 years. That means the unit will likely be doing its job long after you've quit doing yours.

...The wind rises to a steady howl and it is raining. Helping people load plywood panels onto their trucks is tricky business. The wide surface of the panels catches gusts like a sail. Garrida helps when he can but customers vie for his attention, anxious to return to their homes and businesses to begin boarding up windows. Over the Atlantic, what was a tropical depression has now become a tropical storm...

Beyond ensuring uninterrupted power, LEA Dynatech manufactures a device which provides transient voltage and electronic noise protection not only for system power lines but also for communication lines. The Klean-Line Electronic Filter has a feature called Transient Eliminator (TE) that ensures phone and data lines are free of even the fastest transients whether caused by lightning, AC power induction or electrostatic discharge. Individual TE units protect the integrity of devices communicating with the AS/400 via twinax, RS-232, dial-up, leased lines or Ethernet.

...The stacks of plywood are almost gone, as are the customers. Louis Garrida prepares to lock up. For several hours now, radio bulletins have urged residents to evacuate the city. Outside, the wind continues to push sheets of rain across a darkened landscape. A tree bends, then sags atop a power line. The lights blink, then die. Garrida adjusts to the darkness and locates a flashlight under the counter. He collects the day's receipts and is about to leave when he turns and makes his way to the back room. He stuffs his last set of AS/400 backup tapes into the bank bag and hurries to his car...

Sometimes, however, even the most careful precautions cannot assuage nature's ire. Recent earthquakes in northern California, fires in the southern part of that state and floods in the Midwest suggest the need for even greater precaution. IBM's Business Recovery Services offer 13 hot sites across the country with state-of-the-art computing facilities and expert technical staffs to assist customers in times of disaster. Customers can bring their IS staff and backup tapes to the recovery facility, or IBM will ship your hardware configuration to the location of your choice. Hot sites are located in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Oakland, Philadelphia, Seattle, Sterling Forest (New York), Tampa and Washington, DC.

...Traffic is snarled but moves slowly inland as Garrida's car is buffeted by rain and gusts of wind approaching 70mph. The wind will soon rise above 120mph. The roof of Garrida's building supply business is eventually ripped away like gift wrap. Inside the cinder-block building, merchandise, racks, counters and a computer are smashed to rubble by a sea cyclone now 500 miles in diameter. The tropical storm is making a name for itself. The tracking center in Atlanta has dubbed it Hurricane Andrew. The town fleeing its manic winds is Homestead, Florida.

Hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed in the path of Hurricane Andrew. But IBM's Business Recovery Services and hot site in Tampa were instrumental in getting businesses up and running after the storm. Returning for his backup tapes allowed Garrida to quickly restore his sales, inventory and accounts receivable data, and eventually reopen his business. Building supplies would take on a new significance in Homestead.

All of these data protection products and services can be purchased from IBM Direct by calling 1-800-IBM-CALL. But if your experience mirrors mine, good luck. When I called to ask a few questions, I was shuffled off to three different people, put on hold a total of eight times and treated to a lot of dull music. An AS/400 specialist finally said she would have to get back to me. She did, but only to give me another 800 number for the manufacturer of one of the products in question. I dialed it, and got a company called Bag and Baggage. At that point, I turned my attention to other things. As we all know, disaster planning is something that can wait until tomorrow.

(The events described are a compilation and compression of events that took place in Homestead, Florida. Names have been changed.)

Victor Rozek has 17 years of experience in the data processing industry, including seven years with IBM in Operations Management and Systems Engineering.

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: