IBM, Cloud, Power9 and AI

Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

News: The $100 billion cloud market. Are we headed back into the 1990's?
AI: IBM is fighting cancer with open source AI. Deep Learning is getting easier. Power9 and AI.
Career: The #1 Skill you need. Resume makeover.
Development: Node project and using RDi to test.
Learning: Learn about Quantum Computing. There has never been a better time to be an IBM i Developer.
Modernization: Understanding the types of people that are derailing your modernization efforts.
Security: Passwords are not enough to protect you.

News

The cloud computing market is closing in on a $100 billion milestone

"Amazon is still the dominant player in the cloud, but Microsoft has been narrowing the gap. The cloud market, which covers web-based services for infrastructure, platform and hosted private clouds, totaled about $23 billion in the second quarter, according to Synergy Research Group. That's up 39% from the year-ago period and $1.6 billion from the previous quarter."

IBM-Red Hat: Should developers worry we’re headed back to the 1990s?

"IBM finalized its $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat last week, one of the largest technology deals in history. A lot is on the line for IBM and for CEO Ginny, who some have said is staking her legacy on the deal. The companies themselves believe that, combined, they are “the leading hybrid cloud provider.”"

The reality is that much of their software platform revenues come from traditional infrastructure business, not public cloud.

AI

IBM Just Made its Cancer-Fighting AI Projects Open-Source

"IBM recently developed three artificial intelligence tools that could help medical researchers fight cancer. Now, the company has decided to make all three tools open-source, meaning scientists will be able to use them in their research whenever they please."

Deep learning is about to get easier — and more common

"We’ve seen a big push in recent months to solve AI’s “big data problem.” And some interesting breakthroughs have begun to emerge that could make AI accessible to many more businesses and organizations."

Competitive Edge that Power9 Brings to Cloud and AI

Business needs are changing the IT landscape. Power9 allows for the shift from the process economy to the insight economy.

The "entire POWER9 stack—software and hardware—with a focus on meeting the demands of cloud computing and using AI to derive faster insights" gives business the capabilities that are necessary to drive digital transformation.

Career

The No. 1 Skill You Need for the Best Business Results

Take some advice from this entrepreneur. He says the No. 1 skill that has helped him is "Building partnerships and genuine relationships."

He sees connections, relationships, and possibilities where others don’t. He feels that genuine relationships will take you places and open more doors than any other skill.

IT resume makeover: Finding the right aesthetic and format

“After decades in IT, it can be hard to capture the extensive skills and experience of a storied career in just one or two pages of a resume."

This article offers some helpful tips on how to recraft your resume. We have our own take on how to redesign your resume.

Development

Node Project – iDash

"iDash is an open source project that aims to make it easy to create dashboard pages for IBM i purposes."

Using RDi to test code

Here is an introduction to Code Coverage using RDi from Susan Gantner.

Learning

IBM Research explains how quantum computing works and why it matters

What the heck is Quantum computing?

"Quantum computing is a form of computing that takes advantage of some quantum effects that we believe can do certain types of algorithms much more efficiently than classical."

New Frontiers in Re-skilling and Upskilling

The one thing that is clear is: "Everyone, whatever their age, will at some point have to spend time either re-skilling (learning new skills for a new position) or upskilling (learning current tasks more deeply)."

With open source becoming more mainstream, there could not be a better time to be an IBM i Developer.

One thing is clear: RPG Developers will need to upskill and learn modern RPG programming along with adding additional skills to realize the true potential of the IBM i platform.

Modernization

Use This Improvisation Technique To Build Collaboration

As IBM i shops look to go through digital transformation and modernization projects, one of the things that holds them back are individuals who are not willing to collaborate.

Do you know of anyone like this? The excerpt below highlights three different types problem people.

Knowledge can only be volunteered - and working collaboratively is likely to be resisted by three types of people: Misers, Hindsights and Oracles. Misers don’t collaborate because they believe that holding onto knowledge makes them more powerful, Hindsights fixate on the past because they don’t have the skills needed for a collaborative future, and Oracles see no need to collaborate because they’ve already found the right answer.

Take away: Don't be a Miser, Hindsight or Oracle.

Security

Passwords are incredibly insecure, so websites and apps are quietly tracking your mouse movements and smartphone swipes without you knowing it

"Once you enter your password to access your accounts, you might imagine the website dusting off its hands in satisfaction that its verification process is complete and that, yes, it now knows it was you who just logged in and not an imposter."

But it doesn't stop there — websites and the companies behind them often monitor your behavior as a security measure, too.

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