Talsco Weekly: Has the IBM i reached a tipping point?

Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

IBM i Brief: Has the IBM i reached a tipping point? Find out how IBM i shops are using the platform in 2024.
AI: Do Executives know how good their employees' AI skills are? Not at all.
Career: Did you know the first ever CV/resume was written in 1482?
Development: Making sense of Journaled Tables with SQL. Do you use the At-A-Glance Monitoring (AAG) solution from Shield?

IBM i Brief

Has the IBM i reached a tipping point? I have been telling folks for a long time now, that we are in one of the most exciting times for the IBM i platform. This week’s publications on IT Jungle seem to confirm just that. Here are the headlines for this week: Power Systems Grows For The Second Year In A Row: You heard that right. For the 2nd year in a row Power Systems saw an increase in sales. It is estimated that in 2023 there was $544 million in sales for Power machinery and operating systems, up 11 percent from the previous year. The IBM i Base Is Ready To Keep Investing In The Future: We have been seeing this brewing for some time now. As we speak with IBM i developers and Hiring Managers from around the country, we continually hear about all the failed attempts to move away from the IBM i. While there are of course companies that successfully move away for any number of reasons, there are far more that are looking to stay (even if they realize it or not - if you know what I mean). This article is based on the annual IBM i Marketplace survey and webinar that is put on by Forta. If you are serious about your career as an IBM i professional and/or in a leadership position, this survey, as always, is a must read. There are so many takeaways here it is hard to list them all. I recommend diving in. New IBM Champion Class Grows Nearly 40 Percent: “IBM unveiled a new crop of IBM Champions this month, and the first thing that stands out is the size of the 2024 IBM Champions class. Big Blue gave the honor to 1,155 individuals this year, a 38 percent increase over last year.” Impressive. These are all signals of good things to come for the IBM i and Power Systems. Find out how IBM i shops are using the platform in 2024 Here is the link to Fortra’s annual IBM i Marketplace Survey for 2024.

AI

Do Executives know how good their employees' AI skills are? Not at all. This is a good point. While there is all this focus on AI and its benefits, the conversation that is being missed, which is the more important one to be had, is how good are employees at using AI.

"But AI's potential benefits are more than just artistic or chatbot-y, as businesses large and small tout its uses. Yet a survey showed many organizations have no plans to try out the tech, and many executives said they didn't understand how good their employees were at using AI for work purposes."

For example, the skill of using AI could be compared to the skill of when to use RPG vs Python. The only way a developer will know when to use AI is by knowing how to use AI.

Career

Did you know the first ever CV/resume was written in 1482? Can you guess who’s resume it was? The purpose of the resume today, much like back in 1482, is to land an interview. So the question you need to ask yourself is:

How do you write your resume in a way that makes the hiring manager think, “Let’s interview this person”?

This is a fantastic guide on how to craft your resume. It provides a step by step process on how you can use the job description to write your resume.

Development

Making sense of Journaled Tables with SQL Have you ever had a number of tables that have been journaled and you wanted to analyze what changed during a certain period of time? If so, you can find the quick solution here. Do you use the At-A-Glance Monitoring (AAG) solution from Shield? Special announcement. A week or so ago, Shield Advanced Solutions made the announcement about the HMC checks being shipped in the latest updates for AAG, and now they are announcing a NEW update for the HMC checks! They felt that their amazing product was not good enough, so they made it better. They came up with a totally new set of HMC checks and a new install wizard. If you are a user of their products, they ask you to:

Check out their website for a view of what they are delivering with their AAG monitoring solution for Nagios XI. The number of checks are increasing regularly.

On a side note, I had the pleasure of meeting Chris Hird at NAViGATE 2023 in Virginia Beach. He is truly one of the great innovators in the IBM i community. He has the attitude that, even if something is working, he will always find a way to make it better.

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