Talsco Weekly: IBM i Training Company Trains 400+ RPG Developers

Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

IBM i Brief: 🖥️ IBM unveils Power10 hardware updates. 🔧 IBM updates Power Systems management stack.
Database: 🎙️ Diving Deep into IBM i Database Excellence. 📊 New Audit Journal Data Mart Features Enhance IBM i Security Analysis.
Learning: 🎟️TechXchange: The Ultimate Learning Event Of The Year.
Open Source: 🖥️ CodeChecker: AI-powered wisdom for IBM i developers.
Security: 🛡️ Gradio 5 audit enhances ML framework security.
Training: 🎓 IBM i Training company trains 400+ RPG developers.

IBM i Brief

🖥️ IBM unveils Power10 hardware updates

IBM announced enhancements to its Power10 lineup, including new NVM-Express drives for the Power S1012 server and expanded I/O capabilities for high-end systems. The updates improve storage options, support legacy tape drives, and increase expansion drawer limits for Power E1050 and E1080 servers. Additionally, Power Enterprise Pools 2.0 now supports up to 96 unique servers per pool, enhancing flexibility for enterprise customers.

🔧 IBM updates Power Systems management stack

IBM announced enhancements to PowerVM, VIOS, PowerVC, Cloud Management Console, and Hardware Management Console alongside IBM i and AIX updates. PowerVM 4.1.1 now supports the Caracal OpenStack release, while PowerVC 2.3.0 offers improved cloud management capabilities. The updates, available from December 12, aim to enhance virtualization, cloud control, and system management across Power8, Power9, and Power10 systems.

Database

🎙️ Diving Deep into IBM i Database Excellence

Peg Tuttle interviews ProData’s Nick Thelen and Alex Olvera discussing their powerful RDB Connect and DBU tools, emphasizing the critical role of security in database management.

Key Takeaways:

When listening, it is important to note how vibrant the IBM i platform is for the simple fact that:

IBM i developers are uniquely positioned to create superior databases, leveraging their deep understanding of the platform’s capabilities.

And,

In the IBM i world, we’re seeing a generational shift. While older professionals have been the backbone, a new wave of younger talent is emerging. There are significant growth opportunities for newcomers.

One of the keys to doing so is to know what tools are available.

📊 New Audit Journal Data Mart Features Enhance IBM i Security Analysis

With the latest TR that was released, the two new additions to the Audit Journal Data Mart are:

AUDIT_JOURNAL_xx
MANAGE_AUDIT_JOURNAL_DATA_MART

These additions added functionality that makes it easier to extract journal entries from the System Audit Journal, QAUDJRN.

Learning

🎟️TechXchange: The Ultimate Learning Event Of The Year

A premier event for IBM professionals to learn, network, and stay updated on the latest industry trends.

IBM i professionals might not have thought about going to TechXchange, but you should.

Why?

Because, the future of the IBM i is all about extending it’s reach beyond the walls of the IBM i.

That means leveraging software, hardware and utilities that are native to the IBM i, along with all the technologies that the IBM i connects with which is:

Everything.

This is not just a conference – this is the largest IBM learning event of the year. We go beyond theory and thought leadership, and dive into training, up-skilling, credentialing, and certification.

Here are some sessions that are COMMON to the IBM i:

Achieve Continuous Availability on IBM i with IBM Db2 Mirror for i (3281) - Scott Forstie
Ai-Ops - Automation, AI for Managing Your IBM i (3282) - Tim Rowe
Deep Dive into IBM i Wait Accounting (3280) - Dawn May
IBM i Modernization - The Key to a Brighter Future (3295) - Charlie Guarino
IBM i Programming with AI (3293) - Adam Shedivy
IBM i Security Cocktail, with an SQL Chaser (3296) - Carol Woodbury & Scott Forstie
Merlin, DevOps, Git, and Modern Development for IBM i (3294) - Tim Rowe & Sébastien Julliand
Take the Guesswork out of Securing IBM i Using Authority Collection (3279) - Carol Woodbury

Open Source

🖥️ CodeChecker: AI-powered wisdom for IBM i developers

ARCAD’s CodeChecker brings expert-level code analysis to IBM i, supporting all RPG versions. It integrates with RDi and VS Code, enforcing best practices and security measures. With customizable rules and “delta mode” for legacy code, CodeChecker helps modernize applications while maintaining quality.

As experienced developers retire, this tool becomes crucial for maintaining high coding standards in the IBM i ecosystem.

Security

🛡️ Gradio 5 audit enhances ML framework security

If you are thinking: What is Hugging Face? And, I have never heard of Gradio 5.

Hugging Face

Hugging Face is a popular platform and community focused on natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML).

Gradio

Gradio is a framework that provides a simple and easy-to-use interface for building web-based, machine-learning applications. It enables developers to create interactive and shareable demos with just a few lines of code without any prior web development experience.

Hugging Face’s Gradio 5, an open-source library for ML model interfaces, underwent a security audit by Trail of Bits. The audit led to improved security measures across all deployment scenarios.

Gradio now offers strong, secure defaults for local runs, server deployments, and share links. This update ensures enhanced protection for end users, whether using Hugging Face Spaces or other platforms.

Why Is This Important? As the IBM i ecosystem embraces the next generation of talent, not only will they want to take a deep dive into what makes the platform so great, but they will also bring an incredible curiosity to merge (integrate) this new world into its ecosystem. Both the newcomers and those who have been around a while will need to collaborate and come to a consensus.

Training

🎓 IBM i Training company trains 400+ RPG developers

Yep, you read that right.

An IBM i training company (can you guess which one?) has successfully trained over 400 IBM i developers in modern RPG. These developers are now working in IBM i shops across the country, applying their skills to production RPG applications.

The Economic Impact

These RPG developers come from diverse backgrounds: some are newcomers to IBM i, others are upgrading their existing RPG skills, and a few are transitioning from different programming languages.

If we are to put this in dollar terms, with salary ranges between $60,000 and $100,000.

That’s an average of $80,000 per developer. Multiplied by 400 developers, this represents a potential economic impact of $32 million in annual salaries.

Company ROI

Let’s say each of these developers ROI is approximately 3-5 times their salary. This means a developer earning $80,000 could potentially generate $240,000 to $400,000 in value for their company annually.

The Return On Investment comes from but is not limited to:

Increased efficiency in business processes
Automation of manual tasks
Development of custom solutions that directly impact the bottom line
Maintenance and optimization of critical business applications
Modernization of current applications and systems vs. the cost to moving other platforms

What is different about this turn-key RPG training program?

Accountability

Unlike many training programs on the market where students simply go through online lessons and check a box, this program grades students on their progress. If their programs don’t work, students must redo them.

Hiring managers receive regular updates on students’ progress. Additionally, both students and hiring managers participate in weekly “office hour” calls—a benefit that continues indefinitely.

With modern RPG training programs like this available for the IBM i community, we need not worry about how we are going to train the next generation of talent.

The question, then becomes, “where do we find the talent”?

If you are looking for additional hiring strategies, you can find them here.

Join

Contact us

If you are an RPG programmer looking to explore opportunities or a client who is looking for a talented IBM i professional, please contact us. We look forward to assisting you.

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