IBM i/AS‑400 anniversary, Pi integration with IBM i, GenAI and Profound AI for IBM i apps, data management challenges with generative AI, Db2 v12 updates and AI‑driven query optimization, strategies for hiring RPG developers and the impact of remote work on office vacancy, and the role of IBM i, Power Systems, and Db2 as foundational modernization layers.
Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly
- IBM i Brief: The AS/400 is 36 years old this week 🎂. Pi To IBM i 🎙️.
- AI: Revolutionizing IBM i Apps with GenAI Technology through Profound AI. Reconsidering Data Management in the Era of Generative AI.
- Database: IBM's Db2 shows you can teach a tech dinosaur new tricks.
- Hiring: The Best Ways To Find RPG Developers. By 2026, Nearly a Quarter of U.S. Offices Could be Vacant, Highlighting the Rise of Remote Work.
- Modernization: Unveiling the Base Layer: IBM i, Power Systems, and Db2.
IBM i Brief
The AS/400 is 36 years old this week 🎂
Another year goes by and the AS/400 platform (IBM i), celebrates its 36th birthday.
Its longevity is a testament to the ongoing investment and dedication of companies, techies, and end users.
Fairly young if you think about it.
At POWERUp 2024 Shield’s, Chris Hird is interviewed by Remain Software’s, Wim Jongman, about Shield’s AAG – Nagios Monitoring for IBM i and how a Raspberry Pi (RPi) can be utilized.
If you have multiple LPAR’s running on a couple of boxes, this podcast is an important quick listen (4 minutes).
While the IBM i is good at a lot of things, there is other technology that might be a better solution. Here is an innovative approach using a Raspberry Pi and it’s web interface. The web interface will go out to http server, dial into the IBM i, and pull out the raw data (IBM i performance data) to present it in a graphical form.
For this, Grafana an open source data visualization and monitoring tool, is used. It allows you to query, visualize, alert on, and understand your metrics.
AI
Revolutionizing IBM i Apps with GenAI Technology through Profound AI
Profound Logic, a leader in IBM i technology for over two decades, has launched Profound AI, bringing natural language and generative AI to IBM i shops.
The challenge of GenAI for the Enterprise in general.
Although AI has been around longer than people think, it became mainstream with ChatGPT in early 2023. However, by the end of the year, only 10% of companies had GenAI apps in production.
Here are some of the challenges:
- Low deployment rate of GenAI technology
- Concerns over privacy and security
- Issues with governance
- Tendency for LLMs to "hallucinate," or make things up
- Newness of the technology
- Lack of user familiarity
Profounds mission for GenAI and the IBM i platform.
Profound AI, aims to lower the technical barrier to GenAI. It integrates AI into applications effortlessly without requiring extensive knowledge about underlying models. The solution standardizes and unifies various commercial and open-source LLMs, including offerings from Open AI, Google, Anthropic, and Meta. It serves as a framework, simplifying the construction of GenAI interfaces atop the LLMs, their integration into existing applications, and the feeding of information from databases into the LLMs, including Db2.
What about security?
Security is baked into Profound AI, Roytman added. That means that not only does the GenAI agent need to be granted authorization to access data, but it’s smart enough to identify so-called “prompt injection” attacks designed to trick LLMs into giving up sensitive information. - Alex Roytman, CEO Profound Logic
It’s interoperable.
Profound AI is built with Node.js. It can operate on IBM i and other Node.js compatible systems. It can use various LLMs, including OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Meta’s Llama-3 70B, as well as supports customized models.
The IBM i is as modern as you want it to be.
Reconsidering Data Management in the Era of Generative AI
Generative AI introduces new challenges including data risks and increased regulatory requirements. Effective data management and governance are crucial, especially when augmenting large language models with enterprise or non-public data.
Learn more about how the relationship between your data and AI here.
Database
IBM's Db2 shows you can teach a tech dinosaur new tricks
IBM's Db2, a 41-year-old database used by some of the world's largest banks and retailers, will be experiencing a revamp come November.
- Db2, IBM's breakthrough relational database, is expected to launch its v12 version for Linux Unix and Windows (LUW).
- The new version will replace its older Tivoli System Automation with Pacemaker technology for cluster management, improving component failure detection and failover procedures.
- The update will also include AI integration, with an AI-powered query optimizer promising up to three times query performance improvement.
- Db2 v12 will feature name space separation for multi-tenancy support and enhanced AI support via Watsonx.
While not specific to the IBM i, it is a signal that IBM with Db2 is keeping up with modern database management trends.
Hiring
The Best Ways To Find RPG Developers
If you’re looking to hire RPG developers, you may be feeling the pressure of a shrinking talent pool. However, it’s important to note that RPG developers aren’t the only ones looking to retire. Retirement is a widespread issue across all industries and technical stacks. This is due to demographics rather than perceived outdated technology. And the IBM i is certainly not outdated.
When it comes to hiring RPG developers, there are a few best practices you can follow to ensure you’re making the right choice.
Learn more about RPG Developer availability.
By 2026, Nearly a Quarter of U.S. Offices Could be Vacant, Highlighting the Rise of Remote Work
Remote work is leading to a 14% reduction in office space need. Surveys suggest 20% of work days will be from home, 4 times more than pre-pandemic.
As of last year, more than one-third of workers whose jobs can be done remotely are still choosing working from home all of the time, Pew Research Center found.
The key here is, “whose jobs can be done remotely”. While remote work in the IBM i community has risen dramatically, for those who can, there are many reasons why it is important to be in the office as well as remotely.
The primary challenge in remote work being fully effective lies in the company culture not fully embracing it, especially when job roles require physical interaction, such as meeting with manufacturing teams on the shop floor to discuss business process changes. It does not mean that remote work, does not work, it simply means that there needs to be a balance.
Modernization
Unveiling the Base Layer: IBM i, Power Systems, and Db2
Base-layer technologies are foundational components that establish the fundamental infrastructure for higher-level systems and applications.
They provide the underlying protocols, functionalities, and standards that enable interoperability, security, scalability, and performance, making them essential for building reliable and innovative solutions in various domains.
Learn more by reading this article.
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