Talsco Weekly: Redefining “Soft Skills” in Business

Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

IBM i Brief: 🎗️ RPGPGM.COM-unity spreads at COMMON’s Navigate in Toronto. 🚀 Fresche expands CA 2E expertise with acquisition.
AI: Corporate AI Spending Impacts Enterprise Apps. IBM TechXchange 2024: Opening Kickoff.
Career: 📝 IBM i Professionals: Don’t Let Your Career Achievements Fade – Create a Historical Resume!
Development: 💻 VS Code revolutionizes IBM i development. 💻 Code for IBM i gets major enhancements.
Database: 🤖 IBM Db2 embraces AI with Database Assistant. 💻 Rust empowers Db2 with embedded applications.
Leadership: 🔋 Power Skills: Redefining “Soft Skills” in Business.
Learning: 🎓 IBM’s Power Skills Academy: Cultivating the Next Generation of IBM i Experts🎙️.
Trends: Pub/Sub Event Processing: A Game-Changer for IBM i.

IBM i Brief

🎗️ RPGPGM.COM-unity spreads at COMMON’s Navigate in Toronto Simon Hutchinson distributed RPGPGM.COM-unity ribbons at the event, fostering community spirit. Attendees can view photos of recipients here. Those who received ribbons but weren’t photographed are encouraged to send pictures. Curious about RPGPGM.COM-unity’s meaning? Visit this link to learn more about this initiative uniting the RPG programming community. 🚀 Fresche expands CA 2E expertise with acquisition

Fresche Solutions acquires UK-based Redbourn Business Systems, strengthening its Synon and CA 2E capabilities. This move enhances Fresche’s European presence and bolsters its IBM i modernization services.

A quick history: 🔍 Synon’s Journey

Synon, a groundbreaking 4GL tool for generating RPG and COBOL code, has undergone numerous transformations since its inception. Originally sold to Sterling Software in 1998, it has since been known as COOL:2E, CA 2E, and briefly as AllFusion 2E, before settling back to CA 2E.

AI

Corporate AI Spending Impacts Enterprise Apps

This caught my eye:

Rising generative AI investments, without IT budget increases, lead to cuts in cloud software and enterprise apps, affecting Salesforce and others.

The question becomes, will AI allow enterprises to build their own software in a fraction of the time and cost?

IBM TechXchange 2024: Opening Kickoff

Here is a reply to the Opening Keynote from the 2nd Annual TechXchange Conference with Dinesh Nirmal. As I started to listen to this, the gentleman that gives the introduction makes the following statement:

AI might not replace people, but people that use AI will replace people that don’t.

Let that sink in.

Takeaway: This highlights a crucial shift that is taking place. It’s not just about the technology, but how we adapt to and leverage it. The advancement of technology is all about using and leveraging new tools.

Career

📝 IBM i Professionals: Don’t Let Your Career Achievements Fade – Create a Historical Resume!

Are you struggling to recall all your career milestones? A historical resume is your career’s memory bank.

Unlike a traditional resume, this comprehensive document records every project, skill, and achievement throughout your IBM i journey.

It’s not for job applications, but a personal reference that ensures no accomplishment is forgotten.

By maintaining this detailed career log, you’ll always have your work history at your fingertips, ready to put into a current version of your resume for the perfect opportunity.

Read this article to learn why maintaining a historical resume is crucial for IBM i professionals.

Development

💻 VS Code revolutionizes IBM i development

A significant shift is occurring in IBM i development as RPG programmers increasingly move from Rational Developer for i (RDi) to Visual Studio Code with the Code for IBM i extension. This transition offers several advantages:

Seamless conversion of legacy code
GIT integration for better version control
Local development capabilities
Easy upgrades to modern RPG
Direct compilation to IBM i systems

This evolving toolset promises increased productivity and modernization for IBM i developers, marking an exciting time in the field.

🎥 Watch the short, 5-minute video from the “Technology Nerd”, Nick Litten himself that dives into some of the advantages of using VSCode.

💻 Code for IBM i gets major enhancements

IBM’s Fall 2024 update brings significant improvements to Code for IBM i, including expanded language support, enhanced database functionality, and improved debugging tools.

Adoption of Code for i continues to soar among IBM i developers, as they shift from heavy, expensive integrated development environments (IDEs) to lighter, open-source options.

The popular VS Code extension, now with over 40,000 downloads, continues to evolve under Liam Allan’s leadership at IBM, offering developers a powerful, open-source alternative to traditional IDEs for IBM i development.

Database

🤖 IBM Db2 embraces AI with Database Assistant IBM’s Db2 12.1 release introduces an AI-powered Database Assistant, leveraging watsonx to provide instant answers and real-time monitoring. This new feature aims to reduce downtime, resolve issues faster, and act as a virtual mentor for DBAs. With over 200 new features, including AI-driven query optimization and improved scalability, Db2 12.1 sets a new standard for enterprise databases in managing complex data landscapes. 💻 Rust empowers Db2 with embedded applications

What is Rust: Fast, safe, concurrent systems programming language.

Rust’s memory safety, concurrency support, and high performance make it an excellent choice for developing embedded applications in Db2. By leveraging Rust’s capabilities, developers can create efficient, secure, and reliable database operations that run directly on Db2 servers. This approach allows for complex logic implementation and optimized query execution, enhancing overall database performance and functionality.

While this is not directly related to the IBM i, it does offer some insight as to what the mainframe community is doing when it comes to Db2.

Here, Patrick Harned demonstrates how to develop and deploy Rust applications directly on Db2 servers. By statically linking unixODBC and using the ibm_db crate, developers can create high-performance, easily deployable binaries. This approach combines Rust’s functional interfaces with native execution, enabling efficient database operations and complex logic implementation directly on Db2 servers.

Leadership

🔋 Power Skills: Redefining “Soft Skills” in Business

Communication = Soft Skills = Power Skills.

The term “soft skills” is outdated and undervalues crucial business competencies. Originating from the US Army, it fails to capture the importance of interpersonal skills in high-stakes situations. In business, labeling these skills as “soft” implies they’re secondary to technical abilities. Instead, “Power Skills” better reflects their critical role in leadership and project success, especially in areas like AI and modernization where effective communication and teamwork are paramount.

Power skills, formerly known as “soft skills,” are critical for the IBM i community as it navigates succession planning, modernization, and the new AI paradigm. These skills, including effective communication, leadership, and teamwork, are paramount in successfully managing complex transitions and leveraging new technologies, ensuring that the IBM i community can adapt and thrive in an evolving technological landscape.

Learning

🎓 IBM’s Power Skills Academy: Cultivating the Next Generation of IBM i Experts🎙️

In a recent TechTalk SMB episode, host Charlie Guarino interviewed Linda Alkire, senior program manager at IBM, about the Power Skills Academy.

This initiative is addressing the crucial need for skilled IBM i professionals by providing comprehensive training programs. The academy focuses on equipping the next generation with essential IBM i knowledge and skills, ensuring a robust future for the platform.

By bridging the skills gap, IBM is proactively supporting the long-term sustainability and growth of IBM i environments across industries.

Trends

Pub/Sub Event Processing: A Game-Changer for IBM i

Publish/Subscribe (Pub/Sub) event processing is gaining traction in the IBM i community. This architectural pattern allows for real-time, asynchronous communication between different parts of a system or even between different systems.

Key benefits for IBM i environments:

Improved scalability and performance
Enhanced system integration capabilities
Real-time data processing and analytics
Decoupled architecture for easier maintenance and updates

As IBM i systems continue to modernize and integrate with cloud services, Pub/Sub event processing is becoming an essential tool for building responsive, event-driven applications.

Several companies and vendors in the IBM i space offer solutions that support Pub/Sub event processing:

Eradani: Provides tools for integrating IBM i systems with modern technologies, including support for event-driven architectures and APIs.
HelpSystems (now Fortra): Provides integration tools that can leverage Pub/Sub patterns.
IBM: Native support through IBM MQ, which can be integrated with IBM i systems.
Kafka: While not IBM i-specific, Kafka can be integrated with IBM i for robust event streaming.
Profound Logic: Their Profound.js framework includes event-driven programming capabilities.
Rocket Software: Offers modernization tools that can incorporate event-driven architectures.

These solutions enable IBM i shops to implement modern, event-driven architectures, enhancing their systems’ responsiveness and integration capabilities.

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