Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

IBM i Brief: New ARCAD Tool Decomposes Monolithic Code.
AI: Another IBM i Vendor enables AI integration.
Career: The IBM i Youth Movement.
Learning: Steve Jobs on Intelligence, Innovation and Learning.
Modernization: Tech Debt Is Not Just An AS/400 Problem.

IBM i Brief

New ARCAD Tool Decomposes Monolithic Code

ARCAD’s new tool targets modernization by breaking monolithic codebases into smaller, more manageable pieces. These can then be easily integrated using APIs and web services.

This new tool, will complement the existing transformation tools ARCAD has for modernizing code and the database. The idea here is to help IBM i shops incorporate microservices.

💡 What are microservices and why they are important. They are small, independent services that together make up a larger application. They help modernize legacy technology by breaking it into manageable pieces, enhancing scalability and facilitating easier updates and maintenance. Microservices are also referred to as web services.

Find out more about how this new product offering from ARCAD helps automate the dirty work as well as helps track down interlocking code dependencies.

AI

Another IBM i Vendor enables AI integration

Eradani unlocks the power of text messaging and AI within your IBM i environment

Envision customers altering orders effortlessly without customer service interaction, and IBM i applications provide personalized solutions by intelligently communicating and understanding customer needs through integrated text messaging and AI.

Learn more here.

Career

The IBM i Youth Movement

The evidence shows that the work COMMON Education Foundation, IBM i user groups and organizations like N2i have had on attracting younger talent to the IBM i platform is WORKING.

This was on clear display at POWERUp 2024 this past week.

As Alex Woodie puts it:

The POWERUp 2024 attendees – all 1,100 of them – came to the show to learn about the platform, which may be in the early stages of – dare we say it? – a youth moment.

Take a look at the photo here and take note of what year COMMON attendees started on the platform. You will notice that there are close to as many new folks as there are old folks on the platform.

As many of us have known for a long time, there is a sentiment of excitement about the IBM i platform vs the doom and gloom of the past.

The future is exciting to say the least.

Side notes:

The sessions that were jam packed where the ones on VS Code where developers were looking to get the latest on the database extensions that are now available. If you have not started using VS Code – you probably should.
Universities To Add IBM i Curriculum: Northwestern State University in Louisiana is going to start teaching and IBM i curriculum.

Learning

Steve Jobs on Intelligence, Innovation and Learning

Steve Jobs believed high intelligence is about seeing the bigger picture and making connections between diverse experiences. It’s not just about memory but about fluid intelligence – the ability to learn, retain, and apply new information. Developers should focus on learning new things and gaining a variety of experiences to make innovative connections.

Modernization

Tech Debt Is Not Just An AS/400 Problem

When you live in the IBM i bubble, you might think that all this talk about modernization of legacy code and tech debt only applies to AS/400 environments.

💾 Technical Debt: the accumulation of shortcuts and compromises in software systems, is an issue across industries with consequences ranging from system failures and security breaches to hindered innovation.

Not true.

There is not a tech stack out there that doesn’t have tech debt. As this article reports it amounts to $2.41 trillion annually.

This article rightfully makes a point that we all in the IBM i community can appreciate.

I’ve also seen it too many times where a company with great technology gets acquired, and the acquiring company just looks at it afterward and says, “I can’t deal with this. I can’t integrate it. It doesn’t use a language we’re familiar with or that we use. I don’t have any developers that know COBOL or Fortran anymore.” It’s a shame because its good technology, and it gets shelved. The intellectual property tends to get absorbed into something else, and you never see it again.

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