Where does the IBM i Platform go from here?

Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

News: POWERUp 2019 News and Recap. RedHat and IBM.
AI: Using your Data with AI. Data Science Models.
ERP: Prevent ERP Project failure by doing these things.
Learning: New Collar Skills Needed. IBM is doing their part.
Modernization: Speeding up the transformation of work. Three step process to change you application support for cloud and legacy IT.
Programming: RPGLE programming tip.
Trends: Bring the data back home. Public cloud, not so fast.

News

IBM Gives A Peek Of The Future At POWERUp 2019 Here is a great article covering the opening session at POWERUp 2019. It gives the backstory to the IBM i platform and the growth of the Power Systems business over the past six quarters. It highlights the evolution of the System/38, "AS/400e, iSeries, System i, and IBM i platforms" and how "over the course of three decades, the machines we have today do not look anything like the machines from prior decades" The question is, where will the IBM i platform go from here? Did you miss POWERUp 2019? Take a look at the Twitter feed for #POWERUp 2019 in Anaheim, CA. Where will IBM and Red Hat go from here “Sometime in the next few months, IBM's acquisition of Red Hat will go through. Here's what will happen to Red Hat afterwards.” More Than 1,000 Enterprises Across the Globe Adopt Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform to Power Business Applications “From energy to industrial, more organizations are using Red Hat OpenShift, a leading enterprise Kubernetes solution, to transform their industries.”

AI

Keynote: Exploiting the Value of Data Check out the keynote from POWERUp 2019. It gives a good picture into the future for the IBM i and its customers. It starts at about the 3:15 minute mark. It goes through how you can use AI with the data you already have. The keynote by Mike Hollinger, Master Inventor, Principle Engineer for PowerAI at IBM gives you a peak at how you can bring your data to life. In the past IT was about business processes and getting information back to the user. This is called the "process economy". But now there is a shift that is taking place. It is now called an "insight economy" where we are getting data from the customer that drives business decisions. Industrializing your AI and data science models with IBM Cloud Private for Data This article helps get you more familiar with how AI, and Data Science can be used in the enterprise. “Companies are entering “chapter two” of their digital transformation. The next chapter is all about moving from experimentation to true transformation. It’s about gaining speed and scale. ” "Businesses leaders are starting to seek help on how they can scale and industrialize these AI initiatives to meet their business needs." Three Objectives for Moving Forward With AI “Taking ownership of AI is about more than technological competencies – it’s an overarching organisational challenge.” "If Big Data is the oil that fuels the digital economy, artificial intelligence (AI) is the automobile. It can transport companies from the old, largely physical asset-based model to the new, information-based world, where competitive advantage goes to those who squeeze the most value out of their data in the least amount of time." But this is easier said than done. This article helps demystify AI, offers insight on which applications you can target as well as set boundaries of responsibility for AI in the enterprise.

ERP

Four Things To Help ERP Project Failure Here is another great article from IT Jungle. "Nobody wants to be part of an ERP project failure, but the fact is that these implementations rarely go perfectly smooth. There’s a wide spectrum of things that can go wrong in these massive projects, ranging from taking a little too long and going a smidgen over budget, to serious operational issues and even outright failure." This is a similar story to what we often hear as we work with IBM i clients from around the country. While there are of course successful ERP implementations there are far more that don't go that well.

Learning

Tech for Good: Building New Collar Skills The promise of technology needs to be embraced for it to deliver it's promises. To do that we need the workers. IBM has launched SkillsBuild, "a new digital platform, which provides job seekers –including those returning to work after leave, the long-term unemployed, migrants, veterans and those changing professions –with the digital content, personalized coaching and experiential learning they need to gain technical and professional skills required to re-enter the workforce.”

Modernization

Enterprise tech gets more consumer-friendly, speeding the transformation of work People and organizations resist change. Why? Because is easier. However, those who don't change in our current world will be left behind. “How people get their jobs done is undergoing a fundamental shift. Technology is empowering this change, to be sure, but the transformation is more about how the consumerization of technology supports a new context for business processes.” This article gives some good examples of how organizations are minimizing the impact of their legacy systems. Change your application support process to juggle cloud and legacy IT “Typical medium- to large-sized companies spend years with a split of legacy IT and modern platforms. Monolithic enterprise applications run core business processes; new features are built via cloud-native methods to extend the business to flexible web and mobile interactions.“ Here is a good three step process on how to get started.

Programming

Cleaning up a string of comma separated account numbers in RPGLE Nick Litten, “was emailed a little IBM i programming question this morning.”

Trends

Bring the data back home: As hybrid model prevails, some applications return “During the hype of a few years back, jumping feet first into public cloud seemed like a great idea. After all, everyone was doing it, and no one wanted to miss out.” Wait a second, not so fast.

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