Blog

Posted on

IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 25

It was a relatively quiet week from IBM on the PTF patching front, and so we have used to the time to do a whole lot of tweaks to the links in the IBM i PTF Guide, which have a bunch of new and updated links embedded in the Excel spreadsheet as you will see from the list below and from the sheet itself.

But first, you know the order of operations that we stick to every week, so here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level:

PTF Groups 7.4:

MGTools

PTF Groups 7.3:

MGTools

…

The post IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 25 appeared first on IT Jungle.

Posted on

Taking A Defense In Depth Strategy With IBM i

The most effective approach to cybersecurity is having multiple layers of defense mechanisms deployed to protect your systems. This is commonly referred to as “Defense in Depth.”

Because your IBM i platform holds data that is vital to your business, implementing multiple IBM i technologies that will help prevent or detect an accidental error or malicious behavior is essential.

Watch our webcast where Carol Woodbury of DXR Security will discuss three of the current real-world issues facing organizations today and how layering multiple security technologies can protect your data and avoid business disruptions.

Register to hear about:

The benefits of

…

The post Taking A Defense In Depth Strategy With IBM i appeared first on IT Jungle.

Posted on

Forrester Consulting publish the ‘total economic impact of ibm i’ report

Commissioned by IBM, Forrester Consulting have released a report that details the cost savings and business benefits enabled by IBM i running on Power hardware or in the cloud.

The report highlights the reliability and security of the IBM i and with the integration of the operating system with the database, provides the best environment for business to reduce system downtime and admin support costs, as well as improving productivity too.
The three key takeaways within the report are as follows [ROI/NVP based over a three year period]:

​
A Return of Investment calculation of 171%
The report detailed that the interviewed businesses reported a reduction in the number of times they experienced downtime compared to other systems used in the past.  Technical support costs were therefore reduced while productivity was up which impacted their return on investment.
The ROI was calculated as a project’s expected return in percentage terms by dividing net benefits (benefits less costs) by costs.

A Net Present Value calculation of $595k
The positive effect of the reductions in costs and downtime had ramifications over the three year period with calculated net present value.
​The present or current value of (discounted) future net cash flows given an interest rate (the discount rate). A positive project NPV normally indicates that the investment should be made, unless other projects have higher NPVs. 

Payback within 8 month
As a result of the lower cost of ownership, the reduction in ERP license fees, value of the hardware and reduced day-to-day administration costs, the conclusion was that the ‘composite’ business would receive payback on their investment within 8 months.

The report also detailed the unquantifiable benefits including trust and peace of mind against uptime and security while detailing the integration options and flexibility of the platform.

In summary, the Total Economic Impact [a methodology developed by Forrester Research] of adopting the IBM i platform as the primary enterprise solution for business was sound.  Indeed, the three year figures suggested that (against the previous enterprise incumbents) IBM i provided the perfect blend of technology, security, uptime and productivity. 
​
For more details, you can download the Forrester report using the button below. 

Posted on

The Case for Consolidation

In the past 12 months, we have experienced exponential change in the way we work.  Demands on the IT department continue to grow while the resources allocated to reach these high expectations, continually squeezed. 

The modern IBM i IT department needs to refocus to be able to counter these problems while simultaneously raising the bar.  The answer is to consolidate many of the individual routines, bespoke code and single-purpose programs into one central solution that not only simplifies and lowers IT resource but also speeds up development, adds functionality and reduces overheads.

One such solution for the IBM i is RouteOne.  RouteOne allows you to consolidate many disparate processes you may already have in place while providing additional benefits to your business.

​MAINTENANCE – Remove expensive to maintain bespoke RPG and disparate programs. replace with one low cost solution that does not require coding resource.
eFORMS – Replace your complex electronic form software with easy to manage MS Word templates for all your IBM i form creation and distribution needs.
​INTERFACES – Create powerful and fast IBM i transfers by sFTP, email and other methods for XML, JSON, database formats and more…
​REPORTS – Consolidate all your reporting requirements into one solutions for information to who needs it, when they need it and in a format of choice.

RouteOne provides a central solution to all your data transformation and export requirements.  From producing and distributing fully formatted electronic forms and reports [PDF, XLS and more], to creating JSON/XML/SQL/CSV extracts for other systems, RouteOne does the lot. 

Through adopting RouteOne, IT resource is reduced.  Our ‘no coding, query like’  rules engine allows you to extract selected data from a spool file, DB2 or a mix of both and then transform it to all popular formats and deliver by a method of choice.  From creating ETL procedures for an SQL data warehouse to HTML emails, RouteOne can do it for you.

Should you be interested in lowering overheads with the potential of removing unsupported software or redundant RPG code, learn how RouteOne can help transform your business. 

Verified by MonsterInsights