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August 2020 Newsletter

iTech Solutions

iTech Solutions

This newsletter includes:

Our hearts and prayers go out to those in the destructive path of Hurricane Laura, and we hope you and your families are safe.  If you have been affected and you need any IBM i help, recovery, admin, restoration, cloud, a system to recover to, please let us know and we will help you out. We are here to help.

It’s the end of August — where did the summer go?  I hope you were able to take some time off and relax with family and friends during the summer. It has been unbelievably busy here. I got to take a few days off and enjoy the boat on the lake, but we seem to be selling new POWER9 systems, installing NVMe for improved performance, adding new Managed Service Customers like never before, and doing one-off projects for so many new and existing customers that the summer has flown by. I am so lucky to have such great staff as we work to help our IBM i customers.

August has also been an exciting month as we were recognized as a Most Promising IBM Solution Provider of 2020 by CIO Review. We’re proud of this recognition as it speaks to our values and overarching goal of being not only one of the best – but being an IBM Business Partner that is different from the others. The truth is you can purchase hardware or services from anyone, but the true value comes into play when you have the right business partner. You can read the featured iTech Solutions article in CIO Review here.

Last month, I wrote about the new “G” models for the POWER9 systems, which basically get a new internal PCIe Gen4 switch (think of this as the pathway to the processor from the adapter cards), replacing the existing Gen3 switch in the A models. Remember, Gen4 is twice the speed as Gen3, so data from the adapters to the processor will get there faster.  In addition, there have been some new NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory expansion) adapters.  We have already installed 3 of these machines, and they are lightning-fast. Faster than you can imagine when it comes to I/O.  In addition, we did an iTech Sips & Tricks on this, so check it out here.

To give you an example, we had one customer that we recently upgrade from a Power8 with SSDs, to a new Power9 41G with NVMe, and the full system save took 130 minutes to save and less than 90 minutes to restore. NVMe will be the replacement technology for Spinning disks and even SSDs going forward.  You get much better performance with NVMe and usually better pricing.  The NVMe adapters do require 7.4, but honestly, you should be running IBM i 7.4 by now anyway.

We had our first System Administrator hangout last month, and it was taking the virtual conference to a new level.  If you aren’t familiar with a hangout, this is where we have an informal “hangout” just talking and discussing IBM i Admin issues.  You can liken this to a conference, where a group of admins meet in the hotel bar over a beer and just discuss the issues of their jobs.  I find this one of the most valuable aspects of an in-person conference, and where I learn so much.  We invited Admins to come and hang out with the iTech Staff in a virtual meeting, where anyone could speak and share information. In the age of COVID-19, everyone said it was refreshing to be able to interact with one another.

We have our next IBM i System Admin hangout of Sept 30 with the focus being Backup and Recovery, but anyone can ask a question on any IBM i topic.  The following one is November 11, and the focus has yet to be determined.

[ Register for the System Admin Hangout ]

On September 2nd, we are doing a Women in IBM i hangout, with some of the iTech ladies, and one of our customers Marina Schwenk will join us as a special guest.  They will be discussing issues and challenges, how they got involved within the IBM i community, their sources of inspiration, and more.

[ Register for the Women in IBM i Hangout ]

Earlier this month, we did some sessions on preparing for Disaster Recovery, understanding saves and restores. Right now, people in the path of Hurricane Laura are worrying about their families, their houses, and their communities.  Don’t wait until a disaster strikes to test out your recovery, or even worse, to create a recovery plan. Contact us today, and we can help you develop, build, and recovery solution that is right for you.  It’s never too early to start, it’s always too late to wait to create one.

iADMIN Fall 2020

In addition, we are proud to be having our iAdmin Fall 2020 virtual conference on October 20 & 21. This event will include:

  • Live sessions focused on IBM i and IBM Power Systems
  • Break-out lunch boutique sessions
  • A virtual happy hour including a chance to win prizes, trivia, and more
  • A mailed iADMIN at-home kit to help make the event as interactive as possible.

Featured sessions include:

What You Need to Know to Successfully Upgrade to IBM i 7.3 & 7.4
Pete Massiello

Perception vs. Reality: IBM i Security
Steve Pitcher

Getting Started with VIOS for the IBM i Admin
Steven McIver

Anatomy of a Security Failure
Steve Pitcher

Stay tuned as more sessions will be announced with additional topics including Cloud, High Availability, BRMS, Access Client Solutions, NVMe, POWER9 Hardware, Storage, and more.

[ Register for iADMIN ]

This will be some of the best IBM i Admin sessions in the world, free of charge to anyone needing some great IBM i education.

I want to ask you three questions. Is your business partner doing anything like this? Do they have the knowledge, expertise, and experience like we do? Why aren’t you switching to have iTech Solutions as your business partner? When you look at everything we do (Education, Webinars, Sips & Tricks, Virtual conferences, Blogs, newsletters, YouTube channel with our iTips videos, Podcasts, and more) you can see the true difference and value we bring to the table. If your business partner is only bringing donuts to the meeting, it might be time to rethink who you’re trusting to get the job done. What value are they really bringing to the table? Wouldn’t you like to do business with the best IBM i business partner? While others may be your vendor, we are dedicated to being your partner. It’s time to make the switch.

Here are our upcoming webinars:

Friday, August 28th
11:00 AM ET
What are Exit Points and How Do Exit Points Work
[ Register ]

Tuesday, September 1st
3:00 PM ET
Preventing Profiles with Default Passwords at a System Level
[ Register ]

Wednesday, September 9th
11:00 AM ET
How VERIFi Security Advisor Can Help Fill the Gaps You Didn’t Know You Had
[ Register ]

Friday, September 11th
11:00 AM ET
Library Lists – Determining Your Namespace
[ Register ]

Friday, September 18th
11:00 AM ET
Reasons You Might Need a Managed Services Provider
[ Register ]

Tuesday, September 22nd
3:00 PM ET
Protection and Redundancy (Disk, Ethernet, UPS, Backups, and Replication)
[ Register ]

Friday, September 25th
11:00 AM ET
Differences in Password Levels
[ Register ]

Tuesday, September 29th
All Day Event
National Coffee Day: Best of Sips and Tricks
Registration Coming Soon

Friday, October 2nd
11:00 AM ET
Business Continuity: What You Need to Have on Your System
Registration Coming Soon

This is a chart that Richie put together of all the educational sessions that we have done for 2020.  I was pretty impressed and hadn’t realized we did so many.

Stay safe, wash your hands, and take care of one another.   I look forward to seeing everyone when this is all over at the many conferences we will be attending.

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