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October 2021 Newsletter

Pete Massiello

Pete Massiello

This newsletter includes:

October for me is always the start of the second conference season of the year, with a multitude of conferences happening in October.  Unfortunately, two of my favorite the COMMON Fall Conference and IBM Technical University both are virtual events due to COVID. I am so sick of the pandemic, I want to see all my IBM i friends who I see at conferences.  Sometimes, it’s not necessarily the sessions you learn the most at, it is at the informal discussions and networking where you learn the most.

That is one of the reasons when you look at our iAdmin being held on Nov 9th and 10th, we have tried to add sessions where you can interact with the iTech speakers, and everyone in attendance. More details about iAdmin later in the newsletter.

I am looking forward to attending in person the COMMON Europe Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark during the first week of November.  One of the most beautiful and exciting cities in Europe, it will be great to catch up with so many friends over in Europe that week.

We all heard about the new Power10 Enterprise servers which were announced last month, lots of details have been flowing and these are some amazing large Power Systems, with quite a lot of performance.  I can’t wait for next year when the scale-out servers will be announced.  IBM has talked about the Power10 chip for about 18 months, and we knew it was coming.  From some of the initial performance metrics, it looks like we are going to see a 1.5 to 1.6 performance improvement in these enterprise E1080 servers, over the same E980 (Power 9 based) servers.

 

We can see how the roadmap of the IBM Power processor has evolved over the years as IBM keeps investing in the POWER processor.   Notice in this  chart it shows the Power11 processors stated for the future as it is currently being designed.  Did you ever think, who actually does the design of these things? These have to be some very smart people.  How do you even shrink from 14nm technology in the Power9 to 7nm technology in the Power10.  What specification will the Power11 bring to semiconductor manufactoring? In any case, with newer generations on the near and distant horizon, you can be sure this is great news for the future of IBM i.

Of course, the new Power10 Servers will only support IBM i 7.3 and 7.4 as it stands right now.  You can bet when IBM i 7.5 is released that will be supported as well.  What we don’t know right now is which machines that 7.5 will be able to run on.  If you stare at the chart below and see that every time a new release of IBM i comes out, another version of the hardware is dropped from being supported by that new release. While I would say that everyone should be on IBM i 7.3 or 7.4 right now, reading the IBM tea leaves from the past.  I think it makes the most sense to get up to 7.4 right now.  Then you are on the most current release as of today, and that will position you nicely for the future.  Just so that you know, over the last 2 years, iTech Solutions has done over 700 OS upgrades.  Yes sir, 700.  You will hear me say many times, we have the knowledge, experience, and know-how when it comes to OS upgrades.  Who do you want to perform your next upgrade?

 

Click here for a downloadable/printable chart.

2021 Baseball Games. 

We missed last year due to the pandemic, and we were waiting to do some games this year as soon as more people got vaccinated.  We made this true in September, as we had a blast and it was so much fun seeing everyone and talking about IBM i, Power Systems, IBM Storage, and baseball.  Perhaps it wasn’t in that order, but I really missed doing events like this, and I have asked Heather to start looking into games for next year.

 

It is likely that you are familiar with iTech’s second to none technical capabilities for IBMi. 

We have provided our technical services to many of the world’s leading companies. But today we are asking you to honestly consider the following business proposition: Should your organization utilize iTech for your entire IBMi digital strategy; Hardware, Management, Backup/Recovery, Planning, Cloud, PTFs, Replication, Performance, and other System Management issues?

First, we want you to consider why a closer business partnership can be good for your core business which ultimately means the financial well-being and mission success of your organization. Over 95% of IBMi systems are used for mission-critical applications. The IBMi’s availability is paramount and its functionality critical.  With the growing amount and complexity of data and variety of usage growing each year, any amount of downtime, lack of data availability, significant outage, or delayed availability can cost revenue of five or six figures – or more! At its simplest, having iTech analyze, design, and implement improved systems could provide value starting at 5 figures and going upward. It’s time to look at switching to iTech Solutions as your IBM Business Partner and reap the benefits.

 

I love hearing from new customers, “we never had an upgrade go so smooth”, or “The migration to the new machine was so easy and effortless that our users only realized it because the new machine is faster”. That’s the value of working with iTech Solutions. It’s our experience, know-how, and expertise, which make us different from other business partners. But don’t just take our word for it, see what our customers have to say.

iAdmin Fall 2021: 

Speaking of our know-how and expertise, we are doing another iAdmin Fall 2-day conference on Tuesday, November 9th – Wednesday, November 10th. If you have not yet registered, you can do so here.  This year we have 20+ sessions, 6 lunch break-out sessions, and a happy hour with a chance to win some prizes.

Make sure you register for the lunch breakout sessions! Due to the interactive nature of the sessions, we have limited availability so that everyone can join unmuted and on camera. Another new thing we added this year is open lunchrooms. If you are not attending one of the breakouts, we invite you to grab your lunch and join us and other iAdmin attendees. This is one of the things we miss most about in-person events and haven’t had the chance to do so virtually so we made sure to include an open lunchroom to this year’s iAdmin.

Remember, one registration gives you access to all the main stage sessions, so you can come and go throughout the 2 days as you please. You will need to keep that email handy so I suggest flagging it in your inbox.

We have a very limited amount of At Home Kits left to mail, so make sure to register this week if you have not done so already. International registrations and those who register after 10/29 will receive a digital kit.

Lastly, I hope you are enjoying our weekly iBasics, Sips and Tricks with iTech, and our full 1 hour technical sessions. Let’s not forget our Podcasts, or our video library of iTips and techniques. We are offering a lot to the community, and it’s funny people keep asking me, “is this really all free”? Yes, it is.  We are sharing our knowledge to help the community. While you are attending our sessions, you will realize that we have the most knowledgeable IBM i staff on the planet.

Here are our upcoming webinars:

View our full PDF November Calendar Here

Stay safe, wash your hands, wear that annoying mask, and take care of one another. Hopefully, we will get our vaccinations soon and life will return to normal. I look forward to seeing everyone soon at the many conferences we will be attending.

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