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iTech Newsletter September 2022

September 2022 Newsletter

Pete Massiello

Pete Massiello

This newsletter includes:

I guess it was just a matter of time as we all knew it was coming, eventually.  IBM i 7.3 is going out of support next year, Sept 30, 2023.  I guess the handwriting was on the wall when IBM came out with 7.5 in the spring, as they don’t normally support 3 releases of the operating system at once.  Quite honestly, I was a little surprised they kept the support that long, as I had expected once 7.5 was announced that they would drop the support for 7.3.

Life Expectancy of Your IBM i

 

If you have Software Maintenance (also known as SWMA) then you have the ability to get support for problems, PTFs when they are delivered, and new releases.  Of course, you need to make sure that your machine will support 7.4 or 7.5 if you are thinking of upgrading.  Please refer to the chart below.

Which Versions of IBM i Your Hardware Supports

People ask me all the time, which release they should be on, and my answer is the exact same for the last 15 years.  “The highest release that your hardware and applications will support”.  To me being on a supported release is the most important concern, so if you are on 7.3, 7,4, or 7.5 right now, that is OK as they are all currently supported.  If you are running on a Power8, then getting to 7.4 is as good as you can do, that is what your goal should be.  I do think another goal there should be upgrading from that Power8 to a Power10 as well, as you will get much more for your money.  If you are on running a Power9 or Power10, get to 7.5 if possible, if not get to 7.4.  But by all means, get off of 7.3 before next Sept.  If you are on IBM i 7.2, then I would try to get to 7.4 now if your hardware allowed you (again, see the chart).  I always want to be on supported hardware and supported software levels.  This includes not only your operating system but your third-party applications and utilities as well.

We recently covered the value of staying current on both a webinar and a podcast. You can review those helpful resources here:
Value of Staying Current Webinar: https://itechsol.com/webinar-the-value-of-staying-current/
Value of Staying Current Podcast: https://itechsol.com/ipower-hour-episode-38-the-value-of-staying-current/

Power10 Scale-Out Servers

Speaking about Power10 machines, we have been installing them all over North America over the last 6 weeks, and our schedule for October is insane, with many people on the team out and about installing machines.  Everyone loves the speed of their new machines.  If you are still on spinning disk drives, you are going to be amazed at how fast the new NVMes (NonVolatile Memory express) are.

We created a video for everyone showing the unboxing, a look inside, and installing the new Power10. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cujk6-aP_c

Security is top of mind for businesses today.

Security is at the top of everyone’s mind these days, as it should be. To help you learn what you need to know to defend your IBM i, we hosted Tactical Security Day on Wednesday, September 21, 2022. This was a one-day virtual event dedicated to IBM i Security. We had several sessions focused on helping you to defend your IBM i from unauthorized access. The event was a real hit from all the people that attended.  I was in all of the sessions, and read the feedback afterward.  It seems people really learned quite a lot and realized just how exposed they are.  As a community, I think we really need to take our heads out of the sand and start to bolster the security of our machines.  Those running on IBM i, should also be aware of the potential security exposures that are on their machines if left to the defaults.  If you didn’t attend, you can watch the recordings here.

Don’t Let this be you. Watch the Tactical Security Day replay and learn how to secure your environment. https://info.itechsol.com/tactical-security

Register Now:

Registration is now open for iAdmin Fall 2022! This will be the same quality conference we have done in the past, and it will be packed with information, provided by your IBM i team here at iTech (now a Service Express company) who know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it when it comes to IBM i. You have heard me say it many times, we have the experience, the knowledge, and know-how. So, why are you still with your business partner?

The dates for iAdmin Fall 2022 are November 2nd and 3rd, and we will be providing more details as things unfold.  This is a $1,500 conference and we are providing it free of charge. Yup, free to everyone. One of our customers told me after the Spring iAdmin conference, “You should just provide the conference free for customers, and charge everyone else $1,200”. That was an interesting concept, but right now we are giving it away to everyone for free. We want to give back to the community that helped us grow and prosper. There is a limit of 1,000 people due to the webinar resources, so do register early.

Other iTech Updates:

You may have noticed my new and updated email address. The team at iTech Solutions is now using updated email addresses connecting us to the Service Express domain. You can still reach your contacts at their iTech emails for now, but please update your address books with our new emails.

Here are our upcoming events:

To those who have been consuming our newsletters, blogs, podcasts, webinars, and seminars look for more to come in 2022. Make sure to check our upcoming events in our newsletters and on our website for more information.

From all of us at iTech, thank you.  Of course, we couldn’t have done any of this without the amazing employees here at iTech that I am so lucky to work with each and every day.  It is our people that make us the company that we are, and I thank each and every one for their hard work. We aren’t going anywhere, nothing is changing.  Eventually, we probably won’t be wearing those sexy red shirts, but that is the only change I see coming.

Stay safe, enjoy the start to your Fall,  and I look forward to seeing you at future events.

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