My World and Welcome To It

A Blog for Shirey Consulting Services – Views and Thoughts About Just About Everything

Posts Tagged System i

The Beginning of the End for ‘Buy and Use’

May 13

Posted by dshirey in System i | No Comments

It has been happening for some time now, but it really hit me when I saw the recent  announcement from Adobe that they would no longer sell copies of their Creative Suite products.  Instead, all such products will now be available by subscription only and will run ‘in the cloud’.

Currently, a basic version of the Creative Suite would cost around $1400.  And once you bought that you could use it forever.  Nothing came with that, you had to install it on your machine and you had to provide your own storage for the things you ‘created’ and eventually you would upgrade, but the up side is that once you paid the price you were free and clear.

Under the new rules, subscriptions to a single seat of Creative Suite will start at $49.99 a month.  You can do the math as well as I can; if you kept your purchased copy for two and a half years, you would start to come out on top.  And on the surface, that may seem like an acceptable trade off.

I am biased, of course.  I don’t like knowing that I have to money up each month forever to use anything.  I do it for cable TV and lots of other things but I don’t like it.  And there are a couple of problems with the ‘I can get it for pittance a month’ philosophy.

For example, probably very few people will use the $49.99 plan.  Why?  Because it comes with only 20 Gig of storage and using Creative Suite you can burn that up that  pretty quickly.  So, most people will probably have to go with a more expensive plan, thus increasing the likelihood that you will end up spending more, perhaps much more over the lifetime of the software with this cloud model than you would with purchased.

Now I know that most of us in the i world do not use Creative Suite.  So why am I bringing it up?  Simply because that switch is an example of a change that is occurring across the industry, the move from purchasing software to having a subscription, all done under the guise of cloud computing.

Although we are used to yearly fixed costs with the i, in the past there have been many software costs that we could bundle under a capital project request and then be done with them.  It looks like in the future, more and more of an IT budget will be going to fixed costs that cannot be reduced without kissing those products and services goodbye.

You can, of course argue about whether having a fixed budget is good or bad.  On the one hand, after a few years you can end up with a sizeable budget that cannot be manipulated or changed without dropping the services (software products) associated with those costs.  I don’t like not having flexibility, plus, if cable TV has taught us anything it is that a subscription price never stays where it starts.  It always goes up.  It has to in order for the vendor to make even more profit next year.

On the other hand, having a fixed budget can be kind of a safe harbor for the harried CIO.  Want to cut my budget?  OK, what software products (supporting which user departments) do we want to do without?  The downside of it is that it does leave manpower as the one area that can be cut without losing services and most departments have few enough people now.

So, what can you do?  Certainly, cloud computing and subscription based services are not going to go away.  And Adobe isn’t the only one who will replace unit sales with cloud only subscriptions.  It is really the only way that these companies can continue to generate  increased revenue.  And when you get right down to it, that is what business today is all about.  It’s not about making a respectable profit year after year, it’s about having your profit climb ridiculously year after year.  And most people will knuckle under and follow the crowd.  It’s just part of the cost of doing business, you know.

At the very least, however, we should begin to watch very carefully the growth of these monthly subscription fees because they are going to add up to some serious money.  $49 here, $79 there, etc.   Companies need to look at what impact picking up this service will have.  And more importantly, if you run on hard times and need to dump some services, what will the impact of that be (since it would mean losing that software and possibly all of your data that is on their servers) on your ability to function.

Finally, it means that we, even we in the i world, need to keep a close eye on open source software that can do the same job.   Yes, it may not have all of the features of the subscription services but as some of these subscription products mature and new enhancements become more esoteric and peripheral to the central task they are performing, open source may make good, good sense.

In the end, it comes down to budget flexibility.  How much of your budget do you want dedicated to fixed cost subscriptions, and how much do you want to have the ability to control?  In a world that is increasingly trying to tie you into regular monthly payments, how can you maintain your independence and flexibility?

 

Tags: , , , ,

New Year’s Resolution – Upgrade i5/OS

Jan 6

Posted by dshirey in System i | Comments off

 

It’s New Years resolution time again.  I know that generally we think of doing that the last week of December but over the years I have decided that waiting until after the start of the year, and resolving to do whatever I seem to be doing anyway, gives me a much better chance of succeeding.

Most New Years resolutions revolve around self-improvement and I see no reason why the resolutions for your i shop should be any different.  And the best improvement I can think of is to make this the year that you upgrade your i5/OS and get on 7.1.  (For more information on just how to do that, stay tuned in January for a MC Press article (written by me) on what to watch out for in a 7.1 upgrade.)

I know, I know, your i which is currently running 5.4 (or 5.3) is running just fine and it will take a certain amount of effort to get up to 7.1.  So why should you do it, what’s the point?

The point is that there are really only two types of i shops out there; those that are on the latest release and using it’s features, and those who are waiting for someone to come along and say it’s time to leave that old dinosaur and move to a Windows server environment.

And that brings me to the second resolution for 2012 – starting to use the advanced capabilities and features that 7.1 offers.  (After all, it’s much harder to come up with a sensible argument for leaving the i if it is doing more than just running RPG programs.)  That does require a commitment to learning and growing as a professional, but that shouldn’t be a problem.  After all, that’s the definition of that term.  It’s not just somebody who has been doing the same thing well for a long time.

So let’s make 2012 a year of growth.  Upgrade to 7.1.  And then learn how to use and implement what’s under the hood to help your company grow and to better protect the investment you have in the worlds best computer system.   Let me know how it goes.

 

Tags: , , , ,

IBM Tidbits

Oct 4

Posted by dshirey in System i | Comments off

In a recent article in System iNews, editor Chris Maxcer took a look at some of the things going on in the IBM world.  If you missed it or don’t subscribe to System iNews, here are a couple of nuggets.

First, sales for the i are on the upswing, and have been for the last few months with much of the surge being due to special deals where the i comes pre-loaded with a certain set of ISV software.

Second, about 60% of the folks are still on 5.4 which was released in 2006.  With 7.1 coming out just last year, IBM is now suggesting that those who are on 5.4 just leapfrog over 6.1 and go directly to 7.1.   What’s the difference between 5.4 and 6.1/7.1?  Besides tons of functionality only 6.1 and beyond are able to run the new Power7 that gives increased speed and lower energy costs.

Third, starting with release 7.1, IBM is also starting to offer what they call Technology Refreshes; essentially simple to install upgrades to the operating system that offer increased functionality within the standard two year lifetime of the release without forcing customers to go through a complete upgrade to a new release.

And fourth, IBM is trying to get the word out there that staying current on the latest release makes good, good sense.  After all, the big reason that most people give for not going to the latest release is that they want to wait until it’s properly debugged.  But in a world where i5/OS is so stable and has very few significant bugs, that strategy just doesn’t hold water.

Are you on 5.4?  Well, 7.1 is out there so give it some thought.

 

Tags: , , , ,

My Predictions for 2011

Dec 29

Posted by dshirey in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

 Yeah, yeah.  I know that every industry expert around has their list of predictions for the next year but I’m no industry expert.  Not sure if that comes out to a compliment or not.  Anyway, here is what I think will happen to those of us in the trenches. 

First, no matter what the trends or what the experts say, things will go on for most of us just like last year.  You will be underappreciated, over worked, and underpaid.  You have to like the consistency.   

Second, people will continue to talk about cloud computing like it is the second coming of Grace Hopper.  Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t, but with all the hype, we will never know.   

Third, I will have my third article published in System iNews in March 2011.  This isn’t really a prediction as I have to hand it in by next Tuesday.  It will be about Program Complexity. 

Fourth, most of the people who are on 5.4 or below will remain on 5.4 or below.   

Fifth, the CEO or CFO of the companies that are on 5.4 or below will begin to think ‘I bet we could run this whole thing on Windows’.   

Sixth, the i Manifest movement will continue to grow and gather supporters in an effort to encourage IBM to more effectively market the i as the machine of the future.

Seventh, IBM will continue to market the i in an ineffective and pathetic manner, because fully supporting the i runs contrary to their basic business plan of selling services and big iron. 

Eighth, more companies will decide they need to move to SAP or Oracle and off of more sensible ERP systems, thus bringing us closer to the predicted collapse of civilization as we know it (May 28, 2019). 

Ninth, people will continue to say that us i types are behind the times and technically obsolete.

And Tenth, when most of us ask for the time and resources to upgrade our knowledge base we will be told there is no money in the budget for it and no time to do it anyway given the current project load.

Good luck in 2011.

Tags: , , , ,

Cloud Computing – Part 1

Nov 22

Posted by dshirey in Uncategorized | Comments off

Cloud Computing – what say ye, lads.  Are you fer it or agin it?   Or are you just hoping to retire before it happens? 

 

I recently stumbled on an Accenture report  (Windows IT Pro) which estimates that between now and 2014, SMB’s will spend 100 BILLION on cloud computing.  Can you dig it?     

 

And a recent IBM survey of ‘IT pros’, indicates that they think that by 2015, cloud computing and mobile technologies will be the most ‘in demand platforms for software development’.  Get otta town!    

 

Is that possible?  I can dismiss the Windows IT Pro thing, duh, they are all on Windows, I’d look for an alternative too.  But IBM?  They are talking about people like us (although to be truthful I like to think there’s nobody quite like me).  And IBM hasn’t increased it’s line of cloud offerings dramatically, providing a whole spectrum of options from fully managed to nearly fully public, for their health.  They think they can make a pant load off of it. 

 

Of course, the knock on cloud computing has always been first, security, and second, your ability to control your hardware and software directly. 

 

For a long time I thought that security would be the major hurdle.  You’re going to trust your data to who?  But then I started thinking about the security situation in many of the i shops that I am familiar with.  Very few of them have ever gone through an exhaustive security check up.  Tends to be hit or miss.  Nothing here and the death penalty over there.  Maybe a consistent, state of the art, encrypted security structure that applied across the board would be a plus for many shops. 

 

And I also thought that actually controlling / owning (so to speak) your hardware and software would be important to a lot of CIO’s.  It’s an emotional issue, the desire of people to have their hands on things but then I was thinking how the cloud might simplify the budget life of the CIO.  In some weird way, I think it shifts the thinking away from ‘what is this going to cost’ and toward ‘what resources do we really need for our company and what will that cost us’.  You can never underestimate the importance of a simple change in wording or point of reference.  In the end, we are not rational beings who have emotions as much as we are emotional beings who try to think rationally on occasion. 

 

Finally, I have to wonder if using cloud resources would not spur the adoption of new tools and techniques.  I mean what’s the main reason most of us are still using PDM?  Yes, because we are use to it is one reason, but the fact that most of us can’t build a good case for adding it to our software lease cost is another.  But what if we were using a cloud platform where everything was bundled into one price, including access to all of the latest tools?   You wouldn’t have to install them, just use them.  And what about OS upgrades?  Would the cloud take care of that and keep all of us on the latest operating system releases without incurring steep software cost penalties? 

 

Of course, it’s not all sausages and gravy for cloud computing.  I can see two obstacles (or at least confusion points) right off the bat.  But I’ve taken up enough of your time.  More on that in the next update. 

 

In the meantime, what about you?  Five years ago I thought cloud computing was just another right wing, socialist conspiracy.  But now, not so sure.  So, what say ye, lads.  Are you fer it, or agin it?

Tags: , , ,

Intro to Technology – Part 1

Jun 8

Posted by dshirey in Uncategorized | Comments off

I could be wrong about this, but it seems like there are an increasing number of people who make technical decisions who really don’t know anything about technology. 

 

I know, that sounds snooty, and I don’t mean it that way.  It’s just a fact of life in today’s world.  I mean look at hospitals.  They used to be run by crotchety old doctors who had a soft side for career nurses and young interns.  Now they are run by ‘administrators’ who don’t know a compound fracture from a subdural hematoma.  It’s just the way things are now. 

 

Some of these technology deprived people are financial types, but many are quite frankly the CIO’s or other IT heads that are being recruited from the general management ranks rather than from those who have made technology their lives.  And so, I thought that in the spirit of détente and to prove that I really am a team player, I would put together a couple of short posts that cover things that every ‘techie’ should know. 

 

And the first is – there’s no free lunch. 

 

Just as explorers spent much of the 17th and 18th century looking for the Northwest Passage that would make going from the Atlantic to the Pacific easy, so today’s technology leaders are anxiously leading expeditions looking for zero cost IT and ERP.   

 

That is, they have bought into the tales told in taverns and inns by traveling salesman and conmen, about fabulous ERP packages that will provide their every need, or platforms that are nearly free and then practically run themselves once installed.   Their eyes aglow with the promise of low cost IT that is ridiculously simple to use, they gather their forces and like Ponce De Leon, set out for the promised land. 

 

And to that I say, as Cher did in Moonstruck – ‘Snap Out of It’!   There is no free lunch.  If you want something that is cost efficient and which pretty much runs itself then you are going to have to make some very good platform and software decisions and then invest a fair amount of time and care tuning them to your particular needs.    

 

I am personally sick to death with hearing about CIO’s who have started grand initiatives and three years later they are still not quite ready to cutover and the budget not only for the project but for the ongoing support dwarfs what was being paid before.  And if that isn’t enough, they’ve just discovered that everyone needs to be off the machine(s) in order to run planning.  What were you guys thinking?    

 

This may come as a shock to some but sales and marketing people get paid to sell their products, not provide unbiased and bottom line information.  Of course what they say sounds good.  It’s supposed to!   It’s up to you to read between the lines and see what is not being said.   Haven’t you people ever bought a used car?

 

In the end, whether it’s an IT platform or an ERP system, it’s not the money that’s important.  Just spending a ton of cash is not a guarantee that it is going to work or that it will be cheaper in the long run.  You need to look at overall system integrity for IT and business fit for ERP.  And that is something you are going to have to dig out of the details to make sure it really will work the way the sales force says it will. 

Tags: , , , , ,

So, Going to 7.1 Anytime Soon?

Apr 14

Posted by dshirey in Uncategorized | Comments off

You know when we upgrade to new i5/OS software, don’t you? 

 

Yeah, that’s right; at the last possible minute, when we absolutely, positively have to.  And that is too bad because there is one very good reason for why you should plan on upgrading the i5/OS within six months of a new release. 

 

You see, staying current on i5/OS is the best offense to keep your company on the i and out of the Unix or Windows world.  Yes, it is true that one of the strengths of the i is that you don’t need to upgrade.  Even old releases are so bullet proof that you don’t need to upgrade to keep your business going.  But failure to upgrade means you are using aging software, and aging anything is always a target. 

 

We, those of us who love the i, must do a better job of understanding the new features in i5/OS, determining how those features can help our company gain a competitive advantage, and then carry that message to management.   It’s not about fixing problems that exist, but about leveraging exciting new functionality to make the business stronger.  Instead of being something we are eventually forced to do, we need to make upgrading i5/OS an opportunity that we look forward to getting.   

 

Even IT people can fall into the trap.  The i is working fine, I won’t talk about an upgrade till next year.  And that is dangerous behavior.  So, take the offensive now.  Start learning what the new releases have to offer and key in on the ones that can affect your business integrity, and evangelize!  

  

Tags: , , , ,

A Few Thoughts on Outsourcing

Jan 26

Posted by dshirey in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

This is not an easy post for me to write, and I hope that it won’t be an easy one for you to read.   

Outsourcing is not new news.  We have come to accept it as a fact of life for many manufacturing companies.  We are very familiar with the fact that anytime there is a big project, perhaps software modernization or an ERP install, the bulk of the work is going to be outsourced overseas.  Outsourced firms have the manpower to bring to bear on major projects and so perhaps it makes sense, although frankly everyone seems to spend a fortune on those things no matter what. 

But it seems to me disturbing to hear about entire departments being slashed and their work outsourced on a permanent basis.  And that is exactly what is happening to one company that gets my newsletter.  Of the 13 programmers currently employed, all but three are being let go and their work is being sent to an outsourced team.  

I suppose some people would say ‘that’s just tough’.  Life is a bitch and today’s global economy requires a survival of the fittest attitude.  If it’s cheaper for the company doing the outsourcing then it’s a no brainer.    

And to those people I really can’t say a thing.  I have written this paragraph about six times and every time I come off looking like some old fart in a plaid flannel shirt trying to block them from building that new highway through the valley.  Outsourcing is cheaper, at least in the short run and since the short run is all we care about in business you are left without a stump to stand on argument wise.  But one thing I have learned over the years is – just because we can do something doesn’t always mean we should. 

Part of the aura of outsourcing reflects a general societal shift in the US.  I’m one of the few on my street who shovels his own driveway and cuts his own grass or cleans his own gutters.  We contract out everything, having it done by ‘certified professionals’ thereby leaving us free to do ‘other stuff’.   I’m not sure which came first, business or personal outsourcing, but I think they are related to our desire not to be bothered with stuff.    

But whatever it is, it makes me nervous.  I would have a real problem turning my IT work over to a group I hardly know, a group that has their own standards and ways of doing things.  In theory they are accountable to me but you all know how that would work.  And I would end up dealing not with the programmers but with their ‘fixer’, the guy who triages all customer concerns and explains them away.  You know the guy. 

But even beyond that, I am concerned about the impact of runaway outsourcing on our economy.  Are we giving away our technological leadership (if we even still have that)?  Are we handing the keys to tomorrow’ to someone else, just assuming they will deal fairly with us?   What kind of economy can you build where all we do is use what others have built?   Maybe I am that guy in the red flannel shirt sitting in front of the bulldozer but I can’t help feeling that if knowledge is power then the guy who builds the knowledge is the guy who is going to have the most power.  And that should be us, not someone halfway around the world.   

Outsourcing is not going away.  But maybe it needs to be looked at as something other than just another business tool that can be used to save a few bucks.  It is a double edged sword, one that takes jobs away and, in most cases replaces them with lesser paying jobs.  Ultimately, global economy rhetoric aside, the US economy depends on the U.S. consumer, on their ability to purchase goods and services.  But the current goal of every business in the U.S. is to eliminate anyone who is not making minimum wage or a little above, and to get rid of as many of those people as possible.  Do they actually believe that we can have a functioning economy where everyone is just eking out an existence? 

I don’t see how that makes long term business sense.  But maybe I am the one who is short sighted.  Perhaps I cannot see the big picture, the grand view that will maintain the America I know.  Do you see it?

Tags: , , ,

The End of Conferences?

Nov 18

Posted by dshirey in System i | 1 Comment

By now you have probably heard the news that Susan Gantner, John Paris, and Paul Touhy, main stay speakers at Common since the beginning of time, will not be participating in the conference next spring (May 2 – 6 in Orlando) after Common cut it’s reimbursement policy for speakers.

The purpose of this post is not to weigh in on the wisdom of Common’s decision. They’re in a tough spot financially and were trying to cut the costs associated with the conference. On the other hand, as a former Common speaker and an independent consultant (like Paris, Gantner, and Touhy), going to Common is an expensive proposition and cuts you off from a week of revenue, and it’s hard to justify the expense particularly in the current economic client. I also made the decision not to submit any sessions for this year although I don’t remember seeing any press coverage on that.

What I am wondering is – is this the end of the ‘conference era’. For the last 40 years, big conferences have ruled the day, but has it reached the end of it’s road? Certainly over the past ten years a number of mid size conferences, (Inovis, for example), have folded. Is it only a matter of time before the big ones go too? Perhaps the only thing that will survive are some of the high glamour trade shows out in Vegas.

And the question is why?

One reason that everyone cites is the internet. There is so much information on the internet that people don’t need to go to sessions anymore to learn new techniques. And there is a great deal of truth to that, although the interactive nature of a session can be very helpful in the learning process (as can online forums).

Another reason for the decline, I believe, is that senior level people are not attending these conferences the way they use to. They are too busy to block out a week for one particular event. And when senior people don’t attend they are less likely to send members of their staff. At the same time, not having senior people there also changes the utility of presenting for consultants.

But I think one of the main reasons for the decline is that there has been a real decline in people learning or wanting to learn. Yes, we go out to the web a lot, but we go out to peruse, not learn. When is the last time you actually went through and learned an entire tutorial on the web? Generally we go out to ‘see what’s going on’. Senior people aren’t the only ones who are busy. Everyone is. And when that happens you don’t worry about learning in the broad sense. You get tidbits; a fact here and there; just enough information to get you over the hump you are currently stuck on.

The death of conferences (if it occurs, and it might not), is just another symptom of our ‘I’m too busy to think and grow I’ll just get through this’ culture. Interesting twist isn’t it, especially at a time when most i people should be spending as much time as they can doing some in depth learning.


Tags: , , , ,

IBM’s DB2 Web Query for i

Jun 1

Posted by dshirey in System i | Comments off

Do you use Query/400?  Or maybe some other quickie query product? 

 

Then you owe it to yourself to take a look at the demo for IBM’s DB2 Web Query for i product below. 

 

It is the anointed replacement for Query/400 (no, Query/400 is not being scrapped, it will still be available for use, I guess is still going to be supported, but I am also guessing it is not going to be enhanced, although when was the last time you saw an enhancement for this product). 

 

DB2 Web Query for i is one powerful and impressive piece of software.  I won’t lie to you, the demo isn’t one of those five minute tours, it takes close to an hour if you take the two side demos that are embedded in it, but it is well worth the time as you walk away with a solid understanding of what the product does. 

 

I am not going to try to give you the highlights (do the demo!) but I will say that this fully integrated (with your i data base), Web 2.0 AJAX browser based, Java client product has some solid features behind it and you should seriously consider it if you need to be able to produce sophisticated reports or queries and then either email them out directly or else roll them into Excel (no Client Access upload / download required).  I know there are a ton of competing products out there but I like the functionality here and I like the fact that there is no software to install on your user machines and no need to copy data to a product specific data base. 

 

It’s not free, of course, but if you have a current license for Query/400 then you are cleared to use this product (although there may be additional charges based on what components of this product you want – there is the base product and some additional add on modules).  Of course, if you don’t have a current license for Query/400, no problem.  I’m sure IBM would sell you what you need.  Licenses can be specific based on whether you are a developer or just a run time user. 

 

The link below is for the product information page for this thing; the link to the demo is about half way down on the right hand side.  There is also a FAQ PDF in that column that can answer a lot of the questions you have.  Got about 45 minutes?  Let me know what you think! 

 

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/i/software/db2/webquery/index.html

Tags: , ,