January always seems to be a time of reflection – and an opportunity to look towards the future.
In my case (and that of the IBM i community as a whole), I’m very much looking forward to 2025.
I’ll be doing more reports on popular subjects within the community [ask for their input] and featuring all the main events across the IBM i world. I will also be interviewing a number of industry leaders as special guests.
If you’ve got any specific subjects you’d like me to feature in 2025, or you’d like to be interviewed as a special guest, please don’t hesitate to drop me an email to andy.nicholson[@]proximity.co.uk.
I’m also very interested in your general feedback on the updates and how I can improve them for you, the reader (or watcher… or both).
Finally, you can subscribe to the IBM i Updates via LinkedIn where you could join the 495 people currently subscribing.
Will you be the 500th? Or 1000th?
Looking specifically at the IBM i Updates last year, November and December’s edition was the eighteenth in total spanning all the way back to the first which was published in February 2023.
I’ve summarised all eighteen of them further down in this article so you can quickly see what each one is about and can navigate to any you might be interested in.
In terms of 2024, the three most ‘popular’ updates (based on impressions) were:
- May 2024: which included an interview with COMMON Vice Chairman, Torbjörn Appehl
- June 2024: which featured a report on COMMON’s event in Milan and another look at AI within the IBM i ecosystem
- August 2024: which focused a little on IBM i security and could Cloudstrike happen on our beloved platform as well as a little defence of IBM i as an outsourcing business questioned if it was still worth investing in IBM i.
All your IBM i Updates so far
November and December 2024 IBM i Update
The final update of 2024, I take a trip to i-UG’s final event of the year with a look at IBM i Code Assistant with Douglas Gibbs, plus comments on the rumours circling about POWER 11 and a celebration of 65 years of COBOL.
October 2024 IBM i Update
October’s IBM i Update is a PHP on IBM i special with interviews with Alan Seiden and Pete Samways sparked by an article published on IT Jungle entitled ‘What’s New on PHP’.
September 2024 IBM i Update
This month, Andy scores with an #IBMi Ready badge, provides his predictions for the 2025 Fortra IBM i Marketplace Survey and speaks with the guys over at Silent Signal on their recent IBM i ethical hacking presentation.
August 2024 IBM i Update
This month, Outsourcing company DDC asked the question, ‘is it worth continuing to invest in IBM i’, could Cloudstrike happen on IBM i? And, the latest PTF guide.
July 2024 IBM i Update
Andy reports on the iUG i-Power conference in Northampton and interviews Andy Youens to discuss the use of Python on IBM i (and a bit of PHP and Node.js too).
June 2024 IBM i Update
I tell you about your last chance to be part of the ALL400s community IBM i survey, a report from COMMON Milan and we discover the wonders of AI with Charlie Guarino and friends.
May 2024 IBM i Update
I share the announcement of a native IBM i coding assistant by Steve Will, a preview of COMMON Europe with COMMON Vice Chairman, Torbjörn Appehl plus… a dalliance with AS/400 by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
March/April 2024 IBM i Update
This month, I’m at the i-UG event in London and investigate modern development languages with IBM i Champion, Andy Youens. We take a walk with Spot the robot dog and learn why keeping everything on i makes sense for your data.
February 2024 IBM i Update
I review the Fortra 2024 IBM i Marketplace Survey and (in under six minutes) compare the results to the previous year.
January 2024 IBM i Update
I discuss articles focusing on the top priorities for IBM i shops in the coming year, plus some predictions from industry leaders too including Ash Giddings, Donnie Maccol, Steve Will and Brian May [not that one].
December 2023 IBM i Update
This month I discuss the announcement of Alison Butterill’s retirement. I have an article on the ageing ‘COBOL cowboys’ and how to support their legacy of code. And finally, as it’s Christmas, I give festive wishes too (plus a glimpse of the Proximity Christmas doo!]
November 2023 IBM i Update
And I’m at the i-UG conference in Wolverhampton. Here, I look at the highlights from the event including their education initiative and the keynote speech on AI for business.
October 2023 IBM i Update
This month, I explore ‘culture before code’, The opening of the IBM i Marketplace Survey, Announcements of IBM i 7.5 TR3 & 7.4 TR9 and discuss the rise of the subscription model and if it’s right for your IBM i shop.
June 2023 IBM i Update
This month, as a change of pace, I provide a review and ‘quick’ insight into what it’s like to attend both the i-UG Power event in the UK plus COMMON Europe, this year hosted in Prague… oh, and there’s also the small matter of a 35th birthday too.
May 2023 IBM i Update
This month, I discuss the latest technology refresh, performance gains in Power 10, some (more) facts on modernisation and IBM replacing roles with robots!
April 2023 IBM i Update
This month, I review the most popular Generative AI program, chatGPT and discussed what it can do, its coding capabilities, how we can harness this and how it can change what we do.
March 2023 IBM i Update
This month was all about the value derived from IBM i and its superior cost of ownership – to the extent that it could possibly be CHEAPER to purchase a new Power 10 than renewing support on your incumbent machine (if you’re on a Power 8 or lower)
February 2023 IBM i Update
I review and summarise the highlights from this year’s Fortra IBM i Market Place survey, and it’s once again all about security and modernisation…
