It’s announce day at IBM for a long list of new systems,
expanded initiatives and, of course, for IBM i 7.1 Technology Refresh 6. In
keeping with the IBM
i Information Strategy I talked about in August, my blog today will
highlight the contents of the announcement, from an i viewpoint, and I’ll point
you to some other sources of more detailed information.
One big theme of this announcement relates to one of the clear trends in our industry: IBM i access from mobile devices. Some of the biggest news relates to the Statements of Direction that are being made about IBM i support for the Connections and Traveler products. Tim Rowe will be covering that topic in his blog this week. It’s a great story of the customer community making their needs known. But that’s not the only announcement related to mobile. Zend Server for IBM i Version 6 is also being announced, and it, in conjunction with Zend Studio 10, contains significant new function for creating and supporting mobile applications. Additionally, we’re talking more about the IBM Mobile Database, which is a free application for an Android device that can attach to DB2 for i.
Of course, one of the biggest parts of the announcement is the introduction of the POWER7+ systems in the low and middle range. I’m not going to delve deeply into that this week, however, as my guest blogger next week will give you all the details. Related to hardware and I/O support, though, you might find the USB Flash Drive support interesting, and Dawn May will have an article on that in her blog this week.
No IBM i announcement
would be complete without discussing new DB2 function. There are enhancements
in function, performance, manageability, availability and security. Our DB2 for i blogger, Mike Cain, will have
details in his blog, but you really ought to take a look at developerWorks
for the DB2 details.
In fact, let me re-emphasize something I wrote back in August: developerWorks is a key source of information when you’re looking for the details for the IBM i function that is being delivered between releases. The starting page is https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/ibmi/ and it is there, in just a couple of weeks, that Tim Mullenbach, the lead designer of the newly announced Transport Layer Security 1.2 support, will post a detailed article on that topic.
Finally, I want to
mention some new support our PowerHA SystemMirror is announcing. Again, this
topic will be covered in Dawn’s blog, though not until next week. We’re adding
support for additional storage devices, including IBM SAN Volume Controller
(SVC) and IBM Storwize V7000, V3700 and V3500, and you’ll want to get the
details in the blog and in developerWorks.
In coordination with this announcement, we have been preparing a set of new videos around the “Why i?” theme. There are four new videos available on YouTube:
- “Why IBM i – Designed for Business” – I give an overview that talks about the key architectural elements.
- “Why DB2 for i?” – Mark Anderson talking about the key attributes of the integrated DB2.
- “Why IBM i for Security?” – Jeff Uehling discusses how security and integrity on IBM i is powerful and differentiated from security on other platforms.
- “Why IBM i for Applications” – Cheryl Renner, an expert on ISV enablement, talks about the application and solution picture for the platform.
And speaking of videos, Alison Butterill created a video that specifically does an overview of IBM i 7.1 TR6. I hope you’ll also go check that out.
So, lots of information today. Check out the details the IBM i Power Systems Web page, and if you’re on Twitter, follow me on Twitter (@Steve_Will_IBMi) and I’ll let you in on new things as I know about them.
Until next time, enjoy all the new information from IBM, especially the new announcements from the IBM i team.
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