COMMON POWERUp 2023: Full Schedule

The largest IBM i-related conference event in the world, bringing together the community of users, IBM, industry experts and solution providers.

8:30am MDT

427: COMMON POWERUp Opening Session

The Opening Session officially kicks off POWERUp. Start your week off right by attending. Hear an update from COMMON's President, Dawn May, presentation of speaker awards, presentation of CEF scholarship awards by CEF President Randy Dufault, and business updates from IBM Executives. See you at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

Speakers

Dawn May

Owner, Dawn May Consulting, LLC

Dawn has been involved with COMMON for over 20 years and has been a consistent volunteer since 2008. She's been a member of the strategic education team, a subject matter expert, and a speaker. Now, as President of COMMON, she's focused on leading COMMON as the industry leader of... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 8:30am - 10:00am MDT
Grand Ballroom

Session Level All

10:15am MDT

112: Getting to Know IBM i Access Client Solutions

Session Evaluation

IBM i Access Client Solutions is a platform independent client that is supported running on multiple Operating Systems like Macintosh, Linux, and Windows. Familiarity with IBM i Access Client Solutions is very important as this is the future of the IBM i Access Family software on workstation operating systems. This future is already here as IBM i ACS is the only client supported on Windows 10 and later OS, and IBM i Access for Windows is being withdrawn from support on April 30, 2109. Though, this future is very bright as IBM i Access Client Solutions provides ease of deployment, and operational improvements in nearly every function the client provides. During this session we will make a survey of the IBM i Access Client Solutions functions and features that allow us to accomplish the tasks and processes we use IBM i Access for. Become familiar with IBM i Access Client Solutions!

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Wayne Bowers

Software Engineer, IBM

Wayne Bowers has been with IBM since 1997, where he works with the IBM i Global Support Center in Rochester MN. He is an Advisory Software Engineer specializing in the support of the IBM i Access (aka Client Access) products, Console, the TCP Telnet communications server, and the... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
Governors Square 11

Client Connectivity

Session Level Beginner
Award BRONZE
Audience Users or Administrators of IBM i Access for Windows or Client Access

10:15am MDT

161: RCAC – Row and Column Access Control – Secure your Data!

Session Evaluation

Data is the new Currency, is the essence of an article written by Neil Tardy based on an interview with Mike Cain (database consultant with IBM Lab Services). Since data is so important, it must be protected from unauthorized access and prevented from being stolen.
With traditional methods and additional programming, data access could be restricted, but also circumvented!
RCAC is an additional layer that is directly linked with the database tables. Users must be explicitly authorized for accessing either all or only a sub-set of the data. If a user is not authorized for any data, he will not get access to the data not even if his user profile has *ALLOBJ authority and independent which interface (SQL, native I/O, UPDDTA etc.) is used.

Speakers

Birgitta Hauser

Database and Software Architect, Independent Consultant

Birgitta Hauser worked on the IBM i and its predecessors since 1992. She graduated with a business economics diploma, and started programming on the AS/400 in 1992. She worked and works as traditional RPG Programmer but also as Database and Software Engineer, focusing on IBM i application... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
Governors Square 10

Database

Session Level Beginner

10:15am MDT

180: Journaling for Logical Replication, Hardware Replication or No Replication at All?

Session Evaluation

In this session, we will discuss journaling and its role in logical replication, hardware replication and also its benefit to availability when you not using any type of replication. You might think you don't need journaling if you are not replicating, not using commitment control, and not using other advanced DB2 Features, but that's not the case. We will answer questions such as:
What is journaling doing at its core?
What are the benefits for journaling when I'm not replicating to a second system?
Why do I need to journal for Hardware Replication?
Why should I journal if I want to use Flash Copy?
What is remote journaling and how is it used for Logical Replication?
What are the journaling implications for DB2 Mirror combined with long distance logical replication?
How can I improve journaling performance, disk consumption and remote journaling bandwidth?

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the basic IBM i DB2 journaling technology's purpose
2. Understand why journaling is useful or required for several different use case scenarios.
3. Learn some basic journal performance tips.

Speakers

John Vriezen

Principal Technology Architect, Precisely

I have been working with the IBM i platform for 35+ years, initially at IBM Rochester for 9 years, working on DB2 and the Storage Management. Then onto ShowCase Corp. working on Essbase OLAP engine for IBM i. Currently I with Precisely, (formerly Syncsort, Vision Solutions... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
Plaza Court 2

High Availability Resilience

Session Level All
Audience IBM i system and database administrators will benefit by attending this session on general IBM i journaling technology and use cases.

10:15am MDT

179: Technical Debt - On the Clock

Session Evaluation

We've all seen the national debt clock, fictitious to some, but a real threat to our country. Closer to home is a another threat just as serious and yet just as fictitious to some. We're talking about your organization's technical debt. Not the lease payments on your Power system, but rather the sum total of hidden exposures and future expenses that are brought about by less than optimal practices. Every company has it. They key is minimizing if not eliminating it through better practice, technology and collaboration. Join me as we explore some of the worst examples of technical debt and how to stop the bleeding, All while putting it into terms that your boss will understand.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the concept of technical debt and its adverse effects on an organization.
2. Be able to convey this message to non-technical C-level managers.
3. Take steps to eliminate (pay down) technical debt and prevent it from accruing in the future.

Speakers

Christopher Burns

Sr. Consultant, Tri-Delta Resources

Most of my peers know me as the brains behind Inuendo, an open source database model and API layer. But I'm just an IBM i geek like everyone else. In recent years, I've tackled the sensitive topic of Technical Debt, and how to eliminate it. Check out my open source projects on GitHub... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
Governors Square 16

IT Strategy

Session Level Beginner

10:15am MDT

243: IBM i Explained

Session Evaluation

Even if you are working with IBM i today, there are most likely areas that you are not so familiar with. What does object based operating system means, what is actually Singel Level Storage and why does the system almost never goes down?

Learning Objectives:
Learn the fundamentals of the greatest operating system on earth

Speakers

Torbjörn Appehl

Vice President & IBM Power Advisor, Common Europe / Built on Power

I've been working with IBM i and It's predecessors since 1997. Today I have my own company Built on Power, focusing on helping IBM and their Independent Software Vendors (ISV) to fully take advantage of all technologies available on the platform. IBM Champion since 2016, producing... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
Plaza Court 4

Personal Development

Session Level Beginner
Audience All people getting in contact with IBM i in one way or another

10:15am MDT

103: Agile Testing and Concepts

Session Evaluation

Iterative development models are being used more frequently. We will discuss the concepts of Rapid Application Development focusing on agile methodology. Topics include the manifesto and how it relates to teams and practices. From there we will explore testing advantages and challenges and how to be productive. Test automation is a core concept in most agile implementations so we will cover how tools apply and can be used.

Learning Objectives:
Understand Iterative Life Cycles
Define incremental development models and Iterative development model
Understand Basic Agile concepts and the manifesto
Determine the best types of testing for specific applications in a RAD environment

Speakers

Yvonne Enselman

Director of Professional Services, iTech Solutions

Yvonne Enselman is the Director of Professional Services for iTech Solutions where she manages the technical team and coordinates customer work. Her background is in Quality Assurance and she is certified at the advanced level. She enjoys all aspects of software testing and implementing... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
Plaza Court 5

Program Testing

Session Level All
Audience Audience: Developers and Testers who want to further their quality assurance knowledge base and how QA applies in Agile Software Lifecycle Development.

10:15am MDT

286: Introduction to VS Code for IBM i

Session Evaluation

Maybe you've used VS Code before, maybe you haven't - but have you used it for your IBM i development? Visual Studio Code can be used for all your RPGLE, COBOL, CL, etc, and this will cover installation, writing code, developer tools, creating programs, and much more.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learning about what VS Code
2. How does it work with IBM i
3. Writing/compiling ILE languages inside of VS Code

Speakers

Liam Allan

Advisory Software Engineer, IBM

Visual Studio Code fellow

Monday April 24, 2023 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
Governors Square 14

Programmer Tools

Session Level Beginner
Audience Developers

10:15am MDT

131: What's New and Exciting in RPG

Session Evaluation

With each new release of the IBM i operating system and with Technology Refreshes, IBM has given us some new features in RPG. This session tells you about the new and exciting features of RPG and how you might like to use each feature in your own applications.

Learning Objectives:
1. IBM's strategy for releasing new RPG features
2. The new features available recently
3. What I find exciting about them

Speakers

Scott Klement

Development & Solutions Architect, Midrange Dynamics

Scott volunteers as a member of COMMON's Board of Directors, Strategic Education Team, Certification Committee and Innovation Awards. He is the author of around 1000 articles and a dozen open source projects. Scott's efforts to help out the IBM i Community have resulted in dozens... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
Governors Square 15

Programming - RPG

Session Level Beginner
Award SILVER
Audience RPG Developers

10:15am MDT

125: Managing IBM i PTFs

Session Evaluation

What are PTFs? Why do I need them? How do I get them? Which ones do I need? Does my technology really need a refresh?

In this session we will describe PTFs, Cumultative PTFs, and other PTF Groups. We'll discuss how to find out what you have, how to get them, and how to put them in place. We'll help you determine what PTF strategy is the one for you and your system.

Learning Objectives:
1. What PTFs, and PTF Groups are and why you need them.
2. How to get PTFs and load them onto IBM i.
3. The use of Virtual Image Catalogs and Virtual DVD drives to save time and problems in the PTF process.
4. How to determine which PTFs you need for your system.

Speakers

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, Service Express Inc.

Larry has grown up with computers since his father became a CE in 1967. He obtained a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Calvin College in 1982 and soon after began working on IBM midrange equipment with the S/34 and S/36. Larry began working on the As/400 at its introduction In 1988.After spending many years as a developer Larry began working on communications, networking, and systems management tasks. Years of... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
Plaza Court 6

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Award SILVER
Audience This session is for you if you are the person in charge of administering IBM i.

10:15am MDT

412: Uses Cases for Using Ansible with IBM i

Session Evaluation

Come learn about all the content that IBM i has produced for common IBM i uses cases. This includes patch management, security and CI/CD. We will also show all the modules that have been produced and how you can build them into a playbook for your own use cases.

Speakers

Kris Whitney

IBM

Kris Whitney is a Senior Technical Staff Member at IBM Rochester. He has worked at IBM for the last 22+ years and currently is leading the development for Db2 Mirror for i and IBM i Public Cloud enablement.

Monday April 24, 2023 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
Governors Square 12

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate

10:15am MDT

346: Journey to the Cloud 101

Session Evaluation

Speakers

David Contreras

IBM Power Systems Specialist, Meridian IT

My over 35 years of experience range from Senior System Architect, Systems Analyst, Senior System Engineer, Project Manager, Technical Manager and I.T Specialist. I have the ability to work effectively with different levels of staff from executive to technical. I have traveled extensively... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
Plaza Court 7

Virtualization

Session Level All

10:15am MDT

133: IBM i Security from the Ground Up

Session Evaluation

Come to this session to learn the basics of IBM i Security. During this session Carol will cover the three building blocks of IBM i Security - Security-relevant System Values, User Profile Configuration and Object Security. Carol will also describe how (the order) the system checks security as well as program adoption. This session builds the foundation for other topics discussed during the rest of the conference.

Learning Objectives:
Understand the functions provided by security-relevant system values
Know which attributes of the user profile contribute to the capabilities of the user and understand the best practices settings for these attributes
Understand the options available for setting authority on objects (files, programs, etc)
Know the order in which IBM i checks authority when a user accesses an object
See how you can create and manage user profiles, system values and permissions in New Navigator

Speakers

Carol Woodbury

President, CTO, Co-Founder, DXR Security

With over 25 years experience in the area of IT security, Carol is known world-wide as an expert in the area of computer security. During her career, Carol has architected security solutions for Fortune 100 companies as well as small and medium-sized organizations. Carol is passionate... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 10:15am - 12:30pm MDT
Governors Square 17

Security

Session Level Beginner
Audience Any user that has little or no knowledge of IBM i Security or someone that needs a refresher of the details of IBM i security will benefit from this session.

11:30am MDT

145: IBM i Access Client Solutions Deployment Guide

Session Evaluation

IBM i Access Client Solutions is a platform independent client that is supported running on multiple Operating Systems like Macintosh, Linux, and Windows. Familiarity with IBM i Access Client Solutions is very important as this is the future of the IBM i Access Family software on workstation operating systems. Being a platform independent product the install or deployment of IBM i Access Client Solutions onto the workstation is approached via approaches and mechanisms unique to this product. This session will walk though the tooling and capabilities available to deploy IBM i Access Client Solutions and the best practice approaches to get this new client out and updated in your enterprise including the newer support to automatically update from an IBM i!

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn best practice approach to deploying and updating IBM i Access Client Solutions

Speakers

Wayne Bowers

Software Engineer, IBM

Monday April 24, 2023 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
Governors Square 11

Client Connectivity

Session Level Intermediate
Award GOLD
Audience Systems or Network Administrators tasked with adminstrating the client workstation environment connecting to the IBM i OS

11:30am MDT

170: SQL 101

Session Evaluation

Everyone 'should be' using SQL these days. With our strategy of creating IBM i services for accessing and managing the system, everyone has the opportunity to use SQL to do their job more efficiently. If you aren't sure how to start, this session will cover the basic building blocks for writing SQL statements. We will talk about the parts of a query, how SQL is used to create tables, and much more.

Speakers

Ryan Moeller

Software Engineer, IBM

Ryan Moeller is a software engineer working on Db2 for i, specifically on the SQL Query Engine (SQE) team. He joined the team in the Rochester, MN development lab in 2021. Ryan specializes in SQL, database development, and query performance analysis.

Monday April 24, 2023 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
Governors Square 15

Database

Session Level Beginner

11:30am MDT

378: A Beginner’s Guide to DevOps and CI/CD Pipelines on IBM i

Session Evaluation

Embracing agile development is essential to keep pace with evolving business requirements and your company's expectations for your IT team. Join us to learn about techniques and tools that we and our customers use to innovate in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.

Learning Objectives:
1. By utilizing CI/CD pipelines you can integrate your efforts with development across your enterprise, while drawing attention to the value of the IBM i platform.
2. DevOps empowers modern development teams to deal with constant change, while improving quality and reducing downtime.

Speakers

Donna Westmoreland

CTO, Midrange Dynamics North America

Experience gained from leading major projects, including application modernization, at 100s of corporations has given Donna a well-rounded view of development needs, audit requirements, and testing principles.

Monday April 24, 2023 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

DevOps

Session Level Beginner

11:30am MDT

416: What Makes the Power10 Chip Special

Session Evaluation

Bill Starke, the Chief Architect of the Power10 processor, will talk about Power10’s key features and capabilities and how they provide value for the IBM i platform.

Speakers

Bill Starke

Distinguished Engineer, IBM

William Starke is an IBM Distinguished Engineer and Chief Architect for Power microprocessors. Since graduating from Michigan Tech University, Bill has been employed by IBM for over 30 years in several roles, spanning mainframe and Power systems performance analysis, logic design... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

Hardware

Session Level Intermediate

11:30am MDT

414: The IBM HA/DR Solution Portfolio for IBM i

Session Evaluation

We can help you significantly reduce both CAPX and OPEX with our IBM solutions for high availability and disaster recovery. The IBM portfolio covers the spectrum from storage-based solutions to the IP based solutions for both on premise and in cloud. If you’re interested in an HA/DR which enables fully automated fail-over, provides off-line backups and ransomware protection, you’ll want to attend this session. We’ll cover the options, how they work and how you should position them.

Patrick Delaney, IT Operations Director at Seneca Gaming Corporation, will also be joining to discuss how they are using PowerHA to maintain maximum uptime for their business-critical gaming and hospitality applications running on IBM i.

Speakers

Steven Finnes

Product Manager, IBM

Steve has spent several years in IBM with positions spanning basic research to product development, product offering and marketing. He is the product offering manager for IBM Power Systems with responsibility for PowerHA for AIX, PowerHA for IBM i and the CBU.

Patrick Delaney

Director, IT Operations, Seneca Gaming Corporation

Monday April 24, 2023 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

High Availability Resilience

Session Level Beginner

11:30am MDT

111: Introduction to the Integrated File System

Session Evaluation

The integrated file system is a mystery to many. Concepts and terminology are different than 'native IBM i' and will be covered. Also, did you know the integrated file system is not just one file system? Details on each of the different file systems will be discussed as well as the basic ways you can access the integrated file systems.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the basic concepts of the integrated file system
2. Understand the different file systems
3. Learn some ways objects within the integrated file system can be accessed

Speakers

Margaret Fenlon

Software Engineer, IBM

Margaret started working for IBM in 1983 on the S/36. From 1986-1994 she worked in various areas of what is now the IBM i including Authorization Management support of POSIX and the integrated file system. She worked on the port of SAP R/3 from 1994-1997. In 1998 Margaret joined the... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
Governors Square 12

IFS

Session Level Beginner
Award GOLD
Audience Users that are new to the IBM i, and/or to the integrated file system. IBM i developers and/or system administrators may also benefit if they have no (or limited knowledge) of the integrated file system and how it fits in the system.

11:30am MDT

279: IBM i 7.5 Plus Favorite Features

Session Evaluation

In this session several key IBM i architects and development leaders will review the highlights of the latest IBM i 7.5 release along with the Latest TR releases. Many of our favorites new features will be covered by this team from the IBM i lab in Rochester

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Tim Rowe is the Business Architect responsible for Application Development and Systems Management for the IBM i operating system. His responsibilities include helping to make sure that the IBM i has what is needed to be successful both today and into the future. He sends much of his... Read More →

Scott Forstie

IBM, IBM

Scott Forstie is a Senior Technical Staff Member within IBM i development and spends most of his time working as the Db2 for i Business Architect. He has worked on IBM operating system development since joining IBM in 1989.Scott is a frequently published author, speaker at industry... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
Governors Square 16

IT Strategy

Session Level All

11:30am MDT

359: An RPGer's Take on VS Code for IBM i

Session Evaluation

These days RDi and Merlin aren't the only options for IBM i developers looking for an SEU alternative. If those IBM products aren't your cup of tea or are beyond your budget, there's a new free tool that you may find intriguing.

In this session, Susan will introduce you to her explorations of the open source extension to Visual Code Studio called Code for IBM i. Come to see how to make the transition from the green screen to a powerful, expandable and more productive free alternative. Join Susan to see what all the hype is about and explore another modern way to develop RPG/CL/COBOL code for IBM i applications.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand what Code for IBM i offers RPG/COBOL/CL programmers
2. Learn how to make a transition from green screen editors to a modern IDE

Speakers

Susan Gantner

IBM i evangelist, Partner400 & System i Developer

Susan's 30+ year career began as an application programmer for companies in Atlanta, Georgia, working on a variety of hardware and software platforms. She joined IBM in 1985 and developed a close association with the Rochester lab during the development of the AS/400 system. Susan... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Programmer Tools

Session Level Intermediate
Audience IBM i traditional language (RPG, COBOL, CL, etc) developers looking to enhance productivity with a modern IDE

11:30am MDT

186: The Basics of Node.js: Getting Started with Node.js

Session Evaluation

Node.js is one of the fastest-growing language runtimes in development history. By allowing the popular JavaScript language to run on the server side, it brings immeasurable value in terms of developer productivity, performance, and scalability. This presentation covers what Node.js is, why one would want to use Node.js, and finally, how to download and get started with Node.js on IBM i.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn what Node.js is and where it sits on the technology stack
2. Learn the basics of how Node.js works from a technical standpoint
3. Learn how Node.js can integrate with IBM i and provide a great replacement for PHP or other web technologies

Speakers

Mark Irish

Software Engineer, IBM

I am a software engineer at IBM working on open-source software enablement for the IBM i. I am particularly knowledgeable about Node.js and Machine Learning software libraries. Feel free to talk to me about your open-source questions and tell me what open-source software you'd like... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

Programming - Node

Session Level Beginner
Audience The audience for this presentation is any developer or system architect interested in alternatives to PHP or for using JavaScript for their back-end processing.

11:30am MDT

128: Image Catalogs: How They Changed My Life!

Session Evaluation

Stop working nights! Stay home on the weekend! Are you currently using image catalogs and virtual optical drives in IBM i? If not, find out why you should be! If you are, find out how to use them better! Upgrades can become a breeze, PTFs can easily be distributed across systems, and Linux software can be downloaded right from the web to IBM i! Starting in V5R1, IBM introduced the capability of creating virtual optical devices and media. See the impact this seemingly simple technology can have on the routine tasks you perform as an IBM i administrator.

Learning Objectives:
Configure virtual optical support on IBM i
Use virtual optical for PTF's and upgrades
Use virtual optical to install third party software and non-IBM i software

Speakers

Jeffrey Carey

Sr. System Administrator, Ensono

Jeff Carey is an IBM i professional with over 25 years of experience on the platform, specializing in system administration. He currently is a Senior System Administrator for Ensono, a company providing managed services for Mainframe, IBM i, Cloud, and hybrid IT, headquartered in... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Systems Management

Session Level Beginner
Audience System administrators and all users of IBM i

11:30am MDT

184: Understand your IBM i Performance Signature

Session Evaluation

IBM i often runs well with little or no focus on the performance of the system. But what if something unexpected does occur? If you understand the performance signature of your system when it is running well, it becomes much easier to identify problems if something goes wrong. This session will show you how to use the Performance Data Investigator to understand your day-to-day performance signature, as well as Graph History to understand long-term trends over weeks, months, and years.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn how to interpret performance charts in PDI
2. Understand what wait metrics mean
3. Learn how to review historical performance data

Speakers

Dawn May

Owner, Dawn May Consulting, LLC

Monday April 24, 2023 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Audience System administrators

1:30pm MDT

426: Keynote: IBM i @ 35: Innovation + Integration!

Session Evaluation

It’s time to celebrate! IBM i is celebrating its 35th anniversary, and in this session, Alison Butterill (IBM i Product Manager) and Steve Will (IBM i CTO & Chief Architect) will look back at what IBM i has meant to them in their careers. Throughout the changes in technology and society at large, the way businesses use servers and software, IBM i has been able to adjust, evolve and continue to provide excellent value. Through the years, Alison and Steve have worked with clients who have experienced these changes, and have been on the inside of creating IBM i as it evolved. They’ll share stories from that journey and predictions for the next 35 years! Come and celebrate with them.

Speakers

Steve Will

IBM i CTO & Chief Architect, IBM

Steve is the CTO and Chief Architect for the IBM i Operating System. Spending the past fourteen years of his IBM career in this position, he has become an award-winning speaker, author of the influential blog "You and i," (https://bit.ly/You-and-i-blog) and is one of the most sought-after voices at customer briefings and events. Steve has worked on IBM i and its predecessors since before the creation of the AS/400, and is currently responsible for setting the strategy of the IBM i operating system, as well as deciding which enh... Read More →

Alison Butterill

WW Program Director, Product Management, IBM i, IBM

Alison Butterill is the offering manager for IBM i. She owns the responsibility for the IBM i business, including defining and guiding future directions and strategies. She works with the IBM i sales, marketing, and development teams as well as clients and partners to ensure that... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Grand Ballroom

Developing Business Skills

Session Level All

2:45pm MDT

199: SQL and IFS - Reading/Writing IFS Files with SQL

Session Evaluation

SQL is great for accessing data located in a relational database. But in a modern world it is also necessary to consume data that is located in the IFS (Integrated File System) or provided by web services. With each Technology Refresh IBM introduces and enhances Db2 for i Services. With Release 7.4 Technology Refresh 3 IBM provides new SQL Stored Procedures for reading data from and writing Data into the IFS. In composition with other SQL Functions it is easy to scan through IFS files or decompose *.csv files or JSON files or XML documents located in the IFS.

Learning Objectives:
In this session you’ll learn how to write data to the IFS and how to read IFS files, by using no other programming language than SQL.
It will be also demonstrated how to access and decompose *.csv files located in the IFS without copying them into a physical file or SQL table.

Speakers

Birgitta Hauser

Database and Software Architect, Independent Consultant

Monday April 24, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 15

Database

Session Level Advanced
Audience Developers and users who are experienced in SQL Queries and want to know how to write data into the IFS or have to consume IFS data, or simply want to enhance their SQL know-how.

2:45pm MDT

115: Integrated File System: Real Life

Session Evaluation

The integrated file system has become more integrated into every day processing for many customers over the years. The other integrated file system sessions discuss technical details of what it is and the different functional support provided. This session will discuss real life scenarios of file system usage and some common problems experienced by customers.

Learning Objectives:
Understand some of the common problems experienced with the file systems and solutions to those problems

Speakers

Margaret Fenlon

Software Engineer, IBM

Monday April 24, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 12

IFS

Session Level Intermediate
Award SILVER
Audience System administrators and application developers that have experience with the integrated file system or have attended the other integrated file system sessions.

2:45pm MDT

229: What is IBM Power Systems Virtual Server and Why Should and IBM i User Care

Session Evaluation

After this session you will know what IBM Power Systems Virtual Server is and what capabilities it has and what benefits it brings to IBM i users. Beside the explanation of what PowerVS is you will hear, based on reference stories, why other IBM i users have chosen for PowerVS and how they benefit of using this solution. For people familiar with PowerVS, in this session also the new features, like Shared Processor pool and Global Replication Service, that have been implemented during the past year will be covered

Learning Objectives:
1: know what IBM Power Systems Virtual Server is
2:know the capabilities of IBM Power Systems Virtual Server
3:know about reference of customer who are using IBM Power Systems Virtual Server

Speakers

Tonny Bastiaans

WW Product Manager for IBM Power, IBM

Tonny Bastiaans is World Wide Product manager Power System at IBM. Started more than 20 years ago as an engineer on RS6000 systems (the predecessor of Power). He moved via several roles to his current role. With his technical background he is bridging the gap between technic and business... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 17

IT Strategy

Session Level All
Audience IBM i administrators, it architects, Power infrastructure administrators who wants to know about IBM Power Systems Virtual Server

2:45pm MDT

422: Unlock the Full Potential of Your IBM i Applications: A Guide to Modernization and Automation

Session Evaluation

IBM i applications have been successfully serving business operations for decades. Modern technologies are enabling new levels of automation, scalability, resiliency, and flexibility. In this session, IBM i business & IT strategy expert Greg Patterson will discuss what application modernization and transformation is and the various options available to help businesses realize the full potential of their IT, while building on the value of their IBM i applications. Greg will also explore:

- Modernization approaches and automated solutions
- Code and DB conversion
- Cloud infrastructure and strategies
- DevOps’ principles and tools
- Open-source software

Speakers

Greg Patterson

Modernization Specialist, Fresche Solutions

Greg Patterson has been in the IT field for over 20 years, the last 13 with Fresche Solutions where he is currently a Modernization Specialist. In addition to business development activities, Greg also coordinates pre-sales technical demonstrations and discussions, performs business... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

Programming - General

Session Level Intermediate

2:45pm MDT

166: Node.js and IBM i: Integrating Open-Source Software with your Current Technology Stack

Session Evaluation

You've heard a lot about Node.js, and know how to download packages, write interesting applications, and even connect to Db2 for i. But you are still a little hazy on how to integrate Node.js with all of the RPG, C, COBOL, and CL programs you have running on your system. This talk will focus on interacting with ILE programs from Node.js, including sending data to programs as parameters, getting results back in Node.js, and leveraging the power of Node.js to use the results in a novel way. By the end of the talk, you should have a better sense of how Node.js can interact with traditional IBM i programs and where to find answers to questions you have about Node.js and IBM i.

Learning Objectives:
1. What options are available to integrating Node.js with IBM i programs, commands, and workflows
2. How to interact with Node.js and IBM i from the same system
3. How to remotely interact with IBM i from Node.js on another system

Speakers

Mark Irish

Software Engineer, IBM

Monday April 24, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

Programming - Node

Session Level Intermediate
Audience This session is useful for CIOs who think that Node.js and IBM i programs are not compatible and application developers who want to use Node.js with the ILE programs they already have written.

2:45pm MDT

130: Providing Web Services on IBM i

Session Evaluation

Web services have become a critical-to-know technology in business programming. This session shows you how to create them in ILE RPG on IBM i using software that is included at no charge with the operating system. Both the Integrated Web Services tool from IBM, and writing your own web service by hand with XML-INTO and DATA-INTO will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand what a web service is, and why they are useful
2. Understand the types of web services and their terminology
3. Demonstrate how to create a web service in RPG with Integrated Web Services
4. Demonstrate how to create a web service in RPG without a web service tool

Speakers

Scott Klement

Development & Solutions Architect, Midrange Dynamics

Monday April 24, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 11

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Award SILVER
Audience Experienced RPG Developers

2:45pm MDT

360: The New World of RPG Arrays

Session Evaluation

Have you noticed a common thread in many of the features added to RPG in the last few years? RPG's enhanced support for arrays has been a dominant theme in many recent announcements.

We've had new ways to define them, including data structure arrays and varying dimension arrays. There also new ways to utilize them, such as the For-Each operation and new built-ins like %Split, %ConcatArr and %List, along with the new operator IN. And that's just the start!_

In this session, Susan will explore ways to put this new array support to work with code examples and use cases where they come in handy.

Learning Objectives:
1. Keep up to date with new powerful RPG language features.
2. Understand ways to take advantage use the new array support in RPG.

Speakers

Susan Gantner

IBM i evangelist, Partner400 & System i Developer

Monday April 24, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Experienced ILE RPG developers

2:45pm MDT

405: IBM i Security "Inside the Firewall"

Session Evaluation

Security is too often viewed as an "IT problem" that should be left to the IT department. Specifically, the "firewall guys." Assuming the IBM i is safe just because it's behind a corporate firewall ignores the many risks that are alive and well inside the network. So let's change the language. Instead of "security" let's talk about "data protection" and "business continuity." In this session we'll discuss what this means for developers, data owners and administrators.

Specifically:
- Best practices when sharing the IFS in an application workflow
- Dealing with the proliferation of ad-hoc ODBC and SQL query tools
- Monitoring for CPU load, disk space and more

Speakers

Justin Loeber

Dreamer | Tech Leader | IBM Security, Kisco Systems

Justin Loeber is the owner and CEO of Kisco Systems, a developer of IBM i security and compliance software. Kisco's mission is to secure every IBM i by helping educate the IBM i community about security, continuously improving its products and delivering the best value in the market... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

Security

Session Level Beginner

2:45pm MDT

126: Daily Care and Feeding of IBM i

Session Evaluation

IBM i and IBM Power Systems combine to deliver a fabulously reliable environment. The operating system has rich work management capability and strong error reporting. Despite that you shouldn't ignore it or you will eventually find yourself dealing with something serious. In this session we'll cover the things you need to watch and understand allowing you to deal with them before they become serious issues.

Learning Objectives:
1) Learn where to look and what to look for to know how your system is running.
2) Learn what to configure for automatic reporting of errors and problem.
3) Learn the points at which you need to begin to apply effort well before issues occur.
4) Be able to tell management: "Yes our IBM i is running well!"

Speakers

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, Service Express Inc.

Monday April 24, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Award GOLD
Audience This session is focused on the Developer who is suddenly handed the Admin hat and needs to know what the daily tasks of an Admin are.

2:45pm MDT

193: Everything You Need to Know About the IBM i Administration Runtime Expert

Session Evaluation

Business-critical applications must be up and running reliably without failure. When something unexpected occurs, you must identify the cause and correct it quickly. The relentless push to do more with less is only going to intensify while the tolerance for failure keeps dropping. Yet identifying points of failure can be tricky as complexities scale.

IBM i offers a product at no additional charge that helps ascertain application and infrastructure health. The IBM Administration Runtime Expert for i (ARE) can be used to define attributes of a healthy environment and use those defined attributes to validate that the environment is as expected.

This session will everything you need to know to get started with ARE:
- Overview of what ARE is and example use cases
- Prerequisites, installation, and logging into the ARE console
- Creating and editing templates
- Setting up system groups, verification options, and verifying systems
- Understanding the reports

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn how to acquire the IBM ARE product, where it needs to be installed, and how to log in and get started
2. Learn how to create templates that define the attributes to verify
3. Learn how to set up system groups for verification
4. Learn how to review the reports from a validation

Speakers

Dawn May

Owner, Dawn May Consulting, LLC

Monday April 24, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Systems Management

Session Level All
Award SILVER
Audience This session is geared for any system administrator that wants an easy way to ensure attributes are not changed on a single partition, or across a set of partitions.

2:45pm MDT

252: Set up a shared NFS drive to deploy PTFs and upgrades with image catalogs. Save time, save space! Make your admin life easier.

Session Evaluation

Upgrading and PTFs is easy with Image Catalogs, but doing the same process on multiple LPARs can take a lot of redundant time and space. Learn how to use the mature and established support of NFS to create a single image catalog that multiple LPARs can use.

Learning Objectives:
1. Brief discussion of image catalogs and NFS
2. How to set up NFS with real world examples
3. Networking requirements and guidelines

Speakers

Jeffrey Carey

Sr. System Administrator, Ensono

Monday April 24, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Audience System Administrators who need to update and upgrade multiple systems, especially multiple LPARs on singe physical system.

2:45pm MDT

282: iSee with Scott and Tim

Session Evaluation

In this session Scott and Tim will show, ie live demo how to solve real problems that we get asked, using ACS and the power of SQL.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Scott Forstie

IBM, IBM

Monday April 24, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 16

Systems Management

Session Level All

4:00pm MDT

406: Accelerate your SQL queries with SMP

Session Evaluation

With Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) now available as a no-charge feature in IBM i, you've gained access to a powerful feature that can significantly improve the speed of query execution. However, SMP must be approached carefully, as improper usage may produce lackluster results. This session will cover the inner workings of SMP, when to utilize SMP, and tools for controlling system-wide SMP usage.

Speakers

Ryan Moeller

Software Engineer, IBM

Monday April 24, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Database

Session Level Intermediate

4:00pm MDT

242: IBM i Latest & Greatest - 7.5 and TRs Overview

Session Evaluation

In this session, Steve Will, IBM i Chief Architect, will give an overview of the latest features of IBM i, including the most recent announcements. Db2, Application Development tools, Db2 Mirror, Open Source, Security features, ACS, Navigator – it’s all in there!

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the biggest recent features from IBM i
2. Get pointers to what other sessions can give you the details on specific big items.

Speakers

Steve Will

IBM i CTO & Chief Architect, IBM

Monday April 24, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 15

IT Strategy

Session Level All
Audience Everyone in the IBM i community

4:00pm MDT

232: Strategic IT - The Art of Advancing your Career Beyond the Technical

Session Evaluation

What are your career goals? Sure, we're all great with technology, but to continue growing in our careers requires that we do the unthinkable... we actually have to TALK to each other. And even worse... we have to TALK to the business people in our companies! Why? WHY? Why would we possibly want to TALK to PEOPLE? The answer to that question is that today more than ever, technology IS the business. So it makes sense that IT can help or hurt a business more than ever. It's critical that we align our IT efforts, goals, and strategies with those of the business - and all of that requires good communication. Would you like to have a seat at the table, to be taken seriously as a businessperson, and to have a voice in the decisions our companies make? Then attend this session to partner with your business and communicate for success.

During this session, you'll learn the business and communications skills needed to truly partner with the business and elevate your career. These will include:
1. Speaking the language of the business
2. Thinking like a businessman
3. Demonstrating strong leadership
4. Selling fellow business leaders on the value proposition of IT investments
5. Always being prepared
6. Earning influence
7. Preparing for and navigating board meetings_
8. Difficult conversations
9. Always keeping your cool
10. Aligning IT with business goals

Speakers

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Steven Wolk is the Chief Technology Officer for PC Richard & Son, a family owned and operated chain of 66 appliance and electronics superstores located throughout NY, NJ, CT, and PA. Founded in 1909, PC Richard has always been known for honesty, integrity, and reliability throughout... Read More →

Gregory Simmons

Software Engineer, PC Richard & Son

Gregory Simmons is a Software Engineer at P.C. Richard & Son. He is a COMMON certified Application Developer – ILE RPG on IBM I on Power. He is also a registered instructor with IBM’s Academic Initiative and an RPG and IBM i instructor at Scott Regional Technology Center, where... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

Personal Development

Session Level All
Audience All IT professionals who aspire to grow, become better communicators, and enhance their career!

4:00pm MDT

383: The N2i Advantage

Session Evaluation

Finding new to IBM i professionals can be a challenge for most customers but, not impossible. These professionals know where and how you can find new IBM I professionals.

Come listen to how they got started on the platform, what they are currently doing and what they are doing to help the next generation get started on the platform and how be successful.

Learning Objectives:
1) Find out what resources are available to you as an employer/employees
2) Bring awareness to the n2i committee and show what an advantage being a part of the committee can be to your career.

Speakers

Marina Schwenk

Senior Programmer Analyst, Everbrite

Marina started her career in January 2015 at Everbrite LLC in Greenfield WI after graduating from Gateway Technical College in May of 2014 with an Associate’s degree in IT Software Development. Marina works as a Senior Programmer Analyst at Everbrite and her primary development... Read More →

Anna Marrah

Marketing Consultant

Anna has a background in marketing, communications, sales, and membership promotion. She became acquainted with the IBM i community when she began working for COMMON as their Marketing Manager in 2018. During her time at COMMON, she spearheaded the revival of the IBM i professionals... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

Personal Development

Session Level All
Audience Anyone

4:00pm MDT

198: Why it's High Time for Rdi: The Basics of RDi

Session Evaluation

Beginners session on using RDi

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Charles Guarino

CEO & IBM Champion, Central Park Data Systems

Charles Guarino believes in the “power” of IBM Power Systems. His career reflects his dedication and interest in bringing the platform and its solutions to others and as a result has been recognized as an IBM Champion.He is a member of COMMON’s Speaker Excellence Hall of Fame... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Programmer Tools

Session Level Beginner

4:00pm MDT

366: Web and API Language Shootout

Session Evaluation

Alan will compare several open source languages commonly used for APIs and web development and the role of RPG alongside them. Languages include Node.js (javascript), PHP, and Python. The session contains concrete information about each as well as a lively discussion.

Learning Objectives:
1 Learn what makes each of these languages unique
2 Understand where each language would be best
3 Learn about web and API architecture

Speakers

Alan Seiden

Principal, Seiden Group

How to modernize and create something new while leveraging your valuable business logic.APIs, IBM i, open source, web, PHP, Node.js, Python, RPG, ERPs

Monday April 24, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 16

Programming - General

Session Level All
Audience Developers and managers

4:00pm MDT

404: How AI/ML drives the future of IBM i Modernization

Session Evaluation

If you’ve spent any time online in the last few months, you likely saw the buzz around ChatGPT, a new chatbot developed by OpenAI. Suddenly, the capabilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are democratized, their insights and guidance no longer exclusively available for data scientists. While the breadth and depth are unclear, it is certain they will have an impact for years to come.
The IBM® i is no exception. AI/ML will play a pivotal role in providing IBM i leaders the information, insight, and recommendations as to how best to optimize and modernize their IBM i environments.
Join Rocket Software’s Herman Rensink, Distinguished Engineer, and Jeroen van Dun, Senior Manager, Product Management, for a future-facing discussion about AI, ML, and IBM i strategy. In this session, we will talk about the data you should collect today to provide the dataset for the next generation of AI/ML experience tomorrow. In addition, we’ll discuss different touch points for consideration, including:

Hybrid cloud
Enabling future technology & tool integration
DevOps, including testing
Application modernization
Workflow automation
Security

Speakers

Jeroen van Dun

Product Manager, Rocket Software

Herman Rensink

Distinguished Engineer, Rocket Software

Monday April 24, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 11

Programming - General

4:00pm MDT

177: A Day in the Life of a Systems Admin

Session Evaluation

What tasks do you need to complete every day, every week, and on a regular basis to successfully administer your IBM i? This session will take you through the base tasks that every System Admin should be doing to monitor and administer the system to its best efficiency.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn what to monitor regularly to ensure optimization
2. Learn what tasks to complete regularly to keep the system on track.
3. Learn how to streamline your administration tasks efficiently.

Speakers

Sarah Jacob

VP of Customer Experience, Agile Technology Architects

Sarah Jacob is the Vice President of Customer Experience at Agile Technology Architects. She is a Subject Matter Expert in Power Systems Administration and a volunteer for COMMON. Sarah specializes in Backup and Recovery planning and recovery testing. Additionally, she acts as primary... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Systems Management

Session Level Beginner
Audience System Admins who are new to the position or to IBM i in general.

4:00pm MDT

181: Clean Up Your IBM i Disk

Session Evaluation

How much disk storage do you have on your system? The most common answer is 'not enough!' Attend this session and find out where all that space went, what you can clean up, and what should be left alone. Learn about reporting, automating, and managing your disk space in IBM i. Develop a deeper understanding of the tools IBM has built into IBM i and how to leverage them to help keep your system clean. Especially learn how to leverage SQL to find consumers of disk QUICKLY! Walk away with a solid understanding of how to clean up your disk space both QSYS and the IFS.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, Service Express Inc.

Monday April 24, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

Systems Management

Session Level Beginner

4:00pm MDT

206: Intro to IBM i Services (SQL) for Admins

Session Evaluation

This session is designed for IBM i system administrators. It covers real-world problems faced by system admins, and how to solve them using SQL (with some help from IBM i Services). Don't be intimidated by SQL. It isn't just for developers! You can copy and paste the examples provided in this session to get started easily. Attend this session and add a suite of new tools to your system admin toolbox!

"Learn how to use the “Run SQL Scripts” tool to:
1. Investigate active/queued/completed jobs
2. Retrieve system networking information
3. Investigate object locks, and much more!"

Speakers

Steve Riedmueller

Certified IBM i Admin - Speaker, Mentor, and Advocate, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

I am a COMMON Certified IBM i Administrator with over 20 years experience on IBM i, as well as a COMMON speaker, N2i mentor, and IBM i advocate. I've been working on the platform since 2001 as a system admin/engineer. I have experience with OS upgrades and patching, system security... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 17

Systems Management

Session Level Beginner
Audience Traditional “green screen” administrators who want to start leveraging SQL.

4:00pm MDT

341: Know Where you Owe! Accounting and Tax Compliance Automation for IBMi Users

Session Evaluation

Avalara can help solve common compliance challenges by:
• Automatic management of compliance documents:
How to leverage the Avalara IBMi SDK to automate tax compliance processes and the systems we support.
• Knowing when and where to file, and finding out when a business triggers a new
tax obligation:
• Keeping up with complex rates and rules for different tax jurisdictions, even
internationally
• Being audit-ready with detailed reporting capabilities: Avoiding costly fines from audits when you have all of your necessary documentation at hand.

Speakers

Evan Owens

Sr. Strategic Alliance Manager, Avalara

Avalara helps businesses of all sizes get tax compliance right. In partnership with leading ERP, accounting, ecommerce, and other financial management system providers, Avalara delivers automated, cloud-based compliance solutions for transaction tax, including sales and use, VAT... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

Tax Compliance

Session Level Beginner
Audience Accounting staff can learn how to streamline processes to allow them the ability to focus on mission critical tasks. IT Managers will learn how to leverage our existing API integration to streamline the process for updating rate tables. Executive staff will learn how to leverage automation to free up resources for focus on revenue generating activities.

4:00pm MDT

411: How to do Common IBM i Tasks in the IBM Cloud

Session Evaluation

The cloud can be a great place to run your IBM i workloads but there are some differences in how you manage your system. This session will discuss common user admin tasks like backup/restore, networking, dynamically assigning resources, console, and software licensing.

Speakers

Kris Whitney

IBM

Monday April 24, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 12

Virtualization

Session Level Intermediate

5:15pm MDT

401: Using ACS in Multiple System Environments

Session Evaluation

When the number of IBM i nodes that are interacted with using IBM i Access Client Solutions increase the complexity of interacting with the IBM i ACS environment can increase. In this short 20 minute sessions we will go over some of the ease of use items that have been added that help when managing multiple systems. Users who manage a smaller number of systems may also find value in approaches taken.

Learning Objective: Learn how to leverage the IBM i Access Client Solutions capabilities directed at users having to manage multiple IBM i nodes in their environment.

Audience: IBM i ACS users who have to manage a large number of IBM i systems.

Speakers

Wayne Bowers

Software Engineer, IBM

Monday April 24, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 15

Client Connectivity

Session Level Intermediate

5:15pm MDT

210: Learn how to use OR REPLACE with SQL DDL

Session Evaluation

The OR REPLACE clause can be found on many SQL Data Definition Language (DDL) statements. Come to this session to get a 20 minute brain blast on what you absolutely must understand for this topic.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand what OR REPLACE does and when to consider using it.
2. Understand the most valuable aspects of using OR REPLACE.
3. Understand how you can shift to management of master source for your data model.

Speakers

Scott Forstie

IBM, IBM

Monday April 24, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Database

Session Level Beginner
Audience Anyone tasked with changing the data model or SQL constructs.

5:15pm MDT

141: How to Become a Speaker at COMMON

Session Evaluation

You have a wealth of experience and expertise. Have you thought about sharing your know-how by speaking at COMMON? Speaking at COMMON is fun and a great way to get involved with other members as well as the organization at large. Come join this Question and Answer discussion with members of the Volunteer Excellence Committee. Let's talk about your questions, ideas for sessions or whatever is on your mind. We will share experiences about what it is like to speak at COMMON, successful speaking techniques, preparation steps, etc. You may be the next outstanding speaker at COMMON!

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Kim Greene

President, Kim Greene Consulting, Inc.

Kim Greene is president of Kim Greene Consulting, Inc. specializing in providing consulting services for the HCL Collaboration Solutions portfolio for IBM i (formerly AS/400, iSeries, System i), Windows, and Linux. Kim has over 15 years of experience with IBM Domino and 20 years of... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Developing Business Skills

Session Level All
Audience Anyone looking to speak at a COMMON education offering.

5:15pm MDT

238: Automation and My Vision For the Future

Session Evaluation

The world is changing. You can see it if you look around you... computers understand your voice, cars drive themselves, and so much more! What will things look like in 10 or 20 years? How will the world change? And, most importantly, how can we be ready for it?

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand how automation is already changing the world.
2. Think about how it will change things over time.
3. Be inspired to become a part of it!

Speakers

Scott Klement

Development & Solutions Architect, Midrange Dynamics

Monday April 24, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 16

IT Strategy

Session Level All

5:15pm MDT

244: IBM Power Explained

Session Evaluation

IBM Power servers are not just another off the shelf server like the rest on the market. It has it’s own unique architecture, built from the very bottom up from the same vendor. IBM. We will go through the different characteristics and compare it to x86 servers from Intel or AMD for example. IBM Power is built for business applications in mind. Not for a personal computer.

Learning Objectives:
Learn the concept of IBM Power based servers

Speakers

Torbjörn Appehl

Vice President & IBM Power Advisor, Common Europe / Built on Power

Monday April 24, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 12

Personal Development

Session Level Beginner
Audience All kinds of people.

5:15pm MDT

316: Develop PHP with your IBM i, not on it

Session Evaluation

Utilize modern techniques to develop your PHP applications on your PC, before handing them over to the IBM i for testing. Always wanted to write your software at Starbucks or your favorite park?

Learning Objectives:
Become somewhat independent of your IBM i while developing your PHP application. Try new features without disrupting your team members.

Speakers

Guido Faecke

Professional Services Consultant, Zend by Perforce

Guido Faecke has been working with IBM midrange systems since 1989. In the year 2000 he discovered PHP and is writing software in PHP ever since. While contributing to several Open-Source projects, he promotes best practices and good coding standards every chance he gets. His current... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

Programming - PHP

Session Level All
Audience PHP developers, IT Managers

5:15pm MDT

208: Test Driven Development using Python

Session Evaluation

User Acceptance Testing should not be the only testing tool in your arsenal. Building a solid Python application is easy if you automate the boring testing process. In this session we’ll explore how easy testing can be in Python and how to get it done with several examples.

Learning Objectives:
1) Explore benefits of test Driven Development.
2) Work through a basic framework for architecting TDD.
3) Build an example case from scratch using Python and the unittest module.

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Mike Pavlak has been working with IBM midrange solutions since 1992 and IBM Mainframes before that. After years of developing applications using RPG, CL and PHP he managed IT development and IT for power protection manufacturer Tripp Lite. Later Mike was instrumental in developing... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

Programming - Python

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Developers and syste architects looking to explore Python or TDD architecture

5:15pm MDT

234: Why Procedures are Better Than Subroutines

Session Evaluation

Discover the super powers that procedures have(and subroutines don't) and how they can help you create more reliable and more easily maintained programs. We'll talk about the benefits of input parameters: local variables, and return values, error handling with on-exit, and increased functionality with recursion.

Learning Objectives:
1. The benefits of using procedures
2. How to create a procedure
3. How to get the most benefit out of procedures

Speakers

Patrick Behr

Monday April 24, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Programming - RPG

Session Level All
Audience RPG programmers

5:15pm MDT

148: Attend this Session or Your System Will Crash...

Session Evaluation

...maybe! IBM i is very resilient OS, but there are still issues that can sneak up and actually bring an LPAR down. Learn about issues affecting IBM i, how to prevent and mitigate them before your system crashes. Learning objectives: Learn as an admin how to mitigate these and as a user/developer how to avoid contribution to them:
1. Temporary space growth
2. Journal Receiver growth
3. When job tables attack

Speakers

Jeffrey Carey

Sr. System Administrator, Ensono

Monday April 24, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate

5:15pm MDT

254: Using System Monitors in IBM Navigator for i

Session Evaluation

Learn how to create and work with System Monitors in IBM Navigator for i. Also learn how to use the Performance Data Investigator (PDI) visualization tool to view System Monitor data.

Learning Objectives:
1. How to create a System Monitor
2. How to view system monitor data

Speakers

Shauna Rollings

IBM i Performance Tools & High Availability Development, IBM

Shauna joined the IBM i development team in 2008. She has developed and supported IBM i performance data collector tools throughout her entire IBM career. From the very beginning of the Db2 Mirror for i project, she has also been the technical team lead for the Db2 Mirror Configuration... Read More →

Monday April 24, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 17

Systems Management

Session Level All
Audience System Administrators looking to take advantage of the performance monitoring capabilities of IBM i.

5:15pm MDT

292: New insights for Audit Journal entries with IBM Navigator for i

Session Evaluation

With the new Audit Journal component of IBM Navigator for i, it is much easier to gain helpful insights to your system security through audit journal entries. This short session will cover looking at the summary daily and weekly views for multiple audit journal entries and the detail view for a single-entry type. You will learn how to configure auditing with the helpful Navigator web interface. The session will also cover using the new audit journal detail entry data mart - both how to generate the data mart, and the authority required to view it.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn how IBM Navigator for i can help you work with your audit journal entries
2. Learn how to configure auditing with the GUI interface
3. Set up the audit journal data mart for faster viewing of weeks of audit journal detail information

Speakers

Lora Powell

Advisory Software Engineer, IBM

Lora Powell is team lead for IBM Navigator for i. Her career with IBM since 1989 has been in Rochester, MN where for the past 10 years she had focused on Performance Data Investigator (PDI). Now the last few years she has expanded her influence to all aspects of Navigator.

Monday April 24, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

Systems Management

Session Level All

5:50pm MDT

402: Get ACS to Auto-Update

Session Evaluation

Managing software updates can be a time consuming and even frustrating endeavor of IT shops. IBM i Access Client Solutions is working to simplify things by adding function to enable Auto Update capability. In this session I will show you how easy it is to setup IBM i ACS for automatic updates.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Wayne Bowers

Software Engineer, IBM

Monday April 24, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 15

Client Connectivity

Session Level Intermediate

5:50pm MDT

227: Authority Collection made easy with SQL

Session Evaluation

Authority Collection is unique to IBM i, providing the insight into why IBM Security allowed or denied an operation.In this session, Scott will share his unique flair for using Authority Collection and SQL together, to answer questions about security.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Scott Forstie

IBM, IBM

Monday April 24, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Database

Session Level Beginner

5:50pm MDT

317: GIT - The good, the bad, the ugly

Session Evaluation

Ever heard of GIT? Why should I use it? What are the benefits? Version control at its best!

Learning Objectives:
Version control is important. No blocking checkouts. Experiment with your code. Isolate long running feature development from the rest of your code.

Speakers

Guido Faecke

Professional Services Consultant, Zend by Perforce

Monday April 24, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

DevOps

Session Level All
Audience Developers, IT Managers

5:50pm MDT

362: How Fast is Your Power System?

Session Evaluation

IBM regularly publishes 'feeds and speeds' of their latest hardware offerings using measurements that are sometimes hard to understand or comprehend. In this session we will explain the speeds of various parts of the hardware using an adjusted time scale we mere humans can better understand. If we change the scale and assume the fastest Power instruction takes 1/10 of a second, how long would it take to read a page from a spinning disk? How long would it take for a L2 cache miss? We'll take a look at the relative speeds of various hardware operations to get a better appreciation of the blindingly fast computer hardware that we all use everyday.

Learning Objectives:
After attending this session, you will:
1. Understand the relative speed differences of different hardware operations -- simple instructions, memory access, DASD access, and network access.
2. You will understand better how to optimize your software, so that you can focus on improving the areas where the most benefit can be realized.

Speakers

John Vriezen

Principal Technology Architect, Precisely

Monday April 24, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

Hardware

Session Level All
Audience If you want to better understand how the speeds of different computer operations compare to one another, this session is for you.

5:50pm MDT

308: Surviving a Ransomware Attack

Session Evaluation

A few years ago the company was hit with a ransomware attack. This is the tale of how it happened and how we continue to recover.

Learning Objectives:
1. How 1 particular attack happened to a company with an IBM i.
2. What happened in the immediate aftermath.
3. How we continue to improve our systems to prevent future attacks.
4. How we continue to educate our users about threats.

Speakers

Michael McClure

ICT ERP Team Lead, Mueller, Inc.

Monday April 24, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Networking

Session Level All
Audience Anyone interested in a real life story of surviving a ransomware attack.

5:50pm MDT

265: Technologies unique to IBM i and Power (and competitors really want)

Session Evaluation

IBM i and IBM Power has unique and very innovative technologies that solves problems and issues the rest of the IT-world still struggles with. Many tried to copy technologies such as Microsoft in a number of failed projects.

Learning Objectives:
Learn about unique IBM technologies that we take for granted but the rest of the IT-world would love to have

Speakers

Torbjörn Appehl

Vice President & IBM Power Advisor, Common Europe / Built on Power

Monday April 24, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 12

Personal Development

Session Level Beginner
Audience All interested in IBM technologies

5:50pm MDT

375: Build Your Brand, Build Your Career

Session Evaluation

This session will be focused on N2i attendees, teaching them how to stand out their career.

Learning Objectives:
1. Gain an understanding as to why a personal brand is important to career growth.
2. Learn basic steps for creating a personal brand.
3. Gain creative ideas to help establish a positive reputation within the IBM i world.

Speakers

Anna Marrah

Marketing Consultant

Monday April 24, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

Personal Development

Session Level Beginner
Audience Professionals in the IBM i space who are within the first 5-10 years of their career as well as seasoned professionals who are job hunting.

5:50pm MDT

261: UNIXCMD: Integrating RPG with Open Source

Session Evaluation

Applications in the PASE environment (Java, Ruby, PHP, Python, Node.js and more) have taken the IBM i community by storm. Naturally, you'll want to integrate them with your traditional RPG and CL programs... but it's not as easy as it sounds! The model of calling Unix-based programs is very different from the traditional model. The Open Source (free!) UNIXCMD project makes it easy. With UNIXCMD, you can read and write commands the same way you access files.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the difference between Unix and IBM i calling models
2. Understand how to use UNIXCMD to bridge the two models.
3. Some examples to get you started

Speakers

Scott Klement

Development & Solutions Architect, Midrange Dynamics

Monday April 24, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 16

Programming - Frameworks

Session Level Beginner
Audience Programmers looking to combine RPG with newer open source techniques.

5:50pm MDT

262: Quick Spreadsheets through PHP and Python

Session Evaluation

Each language supports modules for extending basic features. In this session we'll explore this technique for creating REAL spreadsheets for both Python and PHP.

Learning Objectives:
1. Create REAL Spreadsheets using XLSXWriter in Python.
2. Create REAL Spreadsheets using PHPSpreadsheet in PHP.

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Monday April 24, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

Programming - General

Session Level Beginner
Audience Programmers and utility folks interested in enabling data through controled mechanisms.

5:50pm MDT

235: What the heck is Binder Source and why do I care?

Session Evaluation

Discover what binder source is, what it's used for, and why you definitely want to use it with your service programs. We'll talk about binding, signatures and signature violations, and how to change service programs without having to recompile all your programs.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn about binding
2. Learn about signatures and signature violations_
3. How to change service programs without recompiles

Speakers

Patrick Behr

Monday April 24, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Programming - RPG

Session Level All
Audience RPG programmers who use (or want to use) service programs

5:50pm MDT

334: Best practices for collecting performance data with Collection Services

Session Evaluation

IBM i performance data collection using Collection Services is enabled by default, but you may still be using default configuration settings. In this session, you will learn why you may want to adjust the Collection Services configuration settings for your performance analysis or trending needs.

Learning Objectives:
1. How to use Navigator for i to configure Collection Services
2. Recommendations for changing default configuration settings

Speakers

Shauna Rollings

IBM i Performance Tools & High Availability Development, IBM

Monday April 24, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 17

Systems Management

Session Level All

6:00pm MDT

429: Welcome Reception in Expo

Monday April 24, 2023 6:00pm - 9:00pm MDT
Plaza Ballroom

8:00am MDT

172: Introduction to Access Client Solutions (ACS)

Session Evaluation

Whether you're new to the IBM i or already advancing your career on this incredibly stable platform, join me in reviewing the many features of ACS. I have seen many great colleagues in my company who said, "ACS? Oh yeah, that's the emulator, right?" Yes, ACS is an emulator. But saying ACS is an emulator is like saying the swiss army knife is just a knife. No matter your job description, ACS has many tools that can help you work smarter.

Learning Objectives:
Learn some timesaving tools available with ACS.
Discover how to work smarter with ACS whether your a user, administrator or a fellow code monkey like me.
Learn how ACS can not only improve how you work, but improve how you collaborate with your coworkers.

Speakers

Gregory Simmons

Software Engineer, PC Richard & Son

Tuesday April 25, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 17

Client Connectivity

Session Level Beginner
Award BRONZE
Audience If you sign on to an IBM i, this session has something for you! Users, Admins, code monkeys!

8:00am MDT

156: Creating an Item Master File Data Layer with SQL PL Stored Procedures

Session Evaluation

This session will examine working examples of IBM SQL PL stored procedures, for maintaining and inquiring upon an item master file. We will also touch upon a number of additional SQL PL stored procedure master file access patterns, that were generated out of one of my employer's tool packages, so that you are better prepared to provide and understand alternate, hybrid or equivalent techniques to RLA if and when they arise. As a set, the stored procedures are probably best described as a simple data layer. We will add an RPG ILE trigger program to capture after images in an audit log file as the final piece of the data layer (which will work correctly to capture all changes even those made via a stored procedure call from the web or other external environment).

IBM SQL PL is standardized across all of the versions of Db2. The source code for the SQL PL stored procedures and ILE trigger program will be provided to conference attendees, as we seek to show how one might separate data access and update logic from the high-level language program, and facilitate broader ease of use and consistency of Db2 for i data across the enterprise (interactive, batch and/or remote web server)).

We'll hit inquiry, delete, add, update, record lock and several combinations of these for dealing with a single database row in a mission-critical master file. The update stored procedures include working examples of those that achieve the optimistic row locking technique even from a remote web server, so that accidental overlays are prevented in high volume, multi-user environments (without first soft locking a field in the record and/or checking it). The optimistic technique reviewed does require use of commit/rollback boundaries from within your high-level language program to fully rollback, however row/record locks are removed with rollback without requiring journaling. An important idea also is that this technique significantly reduces the situations that necessitate actual rollback of updates (like inability to allocate the record) and is more fine-tuned than techniques relying on use unique time stamps or isolation levels.

We won’t have time to get into the language syntax required to consume the stored procedures, so the source code of high-level languages calling the stored procedures won’t be covered in this session.

Learning Objectives:
1. See and understand standard Db2 for i SQL PL and stored procedure syntax that performs all of the DB access used within this data layer pattern example
2. Seek to show how one might separate data access and update logic from the high-level language program, and facilitate broader ease of use and consistency of Db2 for i data across the enterprise (interactive, batch and/or remote web server))
3. See differences in syntax and create steps for stored procedures using *LIBL and system naming

Speakers

Rex Smith

Sr. Developer (ERP & Web), Tegratecs Development Corp.

Rex is a Sr. Developer at Tegratecs and enjoys developing business applications in traditional IBM i environments and in web environments. Rex enjoys interacting with customers and designing business application software that solves problems and meets user needs. He is currently... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 12

Database

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Developers looking to see and compare data update techniques between an SQL PL data layer and traditional record level access (RLA), and see examples what might be considered a hybrid between the two.

8:00am MDT

321: SQL: Select the language

Session Evaluation

Session about the language SQL with some simplier Select querys with exercises

Learning Objectives:
To be able to write a simle Select query and to know what SQL is

Speakers

Sven Jansson

Senior developer, Apper Systems AB

I have worked on the IBM i platform since 1995. My technical roles include developer, analyst, database specialist, application security, and communications. I also worked on IBMz for a few years, and I serve on the COMMON Sweden board. I'm a curious person who always wants to learn... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 15

Database

Session Level Beginner
Audience People that are new to SQL

8:00am MDT

374: Quick Start to Using MariaDB and PostgreSQL on IBM ii

Session Evaluation

As part of the open-source packages IBM has released for IBM i, the PostgreSQL and MariaDB databases are two gems that stand out. The software installs in minutes on IBM i via the Yum-based Open Source Package Management process that is part of IBM Access Client Solutions (ACS). This means that MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL are now fully embraced as a valid IBM i database for storing data for your PHP, Python, Node and Java applications. No need to look elsewhere to host your open-source applications than IBM i using DB2 and open-source data natively.

Attend this session to see how to quickly get started installing and using MariaDB and PostgreSQL natively on IBM i. We’ll also cover some valid application development use cases.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the benefits of hosting MariaDB and PostgreSQL natively on IBM i
2. See how quickly MariaDB and PostgreSQL can be deployed on IBM i
3. Learn the development pattern for integrating MariaDB and PostgreSQL with your apps

Speakers

Richard Schoen

President, Mobigogo LLC

Richard has over 30 years of software development, system integration, document management and process automation experience on all system platforms including IBM i, Windows, Linux and Mac. Richard started RJS Software Systems in 1990 and served as President and CTO until the company... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 2

Database

Session Level All
Audience Any RPG or Open-Source developer looking to host apps that require MariaDB or PostgreSQL natively on IBM i and integrate with the database.

8:00am MDT

409: The Powerful Engine under the hood of your Power10 Server

Session Evaluation

What did you do to my SAS disk drives? How much better are NVMe devices for my critical IBM i workloads and how do I protect my data?

Speakers

Douglas Gibbs

Product Manager - Power IO, IBM

Douglas Gibbs is the offering manager for IBM Power Systems I/O and works closely with the overall Offering Management, Sales and Development teams regarding all manners of I/O. Douglas has worked in the IT Industry for more than 25 years and has been in a variety of positions at... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 4

Hardware

8:00am MDT

347: I'm interested in deploying IBM Db2 Mirror for i - Now What?

Session Evaluation

The IBM Db2 Mirror for i product provides synchronous replication of Db2 for i, which makes your database highly available between two nodes. Having a highly available database allows you to deploy applications in such a way that there is zero downtime required to do system maintenance that has traditionally been disruptive. In this session, you will learn about some of the considerations and planning that must be done before deploying Db2 Mirror.

Learning Objectives:
- You will learn about the types of objects that can be replicated by Db2 Mirror and about tools available to you to begin analyzing the object types used by your existing applications.
- You will learn about active-active and active-passive application topologies that work well in a Db2 Mirror environment.
- You will learn about the hardware and software required for deploying Db2 Mirror.

Speakers

Shauna Rollings

IBM i Performance Tools & High Availability Development, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 5

High Availability Resilience

Session Level All
Audience System Administrators, Application Developers, or Business Executives looking for an RTO and RPO of zero.

8:00am MDT

137: IBM i Networking and Servers Overview

Session Evaluation

The IBM i OS network communications has changed a lot since the AS/400 primarily communicated to workstations and printers using Twinax and to other computer systems using specialized communications lines. In some ways things are more complex because our IBM i OS systems communicate to a lot of other devices in many different ways, but in other ways things are simpler today because nearly all network communications are built on top of the foundation of Ethernet and TCP/IP.

This session will take a look at these foundation Ethernet and TCP/IP and how they are built up within the IBM i OS. We will look at your communications adapters, Line Descriptions, and IP addresses, subnets, routes and more including the commands and interfaces used to manage these.

We will also look at some of the most commonly used networking servers like Telnet and FTP and cover their basics of configuration, management and even troubleshooting.

Speakers

Wayne Bowers

Software Engineer, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 10

Networking

Session Level Intermediate
Award GOLD
Audience IBM i OS users to Administrators looking for a better basic understanding of networking on the IBM i OS.

8:00am MDT

175: How Does RDi Compare with VS Code’s IBM i Extension?

Session Evaluation

Charles has been asked this question a _million_ times (Editor’s note: this might be slightly exaggerated…).
He will demonstrate how similar functions are done using each technology and also what’s different between the two.
Please let me know if this is possible.

Speakers

Charles Guarino

CEO & IBM Champion, Central Park Data Systems

Tuesday April 25, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 14

Programmer Tools

Session Level Intermediate

8:00am MDT

139: Hidden Gems of IBM i

Session Evaluation

The IBM i team has been delivering new function two times per year since 2010. New releases and technology refreshes deliver a broad range of function and sometimes the smallest line items can be easily missed. The IBM i team has reviewed the past releases/refreshes and have assembled some of their favorite hidden gems; things that you might have missed but should know. Everyone will leave with something new that will help them in their day to day work.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn about some of the very useful but lesser known functions of IBM i.

Speakers

Alison Butterill

WW Program Director, Product Management, IBM i, IBM

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Lora Powell

Advisory Software Engineer, IBM

John Westcott

Analytics Consultant, Db2 for i, IBM

John Westcott is a member of the Db2 for i Database and Analytics team in IBM’s Technology Services (formerly Lab Services). A consultant with over 35 years’ experience on IBM i, his skills include Business Intelligence, Business Analytics, Database Modernization, SQL and RPG... Read More →

Ryan Moeller

Software Engineer, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 16

Programming - General

Session Level All
Award GOLD

8:00am MDT

444: Supercharge Your IBMi Development with RDi Debugging and Code Coverage

Session Evaluation

Are you an IBMi developer looking to streamline your workflow and optimize your coding practices? Join Wim Jongman, CTO of Remain Software, for an informative presentation on RDi Debugging and Code Coverage. Wim will guide you through the features and capabilities of these powerful tools. Discover how RDi can help you identify and fix issues faster, avoid common pitfalls, and improve your coding practices. With practical tips, real-world examples, and easy-to-follow guidance, you'll be able to unleash the full potential of RDi for your IBMi development.

Speakers

Wim Jongman

CTO, Remain Software

I am the CTO of Remain Software, home of TD/OMS and various other products. I am a committer and project lead for various Open Source projects.In my, not existing, free time, I like to gaze at the stars, shoot some pool, and enjoy my family.Please come and have chat at our booth... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 7

Programming - General

Session Level Intermediate

8:00am MDT

259: Introduction to Open Source on IBM i

Session Evaluation

Introductory and survey level discussion that looks at the installation of the Open Source solutions on IBM i. We'll also review many of the components available via open source and discuss the PASE environment. If you've been on the outside looking in at Open Source, this is the place to start.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand how to install open source solution on IBM i
2. PASE basic understanding
3. Explore the solution in the open source packages.

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Tuesday April 25, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 11

Systems Management

Session Level Beginner
Audience All levels welcome

8:00am MDT

291: Basics of Tapes and BRMS

Session Evaluation

Stepping into the world of tape backups and BRMS can be quite a challenge. While the backup process can be automated, it is important to know how each piece works, so you can be confident in making configuration changes.

Learning Objectives:
1 – Learn the basics of tape backups
2 – Learn how to get tapes enrolled in BRMS
3 – Learn about BRMS control groups
4 - Learn the considerations for doing full system backups with BRMS
5 – Learn how to do restores using BRMS

Speakers

Steven McIver

IBM i Certified Administrator, iTech Solutions

Steven is a certified IBM i System Administrator who has been working in IT for over 14 years. He was recognized as an IBM Fresh Face for his work on IBM i infrastructure in his early career. His main focus has been supporting IBM i and IBM Power Systems, and also specializes in VIOS... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 6

Systems Management

Session Level Beginner
Audience IBM i System Administrators and Operators will find this information very useful.

9:15am MDT

160: Speed Dating with a Date Dimension Table

Session Evaluation

Simplify date processing in your applications and reporting world. Date attributes (month/year, day of year, current_date-30, is it a holiday, date prompts) are used everywhere in your line of business or business intelligence applications. A recent customer benchmark shared with us took a 20 second routine down to milliseconds through the date dimension table technique. Simplify and speed up date processing with the date dimension utility that IBM provides for you !

Learning Objectives:
1. How to simply work with problematic legacy date fields
2. Learn about methods to extend/enhance your applications and reports with additional date attributes.
3. Add weather information, seasons, or moon phases to your data!

Speakers

Doug Mack

Consultant LAB Services, IBM

Doug Mack is a DB2 for i Analytics Consultant in IBM’s Power Systems Lab Services organization, employed by IBM in the United States. Doug currently leads the Analytics team for the DB2 for i Lab Services team delivering Query/400 modernization, DB2 Web Query, Data Warehouse design... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 5

Database

Session Level All
Audience RPG Developers, Business or Data Analysts, Query/400 report developers, I/T and Business Managers

9:15am MDT

219: Shallow Dive into Database Modernization

Session Evaluation

Do you still use DDS to create physical files? Do you create an "extension" file when you need to add a field to an existing file? Are you worried that moving to SQL is too difficult? This session is for you.

Do you need to prevent bad data from from getting into your system regardless of how it's being added? This session is for you. Do you need to mask sensitive data, or protect data from unauthorized users? This session is for you. If you love working really hard, enjoy cryptic column-oriented codes, or the thought of recompiling all your RPG programs gives you a thrill, then maybe this session isn't for you.

Learning Objectives:
1. Convert DDS physical files to SQL tables
2. Add audit fields that are automatically updated
3. Use constraints to ensure data integrity
4. Use Row And Column Access Control (RCAC) to control access to your data

Speakers

Patrick Behr

Tuesday April 25, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 11

Database

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Any still using DDS, or not fully utilizing the awesome power of SQL

9:15am MDT

388: Analyzing geospatial data using Db2 for i

Session Evaluation

In everyday life when we asks questions like “Where is the nearest coffee shop” or “How far away is the airport” we are asking questions about geospatial data. Geospatial data is used to represent objects and events that occur on the surface of the earth. Geospatial analytics allows you to not only store geospatial data representing real location in your database, but to also compare and analyze geographic relationships and trends.

Learning Objectives:
This session will introduce the set of new user-defined geospatial data types, scalar functions, and table functions that make up Geospatial Analytics with Watson and provide many real-world examples of how to use them.

Speakers

Scott Forstie

IBM, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 4

Database

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Database developer designing applications

9:15am MDT

116: Integrated File System Security Principles and Practices

Session Evaluation

Are you confused about IBM i Integrated File System security? You're not alone! Come to this session and learn the principles and best practices of securing your file systems. This session will cover more than just setting permissions (authority) on your objects. Other topics include virus scanning, controlling remote access, object audit, and more.

Learning Objectives:
- Understand the semantics of integrated file system security
- Learn other methods of securing beyond permissions including virus scanning, and more
- Learn ways to manage and improve integrated file system security

Speakers

Margaret Fenlon

Software Engineer, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 12

IFS

Session Level Intermediate
Award SILVER
Audience IBM i system administrators and application developers who wish to learn more about integrated file system security. Most beneficial for those that have working knowledge of the IFS or have attended the introduction and/or advanced sessions.

9:15am MDT

377: N2i Meeting of the Minds

Session Evaluation

The N2i strategy team will meet N2i attendees where they are at and discuss challenges they face and opportunities on the platform. This offers a great opportunity for community-driven conversation as well as network and group growth.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Anna Marrah

Marketing Consultant

Marina Schwenk

Senior Programmer Analyst, Everbrite

Jasmine Kaczmarek

Director of IT, M.R. Williams

With over ten years of experience on the IBM Power System, Jasmine's passions include modernization, API development, integration of gamification techniques into business applications and mentoring new developers. Jasmine is an avid promoter of adopting open-source languages into... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 2

Personal Development

Session Level Beginner

9:15am MDT

196: What's Going on with My Code: Debugging 101 with Rdi

Session Evaluation

Gain accelerated insight of your code with the latest in debugging technologies.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Charles Guarino

CEO & IBM Champion, Central Park Data Systems

Tuesday April 25, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 14

Programmer Tools

Session Level Intermediate
Award SILVER

9:15am MDT

190: SQL for the RPG Programmer “How To”: SQL Access to Data and ACS Tools

Session Evaluation

SQL is THE recommended interface from applications into your data. It is imperative to understand how to embed SQL or otherwise interface to SQL from RPG. We also need tools to enhance our use of SQL in our applications.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the basics of embedding SQL in RPG
2. Discover how RDi and ACS cooperate to enhance using SQL in our applications
3. Examine features in ACS that can have an impact on RPG development

Speakers

Vern Hamberg

Senior IT Developer, Ecolab, Pest Elimination

Vern has worked on IBM midrange systems for over 30 years, beginning with the System/38 and AS/400. At present he is a senior IT developer for the Pest Elimination division at Ecolab. He also serves on the COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) and SET and is one of the SMEs for... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 16

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Audience RPG developers who want to see the ever-expanding opportunities SQL offers in their applications

9:15am MDT

287: Introduction to Merlin and IBM i Developer

Session Evaluation

A deep dive into the IDE that comes with Merlin: IBM i Developer. We’ll look at what it takes to use the IDE, setting up a Workspace, writing + compiling code, and how it integrates with git.

Learning Objectives:
1. Using Merlin IDE for the first time
2. Understanding git for ILE code
3. Managing projects through Merlin IDE

Speakers

Liam Allan

Advisory Software Engineer, IBM

Visual Studio Code fellow

Tuesday April 25, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 7

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Developers

9:15am MDT

295: Advanced IBM i Services (SQL) for Admins

Session Evaluation

In this followup session to "Intro to IBM i Services (SQL) for Admins" we dig deeper into the capabilities of IBM i Services. This session will cover more complex and powerful use cases for monitoring, automation, and system administration.

Learn how to:
1. Join data from multiple IBM i Services to create ""SuperTools""
2. Use QCMDEXC() scalar function (what's that??)
3. Create your own User Defined Function (UDF)"

Speakers

Steve Riedmueller

Certified IBM i Admin - Speaker, Mentor, and Advocate, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Tuesday April 25, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 10

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Administrators with some SQL experience who want to take their knowledge and skills to the next level.

9:15am MDT

127: Selecting your POWER Systems hosting environment

Session Evaluation

When virtualizing IBM POWER Systems you have two primary choices for the hosting environment, VIOS and IBM i. Each of these offers strengths and each has weaknesses. In this session we'll go over more than 35 comparison points putting the two hosting choices side by side. Well cover technical capabilities as well as usability and visual items. We'll look at costs and requirements for each host.

Come and select your choice for a hosting partition or confirm that you've gone down the right track.

Learning Objectives:
What requirements would lead you to select VIOS as your hosting environment
What requirements would lead you to select IBM i as your hosting environment
What are the costs or need-to-knows for each of the two hosts.

Speakers

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, Service Express Inc.

Tuesday April 25, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 6

Virtualization

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Any IBM i system administrator, especially those with virtualization in their future.

9:15am MDT

357: ILE: Procedures, Modules & SRVPGMs by Example

Session Evaluation

For RPGers, ILE brings with it procedures, modules, service programs, binding directories and binder language - it can get confusing!

In this interactive session, Susan will take her life in her hands by walking through a live step by step demonstration of some of those topics. In the process, we'll discover some of the problems that can occur - how they show themselves and how to fix or avoid them.

Our roadmap includes the following steps:
- Creating a (very) simple RPG procedure in a module
- How (and why) to put that module into a service program
- Using a binding directory to simplify creating programs that use our procedure
- Add a new procedure to the same module and service program
- Guidelines for testing procedures in service programs
- How to maintain the service program over time and avoid signature violations

To get the most from this session, it would be helpful if you're already familiar with the basic syntax of RPG procedures (aka subprocedures) and if you know a bit about what modules and service programs are.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the value of service programs
2. Understand how ILE entities interact with each other
3. Avoiding common pitfalls and frustrations with developing and maintaining ILE applications

Speakers

Susan Gantner

IBM i evangelist, Partner400 & System i Developer

Tuesday April 25, 2023 9:15am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 15

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Audience RPG developers who want to understand more about how service programs work

9:15am MDT

152: Take Control of Your IBM i Prestart Server Jobs

Session Evaluation

Prestart jobs are used to service requests from clients in the network. There are many uses of prestart jobs on IBM i, the most common is the database server. Prestart jobs present many challenges for how to understand what is happening on the system, what work requests these jobs are handling, and generally how to manage them. This session will review all the key characteristics of prestart jobs, provide many tips to better understand what is happening on your system, and review how you can use subsystem configuration to better manage your prestart jobs.

Learning Objectives:
The attendee will learn how to better manage prestart server jobs. The topics are many, but will include managing job logs and output, using Watches to debug intermittent problems, determining what the job is doing, including the SQL statement the job is running, how to determine the rate at which prestart jobs are being used and reused, subsystem configuration for prestart jobs, and much more.

Speakers

Dawn May

Owner, Dawn May Consulting, LLC

Tuesday April 25, 2023 9:15am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 17

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Audience System Administrators in environments with a lot of remote database access that uses either the QZDASOINIT or QSQSRVR jobs.

10:30am MDT

216: SQL Coding Tips and Techniques

Session Evaluation

SQL is a very powerful language for processing data. There are many ways to write SQL statements to get the desired results. However, not all queries are created equal. This session will compare different ways to approach a problem from an SQL perspective in terms of code maintenance and performance. Taking the right approach for writing SQL helps Db2 for i help you.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Kent Milligan

Senior Db2 for i Consultant, IBM

Kent Milligan is a Senior Db2 for i Consultant in IBM Technology Expert Labs. Kent has over 25 years of experience as a Db2 for IBM i consultant and developer working out of the IBM Rochester lab. Prior to re-joining the Db2 for i Expert Labs practice in 2020, Kent spent 5 years... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 10

Database

Session Level All
Award SILVER
Audience Developers

10:30am MDT

187: Get Started with GIT and Version Control: Automating DevOps for the IBM i with Jenkins

Session Evaluation

Increase software development agility and standardize on a version control that is platform agnostic. Building IBM i source from Git

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Jeffrey Tickner

ARCAD Software

Jeff Tickner has worked in Change Management on the IBM I for 17 years at different companies. He is certified in Rational Team Concert as well has having experience with other Change Management packages from SourceSafe to Subversion. Jeff currently works for ARCAD Software, an international... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Plaza Court 4

DevOps

Session Level All

10:30am MDT

117: Real-Time Access to Integrated File System Data Across the Network

Session Evaluation

The green screen isn't the only place where users can interact with IBM i file system data. Find out how and when to share your integrated file system to other platforms to let your users get more done with less effort. The latest updates to these file sharing methods will be included.

Learning Objectives:
- Understand the file sharing options on the IBM i and their differences
- Understand how to set up/use the file sharing options on the IBM i
- Understand how policy settings can affect IBM i NetServer functionality

Speakers

Margaret Fenlon

Software Engineer, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 12

IFS

Session Level Intermediate
Audience System administrators

10:30am MDT

164: LoopBack: The Easiest APIs You've Ever Made

Session Evaluation

LoopBack is an open-source Node.js framework that allows you to create REST API endpoints with ease. This session will cover the LoopBack connector that allows you to connect to IBM i and create API endpoints from either existing database schemas and tables. We will also look at the API generator that allows you to create REST API endpoints in the terminal, then migrate your endpoints to Db2 for i. I will also demonstrate how to secure LoopBack API endpoints with both an SSL certificate and with an authentication schema. After the session I'm sure you will agree that LoopBack is the easiest way to make API endpoints on IBM i!

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn what LoopBack is
2. Learn how to make API endpoints with LoopBack
3. Learn how to secure LoopBack API endpoints

Speakers

Mark Irish

Software Engineer, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Plaza Court 6

Middleware (other), Programming - Frameworks

Session Level All
Audience This session will be beneficial for developers who are looking for an easy way to connect their IBM i applications with the database through REST API endpoints.

10:30am MDT

368: Alan’s Favorite tips for Open Source on IBM i (That Will Impress Your Boss)

Session Evaluation

Open source delivers new interfaces and functionality for your IBM i applications—and broadens the talent pool for your development team. Python, PHP, and Node.js are among the most popular open source tools on IBM i, for good reason. Combined with today’s ODBC database connectivity, API standards, and RPG/ COBOL integration, they are a powerful way to extend traditional applications to the web, mobile devices, and APIs.

Join Alan Seiden to learn his favorite tips for making your open source stack as reliable as your traditional IBM i applications. He’ll share ways to ensure smooth operation of:
1. Python, PHP, Node.js_
2. ODBC
3. Apache_
4. Connections to RPG and COBOL
5. And how to manage the rapid pace of updates!

Learning Objectives:
1. Tips from the trenches and managing and using open source
2. Best practices for the various languages
3. How to use them in practice and get speed and security

Speakers

Alan Seiden

Principal, Seiden Group

How to modernize and create something new while leveraging your valuable business logic.APIs, IBM i, open source, web, PHP, Node.js, Python, RPG, ERPs

Tuesday April 25, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 16

Programming - General

Session Level All
Audience Developers

10:30am MDT

276: Recent additions to modern RPG language

Session Evaluation

Over the past ten years RPG has transformed itself into a modern free form language. In recent the recent releases, 7.4 and 7.5, there have been additions there have been enhancements made that have passed many people by. Simon will demonstrate his favorite additions. (This will be updated with the RPG enhancements included in TRs before the conference).

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn Simon’s favorite additions to RPG, and the releases they can be used with
2. See examples of each one.

Speakers

Simon Hutchinson

Author, RPGPGM.COM

Simon has been writing his acclaimed IBM i blog, RPGPGM.COM, for almost ten years sharing his knowledge, experience, and giving many detailed examples of the latest RPG, SQL, and CL. He has been recognized by IBM as an IBM Champion for Power (since 2021), and as an IBM i Community Advocate.Since its founding, in 2020, Simon has been the president... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 14

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Audience All RPG programmers who have an interest in keeping their skills up to date

10:30am MDT

213: Getting the Most out of the Audit Journal

Session Evaluation

The IBM i Audit Journal is not just for compliance! In fact, the greatest value is helping administrators debug authority failures, assisting investigators to determine if the system has been breached and as an early warning sign that your organization has been compromised. During this session, Carol will show examples of using the audit journal for these scenarios and will highlight the latest IBM Services and Navigator for i interfaces that make getting information out of the audit journal easy and straightforward.

Learning Objectives:
Understand how to use CL commands, IBM i Services and Navigator for i to get information out of the audit journal and analyze it

Show examples of using the audit journal to:
- debug an authority failure
- determine how a profile is used
- determine whether the system was used during a breach
- Understand how to use the audit journal as an 'early warning' system of a network breach

Speakers

Carol Woodbury

President, CTO, Co-Founder, DXR Security

Tuesday April 25, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Plaza Court 2

Security

Session Level Beginner
Audience System or Security Administrators that want additional tools to simplify IBM i security administration

10:30am MDT

102: IBM i OS and Power System Upgrade Testing

Session Evaluation

Focusing on the unique needs of IBM i environments we look at the testing needed for system and OS upgrades/migrations. From strategic test management and planning to risk management and resource allocation. Concepts covered include how to identify testing points, determine risk, and implement responsible quality assurance.

Updated to include templates and planning examples.

Learning Objectives:
Understanding testing strategies, tactics, and design.
Determine risks to system quality.
Aligning testing with risk exposure._
When to use risk based testing, static testing, behavioral testing, or structural testing for best results.

Speakers

Yvonne Enselman

Director of Professional Services, iTech Solutions

Tuesday April 25, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Plaza Court 5

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Audience: IT department personal who want to deliver solid testing for upgrades. Any system administrator who is concerned about the testing their system is subjected to. Consultants who are in the upgrade/hardware/admin sphere and want to enhance their testing offering. QA professionals who want understand what the technical team is testing and evaluating before hand off.

10:30am MDT

121: Mission: Possible! Journaling Forensics 101 (with Free Tools)

Session Evaluation

Learn to think like a spy! Many shops use journaling for a variety of reasons, but may not be familiar with how to use these journals for forensic purposes. Mining your journals for the who, what, when, where, how - and sometimes even why - can be very useful, not to mention fun! Come join us for a lighthearted and entertaining "Mission: Impossible" themed look at one of the most useful things you can do with your journals. This session will introduce journaling concepts and share tuning tips to optimize your journal environment for forensics. After reviewing the "old fashioned" way to dig into your journals, we will demonstrate how much easier this is with the right tools. The DMPJRN and CVTJRNDTA commands used in this presentation will be made available as a free download to all attendees, including source code!

*** As a bonus, this session now includes examples using the new Journaling SQL Table Functions!

After participating in this session, attendees should have the skills and tools to:
- Optimize your journal environment to maximize the forensic information available to you
- Understand what your journals are trying to tell you, and how to interrogate them to get the answers you need
- Dump your journals quickly and easily using the free software made available
- Be able to interpret the content of your journals to determine what really happened to your data
- Use the techniques demonstrated in the provided source code to develop your own tools
- Save the world from evil-doers

Speakers

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Tuesday April 25, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Plaza Court 7

Systems Management

Session Level All
Award SILVER
Audience Anyone who would like to understand how to maximize their journaling environment to make use of forensic data. If you've ever needed to figure out how something happened, if you like playing detective, if you enjoy building tools, then please join us!

10:30am MDT

270: Breaking Bad IBM i Habits – Best Practices for Success

Session Evaluation

Best Practices is all about meeting IBM system compliance to achieve optimal results. Don’t let old myths or newly formed bad habits be the difference between success or a failure in service delivery. This session will examine V7R4/R5 Operating System, Configurations, Backups, Disaster Recovery, and Security Management best practices. We will discuss technical gaps, blunders, and recommendations. Hear actual lessons learned so you don’t make the same IBM i assumptions others have made.

Learning Objectives:
IT is not a game of chance.
Configuration management to produce optimal results

Speakers

Richard Dolewski

VP, Enterprise Solutions, Connectria

Richard is a recognized SME and award-winning industry speaker specializing in, Cloud Computing Architecture, Business Resiliency, Disaster Recovery Planning and Backup & Recovery Program Design. He leads organizations through the new era of technology, achieving the desired, successful... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 11

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Systems Admin

10:30am MDT

430: Expo Open

Tuesday April 25, 2023 10:30am - 1:30pm MDT
Plaza Ballroom

12:00pm MDT

431: Lunch in Expo

Tuesday April 25, 2023 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT
Plaza Ballroom

1:30pm MDT

417: Power Processors and IBM i: A Brief History of the Past 20 Years

Session Evaluation

Bill Starke, the Chief Architect of the Power10 processor, gives his perspective on the technologies, architectures, and business conditions underpinning the past several generations of Power processors and systems.

Speakers

Bill Starke

Distinguished Engineer, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Hardware

Session Level Intermediate

1:30pm MDT

250: Technical Debt - The Clock Is Your Friend

Session Evaluation

So now that you understand the extent of your technical debt, the questions is, how to start addressing it. You can't undo 30 years of debt in 30 days, but there are ways to pick away at it little by little, without the stress and deadlines associated with a big bang event. Join us as we explore some simple techniques to eliminate instances of one of the most prevalent forms of technical debt - hard coding. Plus, we'll also discuss one more form of debt that we didn't cover in "On the Clock", one that will most certainly rear its ugly head in the future.

Speakers

Christopher Burns

Sr. Consultant, Tri-Delta Resources

Tuesday April 25, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 15

IT Strategy

Session Level Intermediate

1:30pm MDT

440: What is Open AI and Why Should You Care?

Session Evaluation

Open AI and specifically Online GPT has captured the latest in IT headlines. In this session we will discuss the history of Open AI, how it has matured and the goals of the team behind the technology. We'll also explore (speculate) on its impact to education, finance and most assuredly, Information Technology. We'll wrap up with a live demo of the Copilot application and how it might add productivity to the typical IBm i shop, but at what cost?

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Tuesday April 25, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 17

IT Strategy

Session Level Beginner

1:30pm MDT

264: Build a Phenomenal Web App on IBM i in Under 10 Minutes — No Coding Required!

Session Evaluation

Just released! Valence 6.2, the latest incarnation of the popular web and mobile framework for IBM i, includes a browser-based low-code development utility called Nitro App Builder (NAB), through which anyone with a solid understanding of their IBM i database can create dazzling web or mobile apps, including dashboards and data grids with download-to-Excel functionality, all in a matter of minutes! Running entirely on IBM i, the NAB tool can also be used to create intricate file maintenance apps, through which users can adjust content in one or more physical files — you control which fields they can see and/or edit.

All of this can be achieved with no coding, though IBM i developers can easily extend the app's functionality with RPG or SQL code to handle business logic as needed. Advanced programmers comfortable with HTML5 and JavaScript code can take things even further, creating super elaborate data-entry apps that work hand-in-hand with server-side RPG logic through the Valence Portal.

The bottom line: With Valence, whether you're a seasoned RPG developer or a super user with intimate knowledge of your system's physical files, you can crank out highly functional web and mobile apps on IBM i in no time — no prior experience in web or mobile development required. Come to this quick demo session to see the latest release of the Valence framework, and how easy it is to quickly build and deploy such an app on your system.

All of this can be achieved with no coding, though IBM i developers can easily extend the app's functionality with RPG or SQL code to handle business logic as needed. Advanced programmers comfortable with HTML5 or JavaScript code can take things even further, creating super elaborate data-entry apps that work hand-in-hand with server-side RPG logic through the Valence Portal.

The bottom line: With Valence, whether you're a seasoned developer or a database-savvy user, you can crank out highly functional web or mobile apps on IBM i in no time — no prior experience in web or mobile development required! Join us in this quick demo session to see this latest release of the Valence framework, and how easy it is to build and deploy such an app on your system.

Speakers

Robert Swanson

Senior Partner, CNX Corporation

Rob has worked as an in-the-trenches IBM i developer since 1992, with the past 15 years focused on developing modernization efforts for legacy systems written in RPG. Currently serving as Senior Partner for CNX Corporation in Chicago, Rob is a strong advocate of introducing highly... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 11

Programmer Tools

Session Level Intermediate

1:30pm MDT

106: Tending your Open Source Garden on IBM i

Session Evaluation

It seems like a new open source language or project is ported to IBM i every week! How much water, fertilizer and other nutrients do they need to thrive along side of your RPG stack? This session will cover how to install OSS on i and know they are installed, how to use them and how best to integrate them into your IBM i development efforts. Learning objectives: 1. Know how to install OSS packages on IBM i.
2. Brief overview of how and why to use open source languages
3. Examples of integrating OSS into the IBM i environment

Speakers

Pete Helgren

Team Lead, Bible Study Fellowship

Currently IT Generalist at Bible Study Fellowship International. Pete is a developer with broad experience across multiple languages andplatforms, including over 27 years of system 3X/AS400/iSeries/IBM i experience. He holds certifications as a GIAC Cloud Penetration Tester,GIAC Secure... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Programming - General

Session Level Intermediate

1:30pm MDT

437: A Modular Approach to Modernization - Enhanced by Business Intelligence

Session Evaluation

Take a modular approach to your IBM i modernization plan and see meaningful results faster. A one size fits all approach to modernization isn’t flexible enough in today’s ultra-competitive landscape. Go above the typical modernization plan with the ability to make more informed business decisions by extending and enhancing your applications with BI. BI allows companies to get instant insights and access to key business metrics. In this session you will learn:

Why modernization is important
Reimagining your legacy apps
Modular modernization basics
Applying modular modernization to your business
Enhance your modernization with Business Intelligence

Speakers

Mike Mahan

Global Sales Director, LANSA

Mike Mahan is LANSA’s Global Sales Director. With over 20 years of enterprise sales, management, and engineering experience, he has helped countless businesses and development teams modernize, integrate, and upgrade their IBM i systems. At LANSA, Mike has ramped up customer satisfaction... Read More →

Andrew Vaiciunas

Senior Sales Engineer, LANSA

Andrew Vaiciunas is a Senior Sales Engineer at LANSA. He has over 30 years of business systems analysis, design, and development experience and has been with LANSA for more than 20 years. Andrew’s technical expertise has allowed him to help hundreds of clients develop and maintain... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 16

Programming - General

Session Level Intermediate

1:30pm MDT

361: What Does a Full Featured Security Strategy Look Like?

Session Evaluation

In this session, you will learn about the many aspects that an IBM i Security suite product will cover. This includes multi factor authentication (MFA), auditing and SEIM features, access control, authority elevation, and more.

Learning Objectives:
1. You will know what to look for when you consider adding a security product to your IBM I IT infrastructure.
2. You will learn how to take a holistic approach to IBM i Security
3. You will understand all the components to be considered for a comprehensive, effective security strategy for IBM i

Speakers

John Vriezen

Principal Technology Architect, Precisely

Tuesday April 25, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

Security

Session Level Intermediate
Audience IBM i professionals who must address Security requirements for their IBM i systems will benefit from this session.

1:30pm MDT

263: Keep Smiling : Daily SAVE21 in 2 min, Instant Refresh of TEST LPARs, Many Hot RECOVERY Copies

Session Evaluation

Yes ‘Flash for i’ solution can perform all this ... and more :
- quick roll back to a recent safe Database (or IFS) after a data loss or a corruption, - less than 2 minutes to update your Datawarehouse,
- zero stress to do a role swap exercise (for HA validation).
Find out how your external storage’s magic FlashCopy technology (SnapShot) enable you to save a lot of daily work.
From your IBM i production LPAR ‘Flash for i’ solution automates, manages, secures and reports operations. Our customers found ‘Flash for i’ extremely easy to setup (less than 3 hours) and to operate. Your time is money!
Note : ‘Flash for i’ solution is installed on more than 500 LPARs (170 end-customers) in 16 countries including Americas.

Speakers

Pascal Ruckebuch

Founder and CTO, M81

Pascal Ruckebusch adopted IBM i at the exact beginning of AS/400, three decades ago, and never left it … Pascal's experience on IBM i covers system and application development, training and operations. Twice CTO of 2 major IBM business partners in France, his technical skills and... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 12

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate

1:30pm MDT

438: Loopback Hackathon - Day 1

Session Evaluation

Come be part of the first COMMON POWERUp Hackathon, a hands-on method of learning! In this fast-paced hands-on social-coding event, we will be learning about LoopBack, a REST API framework that uses simple terminal commands to create REST API endpoints, hooked directly to the same Db2 for i data that runs the rest of your business application. With a few more commands, you can have your endpoints secured behind an authentication scheme, and with a little more work, you can encrypt all of the data going to and from your endpoints.

This two-day session will be presented live:

Day 1: We will do a traditional presentation giving you all of the background knowledge you need to understand LoopBack, including the technology it is built on and how to use it.

Day 2: The second day will be the fun part! Using your laptops, we will have a small Hackathon where you split into teams (or by yourself, if you prefer) and are given guidance on how to make your REST API endpoints. From there you are given freedom to develop another simple application that will consume the API endpoints you made. At thend we will show off what we have done, and discuss where you go from here.

This event will be educational, but it will also be fun! Even if you don't finish the Hackathon assignment, I guarantee you will learn a lot, and make new friends doing it. So come try something new! And be sure to bring your laptop!

Speakers

Mark Irish

Software Engineer, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 1:30pm - 6:15pm MDT
Director's Row E

Programming - Frameworks

Session Level Beginner

2:45pm MDT

101: Create or Replace … DDS Files with DDL Objects

Session Evaluation

With the latest releases and technology refreshes the SQL data definition language (DDL) for creating and maintaining database objects was enormously enhanced. DDS on the other hand is stabilized. But still a lot of applications even those with a modern graphical interface and where the latest goodies of the programming language are used in the source code are based on DDS described files. The excuse DDL enhancements cannot be used, because of the DDS description and the native I/O access of these files, does not count any more. With Reverse Engineering, the SQL code for DDS described objects can be retrieved. CREATE OR REPLACE statements allow DDS described files to be converted into SQL defined database objects, while the programs that use these files can stay untouched. With the CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE statement, files with fields based on field reference tables can be managed.

Learning Objectives:
In this session you will learn to convert DDS described files into SQL tables and SQL indexes without touching any program code. It will also be demonstrated how reference files can be used in composition with SQL tables and how (future) enhancements, for example adding columns on a specific position or changing data types and lengths can be managed.

Speakers

Birgitta Hauser

Database and Software Architect, Independent Consultant

Tuesday April 25, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 15

Database

Session Level Advanced
Award BRONZE
Audience Database Engineers, Database Administrators, Managers and Programmers who want to modernize their database and want to start with converting the existing DDS described files into SQL objects.

2:45pm MDT

122: Accelerate Your Excel!

Session Evaluation

Are you intimidated by spreadsheets? Do you use Excel for the basics, but know you could be so much more productive with it if only you knew how? Do you cringe when other business people within your company ask for data in spreadsheet form? Excel is a wonderful tool, especially when paired with the IBM i! It's incredibly powerful, and can save you lots of time.

This session will begin with the basics and then progress through more advanced Excel topics such as functions, pivot tables, and array formulas. Using real life examples, you'll see how these new skills will help you in your career. Finally, we'll review powerful methods of pulling data from your IBM i directly into Excel spreadsheets! You'll even leave with sample code you can leverage within Excel to give you one click access to run an SQL statement from your desktop and have the results returned in a spreadsheet.

Learning Objectives:
Learning Objectives: After participating in this session, attendees should have the skills and techniques to:
- Understand the benefits of using Excel
- Use spreadsheets to improve your own productivity as well as that of your company
- Pull data from your IBM i directly into a spreadsheet in a variety of ways

Speakers

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Tuesday April 25, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Developing Business Skills

Session Level All
Award BRONZE
Audience Anyone who has ever had to work with a spreadsheet will benefit from the skills gained during this session. We will start with the basics, but even experienced Excel users will find useful information in this session.

2:45pm MDT

214: Automation on IBM i, Ansible versus Jenkins: How can these open source tools help me and which one do I use?

Session Evaluation

Most companies are using open source tools for automation on other platforms, now we have the opportunity to leverage these tools even more on the IBM i due to recent advances by IBM. What can these tools do for me right now and which one should I use? Let’s talk about what these tools do and common use cases. Most importantly WHY I would choose one tool or another for a use case and HOW I would use it?

Learning Objectives:
same as above

Speakers

Jeffrey Tickner

ARCAD Software

Tuesday April 25, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

DevOps

Session Level All

2:45pm MDT

104: What IBM i Professionals can learn from NASA

Session Evaluation

The NASA moonshot initiative in the 1960s and 1970s was groundbreaking in the use of information technology and advanced developments. Correspondingly testing and quality assurance was mandatory, extensive, and equally inventive. Using examples from history we will discuss current issues such as disaster recovery (the Apollo One fire), test coverage (Apollo 13), specifications and prototypes (the development of the LM), user ability and experience (Apollo 14), and further education development (Apollo 17).

Learning Objectives:
Explore disaster recovery, High Availability, testing, and implementation of quality assurance in a unique and informative way.

Speakers

Yvonne Enselman

Director of Professional Services, iTech Solutions

Tuesday April 25, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

High Availability Resilience

Session Level All
Award GOLD
Audience Testers and Developers interested in furthering QA knowledge. Anyone who was interested in the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo program in the 1960s.

2:45pm MDT

271: Ensure your DR Plan Works in a Disaster

Session Evaluation

Do you have a disaster recovery plan? Are you really prepared? The difference in surviving in business depends on how well you prepare for the unexpected. This session breaks down the components of Disaster Recovery Planning as it relates building an effective Plan for the recovery of your Data Center. Testing your plan is essential as we examine critical points of failure, assumptions, technical gaps, and blunders.

Learning Objectives:
DR methodology proven in actual Computer room and FEMA disasters
Effective DR run books and testing for success

Speakers

Richard Dolewski

VP, Enterprise Solutions, Connectria

Tuesday April 25, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 11

High Availability Resilience

Session Level Intermediate
Audience DR Plan Owners

2:45pm MDT

305: Why Do We Continue to have Discussions about IBM i Security?

Session Evaluation

Security is on the top of everyone's mind ... yet few improvements ever seem to be implemented. Why is that and what can be done to move 'Improve Security' to the top of everyone's To Do list? Carol Woodbury explains the barriers she's seen and experienced throughout her career and offers suggestions to eliminate them.

Learning Objectives:
Understand why there's hesitation in implementing security enhancements in organizations.
Understand how to overcome the barriers preventing improving your organization's security posture.

Speakers

Carol Woodbury

President, CTO, Co-Founder, DXR Security

Tuesday April 25, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

IT Leadership and Management

Session Level All
Audience Anyone in IT management

2:45pm MDT

194: Service programs and Unit Testing – The Perfect Pair

Session Evaluation

Do you have monolithic programs that you have to start breaking up into manageable pieces? Have you been tasked to start unit testing and don’t know where to start? This session is meant for you.

Learning Objectives:
We will work through the benefits to modernizing your code and why you want to adopt unit testing.
We will work through breaking apart monolithic programs and how to write their respective unit tests.
We will discuss some best practices in unit testing and how you can take some of those best practices and apply them to your everyday development processes.

Speakers

Marina Schwenk

Senior Programmer Analyst, Everbrite

Tuesday April 25, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Program Testing

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Application Developers, testers

2:45pm MDT

277: Recent additions to modern CL language

Session Evaluation

The CL programming language is under appreciated and is used by many as just a JCL. In the past few releases a lot has been added to CL that gives the IBM I programmer an alternative to doing everything with RPG or Cobol. (This will include any additions to CL that will come in TRs between now & the conference)

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn Simon’s favorite additions to CL, and the releases they can be used with
2. See examples of each one.

Speakers

Simon Hutchinson

Author, RPGPGM.COM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Programming - General

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Any IBM i programmer looking for an often simpler way to program something than use RPG

2:45pm MDT

445: Unit Testing on IBM i: From Basics to Best Practices

Session Evaluation

Are you new to unit testing or looking to optimize your process? Join Wim Jongman, CTO of Remain Software, for a comprehensive overview of unit testing on IBM i. In this session, we'll cover the basics of unit testing, including why it's important, how it works, and what tools you need. We'll also dive into best practices for unit testing on IBM i, including effective testing strategies and integration with your development workflow. Then, with practical tips, real-world examples, and a friendly, approachable style, you'll learn how to master unit testing on IBM i.

Speakers

Wim Jongman

CTO, Remain Software

Tuesday April 25, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

Programming - General

Session Level Intermediate

2:45pm MDT

369: What’s new and exciting in PHP for 2023

Session Evaluation

PHP is moving fast these days. PHP 7.4 is out of support by the community, while PHP 8.1 and 8.2 include features that help developers reduce bugs and enjoy writing high quality code. In this fast-paced session, Alan will share his favorite new features in PHP 8.1 and 8.2, and how to prepare for them. Alan will also show tips on upgrading from older releases and will go over recent security enhancements.

Learning Objectives:
1. Power of PHP in today's market with IBM i
2. Why and how to get on a regular upgrade cycle with PHP
3. Features and benefits of PHP 8.1 and 8.2 for security, performance, and ease of programming

Speakers

Alan Seiden

Principal, Seiden Group

How to modernize and create something new while leveraging your valuable business logic.APIs, IBM i, open source, web, PHP, Node.js, Python, RPG, ERPs

Tuesday April 25, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 16

Programming - PHP

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Developers using or considering PHP, including those on older versions and needing to upgrade

2:45pm MDT

188: Python Productivity: Python Fundamentals

Session Evaluation

With no background we will start with the fundamentals of the Python language, installation and execution with the goal of mastering Python modules to access systems & Db2 to accomplish tasks such as creating pdfs, spreadsheets and a wiki natively on IBM i.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Tuesday April 25, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 17

Programming - Python

Session Level Beginner
Audience programmers and folks interested in learning how Python can change their lives!

2:45pm MDT

424: Let’s Talk IBM i Cloud - Which Workloads To Move and How

Session Evaluation

Companies across industries are leveraging the benefits of the cloud, while also maintaining control and flexibility. IT leaders are achieving this by adopting a ‘cloud smart’ strategy, and carefully considering which workloads are best suited for the cloud, rather than blindly moving everything into it. By adopting hybrid models and optimizing certain workloads (such as testing, DevOps, and OS upgrades), IBM i organizations are capturing the benefits of the cloud, while also avoiding unnecessary technical debt.

Speakers

Raymond Hammell

Fresche Solutions

Tuesday April 25, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 12

Virtualization

Session Level Intermediate

4:00pm MDT

142: Group By, Having and multi-dimensional Grouping

Session Evaluation

An SQL SELECT can be much more than a simple SELECT * FROM query. Among others it includes with the GROUP BY clause a powerful data aggregation capability. A bunch of aggregate functions allows to count or summarize rows, to calculate the average over multiple rows, to determine the minimum and maximum row value. The GROUP BY clause may be widely known and used, but the HAVING clause which goes hand in hand with the GROUP BY is often a mystery. There may be other secrets waiting for being revealed … or did you know you can create all kinds of sub-totals and grand-total with an SQL GROUP BY?

Learning Objectives:
In this session you’ll learn the basic use of the GROUP BY and HAVING clauses as well as the use of multiple aggregate functions. You’ll also discover how NULL values can affect the result returned by aggregate functions. It will be demonstrated how easily all kinds of sub-totals and grand-totals can be built. You’ll also learn how to use the CASE clause for building pivot tables.

Speakers

Birgitta Hauser

Database and Software Architect, Independent Consultant

Tuesday April 25, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 15

Database

Session Level Beginner
Award SILVER
Audience Programmers, Database Administrators and Engineers who quite often need to run queries or built reports that include sub-totals and grand totals. Everybody who is interested in what can be done with an SQL SELECT statement.

4:00pm MDT

290: Tips, Tricks, and Tools to Supercharge your SQL Skill Set

Session Evaluation

Now that you have the basics of SQL under your belt, it's time to up your game. Learn how to elevate query performance with indexes, how to utilize CTEs for improved query readability and flexibility, and how to harness Visual Explain and the SQL Performance Center for query analysis.

Speakers

Ryan Moeller

Software Engineer, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 12

Database

Session Level Beginner

4:00pm MDT

376: N2i Employer Panel

Session Evaluation

This panel of IT managers and business owners will offer invaluable insight to N2i attendees on what skills they need and how to present themselves when talking to potential employers.

Speakers

Dawn May

Owner, Dawn May Consulting, LLC

Gordon Leary

Immediate Past President, COMMON North America

Simon Hutchinson

Author, RPGPGM.COM

Jasmine Kaczmarek

Director of IT, M.R. Williams

Tuesday April 25, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

Personal Development

Session Level Beginner

4:00pm MDT

288: RPGLE and Git the right way

Session Evaluation

Understanding how to use git with VS Code or Merlin IDE, writing RPGLE/COBOL/etc locally, deploying and building to IBM i. You'll also see the available git and IDE tools to make your development life so much simpler.

Learning Objectives:
1. Available tools in your IDE to make writing code locally much simpler
2. What git tools are available to make you a better developer
3. Benefits of moving source code into git

Speakers

Liam Allan

Advisory Software Engineer, IBM

Visual Studio Code fellow

Tuesday April 25, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Programmer Tools

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Developers

4:00pm MDT

372: RPG and CL Speak Open Source

Session Evaluation

I come from the world of the traditional RPG developer. And I arrive bearing open-source peace offerings for my fellow IBM i travelers. When I started my IBM i development journey back in the eighties I was constantly developing custom RPG programs and CL command utilities to help get work done easier. After 30+ years the journey continues to discover the perfect integration for IBM i.

Even though there is no perfect integration technology, in this session you’ll learn about useful ways to integrate between traditional languages such as RPG and CL and the open-source stack available on IBM i, allowing you to do many of the things you thought were impossible with RPG.

Our RPG and CL integration examples will primarily focus on Python. However, this integration approach is relevant for any of the open-source languages or applications, including Python, Bash Scripts, QShell/PASE commands, Java, PHP, Node.JS and others.

By attending this session and adopting the techniques learned in this session your RPG and CL utility toolbox has just tripled in size. You won’t want to miss this inspiring open-source technical session.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the benefits of Integrating open-source apps with RPG and CL
2. Learn the development pattern for using open-source with RPG and CL
3. Adopt and utilize the provided RPG/CL/Open-Source examples right away in your own shop

Speakers

Richard Schoen

President, Mobigogo LLC

Tuesday April 25, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Programmer Tools

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Any RPG, CL or Open-Source developer looking to expand their usage of RPG and CL to quickly integrate the ability to take advantage of open-source apps and utilities written in bash, PHP, Python, Node, Java and more.

4:00pm MDT

221: React: Intro to building a front end interface using Hooks

Session Evaluation

This is an introduction to the React front-end framework. We will set up a development environment and incrementally build an application as we learn about React hooks.

Learning Objectives:
1. How to get started with React
2. How to create web pages with React
3. Manage state with React hooks
4. Serve React app from IBM i

Speakers

Patrick Behr

Tuesday April 25, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 11

Programming - Frameworks

Session Level Beginner

4:00pm MDT

222: Using SQL to pull web service data into your IBM i applications

Session Evaluation

Obtaining information from external systems or data servers has come a long way since the introduction of EDI in the 1980s! Today, publicly available web service APIs offer a much more flexible and easier-to-integrate method for pulling pertinent global data into your IBM i applications. Whether it be commodity prices, financial data, current weather information, demographic statistics or whatever else you can think of, there is no shortage of information available on the internet that could complement certain areas of your company's business, thus adding valuable real-time information to your various user applications.

In this session we'll put this concept to work in a hands-on fashion. The presenter will use real-world API examples to demonstrate how IBM i developers, using SQL, can quickly access this valuable web service repositories and pull data into an RPG program or UI tool for their users. Attendees will see two simple 5250-based interactive examples in action, with source code they can try on their own systems.

Learning Objectives:
1. Basic definition of a REST API, and how it differs from SOAP
2. How to find a public web service API and understand its inputs and outputs
3. How to structure and execute an SQL statement to pull data from the web service

Speakers

Robert Swanson

Senior Partner, CNX Corporation

Tuesday April 25, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Programming - General

Session Level Beginner
Audience Developers who could benefit from pulling external information (i.e., commodity prices) into their user applications on IBM i

4:00pm MDT

191: SQL for the RPG Programmer “How To”: Working with SQL Services

Session Evaluation

SQL is THE recommended interface from applications into your data. This session focuses on how using SQL services extends what you can do in these application.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn what SQL services are and where to get more information
2. Focus on SQL services that are most useful for developers

Speakers

Vern Hamberg

Senior IT Developer, Ecolab, Pest Elimination

Tuesday April 25, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Audience RPG developers and architects who want to see how to get even greater benefit from SQL in their applications

4:00pm MDT

159: IBM i Security: What’s New for IBM i 7.4 and 7.5

Session Evaluation

Security improvements continue to be high priority to help mitigate vulnerabilities. Come see the various security related features included with IBM i that you can use to help improve the health of your environment.

Learning Objectives:
Discuss new enhancements in IBM i 7.4 and 7.5 related to improved security by default, system values, password levels, TLS 1.3, Authority Collection, Digital Certificate Manager, SST Profiles, and more.

Speakers

Robert Andrews

Principal Security Consultant, IBM

Robert Andrews is a Principal Security Consultant (STSM) and the Team Lead for the IBM i Security and Authentication Technology Expert Labs team in Rochester, MN. He is an IBM certified Thought Leader for security and The Open Group certified Distinguished Technical Specialist... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 16

Security

Session Level Beginner
Audience System and security administrators

4:00pm MDT

183: What You Need to Know to Successfully Upgrade to IBM i 7.5 or 7.4

Session Evaluation

When doing an upgrade to IBM i, there is more work involved in the planning of the upgrade than in the actual upgrade itself. When you have done the planning, the actual upgrade is simple. We will cover planning tips, pre-requisites, and then post-installation requirements. Your upgrade isn’t complete until this last step is done.

Learning Objectives:
What you need to check for when preparing your system for an upgrade. What PTFs that are required before the upgrade to avoid problems, and the steps you need to complete a successful upgrade.

Speakers

Pete Massiello

IBM i Advisor, iTech Solutions: A Service Express Company

Pete Massiello has been working with the AS/400, iSeries, IBM i since 1989, focusing on systems management and technical support. He has held numerous technical positions through out his career. He is the President of iTech Solutions Group, an IBM Premier Business Partner delivering... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

Systems Management

Session Level All
Audience Anyone wanting to upgrade to IBM i 7.4 or 7.5

4:00pm MDT

285: Using the Latest Features of Performance Data Investigator in IBM Navigator for i

Session Evaluation

Whether you are already a user of Performance Data Investigator (PDI) and want an update on the latest enhancements, or you want to get started with PDI, this session is for you. You will learn how to use the perspectives provided with this powerful graphical visualization tool to gain analyst-level insights on the performance of your system. Topics covered are: getting started with the Health Indicators package, how to filter and drill-down for the most efficient results, and using the graph interval and top contributors' fields of the context panel. Stop by to find out how the latest Navigator for i has made this tool better than ever!

Learning Objectives:
1. Use PDI perspectives to analyze performance data
2. What insights are provided by the Health Indicators package
3. How to filter and drilldown to subsequent charts
4. Using the fields provided in the context panel.

Speakers

Lora Powell

Advisory Software Engineer, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

Systems Management

Session Level All
Audience System Managers and Performance Analysis of IBM i will benefit to learn how to utilize the Collection Services performance data available on their IBM i.

5:15pm MDT

398: ACSConfig.Properties Explained

Session Evaluation

IBM i Access Client Solutions uses a configuration file of settings and their values called AcsConfig.properties. In this quick 20 minute session we will dig into how this file is used and discuss several of the more common properties that are used and how the impact IBM i ACS behavior.

Learning Objective: Learn how AcsConfig.properties can be used to change IBM i Access Client Solutions behavior

Speakers

Wayne Bowers

Software Engineer, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 15

Client Connectivity

Session Level Beginner
Audience Those who manage IBM i Access Client Solutions client deployments and behavior

5:15pm MDT

251: What is SYSTOOLS and how can you leverage it?

Session Evaluation

Db2 for i provides useful tools and examples in the SYSTOOLS schema. Come to this session to learn what shiny gems lie within this unopened treasure chest. You need not be an SQL programmer to gain tremendous value from SQL tools!

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand what is SYSTOOLS?
2. Quick training in how to discover and use the tools within SYSTOOLS.
3. Understand how ACS can help you use SYSTOOLS.

Speakers

Scott Forstie

IBM, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Database

Session Level Advanced
Audience Anyone using an IBM i

5:15pm MDT

320: Data Sciency stuff for Dummies

Session Evaluation

Data Scientists have become more prevalent in I/T shops to provide deeper analytical insights about your data then query or BI tools can provide. What tools (like Machine Learning models) do these people use? What is Data Prep? What considerations should you care about as an IBM i Administrator or Developer?

Learning Objectives:
1. Overview of what kinds of things the data scientist does
2. Learn about how to integrate Db2 data with ML Models built by or used by Data Scientists
3. Understand the importance of data prep for training or feeding data into an ML model
4. Learn how to gain insights via ML Models WITHOUT having to be a data scientist!

Speakers

Doug Mack

Consultant LAB Services, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

Database

Session Level Beginner
Audience I/T management, IBM i Administrators or Developers, and of course, if any Data Scientists are attending!

5:15pm MDT

352: Top 10 Reasons to Build Your Own SQL Indexes

Session Evaluation

In todays world many of us use vendor supplied software. Many of us also are under the edict from manage to 'Not modify the Software'. Many CIOs do not necessairly understand that 'modify' means. This session will provide reasoning for developers, lower level managers can use to make the case for upper mananagement that creating indexes is not modifying the software, and can result in significant performance gains.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn that adding indexes does not necessarily mean you are modifying packaged software.
2. Learn the most important reasons WHY you should add indexes to packaged software.

Speakers

Tom Davidson

Sr Consultant, Cleindori Consulting

I'm a 40 year veteran of the IBM i (System/38,AS/400, iSeries, IBM i). My background is in Manufacturing and Performance. I specialize is tuning older systems to extend their life.I am also a JDE CNC (18 years), and my second specialty is JDE/IBM i/Weblogic.

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 11

Database

Session Level All
Audience Programmers and DBAs that are trying to improve performance of their applications.

5:15pm MDT

331: What Are Soft Skills, and Why They Are Important?

Session Evaluation

You have the skill to get the job done correctly. You have the skills to learn anything new in half the time it takes others. You even have the skills to write a program in 3 different languages, but can you step in front of a conference room and talk about how you did it? Can your coworkers depend on you to complete your portion of the task? Can you adapt to a sudden change in someone’s behavior or your work environment and still excel?

There are two sets of skills that are crucial to our success. Hard Skills and Soft Skills. One will get you hired, the other will give you value.

Learning Objectives:
This session is Soft Skills 101. Learn the difference between the two, why it is important, and how you can strengthen your soft skills.

Speakers

Nilofur Khan

Sales and Marketing Development Specialist, iTech | A Service Express Company

Nilofur is a Sales and Marketing Development Specialist at iTech Solutions | A Service Express Company. With over 15 years of experience in Healthcare, Management, and Customer Service, she brings many skills to the plate. She is a strong believer in helping others succeed. Nilo attended... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Developing Business Skills

Session Level All
Audience Everyone

5:15pm MDT

280: Ace in the Hole - Safeguarded Copy

Session Evaluation

Cyberattacks are becoming more frequent with each year that passes. You need to have a plan in place in the event that your system becomes compromised. The plan needs to include a solution for recovering the system quickly with minimal data loss. Enter Safeguarded Copy. Learn about how you can get frequent, immutable, full copies of your system to restore from in little time.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn what Safeguarded Copy is.
2. Learn the value of using SafeGuarded Copy.
3. Get a quick overview of how to implement it.

Speakers

Steven McIver

IBM i Certified Administrator, iTech Solutions

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 17

High Availability Resilience

Session Level All
Audience Anyone involved with Business Continuity, System Administrators, Storage Administrators, and those specializing in Security.

5:15pm MDT

296: How to Communicate with your System Admin

Session Evaluation

In this light-hearted session we will explore ways to improve efficiency between developers, users, management, and your friendly neighborhood IBM i system administrator. Come and participate in an open forum discussion where we all try to learn how to achieve perfect harmony (or at least frustrate each other less).

Learning Objectives:
Learn how to coexist peacefully with your IBM i system administrator! "Bridge the gap" and improve understanding and efficiency between developers, users, manager, and system administrators.

Speakers

Steve Riedmueller

Certified IBM i Admin - Speaker, Mentor, and Advocate, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

Personal Development

Session Level All
Audience Developers, users, managers, and system administrators.

5:15pm MDT

392: How to Achieve and Maintain High Quality Work

Session Evaluation

We have been told to work smarter, not harder. But how do we go about doing so? This session will provide concrete steps you can take to ensure you are producing high quality work in the most efficient way possible. Learning these skills will not only lead to increased productivity but also significant personal satisfaction.

Come to this session to learn:
1) Essential elements for producing high quality work
2) How to positively handle interruptions
3) Tips and techniques for producing high quality work

Speakers

Kim Greene

President, Kim Greene Consulting, Inc.

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

Personal Development

Session Level Beginner

5:15pm MDT

220: Why is automated testing so important in Next Generation Applications?

Session Evaluation

The business need for faster deployment of changes and new functionality can only be met by building Next Generation Applications that can be automatically tested in a DevOps pipeline. This session focuses on what you need to know to begin to implement automatic testing.

Learning Objectives:
1. Testing Types & Methods
2. The Testing process
3. Interfacing with the Pipeline

Speakers

Ray Everhart

Senior IBM i Analyst and X-Analysis Product Manager, Fresche

For over 30 years, Ray has helped companies understand, develop and manage their RPG, COBOL and CA 2E application environments. He also specializes in helping clients enhance and modernize their systems to meet evolving business demands and take advantage of digital transformation... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 16

Program Testing

Session Level Beginner
Audience Anyone who is interested in preserving the value of their IBM i Investment through modernization

5:15pm MDT

328: Are You Coding Efficiently? Microsoft VS compared to RDi

Session Evaluation

Take a deep dive into the advantages and disadvantages of using Microsoft Visual Studio and Rational Developer for i for your IBM i environment. Learn the differences between the two tools and instances on when to use one tool versus the other.

Learning Objectives:
1. Compare and contrast two similar tools, break down the pros and cons of each
2. Learn ideas and advantages for how to improve development efficiency using modern toolsets
3. Learn from a real use case about when Microsoft VS used in tandem with existing RPG development

Speakers

Bill Onion

Managing Director, Briteskies

I'm a life-long IBM i Fan! Basically born and raised on this awesome platform. Now, I'm leading the Briteskies team as we help companies to: 1) Leverage their investment in IBM i by extending the life of their RPG-based applications, 2) Integrate their IBM i systems with 3rd party... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

Programmer Tools

Session Level All
Audience Modern language developers, System Admins, RPG developers

5:15pm MDT

241: Calling Rest APIs from your Native RPG/COBOL Apps

Session Evaluation

Rest Apis continue to be a normal part of an application ecosystem. Calling Rest Apis from your RPG or COBOL application should also be normal. With the latest HTTP Functions it now can be. These new interfaces provide the ability to easily call Rest Apis from your native ILE application leveraging ILE based technology. No Java required. This session will introduce you to these functions and help you get on the road to interacting with Rest Apis.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 12

Programming - General

Session Level All

5:15pm MDT

289: RPG Tips and Tricks

Session Evaluation

We’ll talk about many examples of how to write modern RPGLE correctly, as well as what not to do. From this fairly technical talk, you’ll walk away with new methods on development and coding standards.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn how to not write bad code
2. Learn how to write good code
3. Pick up some new best practices when writing RPGLE

Speakers

Liam Allan

Advisory Software Engineer, IBM

Visual Studio Code fellow

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Developers

5:50pm MDT

356: Performance Tuning, QAQQINI what you care about and how to use it

Session Evaluation

This session hits the highlights of the file that defines your SQL environment. Did you know that you can have more than one? This session will hit the most important entries of this file. What values you want to use, and how to use it.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the most important entries in the file that defines your SQL environmen
2. Learn how to use more than the one provided by IBM for your different workloads

Speakers

Tom Davidson

Sr Consultant, Cleindori Consulting

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 11

Database

Session Level Beginner
Audience Programmers and DBAs that are trying to improve performance of their applications.

5:50pm MDT

390: Geospatial Analytics - What About Performance?

Session Evaluation

Like any new offering, the Geospatial Analytics support features cool technology with lots of bells and whistles. When integrating a new technology like this into your applications, it's easy to focus just on the functional implementation and to overlook the performance considerations.

Learning Objectives:
In this session, learn how to streamline a Geospatial Analytics solution by leveraging the Geohash functionality and other advanced features.

Speakers

Kent Milligan

Senior Db2 for i Consultant, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Database

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Database developer designing applications

5:50pm MDT

318: Twenty iPhone tips that will change your life

Session Evaluation

As an Apple device owner, you've likely been pounding on the tempered glass of your various iPhone models for well over a decade now. You might easily spend up to several hours a day interacting with the device while you're on the go, perhaps even using it occasionally to interact with your IBM i system.

Hence, small time-saving tips you can apply in your daily interaction with your smartphone could quickly add up to quite a few hours over the course of the year. Likewise, any tricks you can use to more quickly and/or conveniently make the device do what you need it to do could help alleviate some of the minor frustrations we encounter while navigating today's information-heavy world. Apple has introduced so many new features over the course of 16 major OS releases that it's likely there are a number of iPhone "hidden gems" you have yet to discover.

For instance:
* Have you ever been frustrated trying to position your cursor in just the right position to insert characters or fix a typo in a text message or email?
* Have you experienced eye fatigue or even sleep deprivation as a result of interacting with your bright iPhone screen in a dark room, even on its darkest setting?
* Are you finding it difficult to read the small text in apps that don't support pinching as a way to zoom into the interface?
* Do you have trouble using one hand to reach all areas of the screen because your finger or thumb can only reach so far while holding the phone?

In this short 20 minute session, we'll demonstrate 20 highly useful (and relatively unknown) iPhone tips and techniques you can put to immediate use to improve your interaction with that trusty digital companion in your pocket. Sorry Android users, this is an Apple iPhone-specific session — though you're welcome to come see what you're missing!

Speakers

Robert Swanson

Senior Partner, CNX Corporation

Richard Milone

Managing Partner, CNX

Richard Milone has worked as an application developer on the IBM i platform and its predecessors of various names for over 25 years. Richard served as Director of IT for Packaging Resources until co-founding CNX Corporation in Chicago in 1996, where his initial focus was on ERP enhancements... Read More →

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 16

Personal Development

Session Level All
Audience iPhone users who would like to see a collection of somewhat obscure OS tips that may improve their user experience

5:50pm MDT

393: Fostering Positive Relationships

Session Evaluation

Positive healthy relationships are vital to success in everything you do: whether it is excelling in your career, creating a vibrant and energetic work environment, or having a happy and rewarding personal life. Learning how to interact with others in a way that is respectful and constructive is essential.

Come to this session to learn:
1) How to connect with others in a positive and proactive way
2) The impact of creating respectful and nurturing relationships
3) How to create long-term relationships that will accelerate your career
4) Tips and techniques to foster positive relationships

Speakers

Kim Greene

President, Kim Greene Consulting, Inc.

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

Personal Development

Session Level Beginner

5:50pm MDT

384: Lets Learn The Acronyms

Session Evaluation

SQLRPGLE? DR? RPGLE? BRMS? What in the world does all of these mean? This session is to help newcomers understand a good chunk of the IBM I acronyms and give them a jump start in their career.

Learning Objectives:
1) Give newcomers a leg up in discussions with others on the platform that use these acronyms so they can understand what they mean.
2) Make sure newcomers understand the acronyms of the platform they are coming onto.

Speakers

Marina Schwenk

Senior Programmer Analyst, Everbrite

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

Programming - General

Session Level Beginner
Audience Anyone that is new to the platform or who just wants a better understanding of what all of the acryonyms mean.

5:50pm MDT

163: Quick Look: Overloading in RPG

Session Evaluation

One of the coolest new features in ILE RPG is the ability to overload your prototypes! With overloading, you can accept differing parameter types while keeping the same routine name. Overloading can be used with programs, but the biggest value comes when using it with subprocedures.

Learning Objectives:
- What is overloading? Why use it?
- Technical details of parameters, candidates, etc
- Full examples you can use yourself

Speakers

Scott Klement

Development & Solutions Architect, Midrange Dynamics

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate

5:50pm MDT

173: Case Study: Reducing I/O in your RPG program with SQL

Session Evaluation

Do you work in a sea of legacy RPG programs? Have you slowly started embedding SQL into your RPG programs, but struggle with taking full advantage of what SQL has to offer? I struggled with this, and still do. Join me as I walk through a real life case study where I reduced my RPG program from hundreds of thousands of I/O to one.

Learning Objectives:
Learn one code monkey's approach to incrementally increasing the SQL statement to include all the data needed to process.

Speakers

Gregory Simmons

Software Engineer, PC Richard & Son

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Audience RPG Programmers

5:50pm MDT

293: Welcome to IBM i Security Auditing

Session Evaluation

Journaling is a powerful feature for both data recovery and security auditing. Come join me as we focus on the security auditing aspect, where you will learn how it works, how to enable it, and how to use it.

Learning Objectives:
1. What is journaling?
2. Different types of journaling.
3. How to start using security auditing.
4. How to review the audit journal.

Speakers

Steven McIver

IBM i Certified Administrator, iTech Solutions

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 17

Security

Session Level Beginner
Audience IBM i System Administrators and Security Professionals will find this information very useful.

5:50pm MDT

233: 20 Tips in 20 Minutes

Session Evaluation

In my work with real-world environments, I have found a number of very common configuration settings that are not optimal for today's environment. Whether it be system values, job descriptions, memory pools, many shops have configuration settings at the system default value, or settings that were done years ago.

This session is a fast-paced session covering 20 configuration tips in 20 minutes.

Speakers

Dawn May

Owner, Dawn May Consulting, LLC

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

Systems Management

Session Level All

5:50pm MDT

284: Using SQL Services in Everyday Life

Session Evaluation

There has been a significant strategic shift in how IBM i exposes data and how you can access and leverage that data. No longer are CL command and APIs the best way. Today, its all about SQL. You may go, great… I know nothing about SQL… no worries, neither do I! This sessions is about equipping you with some useful activities, and resources so that even if you are a novice, you can be successful with SQL Services to manage your IBM i today.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 12

Systems Management

Session Level All

5:50pm MDT

302: Real-time Monitoring and Alerting with Prometheus

Session Evaluation

Looking for new ways to monitor your IBM i system and applications? In this session, we will discuss a new tool that can export metrics into Prometheus, an open source timeseries database and monitoring tool. With data in Prometheus format, you will be able to leverage a sophisticated alerting system as well as the Grafana visualization engine. You can also tie into other popular monitoring tools like Turbonomic, AppDynamics, Nagios, Instana, DataDog, Splunk, and more!

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Wayne Bowers

Software Engineer, IBM

Tuesday April 25, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 15

Systems Management

Session Level All
Audience System Admins looking for an efficient way to monitor their infrastruture

6:00pm MDT

432: All-Attendee Reception in Expo

Tuesday April 25, 2023 6:00pm - 8:00pm MDT
Plaza Ballroom

8:00am MDT

150: OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) Functions – much more than running numbers!

Session Evaluation

The first OLAP Functions were already introduced with Release 6.1, for building running numbers and ranks, in a specific sequence and even with the ability to restart numbering at a predefined level. At release 7.3 a bunch of additional OLAP functions and enhancements for existing OLAP functions are introduced. With these enhancements it is possible to easily build running totals or averages with or without level breaks. Data cannot only be accumulated over all rows, but also within a specific range. It is easy to access and compare the first, previous, next or last occurrence of the data within a partition. This session will give you an overview over the available OLAP functions and how they can be exploited.

Learning Objectives:
In this session you will learn which OLAP functions are available and how they can be used for and how they can be exploited especially for statistical reports.

Speakers

Birgitta Hauser

Database and Software Architect, Independent Consultant

Wednesday April 26, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 15

Database

Session Level Advanced
Audience Manager, Programmers, Database Administrators and Engineers who need to generate and analyze complex statistics or everybody who is just interested in what is possible with OLAP functions.

8:00am MDT

278: Tricks with Spool Files using SQL

Session Evaluation

In the past few releases and TRs IBM has introduced a number of SQL views and table functions that allow anyone to do things to spool files that they would have had to use APIs or complex programming. Become the superstar at your company with the knowledge on how to do all of this with just a few SQL statements.

Learning Objectives:
1. How to find the biggest/oldest spool files on your systems.
2. How to delete old spool files.
3. How to extract data from a spool file into spreadsheet format
4. How to build views over spool files, even when they are not there
5. How to copy one spool file to PDF
6. How to copy many spool files to PDF

Speakers

Simon Hutchinson

Author, RPGPGM.COM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 14

Database

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Any IBM i programmer looking for a simple way to handle output from spool files with using APIs or 3rd party tools

8:00am MDT

281: Merlin, DevOps, Git, and Modern Development for IBM i

Session Evaluation

Application Modernization on IBM i has been a topic of discussion for years. Moving forward into the modern world can be a daunting task. Merlin was created to help. Leveraging Git, a Modern secure browser based IDE, Pipelines, Merlin is a ecosystem provided by IBM to help our IBM i application developers move toward a modern development world. This session will review what is 'Modern', how Merlin helps, we will include some live demos to help you understand the value and benefits.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Liam Allan

Advisory Software Engineer, IBM

Visual Studio Code fellow

Wednesday April 26, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 11

DevOps

Session Level All

8:00am MDT

153: What's new in PowerHA

Session Evaluation

Learn through live demonstrations how to take advantage of all the exciting new enhancements in PowerHA with a focus around automation, simplification and integration.

Learning Objectives:
1. A brief review of PowerHA_
2. Learn and see the exciting new features
3. A preview of what is to come in the future

Speakers

Brian Nordland

Technical Product Manager and Associate Software Development Manager, Fortra

Brian Nordland is the technical product manager for PowerHA and Robot HA at Fortra. Brian has spoken at events, webinars, and user groups—including COMMON—since 2014. He is a co-inventor on multiple patent applications and co-author on technical publications in high availability... Read More →

Wednesday April 26, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 6

High Availability Resilience

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Anyone interested in PowerHA, either those considering it or those who have had it and want to learn what is new

8:00am MDT

345: Are traditional licenses impeding your journey to the cloud?

Session Evaluation

The increased use of cloud servers within hybrid operations have left organizations that leverage IBM i software with traditional licensing mechanisms vulnerable to a loss of licensing, data and software availability. Even on premises, technology with physical serial numbers lack the flexibility to move from server to server while maintaining licensing.

Learning Objectives:
• Understand the difference between the license types LPP and VSN and what use cases they cover
• Which technologies are available to move LPARs to other servers (LPM, SRR)
• Is your IBM i system vulnerable for losing licenses or not
• Best practices to avoid losing your licensed state

Speakers

Harald Braeunlich

Senior Product Manager, Rocket Software

Harald is managing Rocket iCluster HA/DR for IBM i and Rocket Terminal Emulator (Desktop and Web) Edition for IBM z, IBM i, VT and other Hosts.

Wednesday April 26, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 5

High Availability Resilience

Session Level All
Audience IT managers looking to move workloads to the cloud

8:00am MDT

332: Upgrade your TODAY!

Session Evaluation

We all want to upgrade our computer, car, house, phone... The list goes on and on. But how about upgrading our TODAY, so we get the most out of each new day? How much more productive would TODAY be if we could focus on the right things? How would you like to give your TODAY a processor upgrade, and get more done TODAY? How about a memory upgrade, so forgotten tasks don't fall through the cracks TODAY, and all the information you need will be at your fingertips TODAY? What does each new TODAY mean to you, and how do you make the most of it? Attend this session to upgrade your TODAY, and make TODAY matter!

In this session you'll learn:
- The value of each day and how to live TODAY to the fullest with no regrets
- How to spend each TODAY wisely by focusing on the right things, supercharging our productivity
- Ways to use tools and develop systems to be organized TODAY, supplementing our limited memories

Speakers

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Wednesday April 26, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 2

Personal Development

Session Level All
Audience Everyone who wants to make the most of all their TODAY's should attend this session!

8:00am MDT

379: 30 Python Tips in 60 Minutes

Session Evaluation

Python has been a round for a while and even on IBM i. In this session we'll explore many of the various Python tips I've run across over the last few years. come on, come all!

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Wednesday April 26, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 17

Programming - Python

Session Level All

8:00am MDT

371: An RPG Web App Server – Who Knew ?

Session Evaluation

If you’ve ever done web app development on IBM i you probably know that you can use RPG to write CGI based web applications and services. However these apps require you to use an external web server such as Apache to host the application and there is complexity in debugging these apps. You can also use IWS to host RPG-based web services, but it requires a special Java server to make those services available to the outside world which can make life unnecessary complex.

What if there was a way to create fully self-contained web applications and web services with RPG? This session will cover how to quickly get started creating your own self-contained, RPG-based web applications and web API servers. You will learn a pattern for creating simple RPG-based web apps. You will learn how to expose DB2 data and existing RPG logic as web services. And you will learn how to interact with and debug your new services from RPG as well as other open-source languages, external web applications and services.

Attend this session to see how quickly your RPG application business logic can be modernized and used in web apps and web services without re-engineering your entire RPG code base.

Learning Objectives:
1. Use RPG as a web application server
2. Use RPG as a REST web API server
3. Eliminate the need to use an Apache web server
4. Re-purpose your existing RPG business logic easily with web apps and services

Speakers

Richard Schoen

President, Mobigogo LLC

Wednesday April 26, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 4

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Any RPG developer looking to modernize their RPG code and easily make business logic available in web apps and services without resorting to open-source languages.

8:00am MDT

195: Securing Network Applications with Digital Certificates

Session Evaluation

Network communications require encryption. This session provides the foundation to configure and manage network security on IBM i using Digital Certificates assigned to Application Definitions to establish industry standard Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the cryptography related to Transport Layer Security.
2. Use the latest Digital Certificate Manager web application to create certificates.
3. Assign the certificates to application definitions and perform verification tests to ensure required TLS protocols and cipher suites are selected.

Speakers

Robert Andrews

Principal Security Consultant, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 12

Security

Session Level Intermediate
Audience System administrators that need to manage security on their system will benefit from understanding Digital Certificate Manager.

8:00am MDT

118: BRMS Advanced Topic

Session Evaluation

Ths session will discuss some of the advanced topics in using BRMS for your back up and recovery. Featured topics will be tape management, Library management, back up lists, Control group controls, and BRMS Policies and how they affect the overall operation of BRMS. Discussion on how back up lists work with a Domino, Zend Server and/or WebSphere back up and recovery will be included. Recovering from a BRMS back up can be extreamly easy, but it can also present some opportunities for trouble. This session will discuss some of the landmines in a BRMS recovery and how to avoid them.

Learning Objectives:
More fully understand the science and art of tape management in BRMS
Utilize back up lists including how BRMS backs up Domino and WAS
Learn how to make a BRMS recovery simple and as easy as possible

Speakers

Sarah Jacob

VP of Customer Experience, Agile Technology Architects

Wednesday April 26, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 7

Systems Management

Session Level Advanced
Award SILVER
Audience BRMS users who know the basics but want to expand beyond that.

8:00am MDT

325: Don't lock yourself out! Securing Admin Servers

Session Evaluation

Securing web based tools is increasingly important, even on your own network. Is your network team wanting to close all non-secure ports? IBM continues to provide function via the ADMIN servers, but by default they are not secure. Knowing what these servers do and setting them up securely is important, but care must be taken as some of them control your ability to secure them, so it is possible to lock yourself out!

Learning Objectives:
What are the Admin servers and why do I need them?
How to secure them and why it is important.
Avoiding pitfalls.

Speakers

Jeffrey Carey

Sr. System Administrator, Ensono

Wednesday April 26, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 10

Systems Management

Session Level Beginner
Audience System administrators of IBM i

8:00am MDT

129: Managing Startup and Shutdown of your IBM i

Session Evaluation

In days gone by the IBM Supplied program QSTRUP combined with a couple options on CHGIPLA was good enough for most IBM i shops. It started what seemed to be needed and anything else we stumbled through after each IPL. When it was time to shut down a PWRDWNSYS or ENDSBS command took down whatever was running. We were happy.

Today though we often see dozens of subsytems running many web servers, other needed batch jobs and services. We see monitors and queue processing jobs and many writers. For security purposes we should be starting only the TCP servers that we need, not all of them. Likely we should not start IPV6 and start things in sequence as well. Further considerations may be needed in an HA environment. These include not starting jobs until iASPS are available and starting different IP interfaces and services depending on production or backup mode of the server. We may want to handle special startup modes while doing PTFs, backups or other system maintenance. In this session we will work with customizing that startup. We'll discuss staring PASE jobs with QSH, web server jobs and more. We'll discuss prestart jobs and autostart jobs. And finally we will also work with sequencing the shutdown of the system. As part of this we'll discuss some simple ways to know what needs to be shut down and smoothly handling that.

Learning Objectives:
1) Learn how to control which startup program will run on your IBM i.
2) Examine the various servers to start and how to control them.
2) Learn options for starting different services.
3) Consider ways to control the startup of your server in different operting modes.
4) Understanding an orderly shutdown of your IBM i server.

Speakers

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, Service Express Inc.

Wednesday April 26, 2023 8:00am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 16

Systems Management

Session Level Advanced
Award GOLD
Audience IBM i System Administrators

9:15am MDT

147: Using SQL to Overcome Challenges when Consuming XML (Case Study)

Session Evaluation

In this new world of mobile data collection by our field specialists, we ran head-on into special characters as well as emojis. This case study tells the tale of overcoming the hurdles we were stumbling over to deal with them.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn what issues can be raised when using mobile devices to collect information from the field
2. Learn how XML support in Db2 for i was used to resolve these issues

Speakers

Vern Hamberg

Senior IT Developer, Ecolab, Pest Elimination

Wednesday April 26, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 2

Database

Session Level All
Audience Developers who need to process XML files and web services and others who need to know what can be done with XML support in SQL for IBM i

9:15am MDT

336: Leverage safe innovation with DevOps pipeline in IBM i

Session Evaluation

This usecase shows a partnership between client and Kyndryl to compose a capability to support DevOps toolset, as well as shift Ops to the left to operate application pipelines on behalf of the client. On IBM i environment we will segregate roles and responsibilities while convert current build and deploy pipeline. The main goal is to implement necessary solutions to support Continuous Delivery (CD) and assure DevOps toolset and pipelines for transitioned applications are properly built, tested, deployed, monitored, and supported after conversion. Kyndryl provided experts toward DevOps to launch the client into the Journey to work in conjunction with the development team. .

Learning Objectives:
DevOps Implementation
CI/CD
IBM i Examples

Speakers

Richard Baird

VP, CTO & Engineering Lead, Core Enterprise and zCloud, Kyndryl

Since September 2021, Richard has been Vice President and CTO for Kyndryl’s Core Enterprise and zCloud Practice focusing on IBM Z and IBM i technologies and how Kyndryl’s customers can expand their adoption of new technologies on these platforms, including integrating with Hyperscalers... Read More →

Wednesday April 26, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 6

DevOps

Session Level All
Audience All IBM i people

9:15am MDT

255: Benefits of Continuous Availability with Db2 Mirror for i

Session Evaluation

Discover how Db2 Mirror for i is a continuous availability solution that can improve your business continuity. Also learn about some of the new and unique features of Db2 Mirror.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn about how Db2 Mirror can be used to eliminate outages or load balance workloads
2. Learn about the newest features of Db2 Mirror

Speakers

Shauna Rollings

IBM i Performance Tools & High Availability Development, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 5

High Availability Resilience

Session Level All
Audience System Administrators or Business Executives looking for an RTO and RPO of zero.

9:15am MDT

344: Logical Replication in the Cloud

Session Evaluation

Overview of Logical Replication, going in the Cloud is not your end point. Into the Cloud and resiliency is what you should strive for. At this point in time, Logical Replication is your best answer to real time replication for your DR/HA and possibly your remote backups in the Cloud. If implemented and managed properly, Logical Replication in the Cloud will keep your systems synchronized and available when 24/7/365.

Learning Objectives:
Understand that implementing and ongoing management of the solution are two different things. Your environment changes, so you should revisit and or modify your DR/HA plans often. Test at least once or better yet twice year. Common mistakes and misunderstandings, the solution(s) do not manage themselves. Partial use of applications may not be a True DR solution. Tolerance, how do you get your companies system(s) back to fully operational:
RPO
RTO

Speakers

David Contreras

IBM Power Systems Specialist, Meridian IT

Wednesday April 26, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 10

High Availability Resilience

Session Level All
Audience All who are planning or responsible for Backup/DR/HA for their company.

9:15am MDT

306: Modernize without Vendor tools

Session Evaluation

As you may have discovered, there are many paths to modernization and digital transformation. The marketplace has many commercial tools that all bring unique value. Alternatively, one can leverage open source technologies to write reactive web interfaces, expose REST APIs, monitor the system, secure applications, or automate daily processes. This session will explore the FOSS (free open source software) option for modernization paths.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Jack Woehr

Senior Engineer, Absolute Performance, Inc.

Author of Ublu, an open source remote language for IBM i.A Quantum Computing enthusiast, Jack is an IBM Qiskit Advocate, 2021 IBM Champion, 2022 IBM Champion, and 2023 Champion.A consulting programmer with over 30 years' experience in open source specializing in open source based IBM i modernization... Read More →

Wednesday April 26, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 12

IT Strategy

Session Level All
Audience IT strategists

9:15am MDT

120: IBM HTTP Server (Powered by Apache) Overview

Session Evaluation

Learn about what the HTTP server is and how it can work for you. Get to know the fantastic features of the latest IBM HTTP Server for i (powered by Apache) version 2.4. Quickly and easily get your HTTP server up and running using the IBM Web Administration for i GUI interface. This session will introduce the HTTP Server on i, some of the key differences on i, some of the areas that are tightly integrated into the IBM i operating system. We will also take a look at the key important topic of security and how to configure the HTTP server securely and the different options available. In addition, the very latest new features will be covered, as there are many new additions in the latest Apache 2.4 version.

The user will have a basic understanding of the IBM HTTP Server. They will be equipped to deploy a Web site in a secure manner. By the end of this session, attendees will understand:

• Key design points and basic configuration that every Web server requires
• How to get your web site up and running using the graphical integration wizards provided by IBM Web Administration for i
• New features for IBM HTTP Server for i (powered by Apache ) version 2.4, such as SNI, OCSP, ECDSA cipher, TLS1.2, new authentication mechanism, remote IP, HTTP server subsystem definition, etc.
o The basics of web security and securing the HTTP server

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 11

Middleware (other)

Session Level Beginner
Award BRONZE

9:15am MDT

330: Beginner’s Guide to the Latest Technology

Session Evaluation

Curious about what is the latest in technology?

Are you tired of being the “deer in the headlights” when others talk tech?

As technologists, it is incumbent upon us to be able to speak to what is new.

This session will highlight key technologies to give you some basic awareness.

Speakers

Charles Guarino

CEO & IBM Champion, Central Park Data Systems

Wednesday April 26, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 14

Programmer Tools

Session Level Intermediate

9:15am MDT

315: Separate HTML from PHP

Session Evaluation

You will gain a new perspective on how to separate PHP from HTML. Your application doesn't need to be written all in one. Take advantage of API's and Javascript. Utilize front-end frameworks live VueJS

Learning Objectives:
Divide the load. Use different team members to achieve your goal.

Speakers

Guido Faecke

Professional Services Consultant, Zend by Perforce

Wednesday April 26, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 4

Programming - PHP, Programming - Frameworks

Session Level Intermediate
Audience PHP/Javascript developers, IT Managers

9:15am MDT

209: Python APIs aka: REST with Flask

Session Evaluation

Gluing applications together in the 21st century relies on loosely coupled services. Python has several methods for provisioning and consuming web services. In this session we will explore several approaches to leveraging APIs or Web Services including some of the powerful modules in the python world that make this process incredibly simple.

Learning Objectives:
1) Review of Python fundamentals.
2) Explore modules used with services
3) Review several examples of services consumption and provisioning

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Wednesday April 26, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 17

Programming - Python

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Developers, managers and system architects looking to integrate web services and IBM i

9:15am MDT

197: Handling JSON With DATA-INTO and DATA-GEN in ILE RPG

Session Evaluation

Two of the most significant features added to ILE RPG recently are the DATA-INTO and DATA-GEN opcodes. The most common use case is to read and/or create JSON files.

Since JSON has become crucial to IBM i businesses, these are must-know features!

Learning Objectives:
1, Learn the basics of the JSON format.
2. Learn about DATA-INTO and how to use it
3. Learn about DATA-GEN and how to use it.

Speakers

Scott Klement

Development & Solutions Architect, Midrange Dynamics

Wednesday April 26, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 15

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Real programmers.

9:15am MDT

168: IBM i 7.5 and Power10 on i Performance Update

Session Evaluation

IBM i 7.5 comes with a plethora of new performance metrics, performance tooling updates, and access to performance features at no-charge that previously were chargeable. Additionally, Power10 provides substantial capacity gains. Come and hear about these improvements, and learn which ones you have access to even prior to upgrading to IBM i 7.5.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn about performance tooling and metric changes new in IBM i 7.5
2. Learn about the benefits of Power10 from a performance perspective.

Speakers

Eric Barsness

Executive Consultant, IBM

Eric Barsness is an Executive Consultant and IBM Master Inventor in IBM System Lab Services. Eric specializes in IBM i performance and scalability and leads the IBM i performance team in Lab Services. Eric has been improving the performance of IBM i, Db2, and customer applications... Read More →

Wednesday April 26, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 7

Systems Management

Session Level All
Audience IBM i administrators who want to take advantage of IBM i 7.5 and/or Power10.

10:30am MDT

381: SQL Plan Cache Uncovered

Session Evaluation

This session explains how the SQL Plan Cache is used by Db2 for i to support the execution of your SQL & non-SQL queries. In addition, you'll learn about the various Plan Cache related tools & services that you can leverage to identify and remedy query performance problems.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Kent Milligan

Senior Db2 for i Consultant, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 10

Database

Session Level Intermediate

10:30am MDT

294: Git branch management for IBM i source; I want JUST the changes

Session Evaluation

One of the challenges of managing IBM i source with Git is we don't want to Build ALL of our objects for a few changes like a Java project. We want just the changes specific to our project. How do we get JUST those changes and what impact does that have on branch management, merging and conflicts? I thought Git made concurrent development easier, why is this SO HARD?

Now that we at Arcad have been providing Git integration for a number of years we have experience on why a rebase or a fetch from master can have unintended consequences. Well what do we DO with stale branches that conflict with master if we can't fetch? Ho can we just avoid a conflict or resolve it with the least pain?

Learning Objectives:
1, Recognize how IBM i source and business requirements require different branch management.
2. Best workflow for IBM i shops with concurrent development
3. Most efficient way to resolve or avoid merge conflicts

Speakers

Jeffrey Tickner

ARCAD Software

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Plaza Court 4

DevOps

Session Level Intermediate

10:30am MDT

350: DevOps is not a 4-letter Word

Session Evaluation

SCM and Containers and Pipelines and Private cloud oh my! DevOps can sound confusing and even overwhelming, but fear not! It really isn’t all that hard… This session will center on an easy, non-technical demonstration where we’ll compare and contrast what you’re doing today with “best practices” in DevOps. From there, we’ll give you some quick and easy baby steps to get you started on the DevOps path.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn DevOps terminology 2. DevOps ROI 3. Compare and Contrast with existing development/operations 4. Baby steps to start on the DevOps path

Speakers

Andrew Clark

DevOps Manager, Arcad Software

Andrew Clark has been working on Enterprise platforms for more than 30 years, starting his career as an intern at IBM working on the secret "Mankato Project” with RS/6000, mainframe, and pre-release versions of OS/400; advancing from testing to a Team Leader on the QQ (Query) team... Read More →

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 14

DevOps

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Existing developer and operations personnel who want to implement or learn more about DevOps, and C-level decision-makers that need to understand DevOps better and how to cost-justify their decisions

10:30am MDT

272: The Power of Ready – Lessons learned from Actual Disasters

Session Evaluation

Case Study of 3 DR Events:
Can your IBM i survive a sudden, unplanned event? Learn from multiple computer room and regional disasters, and experience from over 400 recovery tests to know your DR Solution works in an actual Disaster.

People, Technology and Geography are common critical points of failure.

Learning Objectives:
Impact on People
Picking the right Technology
Location, Location and Separation .

Speakers

Richard Dolewski

VP, Enterprise Solutions, Connectria

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 17

High Availability Resilience

Session Level Intermediate

10:30am MDT

143: Strategies to Improve IFS Application Performance

Session Evaluation

This presentation will cover various best practices in using the integrated file system and integrated file system APIs to improve the performance of your applications.

Learning Objectives:
Learn what features are available that can help with application performance and apply them to new and existing applications which use the integrated file system.

Speakers

Margaret Fenlon

Software Engineer, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 12

IFS

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Application developers

10:30am MDT

257: Building and Sharing RDi Templates to Improve Developer Productivity

Session Evaluation

In order for developers to improve productivity by reusing code created by others, a plan for encouraging reuse must be put in place. RDi provides the ability to share Templates and snippets between developers. This session explores how to capitalize on that capability.

1. Improving developer productivity with Templates & Snippets
2. Creating Templates & Snippets
3. Sharing Templates and Snippets with other Developers

Speakers

Ray Everhart

Senior IBM i Analyst and X-Analysis Product Manager, Fresche

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Plaza Court 2

Programmer Tools

Session Level Intermediate
Award SILVER
Audience Developers

10:30am MDT

123: Command Jeopardy

Session Evaluation

The IBM i operating system includes hundreds of commands that we use every day. Everything you type on a command line is a command! But did you know that you can create commands of your very own? Commands that can save you valuable time? Commands that can be used as building blocks to make program development more efficient? Come to this session to learn how - and to have some fun! We'll start with the basics for those who've never created a command, and then proceed through more advanced topics such as validation using DEP & QUAL, error handling, help text in panel groups, and more. We'll look at a number of useful examples of custom commands, and you'll even leave with free source code you can use as is, or leverage as a starting point for your own commands. We'll reinforce the concepts we learn by playing Command Jeopardy... for prizes! Learn some great techniques, have some fun, and maybe leave with a prize!

After participating in this session, attendees should have the skills and tools to:
- Develop your own custom commands
- Add validation using DEP and QUAL
- Properly handle error conditions
- Write RTVxxx commands with optional parameters
- Have fun and possibly win prizes playing Command Jeopardy!

Speakers

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Plaza Court 7

Programming - General

Session Level All
Audience Anyone who would like to better understand how to create their own commands will benefit from this session. If you're excited at the idea of creating your own tools to make life easier, enjoy a good game show, and like winning prizes, then please join us!

10:30am MDT

363: API examples using RPG, Node.js, PHP, and Python

Session Evaluation

We help keep IBM i a critical part of IT when we learn how to connect to other systems flexibly and securely using APIs. Because IBM i API options abound, you can use your favorite languages and tools. This talk shows many ways to send and receive data safely, using IBM i business logic, with code examples using various free tools and languages, including RPG, PHP, Python, and Node.js.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand basics of APIs and why they are helpful and secure
2. Learn several RPG techniques to create and call APIs
3. Learn several open source language ways to create and call APIs, using PHP, Python, and Node.js

Speakers

Alan Seiden

Principal, Seiden Group

How to modernize and create something new while leveraging your valuable business logic.APIs, IBM i, open source, web, PHP, Node.js, Python, RPG, ERPs

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 15

Programming - General

Session Level Beginner
Audience Developers or managers who wish to build or call APIs

10:30am MDT

236: IBM i Security cocktail, with an SQL chaser

Session Evaluation

Be prepared to hear ideas and concepts that will make your head spin as Scott Forstie and Carol Woodbury shake up the world of IBM i Security, mixing the dull foundational concepts of IBM i Security with the vibrant and rich features of SQL. Before you know it, you’ll be sipping on the refreshing features of SQL and pouring out your current processes that have reached their ‘consume by’ date. A note of caution, however. You may leave a bit shaken (but not stirred.)

Learning objectives:
1. Foundational knowledge of IBM i security
2. Why and how SQL is useful to the Security Officer and beyond
3. Have an idea of where to start and how

Speakers

Scott Forstie

IBM, IBM

Carol Woodbury

President, CTO, Co-Founder, DXR Security

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 11

Security

Session Level Intermediate
Award GOLD
Audience Anyone tasked with understanding, improving, or auditing security on IBM i.

10:30am MDT

408: Client Case Study: Secure Transactions with Encryption-as-a-Service on IBM i

Session Evaluation

FIPS 140-2 Level 4 is the gold standard for protecting sensitive data and IBM i on Power Systems provides an efficient solution to meet this standard with Hardware Security Modules called IBM cryptographic coprocessors.
As IBM i users and software vendors move to cloud-based solutions, some find it complex and costly to use cryptographic coprocessors in the cloud. For example, PowerVS and other cloud solutions running IBM i do not support this technology natively due to the cost and complexity of delivering cryptographic hardware in a shared cloud computing model.
To address this market need, a new solution was needed to deliver a flexible and scalable cryptographic solution for all IBM i users. FNTS, an IBM managed services provider and CLAI Payments, a payment solution provider worked together with IBM to build an encryption-as-a-service solution using a hybrid cloud architecture and IBM i software. Learning Objectives:
• Learn how to leverage an IBM i encryption solution as-a-service to avoid the cost of buying and managing cryptographic hardware.
• Learn how this solution provides an extra level of defense against data breaches by provisioning encryption keys at the edge separate from encrypted data.
• Learn best practices for consuming IBM encryption technology from external applications to ensure best response time, availability and agility while adapting to ever-changing security requirements.

Speakers

Fernando Carmona

CEO, CLAI PAYMENTS® Technologies

Fernando Carmona holds a Computer System Engineering degree from Universidad Nacional of Colombia, and has had grad education in Online System Design from the Okinawa International Center (Japan), as well as in Industrial Process Automation from Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia. An... Read More →

Keith Zblewski

Business Development Manager, First National Technology Solutions

As Business Development Manager at FNTS, Keith develops and grows cloud services to help clients modernize their IBM environment by leveraging hybrid cloud technologies. Keith uses 25+ years of experience on IBM Power Systems to help clients on their journey to cloud for applications... Read More →

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 16

Security

Session Level Intermediate

10:30am MDT

253: Ansible and AWX with IBM i

Session Evaluation

Have you been curious how you can integrate IBM i with Ansible? Do you want to manage IBM i and other systems from one interface? Do you want to automate your workflows to free up time to be more productive? With Ansible, you can manage your systems and deploy applications all from one place. We will cover the basics of Ansible, how to set Ansible up on IBM i, and how to automate IBM i workflows with playbooks. These integrations will include executing commands, configuring systems and applications, managing fixes, and deploying applications. We will also cover and demo the AWX Project, the Red Hat open-source community project that gives a modern user interface for managing your Ansible playbooks and systems. By the end of the session, you should be able to understand how Ansible fits into your wider technology infrastructure, and how it can make working with IBM i easier than ever before

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn how to create an Ansible instance to manage IBM i systems
2. Learn how to manage IBM i with Ansible
3. Learn how AWX can simplify managing your workflows

Speakers

Mark Irish

Software Engineer, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Plaza Court 6

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Audience This session will benefit system administrators looking to automate system management and developers looking to automate application deployment.

10:30am MDT

407: How To Understand the Impact of Changes on Your System

Session Evaluation

Nobody likes change, but change is inevitable...especially in your IT environment. To make matters worse, system administrators are blamed for everything. Think about it...How many Monday's have you barely walked in the door, only to find the production system is in trouble and management is in your office screaming? Now you must figure out:

What changed?
What caused the problem?
How was the system impacted?
This session will put you in a position to better answer the tough performance questions AND help you build a performance management culture of proof.

In this session you will learn:
1) The methodologies to do powerful What’s Changed Analysis for all critical performance metrics.
2) The mission critical performance management tasks that most system admins fail to do every month...which can cause performance problems later.
3) How to change your IT performance management culture from a "reactive" mode to a successful "proactive" mode.
4) How to measure the impact of memory tuning changes
5) How to measure the impact of Capacity Planning projects when the upgrade didn’t go well

Speakers

Doug Mewmaw

Greymine Software LLC

As a 30+ year veteran in the IT industry, I have always been passionate about both customer service and helping others. I have been to hundreds of sites worldwide, and it has been one of the most rewarding opportunities of my life to work with the talented and dedicated people in... Read More →

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Plaza Court 5

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Audience This session is for anyone that is involved in any facet of the IBMi platform

10:30am MDT

433: Expo Open

Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am - 1:30pm MDT
Plaza Ballroom

12:00pm MDT

434: Lunch in Expo

Wednesday April 26, 2023 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT
Plaza Ballroom

1:30pm MDT

382: Exploring the IBM OmniFind Text Search Server

Session Evaluation

OmniFind Text Search Server on DB2 for IBM i provides complex text search capability on many different kinds of documents such as XML, HTML, PDF, MS EXCEL, MS Word and lotus documents. DB2 for IBM i integrates this powerful text search capability into the SQL language. Come and explore this new powerful Text search engine and learn how you might incorporate it into your applications.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Kent Milligan

Senior Db2 for i Consultant, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

Database

Session Level Intermediate

1:30pm MDT

443: Partitioned Table Functionality

Session Evaluation

Did you know that partitioned table functionality is now included in IBM I 7.5? Attend and learn what partitioned tables are and the benefits of using them to organize your data. Q&A will follow a live demo.

Speakers

Sven Jansson

Senior developer, Apper Systems AB

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 17

Database

Session Level Beginner

1:30pm MDT

353: Next Gen Apps: Cloud - What Makes Sense on IBM i

Session Evaluation

You've probably heard about "Cloud-Ready" Next Gen Apps, but do you really understand what that means? "Cloud" means many different things to many different people, and some Cloud methodologies don't fit well into typical IBM i development; but there are also unquestioned advantages to Cloud-enablement that you can take advantage of today!

This session will help you understand all of the cloud-related terms like "Public Cloud", "Hybrid Cloud", "Containers", "Virtual Machines", IaaS/PaaS/XaaS etc. and clarify on-prem vs distributed advantages and disadvantages.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn what NextGen Apps actually are
2. Learn what "the Cloud" actually is
3. Understand Cloud terminology
4. Understand advantages (and disadvantages) to different cloud methodologies

Speakers

Andrew Clark

DevOps Manager, Arcad Software

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 11

DevOps

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Developers and operations personnel who want to implement or learn more about the Cloud, and C-level decision-makers that need to understand Cloud and Next Gen Apps better and how to cost-justify their decisions

1:30pm MDT

386: Administering New Storage Options on IBM i

Session Evaluation

IBM i continues to evolve and adopt emerging storage technologies such as NVMe (Non Volatile Memory express)? This session will focus on the configuration and administration of new storage options like NVMe.

Speakers

Daniel Sundt

IBM i Product Manager, IBM

Dan Sundt is an IBM i product manager. He has the responsibility for the IBM i business, including defining and guiding future directions and strategies. He works with the IBM i sales, marketing, and development teams as well as customers and partners to ensure that the IBM i operating... Read More →

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

Hardware

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Any IBM i customer on older hardware looking to upgrade their infrastructure, specifically related to storage

1:30pm MDT

249: Back Up to the Cloud with IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i

Session Evaluation

You can use Cloud Storage Solutions to store IBM i files securely in the cloud, eliminating the need for tape drives, tape cartridges, and courier services for off-site storage. When your IBM i LPAR is already on the cloud, the only backup medium available is cloud storage! You can use Backup, Recovery, and Media Services (BRMS) for i with Cloud Storage Solutions to transfer virtual save media to and from the cloud. This session will focus on backing up Cloud LPARs to Cloud Storage, and discuss ways to get the best performance out of your setup.

Speakers

Hrithik Govardhan

Software Lead, Rocket Software

Long time Rocketeer working in the Security/MFA/Cloud spaces on Power and Z.

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 15

High Availability Resilience

Session Level Intermediate

1:30pm MDT

240: Integrated File System through SQL Services

Session Evaluation

You may be familiar with some of the SQL Services. Did you know that many can be used with integrated file system objects? This presentation will show you a number of ways to manage integrated file system objects through the use of SQL Services. Many examples will be shown so that you can get an idea of how these services could be used in your environment.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand which SQL services can be used with IFS objects
2. Learn ways these services could be applicable in your environment

Speakers

Margaret Fenlon

Software Engineer, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 12

IFS

Session Level All
Award SILVER
Audience Anyone from administrators to application developers that want to understand their integrated file system.

1:30pm MDT

149: Everything they never taught you!

Session Evaluation

Ok, maybe we're setting the bar a little high by saying EVERYTHING, but did you ever feel like all the people around you seem to just KNOW things, things you don't? Sure, you're a wiz with SQL, and no one codes RPG like you do, but when it comes to people skills, to working in teams, to communicating well, to building your career... Well, they never taught you THAT! Come to this session to learn everything you've been missing out on.

Attend this session to learn to:
* Collaborate more effectively with other team members
* Resolve conflict with coworkers
* Improve your relationship with your boss
* Negotiate to get what you want
* Effectively market yourself in your current position
* Communicate better with everyone
* Understand EVERYTHING THEY NEVER TAUGHT YOU!

Speakers

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Personal Development

Session Level All
Award GOLD
Audience Anyone who must work with other people will benefit from this session!

1:30pm MDT

313: Next Gen : Automating your Test Environment, the RIGHT Way

Session Evaluation

In order to perform testing the right way, you need to automate. This is beyond just scripts that run, but building out the entire test landscape. With Next Gen Apps, the ability to spin up, load, test, and remove is key. Whether this is in the cloud or on premise, automating the creation of your test environments and data is critical to a successful DevOps implementation?

So what's involved : Cloud service provider (or on prem), a subset of production data that is protecting PII data, pipeline of tests, producing a record of those tests, and much much more.

Learning Objectives:
1) Discover how test data management plays a role in testing
2) Understand how and why test cases need to be managed
3) Learning the right way to test your Next Gen App.

Speakers

Jeffrey Tickner

ARCAD Software

Alan Ashley

Presales Consultant for DevOps for IBMi, Arcad Software

When it comes to describing someone, even yourself, it can be difficult. This time it's easy. I grew up on the AS400, through iSeries, and into the IBM i world. Started on a model B50 (I know it was a B model) where the disk drive needed two persons to replace and now in the DevSecOps... Read More →

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

Program Testing

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Are you a Project Manager, developer, or a QA specialist, see how learning how to test the right way can benefit application development but the companies bottom line.

1:30pm MDT

441: ChatGPT Coming to RDi: Embracing AI for Software Development

Session Evaluation

Join Wim Jongman and the Remain Software team as they reveal the power of ChatGPT, customized for IBMi Admins and Developers. In this captivating session, learn how ChatGPT can enhance your work, from crafting SQL instructions to decoding legacy code. Additionally, gain exclusive access to a free ChatGPT client, seamlessly integrated with RDi. Bring your laptop and prepare for a groundbreaking experience.

Speakers

Wim Jongman

CTO, Remain Software

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Programmer Tools

Session Level Intermediate

1:30pm MDT

162: What is the angle on Angular?

Session Evaluation

Angular is a TypeScript-based open-source web application framework led by the Angular Team at Google. Angular focuses on modular components and wide platform support. It is a popular framework with a long learning curve but once mastered, can accelerate your ongoing development.

This session will focus on the principles that define Angular and walk through how to get started with the framework.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the design and rationale for Angular
2. Learn where Angular may fit in your development efforts
3. Develop a simple Angular application

Speakers

Pete Helgren

Team Lead, Bible Study Fellowship

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

Programming - Frameworks

Session Level Beginner
Audience Developers interested in knowing more about Angular and where it can be used.

1:30pm MDT

394: Refactoring Your CL programs

Session Evaluation

CL is an underappreciated language in the IBM i world. Many hang on to the ways and methods they code CL from when they were first learning how to use IBM i. Like all languages CL has evolved over many releases to become something more than it ever was, to a point where any modernization project ought to include refactoring your CL programs. Join me as I walk through examples of CL code from our past and how it can be refactored into a format that a modern developer would easily understand.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn how to use true structured programming in the CL language.
2. Learn how to integrate CL into Service Programs.
3. See examples of refactored CL code & learn how much easier it is to support & maintain."

Speakers

Simon Hutchinson

Author, RPGPGM.COM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Programming - General

Session Level Intermediate

1:30pm MDT

269: Breaches, Ransomware and Recovery, Oh My!

Session Evaluation

The unthinkable has happened and your organization has been breached. Or someone clicked on the wrong link and ransomware has run rampant throughout your organization. Does your incident response plan include IBM i? During this session Richard Dolewski and Carol Woodbury will discuss the steps you’ll want to take now to reduce risk to IBM i and to ensure that you can recover your Business. Real-life incidents and scenarios will be discussed so that you can learn from others’ mistakes.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the steps you can take to secure your system to reduce the risk of data loss or being infected with ransomware
2. Learn about the backup technologies and best practices to support both disaster recovery of your Business as well as keep you protected from ransomware
3. Understand the key components of an incident response and where IBM i fits into the continuity of your Business.

Speakers

Richard Dolewski

VP, Enterprise Solutions, Connectria

Carol Woodbury

President, CTO, Co-Founder, DXR Security

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Governors Square 16

Security

Session Level Intermediate
Audience IT Managemnet responsbile for Security, Disaster Recovery

1:30pm MDT

439: LoopBack Hackathon - Day 2

Session Evaluation

Speakers

Mark Irish

Software Engineer, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:30pm - 6:15pm MDT
Director's Row E

Programming - Frameworks

Session Level Beginner

2:45pm MDT

258: Modernization Case Study – Creating a Database Abstraction Layer

Session Evaluation

"By providing a layer of separation between your applications and your database, you have much more agility to respond to changing business requirements and you can reduce your maintenance burden at the same time. This case study will review three approaches that can be used to provide database abstraction and the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.

1. Evaluate three different approaches to database abstraction and their benefits
2. Walk step by step through the implementation of a Logical File database abstraction layer.
3. Review the reference architecture for a database I/O service program.
4. Best Practice design recommendations for new tables."

Speakers

Ray Everhart

Senior IBM i Analyst and X-Analysis Product Manager, Fresche

Wednesday April 26, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

Database

Session Level All
Audience Developers

2:45pm MDT

273: ACS & Db2 for i – Explained

Session Evaluation

In this new session, you’ll hear the inside scoop about ACS from Scott & Wayne. Who is Scott? The Db2 for i Business Architect who had a hand in building all the database tooling found in ACS. Who is Wayne? Wayne is the IBM i ACS support team leader who you call to resolve any problem you encounter. At this session we will explore ACS and have a fun time understanding all the ACS has to offer.

Learning Objectives:
1. Discover the database and SQL feature-rich options within ACS
2. Gain best practices by hearing and seeing two experts discuss and demonstrate ACS

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Ryan Moeller

Software Engineer, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 11

Database

Session Level Beginner
Audience Anyone who needs to interact with Db2 for i

2:45pm MDT

300: Visualizing Data With SQL and Web Query

Session Evaluation

You're doing more and more with SQL to define a data set for various purposes. Many times that purpose is for reporting to your stakeholders in the business. This session will show how you leverage SQL to define the data set, but use Db2 Web Query to take that SQL and build charts/graphs and dashboards in a jiffy over that SQL result set. Incorporating Db2 SQL and web query simplifies the delivery of requests for information!

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn how to speed up the pace to respond to business requests for information using SQL and web query.
2. Experience detailed examples of building charts with SQL in minutes using Db2 Web Query
3. Expand your use of the power of SQL.

Speakers

John Westcott

Analytics Consultant, Db2 for i, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Database

Session Level Intermediate
Audience IBM i developers, business analysts, BI/DW team personnel, System Administrators

2:45pm MDT

329: Chat With Us: Why Software is Everyone’s Business

Session Evaluation

Alan and Charlie will open the floor for an open discussion about the value of custom code, and how it gives businesses their proprietary advantages.

What are the responsibilities and roles for everyone in your organization to promote better business continuity, workflows, and overall user experiences?

Speakers

Charles Guarino

CEO & IBM Champion, Central Park Data Systems

Alan Seiden

Principal, Seiden Group

How to modernize and create something new while leveraging your valuable business logic.APIs, IBM i, open source, web, PHP, Node.js, Python, RPG, ERPs

Wednesday April 26, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

Developing Business Skills

Session Level Intermediate

2:45pm MDT

113: Choosing the right HA/DR solution

Session Evaluation

The High Availability and Disaster Recovery landscape is continually evolving with new technologies both on-premis and in the cloud dedicated to ensuring your business stays running. Navigating through these technologies requires and understanding of business needs, and outage protection goals.

Throughout this session we will discuss the types of outages, and the technologies available to protect against those types of outages in order to help you make decisions to map out your HA and DR journey. This session will give a brief overview of a number of technologies including: Db2 Mirror, Live Partition Mobility, Logical/Software based Replication, Full System Replication, and PowerHA technologies.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the importance of considering your recovery point objective and recovery time objective for different types of outages
2. Learn how different technologies can help achieve various RPO and RTO targets.
3. Learn how the technologies can be combined to form solutions with several examples of common solutions

Speakers

Brian Nordland

Technical Product Manager and Associate Software Development Manager, Fortra

Wednesday April 26, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

High Availability Resilience

Session Level Beginner
Award BRONZE
Audience Those looking to implement or enhance their HA or DR plans for IBM i that want an overview of various hardware replication technologies

2:45pm MDT

202: IBM i Strategy, Roadmap & Innovation

Session Evaluation

Where is IBM i going? How is IBM investing in this integrated platform? In this presentation, Steve Will, the IBM i CTI & Chief Architect, and Alison Butterill, Product Manager for IBM i, will discuss the current state of the IBM i operating system, the underlying business, and the growing community of IBM i users. They will show the IBM i strategy that delivers value to IBM i clients and to IBM, they'll highlight key enhancements which strengthen IBM i’s place in your IT plans, and they'll discuss the future roadmaps for the platform.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the current IBM i strategy and the IBM i market
2. Understand the future direction of IBM i, and how that is helping clients today
3. Learn several client examples of innovative technology solving business problems using IBM i today.

Speakers

Steve Will

IBM i CTO & Chief Architect, IBM

Alison Butterill

WW Program Director, Product Management, IBM i, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 16

IT Strategy

Session Level All
Audience Any IBM i user or executive whose business uses IBM i, who needs to understand where IBM i is headed, and how it can be used today to innovate for the future.

2:45pm MDT

442: Test-Driven Development: Clean Code that Works

Session Evaluation

Let's take a look at how testing is often done today, and why it's so hard. We'll discuss the benefits of test-driven development, and show how it works. We'll look at the xUnit frameworks available, and do a little test-driven development together.

Speakers

Patrick Behr

Wednesday April 26, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

Programming - Frameworks

Session Level Beginner

2:45pm MDT

314: Spring cleaning your PHP code

Session Evaluation

Clean up your PHP apps by removing unused code, make your code more stable, introduce PSR level cleanliness. Refactor duplication. Get ready for the next version.

Learning Objectives:
Improve code quality and be ready for your next PHP upgrade

Speakers

Guido Faecke

Professional Services Consultant, Zend by Perforce

Wednesday April 26, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Programming - PHP

Session Level All
Audience PHP developers, IT Managers

2:45pm MDT

237: IoT: Open My Garage Door with RPG

Session Evaluation

IoT is a big deal in IT today. Since RPG can call and host REST APIs, you can integrate it with IoT devices. For my first project, I decided to see if I could use RPG's "open" and "close" opcodes to open and close my garage door -- and it worked!

In this session I will show you how I integrated my RPG program with the Raspberry Pi, and talk about how the Raspberry Pi and similar devices can play a big part in the future of business applications.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the basic concept of Raspberry Pi (and other single-board computers)
2. Learn why physical computing and IoT are important.
3. Learn about integrating IoT with RPG programs.

Speakers

Scott Klement

Development & Solutions Architect, Midrange Dynamics

Wednesday April 26, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 15

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Experienced RPG developers who are interested in physical computing, IoT, automation, etc.

2:45pm MDT

268: Procedure driven RPG

Session Evaluation

This session is a deep dive into coding procedures in RPG. We will start with an introduction to procedures, review how they differ from subroutines, then look at some hidden gems of procedures. Finally, we will examine my RPG program of choice, linear-main programs.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the basics of coding procedures in RPG
2. Examine the differences between subroutines and procedures
3. Learn about Linear-Main RPG programs

Speakers

Gregory Simmons

Software Engineer, PC Richard & Son

Wednesday April 26, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 17

Programming - RPG

Session Level Beginner
Audience All RPGers, whether you're well seasoned or new to the language will find interesting tips, tricks and hidden gems with procedures in RPG.

2:45pm MDT

218: Multi-Factor Authentication for IBM I

Session Evaluation

Best practices recommend using more than one factor to secure logins and other critical processes. Using industry standard algorithms, two factor authentication now comes to IBM i. This quick session covers four of the latest tools to help secure your IBM i!

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand how to use more than just a password for authentication
2. Learn what integration options exist for IBM i MFA

Speakers

Robert Andrews

Principal Security Consultant, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Governors Square 12

Security

Session Level Intermediate
Award GOLD
Audience IBM i Admins or Security team members

2:45pm MDT

205: Leveraging IBM i (SQL) Services for Performance Management

Session Evaluation

For system administrators figuring out how to call system management or performance related APIs on IBM i can be a challenge. Luckily for you, many of those APIs have equivalent IBM i Services that can easily be invoked using simple SQL statements. Learn how to take advantage of these services for everyday performance management tasks.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn which IBM i Services are most useful for performance 2. See examples of how Services can be combined to do more advanced tasks quickly and easily

Speakers

Eric Barsness

Executive Consultant, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 2:45pm - 3:45pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Systems Management

Session Level All
Audience System administrators interested in managing their partitions more efficiently using IBM i Services

4:00pm MDT

337: Integrating IBM i with the Hyperscalers

Session Evaluation

Applications outside of the IBM i have a need for utilizing IBM i Systems of Record (SoR) in order to connect to the data and files located in those environment. Many IBM i application owners have investigated software utilization decreases in order to read, move, or transform data for IBM i cost savings initiatives.

Learning Objectives:
Hybrid IT with IBM i
DevOps

Speakers

Richard Baird

VP, CTO & Engineering Lead, Core Enterprise and zCloud, Kyndryl

Wednesday April 26, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

DevOps

Session Level All
Audience All IBM i people

4:00pm MDT

385: Power10 for the COMMON Audience

Session Evaluation

Did you know that the entire IBM Power server family has now been refreshed with Power10 processor technology? Starting in September, 2021, IBM introduced the Power10 E1080 enterprise system and in July, 2022, IBM introduced the rest of the product family which includes the S1014, S1022/S1022s and S1024. New IBM i software subscription and hardware/software/support subscription options are available. IBM i customers need to know the capabilities and positioning of the entire Power server family, so attend this session to hear about the latest and greatest.

Speakers

Daniel Sundt

IBM i Product Manager, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

Hardware

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Any IBM i customer on older hardware looking to upgrade their infrastructure

4:00pm MDT

105: Basics of QA and Testing for IBM i Professionals

Session Evaluation

Quality Assurance in software development is known to be an important factor for IT teams and goals. Regardless if testing is done by developers or testers it is crucial. We will talk about concepts and practices defined as the foundation of testing by ISTQB methodology. This will covering topics such as defects and ramifications, how testing is part of the larger quality assurance model, the definitions of error, defect, fault, and failure. We will discuss the difference between debugging and testing, the objectives of testing, and how testing changes at different parts of development and in different development lifecycles.

Learning Objectives:
Describe how a defect in software can cause harm to a company. Distinguish between the cause of a defect and its effects. Give reasons why testing is necessary by giving examples. Describe why testing is part of quality assurance with examples of how testing contributes to higher quality. Explain and compare the terms error, defect, fault, failure, and the corresponding terms mistake and bug. Recall the common objectives of testing.

Speakers

Yvonne Enselman

Director of Professional Services, iTech Solutions

Wednesday April 26, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

Program Testing

Session Level All
Award SILVER
Audience Testers interested in the ISTQB methods and doctrine. Developers who want to test more efficiently and work with QA/Testers more effectively.

4:00pm MDT

110: 30 PHP Tips in 60 Minutes

Session Evaluation

Inspired by longtime presenters at the Summit, this discussion looks at the most popular tweaks, hacks and just plain good practices the for IBM i PHP community to enjoy. Sometimes you just need a shopping list of things to watch out for and many of the tips that are scattered throughout these presentations are consolidated in a single place. Performance, security and best practices and more will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:
Common tips useful to all PHP shops
Common mistakes to overcome with PHP in most shops

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Wednesday April 26, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 12

Programming - PHP

Session Level All
Award BRONZE
Audience PHP developers and IBM i System Administrators where they are running PHP workload

4:00pm MDT

373: RPG and External Database Integration

Session Evaluation

Chances are that your organization may have the need for RPG applications to share and exchange data with databases other than DB2. Maybe your order management or ecommerce system is on a web server running SQL Server, PostgreSQL or MySQL/MariaDB. Or maybe you need to create SQLite files to expose data to a mobile application.

In today’s world you may be replicating data files and uploading and downloading data on a scheduled basis. Wouldn’t it be a better idea to use the data real-time where it lives instead of making multiple copies? Using live data also greatly improves performance when communicating between multiple systems.

This session will provide an introduction to how you can utilize RPG and open-source technology to interact in real-time with other databases. No more syncing or importing/exporting data on a scheduled basis. Use live data where it lives without replication.

Attend this session to learn how to cross the divide and immediately extend you RPG applications into the open database database world. No matter what external database platform you want to talk to, you’ll benefit from this session.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the benefits of Integrating external databases with RPG
2. Learn the development pattern for integrating external databases with RPG
3. Adopt and utilize the provided RPG examples right away in your own shop

Speakers

Richard Schoen

President, Mobigogo LLC

Wednesday April 26, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 17

Programming - RPG

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Any RPG, CL or Open-Source developer looking to expand their usage of RPG and CL to quickly integrate the ability to take advantage of external databases to use live data where it lives.

4:00pm MDT

297: Ransomware and IBM i

Session Evaluation

Today, there are no known ransomware viruses that run directly on IBM i. However, that does not mean that the IBM i is not at risk. In this practical session, you will learn how to keep your IBM i system safe from Ransomware attacks. Don't miss this critical session!

Learning Objectives:
1. Understanding ransomware and how it can effect the IBM i
2. Know how to secure the IBM i from ransomware attacks
3. Link to resources for further details

Speakers

Robert Andrews

Principal Security Consultant, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 15

Security

Session Level Intermediate
Audience IBM i Admins or Security team members

4:00pm MDT

423: What You Need to Know About IBM i Security

Session Evaluation

Pauline Ayala and Carol Woodbury will discuss the challenges that IT leaders face as they address IBM i security – from lack of expertise to simply being overwhelmed and not knowing where to start. They’ll also address some common security pitfalls, illustrated by real-life stories, and ways to avoid them.

Speakers

Pauline Brazil Ayala

VP, Compliance and Security Solutions, Fresche Solutions

Pauline has worked on the IBM i platform for over 20 years. She started her software engineering career developing security products at PentaSafe and has worked for many years on IBM i and enterprise-level solutions in various roles. She was a co-founder of Trinity Guard, which was... Read More →

Carol Woodbury

President, CTO, Co-Founder, DXR Security

Wednesday April 26, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 11

Security

Session Level Beginner

4:00pm MDT

134: HMC, IBM I, FSP, & Firmware: Putting All the Pieces Together

Session Evaluation

Come to this session and dissect all the new components and concepts involved with partitioning your IBM Power Systems. Learn how all the pieces connect to each other, what you need to do to set them up, and how to manage and upgrade them. Get a handle on the various components of the Hardware Management Console (HMC), the Flexible Service Processor (FSP), and the Advanced Systems Management Interface (ASMI). Find out about the firmware in your machine, and how to make the required updates to it in an LPAR environment or on a standalone machine. Get tips for upgrading and setting up communications between the HMC and FSP as well as insight on where the ASMI fits in. Leave this session with up-to-date knowledge on these important hardware features of IBM PowerSystems & IBM i

Learning Objectives:
1) Understand how to upgrade & update your HMC.
2) Understand how to upgrade your FSP.
3) Learn how everything connects and interacts.

Speakers

Pete Massiello

IBM i Advisor, iTech Solutions: A Service Express Company

Wednesday April 26, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Award GOLD
Audience If you have an HMC at your location, this is the session to learn how to manage it.

4:00pm MDT

283: System Administrator Survival Guide - Commands to Know

Session Evaluation

The IBM i command line contains tons of commands for administrating your system. These commands will make your day-to-day management easier and could even help you save the day! Come and learn the IBM i commands that every IBM i admin needs to know

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn how to use the command line to prompt and get help information
2. Learn commands used for system management, troubleshooting problems, security, printers, and more!

Speakers

Steven McIver

IBM i Certified Administrator, iTech Solutions

Wednesday April 26, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Systems Management

Session Level Beginner
Audience IBM i System Administrators and Operators will find this information very useful.

4:00pm MDT

326: Performance Based Workload Management on IBM i

Session Evaluation

We've all experienced the pain of an untuned, ad-hoc query or poorly written, untested application causing wide-spread pain on a partition. Learn how you can manage and mitigate unruly workloads on IBM i using monitors, watches, workload groups, and more.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn about the types of activity that can cause performance problems on a partition.
2. Learn what can be done to mitigate the impact of that activity.

Speakers

Eric Barsness

Executive Consultant, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Systems Management

Session Level All
Audience System administrators who want to better manage the activity on their IBM i partitions.

5:15pm MDT

399: Securing IBM ACS

Session Evaluation

When looking to control what functions of IBM i Access Client Solutions are available to the end users it is not a one size fits all solution. IBM i Access Client Solutions can be secured via 3 different approaches that have their own pros and cons. In this quick 20 minute session we will go over these different options and provide some guidance on what you may want to use.

Learning Objective: Learn how to secure IBM i Access Client Solutions using the available capabilities to control what functions of IBM i ACS the user can run.

Audience: Those who manage IBM i Access Client Solutions client deployments and behavior

Speakers

Wayne Bowers

Software Engineer, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 15

Client Connectivity

Session Level Intermediate

5:15pm MDT

230: The Secrets to Making the Most of Online Meetings

Session Evaluation

Now that virtual meetings have become the new normal for so many of us, it's vital that we learn to make the most of this approach to getting things done. Whether you use Zoom, Teams, Webex, or another product, come to this session to learn the secrets to supercharging your online meeting productivity and getting results!

Learning Objectives:
In just 20 minutes, you'll learn:
- How to plan your meeting for success
- How to run your meeting for maximum productivity
- The best ways to take meeting notes
- When and how to end your meeting
- Tips and tricks to maximize your use of technology and supercharge your work from home environment

Speakers

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 17

IT Leadership and Management

Session Level All
Audience Anyone who coordinates or attends online meetings

5:15pm MDT

303: Manage your jobs with Service Commander for IBM i

Session Evaluation

IBM i can run all kinds of workloads, from RPG to COBOL to Node.js and PHP. Especially with more and more open source tools being run, it can be hard to keep track of. How can you manage it all? Service Commander is the answer. This tool can greatly simplify the task of managing the many jobs that run on your system. Even further, it has a feature to help your open source applications perform better at scale!

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Jack Woehr

Senior Engineer, Absolute Performance, Inc.

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:15pm - 5:35pm MDT
Governors Square 16

Systems Management

Session Level All
Audience System administrators looking for an easier way to manage all the various jobs running on IBM i.

5:15pm MDT

425: How Power Systems Can Reduce Energy Consumption and Improve Sustainability

Session Evaluation

Sustainability has become an overarching concern across all aspects of every industry. This presentation will cover the overall IBM view and dedication to sustainability around the world. We will also cover the dramatic savings that the latest Power10-based systems can deliver in your datacenter in the form of energy, datacenter footprint and even core savings.

Speakers

Todd Boyd

STSM, IBM Power Product Mgmt., IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:15pm - 6:15pm MDT
Plaza Court 2

Hardware

Session Level Intermediate

5:15pm MDT

307: How Many JDE instances can you have on 1 LPAR

Session Evaluation

See how a customer has utilized the versatility of the IBM i to support multiple versions of JDE through out the years.

Learning Objectives:
1. Be able to identify how multiple versions can be run on an IBM i lpar.
2. Be able to identify the different levels of code being run.
3. Learn what other configurations have to be in place before running multiple versions on the same lpar.

Speakers

Michael McClure

ICT ERP Team Lead, Mueller, Inc.

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:15pm - 6:15pm MDT
Plaza Court 7

Middleware (other), Systems Management

Session Level Beginner
Audience System Admins and CNC personnel looking for different ways to get more out of their machine.

5:15pm MDT

358: Hidden Gems in RDi

Session Evaluation

As a long-time RDi user, Susan will cover some of her favorite RDi features. Many of these features are often overlooked by new - and even experienced - RDi users.

A few examples include:
- How RDi answers the question "Where am I?"
- Why Object Table can be your best friend
- Under-utilized RPG editor navigation features
- Customization tips _And many more.

If you're an RDi user, join Susan to see if you may have missed something useful - and bring your own favorite hidden gems to share. If you're not an RDi user, you may find some good reasons to give it a try.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn to utilize more features of RDi
2. Become a more productive developer

Speakers

Susan Gantner

IBM i evangelist, Partner400 & System i Developer

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:15pm - 6:15pm MDT
Governors Square 14

Programmer Tools

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Users - or potential users - of RDi (Rational Developer for i)

5:15pm MDT

224: Security Testing

Session Evaluation

Security concerns are of utmost importance and testing our environments has never been more important. Using information from traditional QA resources this session looks at attack vectors, test protocols, organization, and approaches.

Learning Objectives:
Identify risk vectors that need testing.
Determine the testing approaches that would be the most useful.
Organize the effort and documentation in response to your efforts, and for reuse.

Speakers

Yvonne Enselman

Director of Professional Services, iTech Solutions

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:15pm - 6:15pm MDT
Plaza Court 5

Security

Session Level All
Audience Any IT professional who has any concern or responsibilty for information security.

5:15pm MDT

311: How to Keep Your IBM i System Safe

Session Evaluation

As attackers become more sophisticated, cyber security has become an arms race and it is imperative that security professionals and system admins continuously improve their strategies to combat the rise of ransomware. Between educating employees, mitigating risk through system security assessments, and taking advantage of tools like SIEM solutions and third party options, companies can arm themselves against intruders. Rob will share his experience working as a security consultant, the various security blunders he’s caught (before attackers have!) ranging from poor physical locks on servers, to poor network practices, and insider attacks performed by disgruntled employees. He’ll also advise on the top 5 things you can (and should!) be doing to secure your system from the inside out, and back in again.

Learning Objectives:
1. A walk-thru of the top IBM i security flaws we come across
2. Learn best practices for threat remediation on IBM i
3. Identify strategies for how to build your cybersecurity barrier through a proactive approach using IBM i specific tools

Speakers

Robert Nettgen

Senior Consultant, Briteskies

Robert Nettgen wanted a career in radio broadcasting, but saw that profession declining and found better pay working in IT. A PC developer in the ‘80’s, Rob started administering AS/400s in the early ‘90s for a Radio/TV group owner. In 1999 Rob accepted a job as IT director... Read More →

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:15pm - 6:15pm MDT
Plaza Court 4

Security

Session Level All
Audience System admins, Managers and Directors of IT departments responsible for information security.

5:15pm MDT

403: If a Ransomware Attack Occurs, are You Confident that Your IBM i Data is Protected?

Session Evaluation

A lack of skilled resources and security knowledge has left many companies vulnerable to attack. With the average ransomware breach costing $4.62M, companies can no longer afford NOT to prioritize security by implementing better system configuration and corrective measures.

This session presented by Pauline Ayala dives into IFS and Object level security to help you learn how to configure the defenses on your IBM i system and guard your valuable data with the TGSecurity Suite.

In this session, you will learn how to:
Uncover potential internal/external threats and vulnerabilities
Secure and monitor your sensitive DB2 data files and Objects
Secure your IFS from ransomware and cybercrime

Speakers

Pauline Brazil Ayala

VP, Compliance and Security Solutions, Fresche Solutions

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:15pm - 6:15pm MDT
Governors Square 11

Security

Session Level Intermediate

5:15pm MDT

132: Tales from the Datacenter: Worst Practices in Systems Management

Session Evaluation

We've all heard stories of things gone wrong, some were just bad, some were horrible, and some were just plain hilarious! The more you know of these gruesome Tales from the Datacenter the more likely you can avoid them.

This session will also allow for user feedback where the horrible terrible and very bad experiences of audience members will be added to the speakers experiences and used as educational tools to prevent those problems from killing us. You have been warned!

System admins, facility managers, developers - everyone has an opportunity to be the "hero" or the "zero" in their company. This session will help you learn from the mistakes of others and lessen the cases of you being the "zero".

1. Learn how the "Titanic effect" of cascading failures and mistakes often compounds a problem.
2. Learn simple tips and tricks for avoiding being the cause of an outage or disaster

Speakers

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, Service Express Inc.

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:15pm - 6:15pm MDT
Plaza Court 6

Systems Management

Session Level Beginner

5:15pm MDT

225: Live Demo of the New IBM Navigator for i

Session Evaluation

The IBM Navigator has been around for a very long time, the good news, a new version has been delivered that re-images Navigator from the ground up. Really, the only thing that the same is the Title. The User interaction, tables, data , architecture, is all completely new and is leveraging the very latest in modern technology. As the title says... we will explore many of the new aspects of the IBM Navigator via a live demo.

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:15pm - 6:15pm MDT
Governors Square 12

Systems Management

Session Level Beginner
Award GOLD

5:15pm MDT

298: Building Dashboards and Reports over IBM i Services

Session Evaluation

IBM i Services provide SQL interfaces into IBM i system/object/security information. Wouldn't it be nice to have an easy way to build reports or dashboards, create trending reports or consolidate data from multiple systems into a single view? Of course it would! And that's exactly what this session will show you with Web Query.

Learning Objectives:
1. Create dashboards over IBM i Systems and object metrics in a flash
2. Schedule important reports like "how close are we getting to system or database limits" to regularly monitor and avoid potential catastrophe
3. Enhance the value of IBM i Services to monitor key performance or object size metrics.

Speakers

John Westcott

Analytics Consultant, Db2 for i, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:15pm - 6:15pm MDT
Governors Square 10

Systems Management

Session Level All
Audience Developers, System Admins

5:50pm MDT

400: Scripting ACS Functions

Session Evaluation

There are times when it is desirable to have functions run without user intervention via scripting and IBM i Access Client Solutions provides what we call Plugin support that allows calling most functions from a command line or script. This is also how we can run IBM i ACS right on IBM i. In this quick 20 minute session we will cover this Plugin capability and go over a couple of scripting examples, including on the IBM i.

Learning Objective: Learn how to use the IBM i ACS Plugin capability to script functions to run without user interaction.

Speakers

Wayne Bowers

Software Engineer, IBM

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 15

Client Connectivity

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Those who manage IBM i access functions and want to script some capabilities to run without user interaction, or run some IBM i ACS functions right on IBM i.

5:50pm MDT

231: The Secrets to Negotiating and Resolving Workplace Conflict

Session Evaluation

Do you dread the thought of negotiating on your own behalf? Are you unsure of the best ways to handle conflict in the workplace? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then you need to attend this session! We'll cover time-tested techniques for negotiations and conflict resolution that could change your life!

Learning Objectives:
In just 20 minutes, you'll:
- Learn to consider the value of an argument vs the cost
- Find common ground to smooth the negotiation
- Understand that all new ideas are great, and that we all make mistakes
- Show respect and build a reserve of good will to allow everyone to leave the negotiation with their head held high

Speakers

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Wednesday April 26, 2023 5:50pm - 6:10pm MDT
Governors Square 17

IT Leadership and Management

Session Level All
Audience We can all benefit from the techniques presented in this session!

8:00am MDT

201: Revving up SQL Performance with Indexes

Session Evaluation

One of the most important things needed to improve SQL performance is to have the proper indexing over tables, especially as table grow in size. Indexes are so important that the database provides index advice for assistance. However, advice is no substitute for knowledge and proper understanding of indexes. As with all advice, it must be reviewed and good judgment applied on when to create them. Learning Objectives: 1. Learn about the importance of indexes on SQL performance
2. Learn how to use ACS tools to process Db2 Index Advice
3. Learn how to use ACS tooling to evaluate which indexes are providing value and which indexes are candidates to delete

Speakers

Kent Milligan

Senior Db2 for i Consultant, IBM

Thursday April 27, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 14

Database

Session Level Intermediate
Award SILVER

8:00am MDT

301: Dimensional Modeling: The Star of the Show?

Session Evaluation

Can a data mart or warehouse or even an operational data store elevate your reporting and visualizations? Improve the performance of your reporting? Provide easily accessible information to the business and your users? Find out how even a small effort can yield big results.

Learning Objectives:
1. Basics concepts of data warehousing.
2 .How easy it is to create a functioning data warehouse.
3. How data warehousing improves the businesses agility in making informed intelligent decisions.

Speakers

John Westcott

Analytics Consultant, Db2 for i, IBM

Thursday April 27, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 10

Database

Session Level Intermediate

8:00am MDT

319: Run Away ODBC or Query/400 Queries Got you Down?

Session Evaluation

Pretty much on a weekly basis we get calls from clients concerned about the negative performance impacts and security exposure from query tools like Query/400, QMF, Showcase, Tableau and others - because they've experienced the "query from hell" eating up system resources. This session will cover aspects such as the new-ish Db2 Supervisor to control/audit long running queries, ACS' Plan Cache and index advice information along with modernizing those tools into a CONTROLLED Ad-Hoc query environment.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn about the Db2 Supervisor to govern and/or audit long running queries
2. Gain insight into the tools you can use to monitor, tune, and prune queries
3. Hear about the value of moving to a CONTROLLED AD-HOC query solution and the benefits it provides around controlling performance and securing your data

Speakers

Doug Mack

Consultant LAB Services, IBM

Thursday April 27, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 4

Database

Session Level All
Audience System administrators, developers, and end users that run a lot of queries. Management too, of course!

8:00am MDT

322: Select with functions

Session Evaluation

How to use functions in SQL with exercises

Learning Objectives:
Learn how to use functions in a select query

Speakers

Sven Jansson

Senior developer, Apper Systems AB

Thursday April 27, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 15

Database

Session Level Beginner
Audience People that are new to SQL

8:00am MDT

355: Performance Tuning, separation of work and memory sizing

Session Evaluation

When properly tuning your IBM i, you need to know the different profiles for database work, Interactive, batch, and data warehouse. You also need to know about how programs can increase waits on your system. The second part of this session will take you through how to do initial memory sizing on memory pools and what to look for as you tune your memory subsystems.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the database usage profiles of the 3 types of database work
2. Learn how to get initial sizing of your memory pools
3. Learn signs that your memory pools are missized and how to rectify the situation.

Speakers

Tom Davidson

Sr Consultant, Cleindori Consulting

Thursday April 27, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 12

Database

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Programmers and DBAs that are trying to improve performance of their applications.

8:00am MDT

266: Upgrading your Hardware for IBM i: An opportunity for a big save or a big mistake.

Session Evaluation

Particularities of each of the models for the IBM Power Servers, specially for the IBM i, and their use cases. The tools you can use to perform capacity planning and what you need to consider. Licensing and the opportunities to save by gowing to a lower P-Group. When you can and can't transfer licenses.Things to consider when doing a ROI analysis. The opportunities for workload consolidation, having different Operating Systems on the same Frame, for saving on Hardware whilst imrpoving availability by using virtualization.

Learning Objectives:
1.- Know what IBM Power Server fits their needs.
2.- Know licensing particularities for the IBM
3.- Understand the opportunities to consolidate workloads, reduce costs and improve availability by using virtualization.

Speakers

Alejandro Lazzaro

Sr. IBM i Consultant, Fortra

Thursday April 27, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 2

Hardware

Session Level All
Audience Decision makers, Solution Architects, System Administrators planning for a future hardware upgrade or dealing with a workload increase or consolidation plans.

8:00am MDT

413: Is IBM Power Systems Virtual Server a Secure and Affordable Place for a DR Solution

Session Evaluation

In this session we are going to find out if IBM Power Systems Virtual Server is a secure place for your DR Solution, and what needs to be considered and put in place to create that secure place.

And compared to On-premise solutions what security benefits brings PowerVS.
Beside the security topic we are also going to look at the cost of a DR environment on IBM Power Virtual Server. Learning Objectives: -Understand how to set up a secure environment in IBM Power Virtual Server
-Compare on premise security to IBM Power Systems Virtual Server security
-How to build up a cost case around a DR solution

Speakers

Tonny Bastiaans

WW Product Manager for IBM Power, IBM

Thursday April 27, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 5

High Availability Resilience

Session Level Intermediate

8:00am MDT

192: Integrate anything with anything using Apache Camel

Session Evaluation

Want to "have your cake and eat it too?" That's what you get when you combine the power of RPG and Db2 workloads with the many benefits of open source technologies. In this session, you will explore (in a high-level, language-agnostic fashion) the various techniques for integrating the two worlds.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Jack Woehr

Senior Engineer, Absolute Performance, Inc.

Thursday April 27, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 16

Programming - Frameworks

Session Level Beginner

8:00am MDT

107: Feeling insecure? How to secure web applications on IBM i

Session Evaluation

Is secure web development an oxymoron? How can you possibly defend against so many attack vectors? If you can't eliminate the threat, can you at least minimize the exposure? This session will focus on the top 10 exploits, all of which can be launched against the IBM i. We look at not only securing the system and attached devices but also how to develop defensible web applications that are hosted on your IBM i.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the top 10 exploits against Internet exposed systems
2. Learn how to mitigate these exploits

Speakers

Pete Helgren

Team Lead, Bible Study Fellowship

Thursday April 27, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 17

Security

Session Level Beginner
Audience Developers and system admins needing a broad understanding of the threats and how best to mitigate them

8:00am MDT

207: Anatomy of a Password

Session Evaluation

Have you thought about the passwords you use on your systems? What rules or restrictions do you have in place? But more importantly, why?! Have you ever thought about what those rules actually do to your passwords? Do you think they are making you more secure or less secure? In this presentation, we will cover passwords in depth, in theory, and specific to IBM i. Can your IBM i password be hacked? Come and find out at this inquisitive session!

Learning Objectives:
1. Set modern password policy
2. Understand password protection tools

Speakers

Robert Andrews

Principal Security Consultant, IBM

Thursday April 27, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Governors Square 11

Security

Session Level Intermediate
Audience IBM i Admins or Security team members

8:00am MDT

217: Automated Compliance, Integrity Monitoring, and Multi-Factor Authentication for IBM i

Session Evaluation

PowerSC is IBM’s offering portfolio for security, compliance, and multi-factor authentication in private cloud environments (IBM i, AIX, and Linux on Power) and integrates with the security features of the Power Systems stack. It simplifies security through compliance automation, file integrity monitoring, alerting, reporting, and patching. Compliance standards and Federal mandates also now demand Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) - requiring at least two different authentication methods (something you know, something you have, something you are) in order to authenticate. PowerSC MFA for i allows enforcement of MFA for all IBM i access points and applications, without requiring changes to your applications or infrastructure.

1. Learn about the need for multi-factor authentication on Power systems.
2. Learn about architecture and deployment of MFA on IBM i.
3. Learn about real-time security and compliance checking enforcement for IBM i, AIX, and Linux on Power.

Speakers

Tim Hill

Distinguished Engineer, Rocket Software

Tim Hill is a Distinguished Engineer and VP of Engineering at Rocket Software. He’s responsible for security, cloud, and AI/ML products on Power and Z. Technology areas of personal focus include model-based reasoning, deep learning, complex event correlation, network management... Read More →

Thursday April 27, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 6

Security

Session Level All
Audience Those who want to ensure data and applications on the IBM i are secure by layering on MFA.

8:00am MDT

365: Disk-Level Encryption is not enough

Session Evaluation

AS companies look to leverage encryption as part of their security landscape, it can be tempting to just implement disk-level encryption. As security requirements continue to grow and compliance regulations are taken into account for the IBM i environment, administrators are finding they need to implement encryption at the field level versus disk level encryption.

Learning Objectives:
• What are the use cases for disk level and field level encryption?
• How do I satisfy PCI compliance auditors requirements for encryption?
• What types of fields should be encrypted?
• What is an IBM I Field Procedures?

Speakers

Bill Peedle

Principal Sales Engineer, Precisely

Thursday April 27, 2023 8:00am - 9:00am MDT
Plaza Court 7

Security

Session Level All
Audience Security professional responsible for Power Systems running IBM i

9:15am MDT

157: Get Running with the IBM Db2 for i .NET Provider

Session Evaluation

If your company is doing .NET programming alongside IBM i development, it is important to be conversant about accessing Db2 for i from any Microsoft or 3rd party OO language that uses the .NET Framework 2.0 through 4.8. This session will hit all of the main steps required for using this data provider (a component of the ACS Windows Application Package) in a c# web forms ASP.NET style project to run in any standard browser on your PC. We will use Visual Studio Community Edition 2022 as the IDE and to run the Db2 for i SQL. This session seeks to show that it is no big deal to get current Db2 for i data into many Microsoft programming environments with little, if any, advance reformatting or data extract steps.

The detailed example will show how to dynamically churn out a nicely formatted list inquiry on a standard browser web page, using the least amount of specifications. The SQL syntax is limited only by your version of Db2 for i. The provider allows Db2 for i stored procedure calls but that will not be covered in this session, we are trying to get from soup to nuts in the fastest manner possible. One of the ways we achieve this is by using a technique that populates an HTML grid (or table) inquiry directly from the SQL and the file(s) metadata.

Complete code of the c# version (c# code, HTML5, CSS3) and steps on how to implement will be offered to POWERUp 2023 attendees during hour of presentation or via email request. Presentation PDF and some other goodies will be available throughout the conference.

The examples respect native authorities (of the profile you decide to use at run time) and do not require elevated authorities other than admin when installing Visual Studio on your PC. The project can also be published to run on MS IIS Web Server once the provider is installed there (instructions for installing the .NET provider subset of ACS Windows Application Package included). However, obviously you would want to first evaluate use of user authentication, user authorization or data owner subsets before going live on a web server.

Learning Objectives:
1. Be conversant with Microsoft developers at your company regarding this efficient way to access Db2 for i in real time.
• Be able to anticipate and, in most cases, easily enable delivery of modern language data types and values from your Db2 for i database without data staging prerequisites or physical file changes
• Be able to pass along info on how to source this provider from IBM, when and how to install and it and how to enable it within a Visual Studio project
• Get an introduction to how the provider interacts w/ .NET OO FW constructs & routines
• Be able to prove out via web inquiry prototype demonstration that Db2 for i can do it (and do it well) in these .NET FW environments
2. For developers who choose to implement this web page example out on their own PC:
• Use the included source code and instructions to prototype and demonstrate running dynamic SQL select statements against any authorized Db2 for i database file combination from a browser on your PC (c#, xhtml and css download inc

Speakers

Rex Smith

Sr. Developer (ERP & Web), Tegratecs Development Corp.

Thursday April 27, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 4

Database

Session Level Intermediate
Audience IBM i developers who work in companies with .NET or ASP.NET programming that consumes or updates Db2 for i. IBM i developers who want to get a taste of web programming with an integrated GUI on their own time. Developers who would like to get a glimpse of OO programming syntax with an OO framework foundation.

9:15am MDT

323: The join and sub select union

Session Evaluation

A walk thru of the join, sub select and union with exercises

Learning Objectives:
Learn how to use join, sub select and union

Speakers

Sven Jansson

Senior developer, Apper Systems AB

Thursday April 27, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 15

Database

Session Level Beginner
Audience People that are new to SQL

9:15am MDT

349: Merlin and VS Code: Powerful Options for Next Gen Apps

Session Evaluation

What exactly is all of this hype around Merlin, VS Code and Next Gen Apps? Are you confused about what exactly "Next Gen Apps" really means, how your existing development fits into this new paradigm, and if you should consider embracing one of these new tools? Compare and contrast your development environment(s): SEU, RDi, VS Code and Merlin (and others??) and see what your different options are - then consider each package's inherent strengths and weaknesses as you start to move down the Next Gen path.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn what NextGen Apps actually are
2. Learn about Merlin
3. Learn about VS Code and all of its "different flavors"
4. Compare and contrast Merlin v VS Code
5. Live demo of both tools

Speakers

Andrew Clark

DevOps Manager, Arcad Software

Liam Allan

Advisory Software Engineer, IBM

Visual Studio Code fellow

Thursday April 27, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 11

DevOps

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Existing developer and operations personnel who want to implement or learn more about Merlin and DevOps, and C-level decision-makers that need to understand Merlin and VS Code better and whether either makes sense in their environment

9:15am MDT

418: Introducing the Power10 Scaleout Portfolio and the New Product Manager!

Session Evaluation

What are the new Power10 scale out offerings and how do the differ from each other and previous generations. Meet the Daniel, the Product Manager for the Scaleout Portfolio.

Speakers

Daniel Goldener

Product Manager, Scale-Out Systems, IBM

Thursday April 27, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 5

Hardware

Session Level Intermediate

9:15am MDT

114: Live Demo: Managing PowerHA Solutions

Session Evaluation

PowerHA provides complete high availability (HA) solutions for IBM i customers with both internal storage and external storage environments. This interactive demo session will explain the concepts required to manage PowerHA environments, as well as give live demonstrations of the key management tasks used in a PowerHA environment.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the basic concepts required to configure a PowerHA environment.
2. Understand how to manage a PowerHA environment and see it in action
3. See tools within PowerHA that help your environment stay secure

Speakers

Brian Nordland

Technical Product Manager and Associate Software Development Manager, Fortra

Thursday April 27, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 6

High Availability Resilience

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Those wanting to see PowerHA in action from a day to day management perspective to see just how easy it can be.

9:15am MDT

260: Get out of Your Comfort Zone!

Session Evaluation

Staying in your comfort zone can and most likely hindered your career. Have you tried seeing what happens when you tried something outside of your comfort zone? would you be willing to try? This session will highlight some of the reasons why you should get out of your comfort zone and try something new. You will probably be surprised by the consequences of getting out of your comfort zone.

Learning Objectives:
1. Get comfortable with trying something new
2. trying something new and seeing the results.
3. being comfortable with trying something new again.

Speakers

Marina Schwenk

Senior Programmer Analyst, Everbrite

Thursday April 27, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 2

Personal Development

Session Level All
Audience Everyone

9:15am MDT

203: IBM i Next Gen Apps - Why and How?

Session Evaluation

IBM i applications run businesses around the world. They have tremendous value today, and need to be prepared to use today’s latest technology to solve business problems for tomorrow. How should those applications grow into their Next Gen versions? In this session, Steve Will, IBM i CTO and Chief Architect, will discuss what this means, and talk about approaches and technology which can help clients and IBM i software developers move into that Next Generation Future.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the market forces driving a need to a "next gen" version of IBM i applications
2. Learn the value of incorporating Next Gen concepts, and how that approach is far more successful than re-platforming.
3. Understand the patterns, approaches, and tools available to move applications to the Next Generation.

Speakers

Steve Will

IBM i CTO & Chief Architect, IBM

Thursday April 27, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 16

Programming - General

Session Level All
Audience Application developers and Executives of companies using IBM i, who need to protect the value of their existing business applications, but also move them forward.

9:15am MDT

239: The Magic of Rest APIs on IBM i

Session Evaluation

Rest APIs are a key technology in the world of Modern Applications these days. The IBM i operating system has integrated support for easily creating Rest APIs over existing ILE programs and service programs, as well as being able to wrapper SQL statements. In Addition, you can leverage the integrated support to call Rest APIs from your native RPG / COBOL ILE code. This session will leverage live demos to show both side of the Rest API conversation on IBM i.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Thursday April 27, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 12

Programming - General

Session Level Beginner
Award GOLD

9:15am MDT

151: Configuring Single Sign-on for IBM i

Session Evaluation

IBM i has the capability to participate in a single sign on environment. What is single sign on? Single sign on is an authentication process where a user can access various applications in the network using one set of login credentials. This presentation will describe the Kerberos protocol and how to map a domain user ID to an IBM i user profile to safely authenticate the user to an enabled network application without passwords being sent across the network.

Learning Objectives:
Learn about the Kerberos protocol and how to configure IBM i to take advantage of the protocol and enable single sign-on.

Speakers

Robert Andrews

Principal Security Consultant, IBM

Thursday April 27, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 10

Security

Session Level Intermediate
Audience IBM i System Administrators, Windows Administrators, and Network Administrators

9:15am MDT

223: Installing and Configuring NVMe

Session Evaluation

Learn what you need to know about Non-Volatile Memory express (NVMe) which is the best new technology for IBM i users in decades. Understand why it is so good, and then how to configure it.

Learning Objectives:
1) Why NVMe
2) How to setup a system using NVMe
3) Sizing for NVMe.

Speakers

Pete Massiello

IBM i Advisor, iTech Solutions: A Service Express Company

Thursday April 27, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Governors Square 14

Systems Management

Session Level All
Audience Anyone looking at new hardware, or needing to drastically improve performance.

9:15am MDT

339: DIY: IBM i Automation on a Shoestring Budget

Session Evaluation

Many system monitoring tools exist but they aren’t free. Though most Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) will also provide some automation for various situations, no vendor knows your every scenario, nor the software you’ve developed in house. If you must do the work to notify or recover anyway, why not take the time to monitor what you know you need to monitor and save a few thousand dollars while you’re at it. Filter and consolidate information for your operators and staff. Delay low priority situations until normal working hours, automate recovery for common issues, and sleep through the night. This presentation is here to help spark ideas, and provide a few tips to help you work towards internal solutions. Tips will pertain to reactive and proactive system monitoring, audit readiness, and system cleanup.

Learning objectives:

Automate:
Message, object, and process monitoring
Incident recovery

Consolidate monitoring
IBM i to IBM i
IBM i to other

Learn how to get free coding tools, and the free education to use them.

Speakers

Patrick Kelly

IBM i Automation Admin/Developer, Kyndryl

Starting my 40th year in Automation at 54, my 30th on the IBM i (formerly known by other names). Started my IBM career in '99, and migrated to Kyndryl. Prior to that, I spent most of my time working in the broadcast industry. First with Radio, then Television, then providing... Read More →

Thursday April 27, 2023 9:15am - 10:15am MDT
Plaza Court 7

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Audience IBM i Technical Specialist

9:15am MDT

256: Using RDi to Refactor RPG Code

Session Evaluation

The best way to protect your investment in the IBM i is by transforming your applications into a "Next Generation" architecture.

This session demonstrates how RDi accelerates this process and provides an agile approach to modernizing/refactoring rpg Code

Best Practices and examples for the following will be covered:
1) How to use the refactoring capabilities of RDi
2) Moving from Fixed to Free Format RPG
3) How to extract business logic into procedures using RDi_
4) Implementing a Database Abstraction Layer

Speakers

Ray Everhart

Senior IBM i Analyst and X-Analysis Product Manager, Fresche

Thursday April 27, 2023 9:15am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 17

Programmer Tools

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Developers

10:30am MDT

109: What's New in Db2 for i

Session Evaluation

In the tradition of previous Technology Refreshes (TR), the database team is delivering enhancements on the same cadence. Attend this session to hear about the many enhancements to SQL on i, SQL Query Engine, IBM i Services and more. This session will cover the new and enhanced Db2 for i capabilities added to IBM i 7.4 and IBM i 7.5 over the most recent IBM i Technology Refreshes.

This session will include something for everyone and anyone who uses the IBM i.
Resources: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/1119129 and http://ibm.biz/Db2foriSQLTutor

Speakers

Scott Forstie

IBM, IBM

Thursday April 27, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 12

Database

Session Level Intermediate
Award GOLD

10:30am MDT

135: Expand Your Options using Query Management

Session Evaluation

Query Management may be one of the better-kept secrets on IBM i. It has been part of the operating system since version 3.0 of OS/400. Yet developers don't seem to know it exists, or what it can do for them. Query management objects give the IBM i developer the means to use the full power of SQL without having to purchase the SQL licensed product. It also provides reporting capabilities similar to those of Query for i, with some things that Query for i can't begin to do. Query Management (QM) objects can also be used with programs and commands to provide parameterized reporting and data presentation.

Learning Objectives:
1. Use CL commands to create Query Management objects
2. Use Query Manager to work with Query Management objects
3. Create commands that use Query Management objects

Speakers

Vern Hamberg

Senior IT Developer, Ecolab, Pest Elimination

Thursday April 27, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Plaza Court 5

Database

Session Level Beginner
Audience Developers who need to quickly generate reports and may not want to write programs to do it, who want to enhance their ability to deliver data-centric information in their enterprise.

10:30am MDT

200: Data-Centric Thinking: Moving Business Logic into the Database

Session Evaluation

When talking about application modernization database most think about converting from DDS to DDL and redesigning the database … and yes, this might be the final goal.

But there is much more! We have to move from an application-centric thinking to a data centric thinking. In short, instead of coding everything in whatever programming language, we should move as much business logic as possible into the database. It may even include foreign data that is provided and accessed by Web-Services.

But …what does that mean? At first, using encapsulated (complex) SQL Statements wrapped in SQL Views or User Defined Table Functions, externalizing Data Access, adding constraints and triggers, Row And Column Access Control (RCAC) …

With all these techniques we cannot only reduce our source code to a minimum but also secure our data!

Learning Objectives:
Discover how to move business logic into the database, what methods are available and learn how the applications can be slowly transformed from application centric to data centric.

Speakers

Birgitta Hauser

Database and Software Architect, Independent Consultant

Thursday April 27, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 15

Database

Session Level Advanced
Audience IT Managers, project leaders, programmers and database administrators who are currently working with an old “grown over time” databases and applications want to modernize their application with regard to the data (and database). Programmers who just want to reduce their source code.

10:30am MDT

274: Sharing Data Between Partitions with the SQL Three-Part Name

Session Evaluation

By using Db2 for i’s three-part name it is possible to perform SQL statements on one partitions, initiated from another. This can be as simple as building tables, views, etc. on the remote partition and populating them with data. Or it can be as complex as you like. Become the “go to” guy who is able to gather data from multiple partitions and combine them into one set of results for reports, creating test databases, comparing the set up of two partitions, etc.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the syntax of the three-part name
2. Learn what you can, and cannot, do when using the three-part name and overcome the simple road blocks
3. See how to build a RPG program to show the jobs in message wait from multiple partitions all on one screen

Speakers

Simon Hutchinson

Author, RPGPGM.COM

Thursday April 27, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Governors Square 14

Database

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Developers who have some understanding of SQL who want to be combine data from multiple sources into one set of results

10:30am MDT

367: ODBC speed and security

Session Evaluation

IBM i provides a cross-platform ODBC driver for Db2 that allows developers to code “locally” on their PCs, then deploy the same code to IBM i for production. Alan will share best practices for using ODBC with open source languages, including Node.js, PHP, and Python, and R, as well as .NET. Special tips and hints help you avoid errors, connect securely, and get the best performance. Includes updates to installation, and real-life configuration of the ODBC prestart jobs.

Learning Objectives:
- Appreciate why developers should consider ODBC
- How to get excellent performance
- Troubleshooting
- Connection strings

Speakers

Jack Woehr

Senior Engineer, Absolute Performance, Inc.

Thursday April 27, 2023 10:30am - 11:30am MDT
Plaza Court 4

Database

Session Level All
Audience Developers

10:30am MDT

343: How to introduce modern development tools successfully

Session Evaluation

According to Help System’s 2022 Survey, modernising applications accounts for two of the top 5 concerns of IBM i customers. Business must react quickly to new and fast-changing requirements or lose their competitive advantage.

Our customers tell us that the drive to produce higher quality code in less time is forcing them to rethink their development strategies. The prediction that there will be almost no RPG skills available by 2030 is leaving IT managers quaking in their boots. The acknowledged solution to this problem includes standardising on a common development toolset across all platforms. This is not new, and IBM i development teams have been talking about it for years