A perennial challenge for IBM i professionals is helping the rest of the world -- and often their own colleagues and managers -- understand the value that the IBM i operating system, with its utterly integrated DB2 for i database, brings to enterprises.
To help, the System i Developer team -- led by IBM i experts Susan Gantner, Jon Paris, Paul Tuohy, and Skip Marchesani -- has put together a new session roadmap, "Keep Your i on the Data," for its next RPG & DB2 Summit conference, which is slated for March 19-21 at the Crowne Plaza in Atlanta.
Here's the basic pitch for the new session roadmap:
Keep Your i on the Data addresses the growing need for IBM i professionals to provide management with better analytics and business intelligence. It also teaches attendees how to articulate the business case for IBM i as the primary data server within their organizations.
Sessions within the roadmap will cover DB2 for i capabilities, tools, and self-management techniques that improve the efficiency, reliability and usability of the database. Specific topics include how to transform data to support business analytics, using Indexes to improve performance, and building analytics dashboards.
The roadmap will also explore the emerging role of DB2 for i specialist. According to System i Developer partner Jon Paris, it no longer makes business sense to proceed on the basis that DB2 on i does not benefit from many services traditionally performed by a DBA:
“Our database has incredible capabilities that simply aren’t being used. Many shops don't even utilize the basics such as referential integrity and check constraints. Take a look at Oracle and SQL Server teams. They have full time DBAs whose sole focus is on database capabilities. Because of that perceived body of expertise, they are often called on to advise management on how to implement new projects. When IBM i teams don’t exhibit equivalent expertise and advocacy, it’s hardly surprising if management believe that they have to take data off of the i to get the business insights they need. The sad thing is that they will certainly pay a higher price to do that.”
The new roadmap joins over a dozen existing RPG & DB2 Summit roadmaps on topics such as Mobilizing RPG Apps, Exploiting RPG with SQL, DB2 for i Capabilities, Web Programming, Web Services, Modular Programming, and Optimizing DB2/SQL Performance.
In addition to over 50 sessions, the March RPG & DB2 Summit will also feature an iAdvocate Tutorial and Discussion led by IBM’s Mike Cain. Debuted at the October 2012 Summit, the discussion focuses on what, why, when, where and how to "talk smart" about IBM i and DB2. Response to the October discussion inspired the creation of a publicly-accessible IBM iAdvocate Resources repository.
For more detail and registration information, see systemideveloper.com.
