"You and i" - A 2020 Virtual Wrap Up
It’s December of one of the strangest years most of us have experienced. A great many things didn’t happen the way we would have expected in January, but a great many things did happen. So, before I start writing new “big topic” blogs, I decided I should write a “wrap up” for 2020. And, though we sometimes feel like everything changed, and I’ll talk about that, I want to start with one big thing that stayed the same!
The Same: IBM i Delivered
As we’ve done since 2010, this year featured two rounds of “Technology Refresh” announcements for IBM i. Our development team, and the offering team, did most of our work from home offices, but schedules didn’t change and our community was able to adopt new technology for Db2 Mirror, Ansible, IBM i Services (aka “SQL Services”), Access Client Solutions, RPG, Open Source, NVMe and much more.
Because the old “You and i” blog posts which discussed these announcements might be a bit hard to find now, here are links to the landing pages for those TR Announcements.
Spring 2020
Fall 2020
The Same but Different: the IBM i Team in the Community
Though most in-person events didn’t happen, we saw almost every group organize and deliver on-line events. COMMON; COMMON Europe; The RPG/DB2 Summit, user- and partner-led conferences in the US, Europe, Japan, South America – and probably places I’m forgetting; IBM’s big System University events, plus THINK – they all happened and we IBMers were there.
And, because some clients could not send their employees to educational events, they organized on-line briefings.
Personally, this resulted in me having my second-busiest speaking year, ever! One particular week was notable because I spoke in Spain, Ohio and California on one of the days that week, sandwiched between talks to clients in Germany and Florida, while also recording a presentation for Japan. It was a big week – and one I could never have accomplished if I had been physically moving between events.
I was certainly not alone. Members of the IBM i team participated in more events, limited only by time and invitations, rather than by travel budgets. While we did not get to “hang out with” as much of the community in after-session discussions or at conference events, and we missed that, we were thrilled that our community attended these on-line events in such great numbers.
New Things Grew – iSee Video Blog and the Db2 for i SQL Tutor
We’ve wanted to get some video demos out there for quite some time. We know that in the modern world, many, many people learn by watching. Business Architects Scott Forstie and Tim Rowe have often spoken about that, and intended to get around to creating some videos, but when they were forced to stop traveling to events, it gave them the time and the motivation to really get started. The result: the “iSee” Video Blog (quick link: https://www.common.org/education-events/library/isee)
Scott went a step further, living up to his role as Chief SQL Evangelist for IBM i, and created an amazing tool, the Db2 for i SQL Tutor (quick link: The Db2 for i SQL Tutor (quick link: http://ibm.biz/Db2foriSQLTutor)
New Client Stories
We continued to encounter clients who have great stories to tell about using IBM i. We started collecting these a couple years ago, and they are so inspiring that we just keep doing it. Brandon Pederson, our IBM i Marketing Manager, has a great time talking to people and helping document their innovations and their business results. The page for all of the stories is http://bit.ly/IBMiClientInnovation.
But most recent story I was involved in comes from MCIS – Minnesota Counties Information Systems. MCIS, like so many IBM i users, recognized that some of its key employees with IBM i skills were getting close to retirement, so MCIS knew it was going to need “Fresh Faces.” Brandon and I talked to them and found this very successful approach:
“The organization set a strategy in place to look for top technical talent within the area, rather than professionals with certain skills, who were passionate about learning new technologies and systems. They paired these new team members with more experienced employees to create a mentorship program, so that the newer employees have a “technical buddy” to learn from one on one and ask questions to accelerate their learning and development on IBM i and Power Systems.”
(If you want to share your company’s story, please let me know. Or contact Brandon – he’s @BPED07 on Twitter and of course he’s a member of the IBM i Community page.)
New Things I Can’t Talk About Yet
This category of “Things” is not really “New” in 2020. That is, every year we work on things we can’t talk about yet.
But in 2020, it feels like I’ve worked on more of them than ever. IBM i is key to the future of Power Systems (it’s not the only key, but it has a recognized and strong position within IBM’s portfolio) and so I’ve had more opportunities to work with other IBM leaders than ever before.
Additionally, our team has been able to show the value of IBM i in many key industries which have had extreme IT requirements dealing with 2020’s challenges, and that has given the IBM i team an opportunity to share our approach with other people – from the way we produce software to the way we work with clients in Advisory Councils and incorporating RFE requests into our strategy & plan.
Every single part of the above has led to the beginnings of some pretty cool things – some of which will be rolling out in 2021, and some of which will roll out in years beyond. (That’s what “strategic” thinking, does, folks!)
So, as we get ready to turn the figurative page on the 2020 calendar, we’re heartened by the way we’ve been able to continue to help the IBM i community advance itself in technology and knowledge, and we’re excited about the future.
I’m getting ready for a year-end vacation, and I’m looking forward to it. But I also look forward to the exciting challenges we’ll face, and the new advancements we will make, in the IBM i world in 2021.
I hope you all have something great to look forward to, as well!