IBM i 7.3 Technology Refresh 1 Announce
Here we go again – Announce Day![1] Today, we are announcing IBM i Technology Refresh 1 (TR1), which has its GA date on November 11, 2016. As usual, I’ll take the opportunity to highlight some of what we’re announcing here on my blog, and then encourage you to go find out more from other bloggers and from the developerWorks site. (I have put the links to the dW pages at the bottom of this post.)
Highlights from TR1
Let’s hit a few of the items we’re delivering in TR1.
Container support for storage devices: These days, USB drives are used all over for personal data storage, and it makes sense that people would want to use them with their IBM i servers, as well. And, before TR1, they could, in some instances. But there are definitely some uses which would be natural for USB drives. For example, loading PTFs onto a USB drive from a PC, and then taking that drive to a Power System and applying the PTFs from the drive. Before, you could not do that. With TR1, you can do it! And that’s not the only use for the container support. But let’s go on to another highlight.
Rational Developer for i, V9.5.1: Mac OS X support is probably the biggest highlight here. Mac users (and you know there are lots of them) want good tools, and RDi is a good tool (a good, big set of really awesome tools, in fact) so getting support for those tools on Mac OS X is going to be important for them. But even if you’re not a Mac user, RDi 9.5.1 has synchronization of IFS projects, Kerberos authentication, and more.
IBM i Access Client Solutions: It’s almost impossible to summarize the set of new things here. Cool “Smart Card” support for the 5250 emulator; ease-of-use enhancements for the IFS interface; making poorly structured SQL get better, based on user preferences, in the Run SQL Scripts interfaces. I think there’s enough material here for several blogs, in addition to what can be found in developerWorks.
IBM i Open Source Solutions: Well, there’s perl. That’s probably enough right there, but it’s not all. We also have node.js V6. Because, you’re welcome.
PowerHA Hyperswap for SVC/Storwize: to add even more options for availability with some of the best storage our customers want to use.
DB2 – Of Course: Did you think I’d forget DB2? Not gonna happen. Did you think there was nothing new from DB2? Not gonna happen, either. The lead story here is more JSON function, with the JSON_TABLE user-defined table function, which helps DB2 application developers decompose JSON data into relational data. But there’s also something for reusing common code segments, a service to help DB Engineers understand the details behind how their SQL statements are processed, and several new and enhanced IBM i services.
And more: DB2 Web Query, Websphere Application Server V9, new I/O & virtualization. There’s a lot being announced this time, folks. But before we go, I also want to make sure you see a new product we’ve created.
IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i: This product can be used in conjunction with BRMS to move data off site, with no tape drive involved. Or it can be used independently of BRMS to mirror IFS files into a cloud. Take a look at it. Tell us what you think.
7.2 TR5 also announced
While today marks the first TR for 7.3, it’s also the day we announce TR5 for 7.2. Many of the items I mentioned above are also available for 7.2, but not all. You can find out which are available by checking out developerWorks. (Not much of a Spoiler Alert: most of the stuff outside of IBM i proper – like the ACS and RDi support – is available on both releases.)
More New Function = Continued Investment
Before I go, I want to point out that, because the very first TR was delivered for 7.1 in the fall of 2010, this is in fact the sixth anniversary of the delivery of the first IBM i TR. Twice a year, for the past six years, we’ve been demonstrating continued investment in IBM i, and delivering on our strategy to get you new capabilities between releases. I want to thank all of you who submit ideas, and those of you who work with our developers in open source or other environments to both suggest and test out enhancements. The IBM i environment keeps getting better, and more powerful, because we at IBM keep investing, and you keep helping us decide where to invest.
Links:[2]
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/1168750
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[1] Originally published 11 October 2016
[2] Links updated from original