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Posted on October 3, 2024 by Jeff Coley
Are you still relying on IBM’s Query/400 or scrambling to replace DB2 Web Query now that it’s discontinued? While both tools have served businesses well over the years, the time has come to move beyond their limitations and adopt a more powerful, future-proof solution: NGS-IQ. Read more 
Posted on January 8, 2024 by Bill Langston
Just as you were returning to work to begin the new year, IBM published a security bulletin, alerting DB2 Web Query customers that the software is "vulnerable to a remote attacker bypassing security restrictions or executing arbitrary code, to a local authenticated attacker obtaining sensitive information, or to denial of service." Read more
Posted on October 17, 2023 by Bill Langston
On October 10, 2023, IBM surprised many IBM i customers by announcing the immediate termination of all DB2 Web Query marketing, which covers all DB2 Web Query modules and licenses. They also said they wouldn't offer customers software maintenance beyond each customer’s current term. So for most companies, technical support and program updates would end in the next year or two. IBM’s announcement letter recommends companies look at alternative solutions. Read more
Posted on October 24, 2022 by Bill Langston
Over the past six months, IBM has delivered new Power 10 servers, IBM i release 7.5, eliminated license fees on a long list of commonly used IBM i utilities, unveiled a new subscription pricing plan for small customers, and announced the Merlin application development solution. If that isn’t enough, it announced IBM i 7.5 TR1 and another TR for 7.4 in October. But not every IBM announcement or new software application matters equally to every IBM i customer. Read more
Posted on July 8, 2021 by Bill Langston
We talk to more and more IBM i customers who are evaluating hybrid cloud, co-location, managed services, and third-party hosting options. Our advice to any NGS customer? Make sure you choose a provider with a successful track record of supporting more than just a few IBM i customers. Read more
Posted on December 16, 2020 by Teresa Moy
NGS would like to reassure everyone that while California is currently in lockdown, we’re still open for business and our support capabilities haven’t changed. Read more
Posted on November 24, 2020 by Bill Langston
Information Builders, Inc. (IBI), the company that IBM has partnered with since 2007 to develop, support, and market IBM DB2 WebQuery, is being acquired by Tibco Software.1 Tibco Software is a big data and analytics software company based in Palo Alto, California. They are privately owned by Vista Equity Partners. To date, we have not found any statements from IBM, IBI, or Tibco regarding how this change in ownership will effect IBM DB2 Web Query. Read more
Posted on October 14, 2020 by Bill Langston
IBM has announced plans to spin off its Infrastructure Services business unit in 2021.1 Many IBM i customers have minimal or no experience working with this part of IBM, but the entity, tentatively called “NewCo,” will launch with roughly $19 billion in annual revenue, 4,600 customers, and thousands of employees worldwide. Read more
Posted on November 14, 2017 by Bill Langston
As a software vendor focused exclusively on the IBM i market, we often read or hear IBM i IT professionals complain about IBM marketing or the way competing vendors have managed to surround and discredit IBM i in their company. The general theme of most these discussions is that IBM i is the Rodney Dangerfield of computing platforms. We understand the sentiment, but our perspective on it might surprise you. Read more
Posted on August 23, 2017 by Bill Langston
As you may know, COMMON is the largest IBM user group providing education to IT professionals who work on IBM POWER systems. SHARE is a similarly organized user group for IT professionals working on the IBM Z or “mainframe” platform. A friend at another company recently mentioned they were attending the SHARE conference. That casual comment lead me to do some research. Read more
Posted on August 3, 2016 by Bill Langston
IBM, Oracle, HP, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, SAP, and virtually every other major technology company want you and your company to use their cloud. Each quarter, these companies release new products and acquire companies to bolster their cloud offerings and grow their cloud revenue. Industry analysts forecast remarkable growth in cloud spending. Yet, global spending on information technology has been nearly flat for several years now and Gartner expects it to remain that way for the rest of this decade. So what is the source of all this cloud growth? Read more
Posted on May 12, 2016 by Bill Langston
In the 1980’s a political consultant coined the phrase “perception is reality,” and over the past 30 years that phrase has become widely used and accepted in both business and social settings to help explain or justify behavior. But in fact, perceptions we can’t verify through data provide a very weak foundation on which to make business and personal decisions. Read more
Posted on April 4, 2016 by Teresa Moy
In our Jargon Crazy game, it certainly has been entertaining to see which IT buzzwords have been the most disliked. Some results have surprised me, and some have confirmed my own loathing. I won't identify any of them, though, because I don't want to sway anyone's opinions in the slightest. Read more
Posted on February 19, 2016 by Bill Langston
NGS supports customers of all sizes and across all industries. These companies create, distribute, and provide products and services that we all rely on or consume on a daily basis – engine parts, steel, agricultural products, snack foods, pest control services, groceries, medical devices, containers, tools, paint, lighting, carpet, newspapers, clothes, healthcare services, tires, financial services, sporting goods, education, and on and on. The bond they share is their decision to run their core business on IBM i. Read more
Posted on December 18, 2015 by Teresa Moy
Last month, we wrote a post on business and social media. Now with the holiday season in full swing, I’d like to redirect our focus to be less techie. Read more
Posted on December 14, 2015 by David Gillman
Every industry has its inside language that only the inner core understands. Quite possibly, IT is more that way than most other company departments. Within IT, vendor marketing departments come up with new terms constantly. A lot of these terms can be annoying to seasoned professionals. Read more
Posted on November 3, 2015 by Bill Langston
We’re contacted every day by companies who tell us we should hire them to help us gain a competitive advantage and reach new customers through social media. These consultants and vendors say it’s critical for us to have a strong presence on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. because social media is where our customers and potential customers are spending their time and seeking information. It’s an interesting theory, but our experience tells us this isn’t the case. Read more
Posted on September 15, 2015 by Bill Langston
If you use Google to search for information related to IBM i, what terms and product names do you enter? IBM i, iSeries, System i, AS/400? Google's own search statistics indicate pretty clearly that many people still use them all. As software vendors, we must know what words and phrases people search on because we want our own information and search advertising to appear frequently. Read more
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