Re: IBM i DevCon

Thanks for a report on the conference, Joe. I just reviewed the session schedule and it looks like a lot of new and emerging technologies were presented, with a continuing emphasis on application modernization and mobile support.

On a related tangent, I've been following the travails of one company that has been attempting to migrate its applications off IBM i, under the guise of a modernization initiative; it has not gone well. What sort of IBM i centric modernization initiatives are people working on?

-Nathan.



________________________________
From: Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 10:12 AM
Subject: IBM i DevCon

I'd meant to do this earlier, but life gets in the way sometimes. 
Anyway, as many of you know two weeks ago IBM i DevCon was held in Las
Vegas.  As always, it was a great conference, but this year was a little
different.  It was held at Planet Hollywood (which is actually a pretty
cool place), and the keynote speaker was Aaron Bartell.

Those of you who think the IBM i is devoid of young talent should take
note: Aaron is one of the younger members of our community and is also
one of its most fervent advocates.  Aaron and I have argued mightily on
occasion and we still have some fundamental disagreements on things, but
his presentation was excellent and it gave me a lot of hope for the
future of the platform.

And while DevCon is a very technical conference with lots of good solid
information for tradional IBM i development, I did a bunch of sessions
on Android and Java and SQL (and of course EGL) which were very well
received.  The i is not just a standalone RPG box anymore, and the
future is as bright as it can be.  Whether it's RPG OA or EGL or Android
or something else, it's really time for the IBM i development community
to figure out their next steps.  Don't let the world pass you by.  Start
looking at the next couple of years and identifying how to position the
box within your enterprise.  It can either be a bit player or a central
figure and what you do may help decide that.

Joe