Crystal ball: Fall TR

Dusting off my crystal ball and trying to figure out when and what will be part of the fall Technology Refresh.

Typically announced September or October.

The TR marker PTF (for example MF99206) often comes out a little beforehand. No, MF99207 is not out yet for 7.3. While the cover letter makes for some interesting reading as it often mentions support for some newer hardware the real guts of the technology refresh often waits for the next group ptf for your favorite application. I tend to focus on DB2 so I gazed into the ball and saw this link:
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/IBM%20i%20Technology%20Updates/page/Db2%20for%20IBM%20i%202019%20Group%20PTF%20Schedule
This basically says the new DB2 functions of the next TR will be available on the opening day of firearms deer season in Michigan. Having a daughter born on that day (and thus wanting to kill Chuck E Cheese on it's anniversary for tying up the day) it's a wonderful way to celebrate.
The other thing I noticed while gazing into the ball is that the DB2 group day matches for 7.4 and 7.3 for the fall TR. However 7.2 does not. Fading off into the sunset already? Normally we see two TR's a year and 7.2 hasn't had one since 2018-09. I turned my gaze in another direction and noticed "Technology Refreshes will often be made available to support significant new hardware. In the past, major releases of new hardware have occurred twice a year, although this is no guarantee of future schedules." Does this not bode well for 7.2 supporting new hardware? Has IBM announced end of TR's for 7.2 like they did for 7.1?

7.4 and 7.2 both have a DB2 group ptf out this month. Way too early for the TR so probably just fixes. Then again, you can't hardly slow down Scott Forstie and the rest of the DB2 team from coming out with new or updated services and they may release something before the TR. Who knows? But I can't imagine the 7.3 crowd being happy having to wait 3 months additional, so probably not.



Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
Group Dekko
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