System iNetwork

March 17, 2010 12:00 PM

What I Didn't Say

In Monday's Industry Bits story, there's an element that I find even more interesting than the fact that Whitney National Bank is running IBM i 6.1 on a new Power System -- it's that IBM's press release didn't note the underlying details in the first place.

In and of itself, this isn't surprising: most press releases lack the detail that one niche publication would deem important that other publications might ignore. This press release was aimed more at the banking industry to tout how Whitney put IBM's Banking Industry Framework to use:

By deploying the IBM Banking Industry Framework, a portfolio of pre-built financial reports and dashboards, Whitney will cut its banking applications in half and be able to retrieve customer information instantaneously. The bank will also improve service levels by automating routine processes while reducing costs and eliminating redundancies across the enterprise.

The press release also noted the migration to a Power System using DB2, but didn't mention AIX, IBM i, or Linux. Putting two and two together, which is basically remembering that IBM i is in use in quite a few banking and financial enterprises, I asked IBM for more detail; hence, the OS information.

Nice.

But What's the Point?

My point is two-fold: IBM has definitely been elevating its messages to key higher-level functionality statements while downplaying the details, focusing on bigger picture combinations of solutions that IBM delivers for customers. This isn't true 100 percent of the time, and I haven't tried to systematically calculate all of IBM's press releases, but to a guy who's read far more than his fair share over the years, I'm not seeing as much foundation-level detail.

And the second point? Just because we're not seeing obvious IBM i action, it doesn't mean it's not there. Whitney National Bank is running a recent release of IBM i and it has invested in new hardware, including what appears to be a decent high availability system. I'd like to be able to share additional details, but--not surprisingly--IBM declined to provide greater detail, no doubt because most banks are extremely shy about revealing anything that could possibly result in a security problem--never mind the fact that IBM i can be locked down and set to be darn near impregnable.

The challenge for all of us is keeping this information about IBM i usage and activity out and about, available so it's easier to bump into and remain in the consciousness of IT and business professionals worldwide.

Posted by cmaxcer on March 17, 2010 at 12:00 PM | Comments (4)

March 10, 2010 10:32 AM

So You Were There -- What Happened?

Over here at System iNEWS magazine, we have a couple of fun COMMON 50th Anniversary projects in the works--a print piece to go in the bag for COMMON attendees and some coverage in our regular mag as well. Here's where you come in: if you've been to a COMMON conference, why not share some of your favorite memories, maybe about your first COMMON (Atlanta!) or maybe about something strange, awesome, or downright cool that happened.

If you're willing to participate, it's easy--just post a comment below or fire off an email to me at chris.maxcer@penton.com. We just need your first and last name to go along with it. By sharing your memory with us, you agree to let us edit it (don't worry, we've got gentle hands) and publish it in print or digitally.

To form this into a handy question, think:

What's one of your favorite memories about a COMMON conference?

Any Fine Print?

Not really. If you post it here or send it to me, you agree to let us use it as we see fit, free of charge, forever and ever, etc. We've got to reserve the right to not use submitted memories, of course. And what do you get? The chance to share a fond memory, if not become the catalyst that makes a fellow IBM i fan crack a smile.

Posted by cmaxcer on March 10, 2010 at 10:32 AM | Comments (8)

March 1, 2010 12:07 PM

COMMON on the Brain

I've got COMMON on the brain in big way. I think psychologically, COMMON just went from some sort of hazy future to an upcoming reality--it's now March, so we're really only two months away from the May 3rd kick off in Orlando, which means it's time to start booking flights and rooms. Plus, the deal is, there's a lot riding on this one event, and it's not just because it represents the user group's 50th anniversary.

For starters, there's the whole mess over COMMON's money woes that came to light at the event in Reno last year, which led to some really smart cost-cutting changes (and a few head-scratching ones). Ultimately, the success of the COMMON 2010 Annual Meeting and Exposition may hold more to COMMON's future than anyone wants to admit.

If the event turns out to be a ghost town, we can still blame the economy, but with Orlando being on the East Coast, population-heavy end of the country, we can't blame the long flight times and need to cross the Continental Divide as an inhibitor. Worse yet, a low turn out would clearly mean a dive in revenue, and while everyone knows how to trim their budgets these days, any new dips in income are clearly problematic.

And Yet, I'm Optimistic

Partly because the COMMON conference in Reno last year survived with a surprisingly good vibe, I'm optimistic that we'll see a decent bump in activity and attendance for the Orlando event. At the very least, with all the snow some people have been getting, Orlando in May might seem a bit more compelling. Seriously, there are some interesting points developing in COMMON's favor.

First, IBM has announced the upper-middle tier of POWER7 servers, which leaves out the high and low-end. Might IBM use the COMMON event as a launch platform for IBM i-specific goodness like in years past? I don't have any inside information here, but it's hard for me to imagine that IBM would let this opportunity go by without introducing a new 520-like replacement with POWER7--even if it's just an announcement with a delivery date on it.

Plus, we're ripe for the next generation of IBM i . . . while IBM has done a few previews and offered up some tantalizing tidbits, there's some action happening inside IBM that could make some IBM i developers sit up and take notice.

Of course, there's also the likely video message from IBM President and CEO Sam Palmisano, which, if you really think about it, is a major step forward over previous years where no System i pro would bet $5 that the IBM president was even aware of the COMMON event. Perspective, you know, lowers the bar--and optimism helps, too.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to hearing from Rod Adkins, IBM's senior vice president of the IBM Systems and Technology Group. If Adkins talks about Power Systems, and specifically IBM i, as if he understands our world, that'll be a big step up. If he gets all generic on us, talking Smarter Planet and Power Your Planet without understanding IBM i . . . well, that'll mean something, too.

Back to COMMON

While we're at it, I have great respect for the new president of COMMON, Wayne Madden, who I no longer report to (but in full disclosure, I did work for for many years). Wayne definitely knows this is an important event, and while I don't expect fireworks, if he disappoints, he's going to get the back-room question, three-word sentence that ends with a choice four-letter word and "!?!".

But I honestly don't believe it'll come to that. Maybe there'll be exploding shiny confetti at the opening session and music that gets your blood flowing. Unimportant? Not exactly. Never forget the atmosphere, and it seems as if COMMON has forgotten it lately. Dubious? Most any backyard barbecue is good, right, but throw in a fire pit, and suddenly overcooked burgers taste just fine.

Of course, the four days of 300 educational sessions, including all-day, pre-conference workshops, open labs, and regular sessions are useful, too.

And Now on to You

Actually, if you've made a long and healthy career out of IBM i and its predecessors, this may be an event you want to consider shaking your budget for. Not only do I think it's important for IBM to bring its customers a great message and thought out solutions, not to mention having COMMON deliver relevant education and supporting services, I think it's important to show both IBM and its business partner vendors that the IBM i community is alive and kicking--and that it's willing to invest in IBM i-focused action for the businesses that use it.

See you there?

Posted by cmaxcer on March 1, 2010 at 12:07 PM | Comments (2)

February 24, 2010 9:35 AM

Zend Server to 'Shorten the Learning Curve'?

As Zend announces the general availability of its Zend Server 5.0, which is aimed at business-critical, enterprise-grade web application serving, it's still only in GA for Windows and Linux; however, it's also available in beta for IBM i.

Meanwhile, Alan Seiden, a senior developer and consultant at Strategic Business Systems, who blogs at alanseiden.com and knows a thing or two about PHP and the Zend solution world, not to mention IBM i, is recommending that people try Zend Server beta for IBM i if they're using PHP on IBM i.

"Even though it's in beta, Zend Server brings improvements over its predecessors, Zend Core and Zend Platform," he writes, adding, "I believe Zend Server will shorten the learning curve for new users and simplify advanced configurations for us 'veterans.'"

Here's the full post: http://www.alanseiden.com/2010/02/03/zend-server-beta-for-php-on-ibm-i-i-like-it.

Posted by cmaxcer on February 24, 2010 at 9:35 AM | Comments (1)

February 22, 2010 11:26 AM

2010 the Year of Upgrades?

This might sound familiar for many a System i-based shop: More than half of IT software budgets in 2010 will go toward ongoing operations and maintenance of existing applications as opposed to implementing new software solutions, according to a recent survey by Forrester Research.

The survey of nearly 2,200 IT executives and technology decision-makers at enterprise and small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) in North America and Europe is part of Forrester's Business Data Services (BDS) series, which helps Vendor Strategy professionals profile their target market's budget allocation and technology adoption.

According to Forrester's survey of nearly 2,200 IT executives in North America and Europe, the poor economic environment created a backlog of business application software upgrade activities for firms--and many plan to address the issue this year.

Forty-one percent of enterprises and 21 percent of SMBs plan to upgrade existing finance and accounting software, 48 percent of enterprises and 19 percent of SMBs plan to upgrade their customer relationship management (CRM) applications, and 52 percent of enterprises and 18 percent of SMBs plan to upgrade industry-specific software. In addition, more than 20 percent of all SMBs have concrete plans to implement CRM or information and knowledge management (I&KM) software in 2010 or later, representing the fastest-growing SMB software markets in 2010.

"Despite all the hype around new technologies that hit the market in the past few years, firms are devoting most of their IT spending on already-installed technologies," notes Forrester Senior Analyst Holger Kisker, Ph.D. "As long as businesses are prioritizing cost cutting and efficiency improvements, tech vendors must provide clearer business justifications for their offerings and demonstrate the functional fit with business requirements that their solutions provide."

While cloud computing has many enterprises interested, growth of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications is driving the market more, and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is still slow, Forrester reports.

While a whopping one-third of all enterprises will have subscribed to an SaaS application in the next 12 months, this does not mean that one-third of all business transaction volumes are already running on SaaS applications. Rather, it reflects enterprises that use it for any application, most of which are not mission-critical today.

For more detail, check out Forrester's Business Data Services at: http://www.forrester.com/Products/MarketResearch/Business.

What About Hardware?

Forrester's survey and reports only covered software, but for the IBM i world, with POWER7 units starting to trickle toward us, IBM might see some excellent action, particularly if it can offer a compelling replacement for the popular 520.

Posted by cmaxcer on February 22, 2010 at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2010 10:49 AM

IBM i on Power Less Expensive than x86 Options

On its IBM i Strategy and Roadmap page, IBM has posted a pair of ITG reports on why IBM i on Power is less expensive than x86 options. There's two versions--the full report and an executive summary. These are in addition to the IBM-authored IBM i Strategy and Roadmap document.

Here's a snip:

Excessive complexity has undermined the IT strategies of many large organizations. In a midsize business, with more limited resources and technical skills, the impact may be a great deal more serious.

How can this be avoided? One option is to employ – or continue to employ – IBM Power Systems and the IBM i 6.1 operating system. More than any other platform available today, these offer midsize users the benefits of advanced technology while minimizing costs, complexities and risks.

Not surprisingly, ITG cites the longer-term total cost of ownership angle where IBM i excels:

The cost advantages of Power Systems and IBM i 6.1 may be illustrated by comparing three-year IT costs for four midsize businesses with from $400 million to $1.2 billion in sales and from 500 to 4,500 employees.

Costs for use of Power Systems and IBM i 6.1 average 41 percent less than for “commodity” x86 servers and Microsoft Windows, and 47 percent less than for x86 servers and Linux operating systems.

As you might guess, however, there's a lot more detail, including Power Systems and x86 server configuration examples, an examination of the potential cost of an outage for manufacturing companies, IBM i 6.1 single-level storage structure, Power System autonomic functions, virtualization architecture, BladeCenter, the IBM System Director product family, an installation and scenarios summary, and much more.

Definitely worth checking out. In addition, the documents are available as .pdfs, so you might want to simply download them to your hard drive rather than view them through your browser--and they'll be handy for future reference or sharing, should the need arise.

Posted by cmaxcer on February 17, 2010 at 10:49 AM | Comments (1)

February 10, 2010 11:40 AM

POWER7 Media, Docs, and Marketing on Tap

There's a lot to digest following IBM's POWER7 announcement Monday, not the least of which is when IBM i customers might get a look at the next generation POWER7 units that could replace the popular Power 520. And when might that be?

"Of course, we will deliver in due course, a full complement of POWER7 servers and blades across all segments of our product range, but we're not making other announcements at this time regarding blades and low-end servers," Ian Jarman, manager of Power Systems Software, says.

Meanwhile, POWER7 is being billed by IBM as a critical new supporting foundation for its Smarter Planet initiative, and the Power Systems group at IBM has been intentionally shifting away from the old "Power Equation" marketing in favor of new Smarter Planet alignment.

"You can't go anywhere in an airport or practically anywhere else without experiencing the Smarter Planet campaign," Jarman notes. "In this announcement, we're not only linking our systems into the marketing and advertising, we're going to connect Power into it very directly. So you'll see the theme 'Smarter Systems for a Smarter Planet' and 'Power Your Planet', and you'll see a major advertising campaign associated with this launch around the world. It's a very significant announcement for IBM."

Jarman also notes that this POWER7 announcement is being backed up by the broader IBM in its efforts. "This announcement is being supported by the software group, our services teams -- everybody recognizes that this is a significant moment in the industry," Jarman adds.

Videos and Supporting Documents

There's a quite a bit of new information splashed all over the IBM Power web site, and here's some of the most interesting and useful elements available now.

• New POWER7 workload optimizing systems:

• The Power Systems Announcement Overview document: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/resources/systems_power_news_20100209_annc.pdf.

• IBM POWER7TM Systems Family Quick Reference Guide:

  

• Also check out the IBM Power Systems Facts and Features POWER7 Servers February 2010 report.

Posted by cmaxcer on February 10, 2010 at 11:40 AM | Comments (9)

February 8, 2010 12:29 PM

POWER7 Announced, IBM i Support Ready for GA

Ahead of most industry expectations, IBM announced POWER7-based Power Systems today. Basically, IBM is delivering a huge leap in capacity, virtualization, and energy efficiency through three new POWER7-based midrange systems, the Power 750, 770, and 780. Best yet, IBM i will be available on these news systems from day one, which makes POWER7 the first IBM Power Systems processor technology generation to support all of IBM's core operating systems at GA.

"Quite frankly, this is one of the biggest announcements that IBM has made in years, and POWER7 is going to have a major impact on the industry, and I'm delighted that IBM i customers are included in this launch on this astonishing new technology," says Ian Jarman, manager of Power Systems Software.

"This is of great significance to our IBM i customers because this is one of the things that has changed as we have come into the new Power Systems organization -- that we bring technology to market for our three top tier operating systems together," Jarman adds.

That's right, Jarman is gushing here, and for good reason beyond the immediate support for IBM i--it's not hyperbole to suggest that HP and Sun-Oracle have been dealt a pretty big blow with POWER7, and IBM overall seems quite excited about it. As long as IBM prices Power Systems competitively, the new systems that IBM is promoting to "Power your planet" should garner a lot of attention around the world, and even before today's announcement, at least one analyst believes that POWER7 might drive Itanium and SPARC out of the market.

Competition aside, POWER7 chips now boast:

• 4, 6 or 8 cores per socket
• 3.0 to 4.14 GHz
• Up to 4 threads per core
• Integrated eDRAM L3 Cache
• Dynamic Energy Optimization

"What you're going to see with POWER7, we're going to deliver more cores and more performance per core," Jarman says. Better yet, IBM is delivering workload optimizing features that it says make POWER7 number one in both transaction and throughput computing.

"This is one of the key things with Power, not only do we have fantastic performance, we have the ability to adjust performance according to different workloads, for transaction processing, for example, or for throughput computing where you need the highest performance from each core," Jarman says.

IBM has introduced two new workload optimization features, TurboCore, which is for max per core performance for databases that lets customers boot the system with fewer active cores (that then use the full cache on the chip), and MaxCore, which is for parallelization and high capacity.

"Most of our customers will be more interested in having all the cores active because most IBM i customers are interested in transaction processing rather than throughput computing, so MaxCore will be more relevant," Jarman explains.

IBM also is delivering improvements with intelligent threads, cache, and energy optimization, along with Active Memory Expansion for more memory for SAP, and solid state drives for blistering fast I/O access.

The New Systems

Today IBM announced three new systems of interest to IBM i customers, the Power 750, 770, and 780. Obviously, IBM has an new 7-oriented naming scheme for Power Systems.

"This is critical to understand. In POWER7, we've gone to a multi-core design, highly energy efficient, and yet we've still delivered more performance per core," Jarman notes. "This has really changed the parameters in the industry for chip design, performance, and energy efficiency." To put this in perspective, a Power 570 running with 16 cores at 5.0 GHz is bested by a new POWER7-based Power 780 running with the same number of cores at just 3.86 GHz.

The Power 750:

• 4 Socket 4U
• 6 or 8 cores per socket
• 3.0 to 3.55 GHz
• Energy-Star Qualified (first Energy Start certified RISC system)
• Up to 181,000 CPW

Compared to a POWER6 550, the core-to-core performance gain is 26 percent, jumping up to 377 percent if all 32 cores are used.

The Power 770:

• 12 or 16 core 4U Nodes
• Up to 4 Nodes per system
• 3.1 and 3.5 GHz
• Capacity on Demand
• Enterprise RAS
• Up to 292,700 CPW

Compared to a POWER6 570, the core-to-core performance gain is 14 percent, jumping up to 277 percent if all 64 cores are used.

The Power 780:

• New Modular High-End
• Up to 64 Cores
• TurboCore
• 3.86 or 4.14 GHz
• Up to 343,050 CPW
• Capacity on Demand
• Enterprise RAS
• 24x7 Warranty
• PowerCare

Compared to a POWER6 570, the core-to-core performance gain is 35 percent, jumping up to 342 percent if all 64 cores are used.

Upgrade Paths

IBM says Power 570s can be upgraded to Power 770 or 780 on June 4, 2010. As for IBM's current Power 520 customers, IBM says it plans to provide upgrade paths in 2010 from the POWER6 Power 520 2 and 4-core servers to next generation POWER7 processor-based entry servers. IBM hasn't provided a more specific timeline for its popular 520 line yet, though.

As for the big 595s, IBM says it plans to provide an upgrade path from the current IBM Power 595 server with 12X I/O to IBM's next-generation POWER7 processor-based high-end server, and the upgrade is planned as a simple replacement of the processor books and two system controllers with new POWER7 components, within the existing system frame. This will happen in 2010, but IBM hasn't been more specific yet--but there are a couple of very interesting nuggets.

First, the high-end POWER7 server will boast up to 256 POWER7 processor cores, and second, it'll be designed to operate within the same physical footprint and energy envelope of the current 64-core Power 595 server (which, when you think about it, is pretty darn sweet). Third, the POWER7 big iron will also include a high-voltage DC power option, and fourth, enterprises with multiple systems leveraging PowerVM Live Partition Mobility may use this function to maintain application availability during the upgrade process.

More to Come

There's a lot more, of course, including some interesting moves by IBM to promote POWER7 and its Power System line as the go-to servers to "Power your planet", which ties into IBM's much broader "Smarter Planet" initiative. Stay tuned.

Posted by cmaxcer on February 8, 2010 at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

February 3, 2010 10:47 AM

IBM i on a Blade Makes the Cut for Dancerace

UK-based Dancerace designs, builds, and supports powerful, reliable, affordable, and easy to deploy invoice finance management software. That's all well and good, but for IBM i pros, there's a more interesting angle to the company: Dancerace has been successfully running IBM i on POWER-based blades.

I caught up with Anthony Avison, chief executive for Dancerace, for an illuminating Q&A.

Q: Why did Dancerace first get into IBM i on a blade? Which chassis and blade did you choose?

A: Dancerace is a software house building receivables finance software (factoring, invoice discounting, and variants) for the global market since the early 90's. From the mid-90's we also started providing Internet access and data interchange for borrowers as a hosted service for our clients, and thus began our need for a robust and scaleable server farm. In recent years the back office IBM i products we sell also became a 'cloud' product as our hosting facilities improved. At the end of the evolution we had a mixed bag of iSeries computers: 800's, 520's and a fairly large 525. All this had to be mirrored to our secondary site for high availability, so that was a lot of kit.

We needed to give each of our hosted clients a separate server partition because they are financial institutions and need that apparent and actual separation and security, and in any case are located around the world in diverse time zones with often conflicting backup regimes. Getting the per-partition cost to a commercial level was proving very difficult within the physical partition paradigm used on older servers so what we were looking for was virtualization and simple expansion. The announcement of the Power Blades with VIOS supporting i logical partitions looked exactly what we wanted. Our IBM Partner in the UK, Real Solutions (now Imtech) were very helpful, as were a whole raft of people within IBM in the UK and in Rochester, and we modeled how we could get a configuration that would work for us.
 
We ended up with the 'H' BladeCenter chassis, with JS12's each running seven i5/OS partitions. Storage was provided by an expanded DS4800 connected by fiber within the same rack as the BladeCenter.
 
Q: How did the implementation go? Any particular challenges or surprises?

A: It went really well. This isn't a totally easy thing to do so you expect a learning curve--not just in-house but with the provider too. However, it came in on time and on budget and instantly worked better than we'd hoped for. A year on and not a single dramatic moment.
 
Q: How does running on a blade change other key parts of your infrastructure related to previous System i usage? Did you have any issues or investments needed in connectivity or storage solutions?

A: I think most companies like ours need to take stock of where they are with networking and other infrastructure from time to time, and the blade project provided an opportunity for Dancerace to do this. That's not a euphemism for "it was hell, but I have to justify it now." Quite the opposite, actually. We rationalized our older server setup and moved it to our mirrored secondary site and then rebuilt the server area in our primary. We're about to replace our secondary serving with blades, so that is a testimony I think to the benefits of rationalization.

Q: From your experience, what would be the top three business benefits of running IBM i on a blade for Dancerace?

A:

1. Flexibility. We can add new blades, extend the external storage, adjust the 'size' of a virtual server any time we like with very little or no interruption to running servers. And the per-partition unit of expansion cost is even and commercially sensible.

 
2. Longevity. A BladeCenter is 'gaslight' technology in some ways, if you see what I mean. It's very simple. In years to come the chassis will be supporting newer blades we've expanded to (like we're doing shortly), and the investment in storage will last with incremental expansion. This is better than the dedicated Power servers like our 525 (only three years old and already out of date).


3. Coolness. In more than one sense of the word! We have a very green setup here with renewable-sourced energy, but our server rooms need to be cooled. A blade setup generates a lot less heat, using much less power, so is attractive in this regard. It's more compact too, obviously. Some of our clients are attempting carbon neutrality, or at least a lowered carbon footprint, and doing what we do helps them if when they use our applications in a hosted/cloud model. I think that contributes to our sales proposition. It's certainly a talking point.

 
Q: Any other key points come to mind?

A: Obviously we have a fairly serious blade setup with the 'H' chassis and the DS4800. We didn't have these beforehand, so capital investment needed some thinking about. We asked IBM if what we wanted to do could be done on the cheaper BladeCenter S and a very helpful analysis from them explained just why that wasn't possible at the time--mainly because of disk I/O inadequacies with so many transactions from all these partitions. However, that was then and now you can attach the DS3200 external storage unit to an 'S' and still fit a simple setup into IBM's office rack. You can connect undemanding blades or partitions to the BladeCenter's internal storage (mirrored), and high demand partitions to the faster external RAID storage. This ought to attract more customers into the world of blades who might have gone for a 520, and we're planning to deploy this kind of configuration in our secondary sites in the UK and later on in Australia.
 
But whatever the needed configuration, the truth is this is a very rational format for serving. I think there's a feeling that the IBM i won't be the same if it's not in its own box. I've worked with this family of servers since the System 38 and am very loyal to it--for good reason as I've made a great living building software on the platform. But of late I've come to see the i more in terms of the unique Power processor and operating system combination. In other words as an appliance that resides in a virtual server and provides the fantastic performance and resilience the i is capable of. We have other Intel blades running Linux in the same BladeCenter, and we have a couple of Linux partitions now on the Power Blades. They do other things they're best at, and this best-of-breed approach now defines our server choice.

Posted by cmaxcer on February 3, 2010 at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)

February 1, 2010 10:29 AM

Tribute to Craig Johnson

If there's one thing that has become instantly clear after the tragic passing of Craig Johnson, IBM's Power Systems software product manager for IBM i, PHP, and MySQL, it's that his touch reached far and wide across the world. For me, Craig was the go-to guy to talk new features and trends for IBM i, and while I caught some of his humor here and there in press briefings, comments from friends and acquaintances repeatedly mention his sense of humor.

I'm sure there's much more to the man than we will ever know.

There's clues, of course. Craig died in a snowy 39-vehicle pileup on Interstate 35 one week ago. In an attempt to rescue his wife, he exited his vehicle and was fatally struck by another vehicle.

Despite the risk and danger, this is what men do. I only know Craig in one context, really, and yet, in one sentence I understand that his last act was that of a man who's got your back.

Others know pieces and parts, too, and they know his work for the IBM i community worldwide. And yet, I'm guessing that at home Craig may not have spent much time talking up his accomplishments, the importance of his work, and the ways he helped out people and organizations.

So let's do that. Let's take a moment and jot down a memory, a description, an anecdote about Craig. We'll use some of the comments to create a page in our print magazine, take the virtual bits and bytes and place them among the same pages that Craig helped shape for so many years.

Posted by cmaxcer on February 1, 2010 at 10:29 AM | Comments (17)