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IBM blows the lid off V5R3 at regional conference
Previously tight-lipped about future releases, IBM has begun to leak enhancement information about V5R3 and the unannounced next-generation iSeries hardware.
“We’ve been working very hard over the last two years on this release, and there’s no surprise that we will have an announcement this year. As you can see, we are in the process of rolling out V5R3 content [at the Northeast iSeries Users Group Conference],” says John Reed, director of iSeries product management at IBM and keynote speaker at the conference, held from March 22–24 in Framingham, MA.
Conference attendees had the opportunity to hear what’s in store for the next release of OS/400 directly from Reed and director of iSeries product marketing Stephanie Joy, and they also attended sessions with details on V5R3 enhancements (see “The cat’s out of the bag: Attendees briefed on V5R3 highlights” on page 2).
According to Reed, there are four “strategic pillars of focus” in V5R3:
1. Ease of use. Enhancements across the board — including the new browser-based iSeries Navigator, new database reorganization abilities, and enhanced support for SQL standards — focus on increasing usability. “This is a hallmark of the iSeries. As the world becomes more complex, there is an increased focus on integration and making things easier to use,” says Reed.
2. On Demand. Expected to expand its offerings beyond just adding extra processors on the fly, On Demand continues to be a focus area in V5R3. “We will continue this trend and offer more things as On Demand components— not just in this release, but in all future releases,” says Reed.
3. Integration. “The ‘i’ in iSeries stands for integration. As we move into a world where the iSeries can run four different operating systems — OS/400, Windows, Linux, and AIX — integration is the key,” says Reed. Examples of enhanced integration capabilities in V5R3 include the ability to view all partitions from a single iSeries Navigator view, increased database automation, and simplified setup of single sign-on with Enterprise Identity Mapping for Integrated xSeries offerings.
4. Business continuity. From new Cross Site Mirroring (XSM) of Independent Auxiliary Storage Pools to Fast Checkpoint Save While Active and enhanced journaling capabilities, IBM is ramping up iSeries availability in V5R3. “Today, shops are required to be up all the time, and because of this requirement, we are focused on business continuity and additional security,” says Reed.
The name game
Still adjusting to the AS/400 to iSeries name change, customers wonder whether IBM will again change the name once OS/400 and AIX reside on the same hardware. But IBM is keeping those cards close to its chest.
“There’s a lot of speculation about the naming. We don’t know what we are going to call it, but we pay people a lot of money to go into the market and evaluate our brand recognition; right now ‘i’ is a good letter to keep,” says Reed.
When will V5R3 be announced?
Also a mystery is the official announcement date for V5R3. Although many of the conference sessions included or focused on V5R3 content, and IBM keynote speakers John Reed and Stephanie Joy spoke about the anticipated release, customers received no official word on when they can expect to hear an OS/400 announcement.
Insider sources speculate an announcement date as early as April 20 or 27 and as late as Q4 — when the hardware is expected to be ready (since V5R3 documentation will reveal information about the unannounced hardware). However, in several conference sessions, IBMers speaking of the future release mentioned that the enhanced capabilities will be generally available in June or July.
Michael
[email protected]
IBM blows the lid off V5R3 at regional conference
Previously tight-lipped about future releases, IBM has begun to leak enhancement information about V5R3 and the unannounced next-generation iSeries hardware.
“We’ve been working very hard over the last two years on this release, and there’s no surprise that we will have an announcement this year. As you can see, we are in the process of rolling out V5R3 content [at the Northeast iSeries Users Group Conference],” says John Reed, director of iSeries product management at IBM and keynote speaker at the conference, held from March 22–24 in Framingham, MA.
Conference attendees had the opportunity to hear what’s in store for the next release of OS/400 directly from Reed and director of iSeries product marketing Stephanie Joy, and they also attended sessions with details on V5R3 enhancements (see “The cat’s out of the bag: Attendees briefed on V5R3 highlights” on page 2).
According to Reed, there are four “strategic pillars of focus” in V5R3:
1. Ease of use. Enhancements across the board — including the new browser-based iSeries Navigator, new database reorganization abilities, and enhanced support for SQL standards — focus on increasing usability. “This is a hallmark of the iSeries. As the world becomes more complex, there is an increased focus on integration and making things easier to use,” says Reed.
2. On Demand. Expected to expand its offerings beyond just adding extra processors on the fly, On Demand continues to be a focus area in V5R3. “We will continue this trend and offer more things as On Demand components— not just in this release, but in all future releases,” says Reed.
3. Integration. “The ‘i’ in iSeries stands for integration. As we move into a world where the iSeries can run four different operating systems — OS/400, Windows, Linux, and AIX — integration is the key,” says Reed. Examples of enhanced integration capabilities in V5R3 include the ability to view all partitions from a single iSeries Navigator view, increased database automation, and simplified setup of single sign-on with Enterprise Identity Mapping for Integrated xSeries offerings.
4. Business continuity. From new Cross Site Mirroring (XSM) of Independent Auxiliary Storage Pools to Fast Checkpoint Save While Active and enhanced journaling capabilities, IBM is ramping up iSeries availability in V5R3. “Today, shops are required to be up all the time, and because of this requirement, we are focused on business continuity and additional security,” says Reed.
The name game
Still adjusting to the AS/400 to iSeries name change, customers wonder whether IBM will again change the name once OS/400 and AIX reside on the same hardware. But IBM is keeping those cards close to its chest.
“There’s a lot of speculation about the naming. We don’t know what we are going to call it, but we pay people a lot of money to go into the market and evaluate our brand recognition; right now ‘i’ is a good letter to keep,” says Reed.
When will V5R3 be announced?
Also a mystery is the official announcement date for V5R3. Although many of the conference sessions included or focused on V5R3 content, and IBM keynote speakers John Reed and Stephanie Joy spoke about the anticipated release, customers received no official word on when they can expect to hear an OS/400 announcement.
Insider sources speculate an announcement date as early as April 20 or 27 and as late as Q4 — when the hardware is expected to be ready (since V5R3 documentation will reveal information about the unannounced hardware). However, in several conference sessions, IBMers speaking of the future release mentioned that the enhanced capabilities will be generally available in June or July.
Michael
[email protected]
