COMMON POWERUp 2024

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COMMON POWERUp 2024

THE BEST IBM i & POWER SYSTEMS EDUCATION.When you come to POWERUp, you’ll be able to customize your experience. Choose from 300 sessions, covering over 20 areas of IT, when you plan your schedule. Visit the largest Expo of its kind and meet the experts behind the solutions. Attend social events to meet renowned speakers and peers alike. This conference is structured to give you the pure education and professional connections needed to best enhance your career. Are you ready to POWERUp?

Exhibitor Hall: https://www.expocad.com/host/fx/common/s24/exfx.html

Exhibitor Hall Map Here

10:15am CDT

399: Introduction to the Changing World of Licensing Subscriptions and Conversions

The IBM i platform is going through a multi-year transition that has seen simplification and consolidation of products within the License Program Product portfolio. Most recently we have also introduced the Subscription Conversion offerings on the P05 and P10 license tiers. Join me as I take you through the beginnings of this journey and where we are today with potentially a few hints at what may come in the future.

Speakers

Douglas Gibbs

IBM i Product Manager, Program Director, IBM

Douglas Gibbs is the offering manager for IBM Power Systems I/O and works closely with the overall Offering Management, Sales and Development teams regarding all manners of I/O. Douglas has worked in the IT Industry for more than 25 years and has been in a variety of positions at... Read More →

Monday May 20, 2024 10:15am - 11:15am CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Session Level Intermediate

11:30am CDT

220: Introduction to Open Source on IBM i

Introductory and survey level discussion that looks at the installation of the Open Source solutions on IBM i. We'll also review many of the components available via open source and discuss the PASE environment. If you've been on the outside looking in at Open Source, this is the place to start.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand how to install open source solution on IBM i
2. PASE basic understanding
3. Explore the solution in the open source packages.

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Mike Pavlak has been working with IBM midrange solutions since 1992 and IBM Mainframes before that. After years of developing applications using RPG, CL and PHP he managed IT development and IT for power protection manufacturer Tripp Lite. Later Mike was instrumental in developing... Read More →

GettingStartedOpenSourceV1.3 pdf

Monday May 20, 2024 11:30am - 12:30pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Systems Management

Session Level Beginner
Audience All levels welcome

2:45pm CDT

293: What’s New with Open Source & IBM i

Open source solutions have been on the IBM i platform for many years but recently the number of solutions deployed here has blossomed. Join Mike as he explores the latest news regarding packages and solution features available in IBM i Open Source Package Management and beyond.

Learning Objectives:
1) Review updates to the popular languages like PHP, Python and Node.js.
2) Explore new(er) packages available via the ACS: Open Source Package Management.
3) See examples of how the community is contributing to IBM i open source.

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Mike Pavlak has been working with IBM midrange solutions since 1992 and IBM Mainframes before that. After years of developing applications using RPG, CL and PHP he managed IT development and IT for power protection manufacturer Tripp Lite. Later Mike was instrumental in developing... Read More →

OpenSource WhatsNewV1.3 pdf

Monday May 20, 2024 2:45pm - 3:45pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Programmer Tools

Session Level Beginner
Audience All folks interested in exploring or using open source on IBM i

4:00pm CDT

101: Agile Testing and Concepts

Iterative development models are being used more frequently. We will discuss the concepts of Rapid Application Development focusing on agile methodology. Topics include the manifesto and how it relates to teams and practices. From there we will explore testing advantages and challenges and how to be productive. Test automation is a core concept in most agile implementations so we will cover how tools apply and can be used.

Learning Objectives:
Learning Objectives:
Understand Iterative Life Cycles
Define incremental development models and Iterative development model
Understand Basic Agile concepts and the manifesto
Determine the best types of testing for specific applications in a RAD environment

Speakers

Yvonne Enselman

Principal Architect for Quality Assurance on IBM i, Yvonne Enselman Professional Services

I am a Quality Assurance, Project Management, and Professional Services expert.Named IBM Champion 2024I have twenty-five years of experience in the IBM i industry starting in application development, transitioning through quality assurance, and into management. My passion has been... Read More →

Monday May 20, 2024 4:00pm - 5:00pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Program Testing

Session Level All
Audience Audience: Developers and Testers who want to further their quality assurance knowledge base and how QA applies in Agile Software Lifecycle Development.

5:15pm CDT

247: Best Practices for Collecting Performance Data with Collection Services

IBM i performance data collection using Collection Services is enabled by default, but you may still be using default configuration settings. In this session, you will learn why you may want to adjust the Collection Services configuration settings for your performance analysis or trending needs.

Learning Objectives:
1. How to use Navigator for i to configure Collection Services
2. Recommendations for changing default configuration settings

Speakers

Shauna Rollings

IBM i Performance Tools & High Availability Development, IBM

Shauna joined the IBM i development team in 2008. She has developed and supported IBM i performance data collector tools throughout her entire IBM career. From the very beginning of the Db2 Mirror for i project, she has also been the technical team lead for the Db2 Mirror Configuration... Read More →

247 CollectionServicesBestPractices pdf

Monday May 20, 2024 5:15pm - 5:35pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Systems Management

Session Level All

5:50pm CDT

239: IBM i Event Monitoring with Manzan

In this session, we will explore a new tool for monitoring the system. Manzan provides a gateway to making IBM i watch facilities easily consumable by user applications, external resources, and/or open source technologies. Identified use cases include:

Monitoring system events for Kafka, ELK, SMS, FluentD, Grafana Loki, or AI
More comprehensive integration with syslog facilities
Queryable system events
Consolidated auditing/reporting activity.
In short, this project aims to make IBM i more integrated with infrastructure monitoring of a heterogeneous IT infrastructure, whether on-prem or cloud.

Speakers

Jesse Gorzinski

Business Architect, IBM

Jesse Gorzinski works for the IBM i development lab in Rochester, MN. He is a Senior Business Architect and Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM) responsible for open source technologies on the platform. Jesse, who was doing RPG programming at the age of 18, is an expert on application... Read More →

Monday May 20, 2024 5:50pm - 6:10pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Systems Management

Session Level All
Audience System administrators looking for a way to monitor for various system events

8:00am CDT

108: Choosing the right HA/DR solution

The High Availability and Disaster Recovery landscape is continually evolving with new technologies both on-premis and in the cloud dedicated to ensuring your business stays running. Navigating through these technologies requires and understanding of business needs, and outage protection goals.

Throughout this session we will discuss the types of outages, and the technologies available to protect against those types of outages in order to help you make decisions to map out your HA and DR journey. This session will give a brief overview of a number of technologies including: Db2 Mirror, Live Partition Mobility, Logical/Software based Replication, Full System Replication, and PowerHA technologies.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the importance of considering your recovery point objective and recovery time objective for different types of outages
2. Learn how different technologies can help achieve various RPO and RTO targets.
3. Learn how the technologies can be combined to form solutions with several examples of common solutions

Speakers

Brian Nordland

Director of Development, Fortra

In addition to his role as Director of Development for Power Development at Fortra, Brian Nordland serves as the technical product manager for PowerHA and Robot HA. Brian has spoken at events, webinars, and user groups—including COMMON—since 2014. He is a co-inventor on multiple... Read More →

Choosing the right HADR solution pdf

Tuesday May 21, 2024 8:00am - 9:00am CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

High Availability Resilience

Session Level Beginner
Award BRONZE
Digital Badge HA/DR
Audience Those looking to implement or enhance their HA or DR plans for IBM i that want an overview of various hardware replication technologies

9:15am CDT

182: Test Analysis and Design Focusing on Planning, Cases, and Conditions

This session is a deep dive into the creation of tests:
• Covering scope, approach, resources, schedule of activities, features, tasks.
• Determine entry and exit criteria and the rational for what is decided upon as well as establishing bi-directional functionality.
• Organize input values, execution preconditions, expected results, and post conditions into test cases.
• Isolate what items or components of the system can be verified by a case.
• Write cases that are repeatable, verifiable, and traceable back to the requirements, quality risk, etc.
• Transform the above into executable tests that scale to all levels of testing infrastructure

Learning Objectives:
1) Take foundational or informal knowledge of testing and improve it procedurally for optimal results.
2) Organize the components of proper testing into a viable plan

Speakers

Yvonne Enselman

Principal Architect for Quality Assurance on IBM i, Yvonne Enselman Professional Services

I am a Quality Assurance, Project Management, and Professional Services expert.Named IBM Champion 2024I have twenty-five years of experience in the IBM i industry starting in application development, transitioning through quality assurance, and into management. My passion has been... Read More →

Tuesday May 21, 2024 9:15am - 10:15am CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Program Testing

Session Level All
Audience Anyone who wants to learn about testing and quality assurance

10:30am CDT

152: Programming Standards and Guidelines

We have all unfortunately seen really bad code or really bad practices. Have you ever wanted to take that code and throw it against the wall and start over? This session will give you the steps and guidelines that will help you start the discussion so you and your colleagues can implement standards and guidelines and start the process of cleaning up your code or the code you have inherited.

Learning Objectives:
1. We will look over various different recommended programming standards and guidelines.
2. we will look at bad code vs new code and make recommendations that you can take back and implement in your shop.
3. We will learn why its important to have standards and guidelines and how you can start the standards discussions at your shop.

Speakers

Marina Schwenk

Innovative Software Solutions

Marina started her career in January 2015 at Everbrite LLC in Greenfield WI after graduating from Gateway Technical College in May of 2014 with an Associate’s degree in IT Software Development. Marina worked for over nine years as a Senior Programmer Analyst/IBM i admin at Everbrite... Read More →

Tuesday May 21, 2024 10:30am - 11:30am CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Programming - General

Session Level Beginner
Audience Developers

2:45pm CDT

307: Zero Trust Security for IBM i

While Zero Trust is still one of the strongest trends driving the cyber security industry, there remains much buzzword confusion around the topic. No one product or solution can get an enterprise to Zero Trust. It is a security methodology, not a product.

Learning Objectives:
• A basic introduction to Zero Trust for the larger enterprise
• The unique opportunities within the IBM i for implementing the Zero Trust framework
• How to integrate your IBM i strategy with your organization’s larger Zero Trust initiative.
• Best Practices for implementing Zero Trust on the IBM i

Speakers

Gavriel Meir-Levi

Tuesday May 21, 2024 2:45pm - 3:45pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Session Level All
Audience Administrators responsible for IBM i security

4:00pm CDT

360: Mastering Technical Debt Challenges in the IBM i Ecosystem

A comprehensive session on strategies for addressing the challenges associated with tackling technical debt in the IBM i ecosystem. This session explores the impact of technical debt on your system's performance and longevity and provides actionable insights to effectively manage and reduce it.

Key Highlights:

- Understanding Technical Debt
- Identifying Hotspots and Common Areas
- Impact on Performance and Scalability
- Strategies for Debt Reduction
- Building a Future-Ready IBM i

Learning Objectives:
Join this session to
- Gain practical insights into proactively addressing technical debt in your IBM i environment.
- Learn how strategically managing technical debt not only mitigates risks and reduces long-term maintenance costs but also optimizes system performance and ensures the long-term scalability of your IBM i infrastructure.
- Walk away with actionable strategies and implementation tips tailored to your specific IBM i context, contributing to the future-proofing of your system and its adaptability to evolving technological landscapes.

Speakers

Chris Koppe

SVP Strategy Services, Fresche Solutions

Chris Koppe is responsible for developing client transformation strategies at Fresche Solutions. He has led the development of legacy management strategies for hundreds of companies, across a variety of platforms, languages, databases, and technologies. This insight has allowed Chris... Read More →

Tuesday May 21, 2024 4:00pm - 5:00pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Session Level All
Digital Badge IT Strategy

5:15pm CDT

185: Test Driven Development Using Python

User Acceptance Testing should not be the only testing tool in your arsenal. Building a solid Python application is easy if you automate the boring testing process. In this session we’ll explore how easy testing can be in Python and how to get it done with several examples.

Learning Objectives:
1) Explore benefits of test Driven Development.
2) Work through a basic framework for architecting TDD.
3) Build an example case from scratch using Python and the unittest module.

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Mike Pavlak has been working with IBM midrange solutions since 1992 and IBM Mainframes before that. After years of developing applications using RPG, CL and PHP he managed IT development and IT for power protection manufacturer Tripp Lite. Later Mike was instrumental in developing... Read More →

Python TDD 2.0 pdf

Tuesday May 21, 2024 5:15pm - 5:35pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Programming - Python

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Developers and syste architects looking to explore Python or TDD architecture

5:50pm CDT

223: Quick Spreadsheets through PHP and Python

Each language supports modules for extending basic features. In this session we'll explore this technique for creating REAL spreadsheets for both Python and PHP.

Learning Objectives:
1. Create REAL Spreadsheets using XLSXWriter in Python.
2. Create REAL Spreadsheets using PHPSpreadsheet in PHP.

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Mike Pavlak has been working with IBM midrange solutions since 1992 and IBM Mainframes before that. After years of developing applications using RPG, CL and PHP he managed IT development and IT for power protection manufacturer Tripp Lite. Later Mike was instrumental in developing... Read More →

SpreadsheetPHP Python1.2 pdf

Tuesday May 21, 2024 5:50pm - 6:10pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Programming - General

Session Level Beginner
Audience Programmers and utility folks interested in enabling data through controled mechanisms.

8:00am CDT

211: Set up a Shared NFS Drive to Deploy PTFs and Upgrades with Image Catalogs

Upgrading and PTFs is easy with Image Catalogs, but doing the same process on multiple LPARs can take a lot of redundant time and space. Learn how to use the mature and established support of NFS to create a single image catalog that multiple LPARs can use.

Learning Objectives:
1. Brief discussion of image catalogs and NFS
2. How to set up NFS with real world examples
3. Networking requirements and guidelines

Speakers

Jeffrey Carey

Sr. System Administrator, Ensono

Jeff Carey is an IBM i professional with over 25 years of experience on the platform, specializing in system administration. He currently is a Senior System Administrator for Ensono, a company providing managed services for Mainframe, IBM i, Cloud, and hybrid IT, headquartered in... Read More →

Wednesday May 22, 2024 8:00am - 9:00am CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Systems Management

Session Level Intermediate
Audience System Administrators who need to update and upgrade multiple systems, especially multiple LPARs on singe physical system.

9:15am CDT

106: 30 PHP Tips in 60 Minutes

Inspired by longtime presenters at the Summit, this discussion looks at the most popular tweaks, hacks and just plain good practices the for IBM i PHP community to enjoy. Sometimes you just need a shopping list of things to watch out for and many of the tips that are scattered throughout these presentations are consolidated in a single place. Performance, security and best practices and more will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:
• Common tips useful to all PHP shops
• Common mistakes to overcome with PHP in most shops

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Mike Pavlak has been working with IBM midrange solutions since 1992 and IBM Mainframes before that. After years of developing applications using RPG, CL and PHP he managed IT development and IT for power protection manufacturer Tripp Lite. Later Mike was instrumental in developing... Read More →

PHP tips in 60 minsV7.2 pdf

Wednesday May 22, 2024 9:15am - 10:15am CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Programming - PHP

Session Level All
Award BRONZE
Audience PHP developers and IBM i System Administrators where they are running PHP workload

10:30am CDT

216: Test Data Management : Are You Compliant?

When it comes to testing, training, or even disaster testing, often real data is used. This may be the entire set of tables of production or a subset, but it's real data. Real private personal information. With the European GDPR or the CCPA out of California, protecting this data is now more than keeping a hacker away. It's about protecting the bottom line and away from fines. This is where you need to use anonymization to mask your data so that it's usable and masked.

Learning Objectives:
1) Are you compliant with PII policies?
2) Is your data exposed in non-production environments.
3) Do you know the difference in anonymization and pseudoanonymization.
4) Data Extraction
5) Using temporary environments

Speakers

Alan Ashley

Presales Consultant for DevOps for IBMi, Arcad Software

When it comes to describing someone, even yourself, it can be difficult. This time it's easy. I grew up on the AS400, through iSeries, and into the IBM i world. Started on a model B50 (I know it was a B model) where the disk drive needed two persons to replace and now in the DevSecOps... Read More →

Wednesday May 22, 2024 10:30am - 11:30am CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Session Level Intermediate
Audience If you are an application owner, security admin, or an auditor, then understanding the possible expose in non-production environments is key. This session will cover those questions and answers to protect those environments.

1:30pm CDT

302: Database Modernization An Evolution not a Revolution

Modernizing applications and neglecting the database? Think converting from DDS to DDL is enough database modernization? It may be enough, although there’s more to the database than the way it’s defined. This session explores database modernization techniques from an evolution perspective for continuous change. And, how that type of database modernization compliments application modernization.

Learning Objectives:

Speakers

John Westcott

Db2 for i Consultant and Team Lead, IBM

John Westcott is the Db2 for i Team Lead in IBM Technology Expert Labs. John is highyly skilled in SQL, RPG, Data Analytics, Rest API, and both database and application modernization. John has over 35 years of experience on IBM i and it's past family of names. John has a storied career... Read More →

302 Database Modernization – An Evolution not Revolution pdf

Wednesday May 22, 2024 1:30pm - 2:30pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Anyonme intereted in database moderization

2:45pm CDT

102: What IBM i Professionals can learn from NASA

The NASA moonshot initiative in the 1960s and 1970s was groundbreaking in the use of information technology and advanced developments. Correspondingly testing and quality assurance was mandatory, extensive, and equally inventive. Using examples from history we will discuss current issues such as disaster recovery (the Apollo One fire), test coverage (Apollo 13), specifications and prototypes (the development of the LM), user ability and experience (Apollo 14), and further education development (Apollo 17).

Learning Objectives:
Explore disaster recovery, High Availability, testing, and implementation of quality assurance in a unique and informative way.

Speakers

Yvonne Enselman

Principal Architect for Quality Assurance on IBM i, Yvonne Enselman Professional Services

I am a Quality Assurance, Project Management, and Professional Services expert.Named IBM Champion 2024I have twenty-five years of experience in the IBM i industry starting in application development, transitioning through quality assurance, and into management. My passion has been... Read More →

Wednesday May 22, 2024 2:45pm - 3:45pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

High Availability Resilience

Session Level All
Digital Badge HA/DR
Audience Testers and Developers interested in furthering QA knowledge. Anyone who was interested in the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo program in the 1960s.

4:00pm CDT

221: PHP Today and Tomorrow

PHP has come a LONG way since it's inception as a quick and dirty web scripting solution. PHP also stands the test of time more than many other technologies given is wide adoption and adaptable roadmap. In this session we'll catch you to current PHP features and standard and get a glimpse into the future of the web scripting language that runs more than 75% of the known web.

Learning Objectives:
1. Review some the latest features of PHP.
2. Explore where PHP is headed

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Mike Pavlak has been working with IBM midrange solutions since 1992 and IBM Mainframes before that. After years of developing applications using RPG, CL and PHP he managed IT development and IT for power protection manufacturer Tripp Lite. Later Mike was instrumental in developing... Read More →

PHPPastPresentFutureV6.3 pdf

Wednesday May 22, 2024 4:00pm - 5:00pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Programming - PHP

Session Level Intermediate
Audience Experienced PHP developers and those looking to compare other languages to PHP

5:15pm CDT

305: The Cyber Security News Report - A Fun Look At Current Information Security News Stories

You know that cyber security is a real issue - even if your boss doesn’t get it. Time to stress less about it and enjoy a fun look at real, Information and Cyber Security stories in the news. These are a sampling of current security news stories from the last 3 months.

Robert Nettgen will read a sampling of these stories in a dramatic, over the top, radio announcer style. While usually not mentioned by name, it’s a safe bet that some of these companies in the news have an IBM i server hiding in the data center. ?A list of the stories will be shared, so if your boss thinks this stuff is overblown and not a real risk, feel free to share some of these stories - or even the whole list.

Learning Objectives:
1. Gain a deeper understanding about the seriousness of cybersecurity
2. Learn from others' cybersecurity mistakes and how to avoid them in your own systems

Speakers

Robert Nettgen

Senior Consultant, Briteskies

Robert Nettgen wanted a career in radio broadcasting, but saw that profession declining and found better pay working in IT. A PC developer in the ‘80’s, Rob started administering AS/400s in the early ‘90s for a Radio/TV group owner. In 1999 Rob accepted a job as IT director... Read More →

Wednesday May 22, 2024 5:15pm - 6:15pm CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Session Level All
Audience CISOs, System admins, Managers and Directors of IT departments, and anyone else responsible for information security.

10:30am CDT

255: 30 Python Tips in 60 Minutes

Python on IBM i has been around for a while now. In this session we explore many of the various tips I’ve run across over the last few years. These tips apply to both Python and/or the IBM i environment running the Python scripts. Tips include best practices, IFS features, pathing and MUCH more.

Learning Objectives:
1) Little bit of everything to help the Python developer
2) Standards based code development and linting.
3) Features that improve Python performance

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Mike Pavlak has been working with IBM midrange solutions since 1992 and IBM Mainframes before that. After years of developing applications using RPG, CL and PHP he managed IT development and IT for power protection manufacturer Tripp Lite. Later Mike was instrumental in developing... Read More →

Python30TipsV1.0 pdf

Thursday May 23, 2024 10:30am - 11:30am CDT
Meeting Room 103A 1508 Houston St, Fort Worth, TX 76102

Programming - Python

Session Level Beginner
Audience Early players in the Python space