L-R: Susan Gantner, Isaac Ramirez, Brian May, Paul Tuohy, Pascal Polverini, Antonio Florez, Michel Mouchon and Jon Paris
On July 29, 2013 I arrived at the IBM Benchmark Center at Rochester to start work on an upcoming Redbook on Application Modernization for IBM i. Its a privilege to be part of such a great team hand-selected by IBM to contribute our collective knowledge and experience. We have come from many different parts of the world, from different industry sectors and we also possess different specialized skills.
We are covering a comprehensive approach to application modernization that includes the following topics:
Database
Programming Languages
Systems Management
Test Units
User Interface
Globalization
Architecture
Cloud
...and the relationship between all these elements.
It is very exciting to be given the opportunity to brainstorm with a group of smart people. Additionally, if on top of that the team is intellectually open-minded then the conversation becomes very interesting. What I personally enjoy the most is when individuals inject their sense of humor into the topics, which provide delightful moments of lightheartedness. The exchanges we have are so productive, insightful and valuable.
One of the most beautiful side effects of this kind of interaction is that any expressed variations about a solution or a technical approach will trigger a new way of thinking. This potentially leads to new ideas for the future.
My four-week residency is almost over. Lots of hard work has been done with more still to do, but it has been great fun!
Here is a great article from Tim Rowe on the Redbook:
http://iprodeveloper.com/blog/modernization-redbook-update
Also, here is an article from Chris Maxcer at Power IT Pro on our project:
http://poweritpro.com/news-amp-views/whats-ibm-doing-snapping-ibm-i-experts-and-flying-them-rochester
From Jon Paris:
http://ibmsystemsmag.blogs.com/idevelop/2013/07/sunny-with-clouds.html
http://ibmsystemsmag.blogs.com/idevelop/2013/08/sometimes-the-simple-ways-are-the-best.html