1. Increased availability
Thanks to the IBM Db2 Mirror for i, continuous availability is ensured for critical applications. This is a major advantage, since regardless of the nature of the data centre downtime, its recovery time is nearly zero, allowing work to be performed without interruption 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and every day of the year. Db2 Mirror for i synchronously mirrors database updates between two separate nodes via remote direct memory access over a converged Ethernet network. Applications can be deployed in active-active or active-passive mode (with read access on the secondary).
2. Enhanced security
Authority collection is a new capability that is provided as part of the base operating system and available in V7R4. Authority collection allows a system administrator to follow the logic of the authorization decisions to determine the level of authority required. If a user has an authority level greater than what is required, the security officer can reduce it, thus minimizing the security threat and ensuring there will be no disruption to production related to tightening up the security.
3. Third-party integration possibilities
Since IBM i is an open system with modern languages, it offers many possibilities for integration with disparate systems via APIs and web services.
For example, for e-commerce sites, and via third-party software such as Oracle eProcurement or Ariba, it lets buyers search for items and add them to a shopping cart, which are automatically returned to the purchase request during integration with the procurement software package. Once the process is approved, the order is returned to the system electronically.
It’s also possible to connect disparate systems in the same company, such as when a WMS is hosted on one system and an ERP is hosted on another. Thanks to the IBM i web service API, you can create a browser-based application for storage site staff that extracts data from both systems in real time. This solution also makes it possible to obtain inventories from different storage sites.
IBM Power systems hold the two top positions for the largest supercomputers in the world (Summit and Sierra), and both are built on IBM Power 9 technology. Power 9 can run IBM i, AIX and Linux on the same server and in fact across the same cores!
It’s time to take action. Leverage the data in your company today, whether it resides on edge devices, in Db2 for i or anywhere in the middle. We have the technology to integrate the data and optimize its value through Watson, H2O driverless AI…. you are only limited by your imagination.