COMMON POWERUp 2026

During the last year a lot has happened. IBM Power Virtual Server has also made some major improvements. In this session we are going to discuss the updates and improvements that has been done on IBM Power Virtual Server, and how this helps you in archiving your business goals. This session is useful for current IBM Power Virtual Server customers, but also if you are currently not using IBM Power Virtual Server, this session can help you get a got impression of what IBM Power Virtual Server is, and why it is now a good moment to consider moving to IBM Power Virtual Server.

Learning Objectives:

what is new on IBM Power Virtual Server and how can this help IBM i customers

This session will run through the installation, configuration, implementation, and some of the landmines in most BRMS installations. You can install and be up and running with a simple back up plan (most likely what you do now) in less than a day. Both BR2's GUI and BR1 configuration will be covered.

Learning Objectives:

1.Know how to install and maintain BRMS in a production environment 2. Know what advanced options are available and when to use them 3. Understand the differences between versions and how to work with both

Every SQL statement has a predefined steps that it must go through before it can complete you data base requests.  Each step taken can positively or negatively impact SQL performance - especially on transactional applications that are running the same set of SQL statements over and over again. This session will explain each step needed to run an SQL statement and the structures that Db2 creates that can impact performance. In addition, this session will review application design and settings that can impact the performance of the required steps.

Learning Objectives:

How Db2 manages the runtime execution of SQL. Differences between the 3 types of SQL: Static, Dynamic, and Extended Dynamic (ie, SQL Packages). Performance difference between SQL Full Opens & Pseudo Opens and the factors that determine when a Full Open must be performed.

We no longer live in a world where we have one system of record that is used for all business functions. IT is an everchanging blend of tools, applications, and platforms. Integration is top of mind for most businesses. If there is one common way to link all these systems, it is an API layer. Your IBM i should speak the language of APIs, both consuming and hosting. In this session, let’s look at the big picture with regards to APIs and IBM i.

Learning Objectives:

• Importance of APIs in modern architecture • Common API integration needs • Replacing legacy interfaces_ • Elements of a successful API implementation

Add another tool to your SQL toolbelt with this session on the SQL Merge statement. Discover how a single SQL statement can handle Inserts, Updates, and Deletes. Learning Objectives:

1. Learn how and when to use an SQL Merge statement

Technical excellence alone doesn’t build strong teams. Sustainable success on IBM i depends on leadership that inspires collaboration, creativity, and continuous learning. In this session, we’ll explore how empowering developers and encouraging innovation helps attract and retain IBM i talent. Through real-world stories and practical discussion, you’ll learn how a culture of curiosity, trust, and shared knowledge can transform your team’s performance, and the future of the IBM i community. Whether you are a leader, manager, or team member, experienced or new, we will explore and share stories together that you can bring back to the office tomorrow.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explore effective approaches to bridging the IBM i skills gap through team culture and mentorship. 2. Learn how to evolve from developer into confident leader. 3. Gain insights into fostering environments that empower others to lead and innovate.

Take your SQL skills to the next level with this session on Lateral joins, Window functions, and Pivoting. Discover how LATERAL joins simplify complex queries, learn new insights with Window Functions, and master the art of pivoting data for dynamic reporting. Whether you're an SQL pro or beginner, join us to unlock the full potential of these powerful tools and techniques (and get free code).

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn how and when to use the Lateral keyword (along with correlation and cross joins). 2. Learn all the available Window Functions and how/when to use them. 3. Learn what pivoting is and how to setup an SQL procedure to do it dynamically.

One of the most important things needed to improve SQL performance is to have the proper indexing over tables, especially as table grow in size. Indexes are so important that the database provides index advice for assistance. However, advice is no substitute for knowledge and proper understanding of indexes. As with all advice, it must be reviewed and good judgment applied on when to create them.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn about the importance of indexes on SQL performance 2. Learn how to use ACS tools to process Db2 Index Advice  3. Learn a methodology for identifying and ordering the key definition for new indexes.

This session explores practical applications for Authority Collection, including standard and "creative" use cases. Authority Collection can be used to reduce the security exposure of privileged user profiles and to lock down objects/libraries/IFS. This session covers the different types of authority collection, how to turn them on/off, how to review and understand the data, and how to turn that knowledge into action. We will cover these things in detail, along with some “outside the box” ways of using this technology to answer questions and solve problems.

Learning Objectives:

"Learn how to: 1. Enable the different types of Authority Collection 2. Analyze data from the Authority Collection repository 3. Turn the data into actionable information 4. Harness the power of Authority Collection in creative ways"

While we did a lot of Projects in the past two years where we used various AI Technologies in different ways, we also created a little tool that is able to convert your 5250 Display Files to html and then create React components out of that as well as other target UI Frameworks. Some might say that is not that hard, because 5250 DSPF DDS is not that complicated and you are right. Back in 2009 I already created a converter Tool that converted 5250 DDS to Microsoft XAML for using that within my c# programs. BUT - the difference of this tool is, that it includes the RPG code into the transformation process. Why? For example think about pressing F4 button in a 5250 screen. Where does the Data come from? How does the 5250 DSPF knows what to do? That is handled in the RPG / Cobol program in the background in one way or the other and the tool covers that with little to no manual effort. The Tool I show you combines the DDS from the DSPF with the RPG logic and uses both information to create the result. The result can be a React App or a Flutter App or an Angular App or .... whatever you want - OK - maybe no Windows Forms ;-)

Learning Objectives:

Learn about using different technologies to modernize your old stuff like 5250 DSPF with RPG or Cobol or transform it to something totally new. Learn a little bit about modern UI Frameworks like React as well as how you could and should use AI technologies to reach your goals in a much faster and better way. You will also see what is coming next with this approach we do like reusing all your (old) RPG Code without (or only little) effort to adapt. We are working hard on making things easier and faster for everyone and bring you into the present and a bright future.

Modern IBM i environments depend on complex data exchanges across systems. Static analysis—and now AI—can help map these interactions, but AI is not magic. This session focuses on combining automated insight with AI techniques to trace and document system connections, whether through messaging (MQ), APIs, or batch managed file transfer processes. We’ll show how to rebuild missing documentation, identify redundant paths, and improve visibility for modernization planning. Attendees will learn how to apply both practical engineering methods and AI to understand, validate, and improve cross-system integration on IBM i. A case study will also be presented

Learning Objectives:

`-Learn how to identify and map cross-system dependencies using static analysis. -Understand when to use AI assistance and when traditional analysis works better. -Apply hybrid AI/non-AI techniques for documentation, modernization, and reliability.

Sometimes, the answer to a tricky problem is right in front of you - you just have to know where to look. That’s what the team at PC Richard & Son discovered while rolling out our next-generation POS solution to our fleet of IBM i systems using Ansible. Everything was going well until we hit a hardware issue on one IBM Power Server. Fixing that single machine was easy, but figuring out if the same issue was quietly lurking on other servers? That was the real challenge. Join us for a real-world case study on how we used Ansible and AI in creative ways to find and fix hidden problems before they caused major headaches. We’ll share what we learned, how AI helped us work smarter, and how you can apply these lessons to your own environment.

Learning Objectives:

`- How a simple hardware failure led to a bigger discovery. - How Ansible can be used for more than just automation. - Tips for leveraging AI in solving problems. - Ways to spot hidden issues before they become big problems. - Practical tips to make your infrastructure more reliable.

For many years now IBM have positioned SQL as the primary interface to the database on IBM i. At the same time, new capabilities are being added only to SQL, not to the native database interface. We need a different tool to understand and analyze query implementation plans and feedback from the optimizer – the SQL component that determines the most effective way to deliver the data we ask for in SQL statements. Visual Explain is just such a tool, and it both shows us graphically what plan the optimizer has chosen, as well as tells us details about each step along the way. It can also give us suggestions on ways to improve performance of our queries. With IBM i 7.6, IBM continue to enhance our ability to manage the database effectively.

Learning Objectives:

1. A brief description of optimization with SQL 2. The several ways of invoking Visual Explain 3. The various panes of the Visual Explain window 4. Some features of Visual Explain for managing how it behaves 5. Examples of improved performance after using suggested changes

Businesses today demand up-time, and reliability to move product and deliver services. Can your IBM i survive a sudden, unplanned event? Learn from multiple Data Center, Cloud, and regional disasters, to know if your DR Solution works in an actual Disaster. People, Technology and Geography are common critical points of failure. Let's keep our mistakes Original!

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize common points of failure across people, technology, and geography during real disasters. 2. Learn how to design and execute a DR plan that performs under real-world conditions. 3. Build organizational resilience through effective planning, communication, and testing.

IBM Navigator for i continues to evolve with ongoing enhancements and new features. Whether you're a long-time user or just getting started, this session offers a live demo of the latest capabilities Navigator for i has to offer. Discover how these updates can improve your system management experience and streamline daily operations.

Learning Objectives:

`- Explore the newest features and improvements in IBM Navigator for i - Learn how to apply these enhancements to optimize system administration tasks

More and more companies get into trouble with their old applications and this is not only on IBM i. The reasons are different but at the end they all have the same challenges: They need to get out of that. One way of doing that is using Tools to analyze the old stuff. That is something we all do for decades now but the tools changes or continue to evolve. Right now there are many "Tools" out there and they all claim to use AI and many of them are based purely on AI. All of them promise you, that they will solve all your problems. My team and I have spent a lot of time and energy over the last two years looking at many of these tools (and those that claim to be such) and have done a lot of experimenting and developing in this area ourselves. Many of these tools deliver very questionable results, which sometimes fit perfectly and sometimes don't fit at all. However, our customers and we need to be able to trust the results of such a tool. Is it true or false? Not sometimes yes and sometimes no... In addition, many of these tools incur enormous additional costs, especially if they rely on cloud-based AI models, where you can never be sure what will happen to your company data. I can show you a working solution that is used in production for many months and can use pure local AI Models combined with "self made" development to create results we can trust.

Learning Objectives:

See why it is important to take a close look at how such tools work, understand them, and be able to compare them, as the results and costs of the various tools vary enormously. You need to be able to recognize the advantages and disadvantages of the various tools and decide which one is best suited to your situation and your company. This is not only a question of security, compliance, and valid results, but also of TCO. I will show you examples of some of the above points live so that you can see exactly what I mean. See how you can analyze your old and very old code with the help of a tool that not only uses AI, but only where it makes sense. And it works now—not sometime in the future.

The SQL procedural language makes it easy to create your business logic in stored procedures, triggers, and user-defined functions. Each of these routines have options that performance, but most programmers usually take the default option values without giving any thought to their impact. Learn about these overlooked performance options and other procedural language coding best practices.

Learning Objectives:

Awareness of options that impact runtime performance.

In this session we will discuss the various ways to implement using REST APIs in your existing applications. What they are, why they exist, and how companies are using them to communicate with each other.

Learning Objectives:

We will take an RPG service program and deploy it as an API using the IBM Integrated Web Services tool (IWS).

IBM i often runs well with little or no focus on the performance of the system. But what if something unexpected occurs? If you understand the performance signature of your system when it is running well, it becomes much easier to identify and resolve problems if something goes wrong. This session will show you how to use the Performance Data Investigator with Collection Services data to understand your day-to-day performance signature. This session will review many key charts that can be found in the Investigate Data task, as well as how to understand what those charts mean in the context of IBM i performance.

Learning Objectives:

Learn how to use the Performance Data Investigator. Understand various charts in the Investigate Data task.

In this updated and award-winning session, Scott will explore the many ways that “bad actors” can attempt to subvert the security on IBM i. Whether the topic is protecting against SQL Injection, closing doors to acquiring elevated privileges, or attempting to discover unprotected objects, this session will include techniques for evaluation and protection of your IBM i. Attend this session to take a big step towards discovering and eliminating attack vectors within your IBM i!

Learning Objectives:

1) Understand the attack vectors 2) Learn how SQL can be used to discover whether you're exposed or not 3) Learn a technique for remediating the issue, should it exist

If you've ever been tasked as a developer with creating complex responses for an internal or external web service, you've likely explored multiple avenues for generating JSON from your IBM i programs. From constructing responses manually in your RPG code, to using various publicly available toolkits like YAJL, RPG NextGen, etc., there are a myriad of ways to create JSON strings with all the requisite curlies, commas, colons, quotes and hard brackets. If you're on IBM i OS 7.2 or higher, there's yet another avenue you can explore in which you let SQL do all the JSON construction work for you. The biggest benefit of this approach becomes most apparent when your JSON response requires arrays, and especially nested subarrays. Coding such responses can be a bit tedious when done on a record-by-record basis in your program, whereas by using some nifty functions you can can let SQL assemble your JSON response automatically. In this session we'll review the basics of JSON publishing functions such as JSON_Object, JSON_Array, JSON_ObjectAgg and JSON_ArrayAgg. We'll explore some practical use examples for publishing your business data in JSON, letting SQL do all the dirty work.

Learning Objectives:

* Learn the syntax of the most commonly used SQL JSON publishing functions * Understand the differences between a standard SQL select statement and an SQL statement constructing a JSON response * See how to integrate these SQL functions into an RPG program

Today, there are no known ransomware viruses that run directly on IBM i. However, that does not mean that the IBM i is not at risk. In this practical session, you will learn how to keep your IBM i system safe from Ransomware attacks. Don't miss this critical session! COMMON GOLD medal session.

Learning Objectives:

Understand the threats to IBM i Implement practices to protect the IBM i from those threats