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Bill Malchisky
 

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  • My Initial Thoughts on IBM’s Acquisition of Red Hat: Open Source, ICS, and Culture

    Bill Malchisky  October 29 2018 10:05:00 PM
    Image:My Initial Thoughts on IBM’s Acquisition of Red Hat: Open Source, ICS, and Culture

    As you most likely heard, on Sunday, 28 October, IBM and Red Hat (RH) announced their longstanding collaboration efforts will become permanent: IBM is acquiring Red Hat. In watching the Twitter threads rooted on the announcements, many die-hard independent pro-Linux geeks became irate simply because they felt Red Hat was the firm to keep enterprise corporations in-check, not join them. In the words of Red Hat's Paul Cormier, "Today is a banner day for open source."--See Red Hat Link 4 below.
    In speaking/chatting with several people in the IBM Community Sunday evening to learn their concerns and perspectives, along with Mr. Cormier, I too offer a more optimistic take.

    First, as presented in my initial Lotus on Linux Report in 2009, IBM was prior and remains today a stalwart proponent of open source work on many levels. Much of what they do behind-the-scenes to support developers is never known to the public, but it has a huge impact. Additionally, I will add that IBM is a massive supporter of FOSS--See IBM link 4 below for a great reveal.

    When I discuss these facets, almost everyone in the room has no idea how strongly IBM supports open source. Most know of one or two recent efforts. It is nice to surprise people, and even be alerted to something new. On Sunday, 10/28/2018, Hale Motlevski alerted me via Twitter that IBM released their IBM Plex typeface under OFL.

    Second, since I started following their activities in 1999, IBM and Red Hat typically make an announcement about every two years or so regarding another project where they collaborated. Thus, have they have a long time-line of successful ventures. This track record bodes well from my perspective.

    Image:My Initial Thoughts on IBM’s Acquisition of Red Hat: Open Source, ICS, and Culture

    What Does This Mean for the ICS Community?

    At less than a day old, the overall fallout remains fluid. From my years of blogging and presenting in the IBM Community, here is perspective in four quick points:

    1. The initial announcement indicates that IBM wanted to increase their hybrid cloud market share and sought a trusted partner who is successful in this space. Beyond that, IBM gets an OS of which they made contributions for 20 years or so;
    2. The recent announcement of supporting CentOS on IBM Domino V10 becomes a stronger story with the RH acquisition;
    3. Continued support for Linux across all platforms would seem to remain unchanged; with perhaps an even stronger coupling in some cases;
    4. While SLES is preferred for Linux on IBM Z by a few mainframe Linux techs I know, though RH supports IBM Z;
       I will keep in-touch with my fellow Champions on the mainframe side to learn if there will be a shift in favorability or increased support for IBM Z.


    A Reason for Concern

    RH's culture is quite different than IBM's. In fact, corporate culture mismatch is a leading cause of failed M&A proceedings. For now, IBM indicated that RH will remain a separate business unit. Many will quickly refer to the Lotus acquisition and how IBM handled that. Initially they were their own entity, then they were brought into the fold and all the yellow icons were made blue with re-branding--for starters. What is different here is that IBM did not have a track record with Lotus like they do with RH. I think this is a significant distinction in that IBM sees the value and benefits of RH's success over an extended period of time. Additionally, through IBM & RH's near bi-annual announcements, IBM understands RH's value and what they bring to the table better than say other acquisitions. Nitix Foundations comes to mind here.

    But to IBM's credit, they came out early and indicated that they are committed to "...retaining Red Hat’s culture, leadership and practices." --IBM link 1. below.


    Summary

    What I like about this position are the benefits for the ICS products which I value. Hybrid cloud is huge for many companies, and most of my customers (past and present) have some sort of a cloud strategy. IBM strengthening is hybrid cloud position creates new revenue opportunities for both companies. Open Source stands to do well with an increased advocate in their corner. There will be plenty of people who can discuss the finer points on the cloud side of things better than I, but from the ICS on-premises perspective I like the prospects. If IBM can maintain its creed on culture retention and given their longstanding work with RH, I am optimistic with the success of the venture. Like all M&A ventures, time will speak volumes on the opportunity's wisdom.
    If you have a downside, please comment below.


    Press Releases and Related Articles


    IBM

    1. Why IBM's acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer for the cloud industry
    2. IBM To Acquire Red Hat, Completely Changing The Cloud Landscape And Becoming World's #1 Hybrid Cloud Provider
        This includes the IBM investor call details for Monday, 29 October, 8:30 AM EDT
    3. IBM Cloud is the cloud for smarter business
    4. FOSS - IBM's approach to open technology
    5. FOSS - IBM Announces Major Commitment to Advance Apache®Spark™, Calling it Potentially the Most Significant Open Source Project of the Next Decade

    Red Hat

    1. IBM TO ACQUIRE RED HAT, COMPLETELY CHANGING THE CLOUD LANDSCAPE AND BECOMING WORLD’S #1 HYBRID CLOUD PROVIDER
    2. Red Hat + IBM: Creating the leading hybrid cloud provider
    3. Important Additional Information and Where to Find It
    4. A monumental day for open source and Red Hat

    Others

    CNBC: IBM to acquire Red Hat in deal valued at $34 billion
    Bloomberg: IBM Chases Amazon Into Cloud With $33 Billion Red Hat Purchase
    Business Insider: IT'S OFFICIAL: IBM is acquiring software company Red Hat for $34 billion

    Attribution:
    The two images with gray backgrounds above are from the IBM.com website's front page banner on 10/28/2018. The image below with the black background is via Red Hat's Twitter feed.

    Image:My Initial Thoughts on IBM’s Acquisition of Red Hat: Open Source, ICS, and Culture

    CollabSphere Slides & Engage Session Notes

    Bill Malchisky  August 2 2018 12:30:00 AM
    Hi Everyone - Quite a full schedule the past eight weeks and I am happy to sit down again and blog. My site has some size issues preventing new slide decks from appearing on the Presentations page. My developer is addressing the issues. As a work-around, the slides will appear here and I will move them when we launch in Q3 this year.

    Having stated that, I am thrilled to be back from both Engage and CollabSphere. Both Theo and Richard did an outstanding job with organizing and running each events. So happy for each of them as their hard work once again proved invaluable to the IBM Community. Each event adds significant value to all those involved (attendees, speakers, and sponsors) and I am pleased that once again I could present at these excellent events.

    Below are the slides and some session notes where appropriate.

    Session -- Earning the Respect of the Developers You Manage
    collabsphere.2018.earning.the.respect.pdf

    Session -- Linuxfest MI
    collabsphere.2018.linuxfest.pdf
    Official session announcement - IBM to support CentOS for Domino and for Domino on Docker
    • This allows for teams to deploy/expand/update an application test environment cost effectively, plus also do product evaluations easily and demos
    • Welcomed news by all in attendance
    • Pre-announcement blog post by Daniel Nashed covering his thoughts on CentOS support

    Session -- The Domino 10 RHEL 7 Primer
    https://www.slideshare.net/BillMal/the-domino-10-rhel-7-primer/BillMal/the-domino-10-rhel-7-primer
    collabsphere.2018.rhel7.primer.pdf

    Session Notes -- The ICS on Linux RoundTable
    Co-speakers: Drew Birnbaum, IBM Notes, Domino, and Messaging Offering Manager; Barry Rosen, Director of Product Management at HCL; Daniel Nashed, fellow IBM Champion and author of the Linux Start-Stop script; Martin Leyer, IBM IT Specialist

    Below are some notes from the excellent we enjoyed with the attendees--in random order
    • Support for CentOS is best effort
    • Docker release offerings beyond Linux are based upon demand; currently, Linux is the best way to deploy
    • Domino V10 will keep SLES 11
    • ILMT for Docker exists
    • HCL has ten deals for products from IBM; Domino is not the first
    • Branded products will be per user/month; true-up monthly (instead of yearly as previously with many offerings)
    • Prices already discounted
    • Domino V11 planning is underway
    • DAOS to allow storage in the cloud with an on-premises Domino box (V11)
    • Domino doesn't care about the file system
    • Daniel discussed his support find in FP10 -- a regression bug and is addressed in IF2
    • ** http://blog.nashcom.de/nashcomblog.nsf/dx/domino-9.0.1-fp10-if2-one-important-fix-is-missing.htm
    • ** "SWAS96ZP5B: Server hang due to semaphore deadlock between a doc update & nsf search (cc# 323200)"
    • No i386 support on any ICS server product -- should not be a surprise to most of you, but IBM/HCL are explicitly stating this now
    • Adding AIX to Verse on Premises
    • Sametime 10 Community Server ported to Domino x64
    • ** In 2018: new client, new community server, plus Gateway and Proxy
    • ** In 2019: new Meetings server
    • Domino 10 Minimum OS Requirements
    • ** RHEL 7.4+
    • ** SLES 11 & 12
    • ** AIX 7.2
    • ** IBM i 7.2

    Bonus reference material of interest on Domino and Docker

    My Schedule at CollabSphere 2018

    Bill Malchisky  July 23 2018 11:59:43 AM
    Hi Everyone!

    Today is the official kick-off for Collabsphere and I wanted to take a minute to alert the community to my three sessions at this most excellent user group event. Here is the full agenda. See you in Ann Arbor. Looking forward to meeting many of you during the event.

    Monday
    Earning the Respect of the Developers You Manage

    Join IBM Champion Bill Malchisky's premier DevOps chat at CollabSphere, focusing on improving intra-team coherence. When responsible for development resources, extending further one's management skills helps earn their respect while leading the team together in a positive direction. We will review some proven techniques to better work with your team, with use cases, and address your respective management challenges. Let us learn from each other in Ann Arbor.
    Room: Petit I
    Time: 05:00 PM - 05:20 PM

    Tuesday
    Linuxfest MI
    With Barry Rosen -- Director of Product Management, HCL
    Luis Guirigay -- WW IT Executive, IBM

    Linuxfest comes to Michigan! Join Bill Malchisky and HCL's Barry Rosen as they discuss the current strategy and technical insights regarding Linux on ICS products--including Notes and Domino. If you are new to Linux, a pro, or just curious, bring your questions while hearing the latest information from within the IBM Community. We welcome you to provide feedback to IBM about their current direction including SLES and AIX, too. Join us!
    Date: Tuesday, 07/24/2018
    Room: Grande III
    Time: 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM


    Wednesday
    The Domino 10 RHEL 7 Primer

    Domino 10 is due in October and if you want to take advantage of all the new feature goodness, you will need to know RHEL 7. Domino for Docker is on Linux and future major product releases support RHEL7. It is important to stay current on your Linux knowledge as this is not the usual Linux upgrade. Join Bill to cover as much Linux info as he can: containers, systemd, security, administration, and upgrade tips--all very technical. Get ready for October!
    Date: Wednesday, 07/25/2018
    Room: Petit I
    Time: 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM


    Destination Domino is Live!

    Bill Malchisky  May 1 2018 07:27:18 PM
    Image:Destination Domino is Live!

    At IBM Think in March, there was quite a buzz in the ICS sessions created by significant zeal for Domino V10. So many people commented on the full sessions, quality content, and IBM's commitment to the brand that the IBM Community enjoys so much. Andrew Manby – IBM, Director Product Management, indicated that a new initiative, "Ask Us Anything" would be live soon and that well, we could do just that. Additionally, there was talk of a new initiative to create confidence in both IBM and HCL's vision with the products entitled Destination Domino. This would be a one-stop site to get all of the latest updates and offerings around the new V10 product launch. The site is nicely done and in our favorite design motif: yellow and black. I really like the site and applaud IBM and HCL for getting behind it in a major way. The Domino "Ask Us Anything" team is staffed with some big names from both IBM Collaboration Solutions and HCL. It is significant to see such management backing for the release and its marketing efforts.

    So, if you are excited about Domino V10, or want know more, visit the Destination Domino site!

    Additional Links of Interest
    * Letter from Bob Schultz, General Manager, IBM Watson Talent and Collaboration Solutions on the Destination Domino initiative (30 Apr 2018)
    * Sign up to be on the distribution list for the new Domino Community Newsletter
    * Sign up for the Domino Apps on iPad Design Partner program
    * Sign up for the 24 May webcast on the V10 Roadmap: What's New in Mail, Chat, and VOP?
    * Information on the new teamWorkr development solution
    * IBM Social Business Twitter account, which will have updates from the Ask Us Anything team
    * #Domino2025

    Excited to Present Two Sessions at Engage 2018

    Bill Malchisky  April 30 2018 08:18:27 PM
    Image:Excited to Present Two Sessions at Engage 2018

    Last year at Engage 2017, I had such a great time in Antwerp, I absolutely wanted to submit for Engage 2018 in Rotterdam. Very pleased to be speaking again. First, a brief look at a couple of awesome enhancements to the conference web application.

    New Ways to Locate Sessions

    Theo created two new views as a way to find information quickly. If you navigate to the Home page, then Session Details, you will see at the top two new views: Search by Speaker and Search by Timeslot. The first makes it really easy to locate what a particular speaker is offering this year. Here's an example listing the session for my friend: Serdar. Want to view quickly all of the sessions and abstracts across a particular day and time combination? The second one is perfect.

    My Sessions

    First session -
    Adm21 - ICS on Linux Roundtable
    I am pleased to be speaking with such talented individuals as Daniel Nashed and Barry Rosen once again. New this year are the excellent additions of Drew Birnbaum  and Martin Leyrer from IBM! In our one-hour session all five of us will be offering insight into what IBM is doing with their Linux server and client vision for ICS software. We have all the bases covered from technical, strategy, and management. Bring your questions so that we have an informative and lively discussion. Definitely provide your input to both IBM and HCL. They are receptive and listening. Looking forward to you joining us!

    Second session -
    Str21. Earning the Respect of the Developers You Manage (Click and scroll)
    Next, I will offering insight and positive outcomes from managing both small and large teams for critical client projects. This is my foray into the Business & Strategy track and I am very excited.

    This session focuses on improving intra-team coherence. When responsible for development resources, extending further one's management skills helps earn their respect and while leading the team together in a positive direction. We will review some proven techniques to work better with your team, provide use cases, all while addressing your respective management challenges. Let us learn from each other in Rotterdam.

    See you in Rotterdam. Please stop by and say, "Hi!"

    Update Six: Come and Get the Code! IBM Notes on MacOS High Sierra Support

    Bill Malchisky  March 13 2018 09:00:00 PM
    Short and sweet... On Friday, 9 March 2018, IBM released the new Notes 9.0.1 Mac x64 installer. IBM updated the macOS High Sierra Technote to include current part numbers, build information, download mediums, and related links. It took a while, but it's all set.

    The code is available in three places: IBM Passport Advantage Online, Partner downloads, and in IBM Connections Cloud for SmartCloud Notes customers. Here is a FAQ for downloading via SmartCloud Notes.

    Enjoy!

    Update Five: IBM Notes on MacOS High Sierra Support

    Bill Malchisky  March 1 2018 09:39:20 PM
    After another month of weekly updates from IBM on the status of their Notes on High Sierra release, plus calls with our AVL, I can honestly state I have no idea when it will be released. Here is what I do know and can offer--with permission from IBM.

    Update

    Currently, we hit five months from the last Technote update and several people contacted me privately asking for updates or any advice I could provide as they need the code. I also conveyed this situation to IBM. The reason for the continued testing and extended release timeline is one I am not authorized to post, so please understand I am quite empathetic as I know your end users, or you personally really need the installer.

    Work-around (Some Good News)

    Until IBM releases the updated software officially and updates the Technote, my suggestion would be to contact tech support, open a PMR, and request the updated installer. This is unofficial of course, but enough IBMers told me this is what they are telling their customers, so I asked if I could offer it publicly. From my experience, the updated program appeared in Fix Central through my linked IBM ID account, making for an easy download process.


    In Closing

    I wish I had better news on the official release, but I think this work-around should provide some much needed relief for many of you. IBM Development is working hard on the official release, especially with the new internal acquisition proceedings being completed: certainly causing a few short-term disruptions. My next update will be on the official release announcement with the updated Technote.

    Until my next update...

    Update Four: IBM Notes on MacOS High Sierra Support

    Bill Malchisky  January 29 2018 09:40:34 AM
    Just a quick update today. We completed all of our testing on the new Notes on Mac64 for High Sierra installer last week and it went quite well. We gave IBM our favorable review. IBM internal is finishing things and then the code will be released through the usual channels. My IBM SWE will update the High Sierra Technote in concert with the code release. We are also testing Notes 9.0.1 IF12 against High Sierra from a clean installation perspective.

    When my AVL informs me of the time and IBM approves my announcing the release, I will do so here.

    Heading to IBM Think 2018? Here is an Exciting Invitation

    Bill Malchisky  January 18 2018 08:02:11 PM
    Think To Ski is Here!

    This is the scenic way home from Vegas. Join us on the beer bus from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City, through the mountains and enjoy a beautiful drive with friends. We have a great evening arranged for Friday night in SLC, then skiing on Saturday and Sunday (if you wish).
    Great business networking in a relaxed and intimate environment. See some of America outside of the big city and unwind before you make the trip home. The hotel gave us a great rate to help your budget after a week in Vegas.

    Anyone in the IBM community is welcomed. We talked about it with many attendees at Engage 2017 in Antwerp, Belgium, and again at MWLUG 2017 in Washington, DC. We are very excited to offer the trip and invite you. Any questions, please comment below or send an e-mail via the link below.

    Trip Details
    Dates: Friday, 23 March - 24/25 March 2018 (flexible return)
    Location: Salt Lake City, UT
    Return Airport code: SLC
    Web site: ThinkTo.Ski
    Questions: Contact me here

    Image:Heading to IBM Think 2018? Here is an Exciting Invitation


    Update Three: IBM Notes on MacOS High Sierra Support

    Bill Malchisky  January 8 2018 05:40:00 AM
    Note: This update is provided with approval from IBM


    Below is my third installment on IBM's official support for macOS High Sierra (OS X 10.13). Exciting progress!

    Issue Update

    * IBM contacted me on Thursday, 4 Jan 18 with an update on the build process
    * IBM provided the first-cut of the build outside of IBM on Friday, 5 Jan 18
    * IBM tested it for a multitude of installation scenarios, some of which our AVL reviewed with me

    Resolution Request

    * In confirming what the release includes, it is a base installer only
    * As per my L2 contact, the following three points were also discussed:
          1. ND 9.0.1 Interim Fixes are available as a separate download, to be installed after installation
          2. IBM tested against targeted High Sierra fixes
          3. Any IBM updates necessary for Meltdown or Spectre would be included separately

    Testing Results

    * We started testing the build on Friday, 5 Jan 18
    * Although preliminary in nature, we were able to install Notes on High Sierra, which we could not do previously
    * We have more machines and testing to complete, but the initial results are encouraging
    * Only a very small group of entities have the code currently, and I am happy to be involved with the testing process, as well as receive permission to blog my work with IBM on this PMR
    * Although conjecture, I believe IBM is being very careful with this release, due to the scope and complexity of the OS level changes High Sierra introduces


    Historical Links

    Initial Update (With Technote Link)
    Update Two

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