COMMON POWERUp 2025

COMMON POWERUp 2025

Unlock the Power of IBM i at POWERUp 2025!

Join us in Disneyland, California, for POWERUp 2025, the premier conference for IBM i professionals. Whether you’re an experienced expert or just starting your IBM i journey, this event offers unparalleled education, hands-on workshops, and valuable networking opportunities. Stay ahead of the curve with insights from industry leaders, explore the latest innovations, and connect with a thriving community that shares your passion for IBM i. Don’t miss this opportunity to expand your knowledge, grow your skills, and power up your career!

10:00am PDT

Introduction to the Navigator for i Performance Tasks

Monday May 19, 2025 10:00am - 11:00am PDT

Navigator for i has a rich set of tools to help you understand the performance of your IBM i. This session will demonstrate how to use Navigator for performance management tasks such as Custom Charts for specific metrics, System Monitors for real-time monitoring, the Performance Data Investigator to understand your performance signature, and Graph History for long-term trending.

Attend this session to learn about all about the performance management features in Navigator.

Speakers

Dawn May

Monday May 19, 2025 10:00am - 11:00am PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Systems Management

11:15am PDT

Get Going with Git on IBM i

Monday May 19, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT

Unlock the full potential of your IBM i workflows with Git! This session will show you how to seamlessly integrate Git into your development process, set up GitBucket directly on IBM i, and leverage powerful version control features. Whether you’re new to Git or looking to refine your skills, you’ll leave with the knowledge and tools to streamline collaboration, boost productivity, and future-proof your workflows.

Speakers

Jonathan Zak

Monday May 19, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

DevOps

3:15pm PDT

How to Remain Relevant in a changing IT Environment

Monday May 19, 2025 3:15pm - 4:15pm PDT

In today's dynamic IT and business landscape, both companies and employees face significant educational challenges. What skills are essential for current and future business demands? How can both parties navigate these challenges effectively? Decisions about what to learn, how to learn, and the timing of education are crucial when preparing for future needs, varying with an individual's career stage. Jim explores these issues and more in this presentation, offering insights valuable for both managers and employees.

The Question of Relevance?
How to Gauge Your Relevance
Uh Oh... I'm Not Relevant (What to Do)
Balancing Business and IT Skills
Specialist vs. Generalist - Should We Hire a Consultant?

Speakers

Jim Buck

CEO & Head Instructor, imPower Technologies

Jim Buck’s career in IT has spanned more than 35+ years, primarily in college education, manufacturing, and healthcare industries. Past president (13 years) of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association (www.wmcpa.org) and has served on several teams developing IBM... Read More →

Monday May 19, 2025 3:15pm - 4:15pm PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Developing Business Skills

4:30pm PDT

BRMS Recoveries

Monday May 19, 2025 4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT

There's so much to cover in BRMS when setting up the backups that discussing recoveries sometimes gets lost. In this 20 minute session we will focus solely on the recovery process for both full system and single item recoveries. A few tips and tricks for making sure that you are able to recover exactly what you need when you need.

Speakers

Sarah Jacob

Agile Tech

Monday May 19, 2025 4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

High Availability Resilience

5:05pm PDT

20 Tips in 20 Minutes

Monday May 19, 2025 5:05pm - 5:25pm PDT

In my work with real-world environments, I have found a number of very common configuration settings that are not optimal for today's environment. Whether it be system values, job descriptions, memory pools, many shops have configuration settings at the system default value, or settings that were done years ago.

This session is a fast-paced session covering 20 configuration tips in 20 minutes.

Speakers

Dawn May

Monday May 19, 2025 5:05pm - 5:25pm PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Systems Management

8:00am PDT

BRMS Beyond the Basics

Tuesday May 20, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT

This session will discuss some of the advanced topics in using BRMS for your back up and recovery. Featured topics will be tape and library management, BRMS Networking, control group and list controls, BRMS Policies and how they affect the overall operation of BRMS, and using SQL to manage BRMS. Recovering from a BRMS back up can be extremely easy, but it can also present some opportunities for trouble. This session will discuss some of the landmines in a BRMS recovery and how to avoid them.

Speakers

Sarah Jacob

Agile Tech

Tuesday May 20, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

High Availability Resilience

9:15am PDT

DevSecOps for IBM i

Tuesday May 20, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT

Security is a universal concern nowadays. How can we automatically verify that any new programming changes to native IBM i code meet your security requirements and follow best practices. We will talk about automating code scanning for less secure functions based on your requirements. We will also talk about checking object attributes during the deployment cycle to control adopting authority. The goal is to automate these checks so that they are consistent and there are no surprises after a promotion. We can use open source tools and in house business function or use commercial packages, but the key is automation so the checks happen every time.

Speakers

Jeff Tickner

Tuesday May 20, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

DevOps

10:45am PDT

i-Chi - Thinking differently about IBM i System Administration

Tuesday May 20, 2025 10:45am - 11:45am PDT

What is i-Chi? It is about thinking differently about IBM i System Management, Embracing new ideas , Automating processes and monitoring, Using IBM i functions in ACS, Nav4i, ARE, IBM i Services, Integrating IBM i SysAdmin with other platforms and Reducing your reliance on the 5250 command line. In this session we give practical examples of how to do this that you can start to use today on your systems using tools that are free to use, already installed on your systems and all without the use of the 5250 green screen.

Speakers

Steve Bradshaw

Friendly Techie, Rowton IT Solutions Ltd

I've worked in the IBM Business Partner world for over thirty years now and despite IBM's best attempts I still love them ;-)In 2008 I set up my practice (Rowton) and now spend my time supporting clients or designing new IT solutions using a combination of Power servers, Intel and... Read More →

Tuesday May 20, 2025 10:45am - 11:45am PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Systems Management

3:15pm PDT

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Virtual IBM i Partitions Hosted by IBM i

Tuesday May 20, 2025 3:15pm - 4:15pm PDT

IBM i can host an IBM I Logical Partitions (LPAR) to provide virtual disk storage for other IBM i partitions. IBM i has provided "hosted disk” for Windows servers and AIX or Linux partitions for a long time, but now has the ability to host other IBM i LPARs. See the step-by-step process for creating hosted virtual partitions. Learn the requirements, the prerequisites, and all the steps needed to make this once you are back in the office. This will be great for creating a virtual partition to test your 7.5 upgrades or for any other partition needs.

Speakers

Pete Massiello

IBM i Advisor, Massiello Holding Corp.

Pete Massiello has been working with the AS/400, iSeries, IBM i since 1989, focusing on systems management and technical support. He has held numerous technical positions through out his career. He is the President of iTech Solutions Group, an IBM Premier Business Partner delivering... Read More →

Tuesday May 20, 2025 3:15pm - 4:15pm PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Systems Management

4:30pm PDT

SQL data marts

Tuesday May 20, 2025 4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT

This year IBM created data marts that allow us more control over the way we can monitor data from the system audit journal and special authorities. Learn how to create and use these data marts, and how it becomes an easy way to gather and store this information for your LPAR.

Speakers

Simon Hutchinson

Founder & author, RPGPGM.COM

Simon Hutchinson has been writing his highly acclaimed IBM i blog, RPGPGM.COM, for eleven years sharing his knowledge, experience, and giving many detailed examples of the latest RPG, SQL, and CL. His work has led him to be recognized by IBM as an IBM Champion for Power and IBM i Community Advocate. He is a subject matter expert for COMMON Americas, awarded... Read More →

Tuesday May 20, 2025 4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Systems Management

8:00am PDT

Preparing Your IBM i for the Next Generation

Wednesday May 21, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT

A critical challenge facing IBM i organizations today is attracting and retaining next-generation talent while preserving the deep expertise that makes our platform great. In this session, we'll explore how modern development tools, practices, and cultural changes can make your IBM i environment attractive to new developers without alienating experienced team members. We'll discuss real-world success stories of organizations that have successfully bridged this gap, and provide practical strategies for implementing change while maintaining stability.

Speakers

Mike Samboy

Chief Commercial Officer, Eradani

IBM i integrations, APIs, DevOps

Wednesday May 21, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

IT Strategy

9:15am PDT

IBM i Client Innovation Stories

Wednesday May 21, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT

IBM i clients around the world in industries such as retail, distribution, consumer products, and more spent another year in 2024 innovating on the platform. These clients found new ways to modernize with open source technologies, automate routine tasks to increase productivity, optimize business processes in the cloud, and more. Join this session with Brandon Pederson, IBM i and Power Product Marketing Manager, and Steve Will, IBM i Chief Technology Officer, to hear the latest client success stories from this past year. You'll leave this session with new ideas for your business and fresh ways on how to innovate with the platform.

Speakers

Steve Will

IBM i CTO & Chief Architect, IBM

Steve is the CTO and Chief Architect for the IBM i Operating System. Spending the past fourteen years of his IBM career in this position, he has become an award-winning speaker, author of the influential blog "You and i," (https://bit.ly/You-and-i-blog) and is one of the most sought-after voices at customer briefings and events. Steve has worked on IBM i and its predecessors since before the creation of the AS/400, and is currently responsible for setting the strategy of the IBM i operating system, as well as deciding which enhancements will be implemented. In his role, he talks to clients and pa... Read More →

Brandon Pederson

IBM i and Power Product Marketing Manager, IBM

Brandon Pederson is the Product Marketing Manager for IBM i and Modernization within the IBM Power business. Prior to this role, Brandon was Content Marketing Manager for IBM WebSphere and Content and Community Manager for IBM Power. He has a degree in Marketing from Concordia University... Read More →

Wednesday May 21, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

IT Leadership & Management

10:45am PDT

SQL Error Logging Facility (SELF)

Wednesday May 21, 2025 10:45am - 11:45am PDT

Have you ever been faced with “strange” SQL Errors or SQL Errors that were not trapped but simply ignored? How to find those problems?
SQL Performance Monitors can help, at least if you know where to start, i.e. which job, which program caused the problems. But SQL Performance Monitors come with significant overheads, just by gathering everything.
SELF is an additional tool for finding understanding and fixing SQL Errors and Warnings. SELF can be started without modifying any programs and can safely run in production.
This session will show what are the components of SELF and how to use them.

Speakers

Birgitta Hauser

Database and Software Architect, IBM Champion, Birgitta Hauser - Modernization - Education - Consulting

Birgitta Hauser worked on the IBM i and its predecessors since 1992. She graduated with a business economics diploma, and started programming on the AS/400 in 1992. She worked and works as traditional RPG Programmer but also as Database and Software Engineer, focusing on IBM i application... Read More →

Wednesday May 21, 2025 10:45am - 11:45am PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

3:45pm PDT

DIY AI: Small Language Models at Your Fingertips

Wednesday May 21, 2025 3:45pm - 4:45pm PDT

Dive into the exciting world of small language models and learn how to bring their power right to your personal computer.

Speakers

Charlie Guarino

CEO & IBM Champion, Central Park Data Systems

Charles Guarino believes in the “power” of IBM Power Systems. His career reflects his dedication and interest in bringing the platform and its solutions to others and as a result has been recognized as an IBM Champion.He is a member of COMMON’s Speaker Excellence Hall of Fame... Read More →

Wednesday May 21, 2025 3:45pm - 4:45pm PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

8:00am PDT

Setting Up Virtual I/O Server

Thursday May 22, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT

Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) is an AIX-based operating system that allows you to virtualize your Power Systems hardware. This allows you to fully virtualize IBM i, AIX, and Power Linux partitions. Looking to install Virtual I/O Server or curious about how to do it? Learn all the steps necessary to do so.

Speakers

Steven McIver

Thursday May 22, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Virtualization

9:15am PDT

Automating PowerVS in Hybrid Cloud scenarios

Thursday May 22, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT

In this session, participants will explore the IBM Power Virtual Servers (PowerVS) within a hybrid cloud environment. The session will provide practical guidance on automating cloud infrastructure configurations to enhance connectivity, security, and performance. You will learn how to effectively manage network resources, optimize data flow between on-premises and cloud infrastructures, and ensure seamless integration with existing systems. By the end of this talk, participants will have gained the skills necessary to deploy and maintain a streamlined PowerVS setup in a hybrid cloud deployment scenario.

Speakers

Jose Pereira

IT Specialist, IBM

Thursday May 22, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Systems Management

11:15am PDT

Navigator for i - An Administrator's View

Thursday May 22, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT

IBM Navigator for i is the web based interface for accessing, managing, and monitoring your IBM i. This session will explore how to get started with Navigator and how to leverage it to manage one user or an entire company. The session will focus on administrative features added to help with rolling out Navigator to many users, how to set up TLS for your connections, and how to limit user access to areas of the interface.

Speakers

Ann Wilkerson

Software Developer, IBM

Ann Wilkerson is the technical team lead for Navigator for i and a developer for IBM i Services.

Thursday May 22, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Systems Management

1:30pm PDT

A Live Demo of Navigator for i

Thursday May 22, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT

IBM Navigator for i is constantly being improved with new features and updates to functions that have been there since the beginning. Come explore what Navigator for i has to offer via live demo.

Speakers

Ann Wilkerson

Software Developer, IBM

Ann Wilkerson is the technical team lead for Navigator for i and a developer for IBM i Services.

Thursday May 22, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Systems Management

3:00pm PDT

Work Management Optimization

Thursday May 22, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT

This session will introduce IBM i Work Management to the developer and other new system administrators. We will explore how the system is configured and managed using IBM i Navigator for i, with examples from ACS, SQL Services, and the traditional character based interface as well. As delivered your IBM i installation work, but it is not optimized for your environment. All too often the performance of your system is impacted by poor work management practices. Learn how to take the first steps to optimizing your IBM i Work Management.

Speakers

Sarah Jacob

Agile Tech

Thursday May 22, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Systems Management

5:00pm PDT

Use Service Commander to manage ALL your stuff

Thursday May 22, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

So many different kinds of jobs run on IBM i. Node.js, RPG, Java, COBOL, Python.... All of them are managed in different ways, and that can get really frustrating, really quickly! Thankfully, there's an open source tool, Service Commander, that can simplify the management of all these IBM i jobs!

Speakers

Jesse Gorzinski

STSM and Senior Business Architect - AI and Open Source, IBM

Thursday May 22, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Room 12 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Systems Management