Common’s POWERUp conference, the largest IBM i conference event worldwide, was held last week in Denver, Colorado. This event brings IBM executives, industry experts, and solution providers, like Connectria, together with the international IBM i community of users.

Connectria’s team of IBM i experts returned energized and excited after connecting with IBM users and leaders in the Mile High City. POWERUp remains one of our favorite events. The energy that all of the attendees, experts, IBM leaders, speakers, and vendors absorb keeps us all going for the rest of the year.

When you come to POWERUp, attendees have access to 100+ industry experts, and over 300 educational and breakout sessions covering over 20 areas of IT. Attendees also have access to the largest expo of its kind to meet the experts behind the solutions. Below we’ll dive into some of the Common themes shaking out of this year’s POWERUp along with key takeaways from the rest of the Connectria team.

Mile High Expectations

It was clear this year, more than ever, that the attendees were much younger, and the overall level of engagement was driven by their strategic objectives coming from the home office. Safe to say any Mile High expectations were met with the show’s nearly 1,000 reported attendees. As always, it was great to be in Denver meeting everyone in person from customers to partners, other IBM experts, and more. The top initiatives focused on three primary disciplines:

1. Cybersecurity
2. Application Modernization
3. HA/DR and Systems Availability

A Peak Experience

With over 300 sessions across over 20 different focuses, topic discussions and keynotes covered every facet from high availability resilience, security, systems management, and more. Connectria VP, Richard Dolewski, presented five technical sessions at the event, covering topics like Ransomware and Recovery, Hybrid Cloud, Modernization, and several disaster recovery (DR) planning and DR case studies.

“Speaking at POWERUp is a peak experience. I have been a presenter of technology sessions at Common and POWERUp for 20+ years. As always, it was a pleasure and an honor to speak at this year’s conference, and to share some of my knowledge with the #ibmi community,” said Richard Dolewski, Connectria, VP of Enterprise Solutions.

Richard’s sessions were very well received with over 150 attendees and conversations that continued in the breakouts and back at the expo. Most notable conversations revolved around “what is hybrid cloud” and cloud computing in general. More specifically, how these can be of benefit to your IBM i shop or organization.

Many businesses today are deciding their next steps. Particularly, if modernization or replatforming is the next step on their IT journey. Connectria’s extensive IBM history, comprehensive DR services, and hybrid cloud solutions can help. Our experts work with IBM i shops to find answers fast and to embrace the necessary tools that prepare you and your team for the next steps.

Read our article The Benefits of Mainframe Modernization. 

HA/DR, Modernization, and More

While IBM i is sometimes referred to as a ‘legacy’ platform, IBM i is actually much more. It is object-oriented, highly optimized with an integrated database (DB2), with built-in security, and allows users to access modern technologies on the IBM platform. Application modernization has been an important topic for IBM shops, particularly when organizations run application code on older unsupported operating systems and hardware.

On the technical side of the house, modernization for IT revolves around cloud enablement, regulatory compliance, and business resiliency (HA/DR). So, consider first that modernizing will provide increased efficiency leading to business innovation opportunities. Modernization and innovation go hand in hand.

Read our article What IT Modernization Means for Power Systems Users. 

Powering Down

All in all, this year’s POWERUp event felt like quite a success! In the IT world, we often stand on the shoulders of giants. Thanks to Common, we have an opportunity to walk amongst them, ask questions, and even shake their hands. Connectria continues to lead the way with solutions and subject matter expertise. From Richard’s presentations to our technical SMEs meeting folks at our booth, our team was honored to share this event with our partners in technology.

We look forward to seeing everyone again next year in Fort Worth, Texas. However, if you have questions now about hybrid cloud and IBM modernization opportunities, reach out to one of our experts below.

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