December 2017 ibmsystemsmag.com

Stefanie Chiras talks AI and POWER9 in 2018PAGE 12

Getting on board with PowerAI

PAGE 16

Academic Initiative strengthens Power

skills pipelinePAGE 20

PowerForward

POWER SYSTEMS

IBMSystems

20 // DECEMBER 2017 ibmsystemsmag.com

The Academic Initiative ensures a steady supply of skilled developers and administrators

By Kristin Lewotsky k Illustration by Richard Mia

Sometimes a CIO’s most

challenging task isn’t

finding the right hardware

or software, it’s finding the right

peopleware. Organizations depend

upon the IBM Power Systems*

platform to run mission-critical

workloads ranging from online

transaction processing to reports

and analytics to mobile apps. To

keep those workloads running

requires skilled staff.

The challenge is that the

programmers and system

administrators who came of age with the

Power Systems platform are now retiring and taking

their skills with them. Fortunately, IBM can help. Just

as design teams constantly upgrade Power Systems

hardware and developers increase the number and

availability of software options, IBM also has a

program focused on people—the IBM Power Systems

Academic Initiative (PSAI) (ibm.co/2g3uoI5).

The PSAI was launched 21 years ago with

an explicit mission: To work with colleges and

universities worldwide to connect individuals

with in-demand Power Systems skills to IBM

clients. The program equips schools with the

materials, technology and resources to effectively

The Path to Po

k By the Numbers

Academic Cloud Environment with POWER7+ and

POWER8 hardware

21 years

in operation

Takeaways

• The IBM Power Systems Academic Initiative (PSAI) collaborates with academia and industry to deliver in-demand Power Systems skill sets.

• The program provides free teaching materials, covering AIX, IBM i and Linux.

• The associated job board facilitates matchmaking between employers and potential employees.

• The PSAI Academic Cloud gives students practical experience.

• For best results, organizations need to get involved with their local schools to weigh in on curricula and begin recruiting students early.

ibmsystemsmag.com DECEMBER 2017 // 21

teach Power Systems skills

and applications—at no

charge. Program staff work

to connect educators with

the local Power Systems

business community to foster

collaboration. All of the elements

and features of the PSAI work to

advance the ultimate goal: filling

staffing needs for IBM clients.

Real-World SkillsThe program is built around a

four-part structure that includes

IBM courseware, IBM educational

resources, a job board and the

Power Systems Academic Cloud,

all of which IBM provides to

participating schools at no cost.

The current lineup includes

specific courses for AIX*,

IBM i and Linux*. Written by IBM

professionals, courses are classified

as a beginner, intermediate and

advanced, and they frequently

have specific objectives. Given

the longstanding availability

of Linux on POWER*, the PSAI

includes a full slate of Linux

courses, including individual

courses on installing and running

Ubuntu, Red Hat and SUSE Linux.

IBM i offerings include courses targeting

Linux professionals who need to learn

RPG programming for IBM i, or using SQL,

for example. And AIX courses cover topics such

as AIX jump starts for UNIX* professionals, AIX

storage-area networking management and TCP/IP for

AIX administration.

South University in Savannah, Georgia has taken

advantage of the PSAI to offer IBM courses to the 550

students in its Information Systems and Technology

department. “We wanted to

provide our students with

employable skills out of every

single course,” says Department

Chair Angelo Thalassinidis. “We

wer Careers

Job board with more than

14,000 visitors

16 Linux on POWER courses

STUDENT PROFILEName: Kristian Broggi

School: Catawba Valley Community College

Degree: Associate degree in computer programming

“We primarily studied CL and RPGLE, both of which I use regularly at my place of employment, all on the IBM i series. I actively code RPG, SQL, CL and even maintain existing COBOL applications. I also took advantage of the PSAI job

board to look for work and internships; that is how I got in contact with

some of the companies I interviewed with.”

found the answer in the IBM

courseware.”

With the help of graduates

who have entered the workforce,

Thalassinidis has been educating

students on the value of

learning skills such as RPG.

“We are showing them the job

possibilities,” he says. “We

have three workshops where

we can teach them RPG. If they

are dedicated and give us four

weekends, we will do a 30- to

40-hour workshop and give them

a good background.”

Embracing New TechnologiesThe PSAI isn’t just about

replacement skills, though.

“We need skills to support the

IBM i install base, but we need

to look at the future as well,”

says Peter T. Glass, program

manager for the PSAI. In the

last several months, the PSAI

has added courseware from Red

Hat encompassing both Red Hat

Linux administration training

and application development.

SUSE courses include SUSE

storage management and SUSE

administration. Rogue Wave

Software has contributed PHP

22 // DECEMBER 2017 ibmsystemsmag.com

IBM educational resources

such as IBM technical libraries,

Redbooks* publications and

IBM subject-matter experts. This

includes a “Teach the Teachers”

program, which enables professors

at colleges and universities who

may not have Power Systems

knowledge to take a deep dive in

the technology and equip them to

more effectively teach it to their

students.

Of course, programming

and system administration are

hands-on subjects. That’s why

a key aspect of the Academic

Initiative program is the

Power Systems Academic Cloud.

k By the Numbers

25 IBM i

courses

More than

300 colleges and universities using

Academic Cloud

and Zend Framework materials:

hypertext preprocessing (PHP)

courses and Framework 2 courses

for developing web applications

and services with PHP.

“A good mixture of resources is

available for IBM clients, whether

they need legacy skills or because

their workforce is retiring or

because they need new staff or

to train existing staff to address

up-and-coming business needs,”

says Glass. “Regardless of what

organizations require, the PSAI

has a strategy in place to help

provide it.”

Participating schools can also

take advantage of additional

What Can You Do?Help support the talent pool you’ll draw from tomorrow:

• Get involved with your local university. Work on an advisory board to help colleges develop the curriculum that addresses your business needs.

• Encourage your staff to guest lecture at nearby schools. Topics can range from specifi c skills to a discussion of their particular career path.

• Have your IT shop occasionally assist with technical support of the university systems. Students can learn a great deal and professors who are operating outside of their primary skill set will appreciate the aid.

• Offer internships. By the time students near graduation, many already have jobs lined up. Get involved in their education early for the best choices.

• Post open positions on the Power Systems Academic Initiative job board.

Since 2012, the number of participating

schools has risen from 135 to over

600

ibmsystemsmag.com DECEMBER 2017 // 23

Through this valuable resource,

schools can give their students

free round-the-clock access

to a dedicated PSAI system

that includes POWER7+* and

POWER8* servers for teaching

and research.

Filling Job OpeningsThe final component of the

program is perhaps the most

immediately relevant to CIOs

and IT shops: the PSAI job

board (powersystemsjobs.com),

where organizations can post

openings for internships,

entry-level positions and

experienced employees.

By offering internships,

organizations give students

experience with the technology

while working in the corporate

world. At the same time, those

internships enable IT shops to

gauge the best fits for later hires.

Michael Picerno, director for

computer science and criminal

justice at Baker College in Flint,

Michigan, took a pair of students

to the COMMON Conference

and Expo last year. They were

hired on the spot, with multiple

companies vying for their skills. “Those employers

needed employees so badly that they were just

looking for someone who was educated and

trainable,” says Picerno. “One of the employers said

that they would train them on RPG. That’s how in

demand these students were.”

Baker offers both on-site and online courses. The

curriculum includes minors in IBM i and information

systems. Picerno is adding an IBM i minor that will

include courses on CL programming and RPG, as well

as other offerings such as IBM Watson* technology,

Db2*, Web Query and Cognos.

The school’s online offerings have become

increasingly popular with corporate IT shops

that want to augment existing employees’ skills.

“Companies send valued employees they want

to promote but who don’t have specific skill

sets,” says Picerno. “They take a range of classes.

There are lots of instances for

professional development

where IT departments

want somebody they

currently employ

to add to their

education.”

Plans for the FutureAs the

retirement

trend grows, so

does the PSAI:

Since 2012, the number of

participating schools has risen

from 135 to over 600. Although

the program is flourishing, the

management team continually

focuses on new skills and

technologies to better serve

future needs of the IBM client

base. “Going forward, we will

be adding offerings to support

IBM’s directions in big data

and cognitive computing,” says

Glass. “We have a pilot school

running big data courseware

now. We know it’s important to

our clients, so we are committed

to making it a part of the PSAI.”

In a separate development, the

PSAI has been extended to high

schools, particularly those

with science, technology,

engineering and math

(STEM) programs.

The experience will

better equip high

school students

for college-level

courses once

they graduate,

and prepare

them to work with

Power Systems

24 AIX

courses

STUDENT PROFILE Name: Ben Leon

School: Gateway Technical CollegeDegree: Software development

“The program was geared toward Power Systems. RPG was the main

course that I took, and that is the main technology that is being used at my employer. Just getting introduced to RPG and Power Systems was pretty

fascinating. This is what business runs on. It’s not phones; it’s the big computer running in

the back room.”

More than 615 participating schools

in 68 countries

24 // DECEMBER 2017 ibmsystemsmag.com

hardware and software once they

are working in the industry.

Creating TalentThe core mandate of educators

is to educate, but above all, they

want to provide students with

employable skills. This goal puts

the focus on collaborating with

the industry to discover what

capabilities are in demand and

helping students acquire them—

but that’s easier said than done.

“What happens in the corporate

world is that you are assigned

deliverables this morning that

are due yesterday,” Thalassinidis

says. “I understand that, but

there’s a skills gap in many

companies and that gap keeps

growing. If IT departments don’t

take time to work with our school

and others like it, they will end up paying the price.”

The organizations ready to be part of the solutions

are the ones who will have the opportunity to hire

the best and brightest. “Don’t just call us and say that

you need five people yesterday,”

says Thalassinidis. “Help us

develop people with the skills

you need. Let’s sit down together

and collaborate, and perhaps in

a year from now you will have a

steady pipeline of job candidates

to choose from.”

That flexibility goes beyond

member schools to the PSAI

itself. “If there are other skills

that clients need, we want to

hear about it so we can enhance

our program to satisfy the need,”

says Janet Caruccio, project

manager for the PSAI. “At its

core, this program serves our

clients.”

Kristin Lewotsky is a freelance

technology writer based in Amherst,

New Hampshire.

A Matchmaking ServiceIBM clients with limited time may be wondering where to start. Fortunately, at its core, the IBM Power Systems* Academic Initiative (PSAI) is a matchmaking service.

“If, after reading this article, an IBM client is interested in fi nding member schools in their area, we are happy to facilitate those relationships,” says Janet Caruccio, project manager for the PSAI. “We can reach out to see what the school is teaching and the client can work with them to help develop curriculum for the skills they need.”

Clients can email powerskills@us.ibm.com with questions.