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The Midrange Manager: Remote iSeries Access

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Do you provide your developers with offsite access to the AS/400 or iSeries? If so, do you allow them to do development or just put out fires? It is surprising to me the number of shops I see where the only remote access is for support. AS/400 developers should have access to their systems from remote locations because it gives them the ability to continue to practice their craft offsite when they feel the urge.

Using a tool like IBM's CODE/400 can provide you with additional development efforts offsite. Suppose a developer is working on a project. He goes home for the evening, has dinner, and then decides he's feeling productive. Maybe he has an idea about how to solve that one problem in the code, or maybe he just wants to write a few dozen lines of code before bed. He could fire up CODE/400 (or CodeStudio or any GUI editor) and pump out a few dozen or a few hundred lines of code, save it to the iSeries, and log off. When he gets to work the next day, the code from the night before is already on the iSeries, and he can continue working.

The benefit to you as an IT manager is that your developers may put in a few extra hours of work each week. The benefit to them is that they are using something other than SEU to get their job done, and with practice, they become more experienced at RPG development.

A policy of not allowing developers to access the system remotely can be counterproductive. If I'm a developer and the quitting hour is approaching, do I stay and try to pump out those last few lines of code, or do I leave it for tomorrow? Sometimes, leaving it for tomorrow is a good thing, but what if I could leave with the knowledge that I can get back to work sometime this evening when I have an extra moment?

Another reason to allow remote access is for education. If your developers are continuing their education, which I highly recommend, they may be teaching themselves a topic or perhaps taking an online course that requires access to an AS/400 or iSeries. The ability to sign on to their home system and write a few lines of RPG IV or HTML, work with the new GUI debugger, or perhaps learn XML or even some WebSphere stuff would be highly beneficial.

Providing remote access through the Internet with or without a VPN is a good thing and can only pay off in the long run. Give it some thought. Both you and your programmers will reap the rewards.

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