Catch up with news

This Summer I have been away few days here and there. Once back, I tried to catch up with changes for IBM Cloud and its services as well as with Db2. Here are links to what I considered noteworthy (and read so far…):  

• Db2 (for Linux, UNIX, and Windows) recently saw some fix packs. Version 11.1 is now on Mod 3 Fix Pack 3 iFix002. For an overview of the Db2 product enhancements in the different modification packs you can read this page in the Db2 Knowledge Center.
• If you follow Db2 Warehouse on Cloud, Db2 Warehouse and Db2 on Cloud, the related “What’s new” page is always worth a visit. There are additional Python modules in the Docker client container for Db2 Warehouse to simplify application development. Moreover, database federation has been enhanced for Db2 on Cloud.
• One of my favorite services on IBM Cloud is Watson Assistant. I have built many chatbots and hence read the release notes with product updates. One new feature is so-called rich responses. They allow to embed multimedia and offer clickable choices. There has also been an improvement to conditional responses that simplifies building more complex dialogs.
• If you are interested in serverless (Function as a Service / FaaS) technology, then this blog about setting up a CI / CD pipeline for OpenWhisk functions (IBM Cloud Functions) might be of interest. Another blog introduces a starterkit to develop IBM Cloud Functions with TypeScript.
• Related to serverless computing is also the announcement by Google and IBM of Knative. Knative is a new open source project that provides the building blocks for serverless platforms to run on top of Kubernetes.
• Another important annoucement, again with Google and others, was the general availability of Istio 1.0. Istio allows to deploy, secure and manage services across Kubernetes and other environments.

That’s it for now. Anything that you found interesting and should be included? Then leave a comment.

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