They are there you just don't know they are there. And then....

Yet again a customer who is 2.5+ years behind on PTFs is fighting an issue. The issue itself matters not for this discussion. They just know it's affecting their ability to get work done on their i, seriously. They have spent hours and hours and bring in consultants and try this and that including a full restore of production to a test partition for testing. Broken there too. They learn nothing.

Then I tell them "I can't help you if you are that far behind. Really. Call IBM." After a short call with IBM they are informed "Yep, that issue is fixed in PTF MFxxxxx (and friends). The PTF was released in 2015. It has even been superseded a few times already."

You simply cannot tell when some bug will reach up and punch you in the performance, strangle you by the index, kick you in the IP, or or or... Who knows what. You say "Nothing is broken, everything is great! Sure right up until... But it doesn't have to be that way!! Unless you read every cover letter every day you don't know what land mines are left buried in your i that some other shop has already stepped on and cleared out for you. Unless you update your 'map'. Update your 'map'.

I know I know getting those maintenance windows is a bitch. I have a friend who works on our platform and goes by the nickname of QBITCH. When required for the situation at hand she can be, well 'as advertised.' This would clearly be one of those situations. Be like QBITCH. Really.

- DrF