Time for a New Challenge

My long time teammate, prolific writer and periodic DB2 blogger Kent Milligan has an exciting announcement to share...

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After spending the first 25 years of my IT career working on the IBM i, iSeries, and AS/400, I’ve decided that it’s time for a new challenge and I have accepted a new position working for the IBM Watson Group. It was a difficult decision to make because the IBM i community - both inside and outside of IBM – has been a great family to be part of.

It’s been very rewarding to work with clients all over the world for the past 25 years and help them use DB2 and SQL technologies to solve real business problems. I’m thankful for these real world interactions that have increased my knowledge base beyond just DB2 by all of you opening my eyes to all aspects of the IT solutions that companies depend on.

Although I’m sad about leaving the IBM i world, I am excited about applying my data centric skills and knowledge to solving a different type of problem – improving the quality of care and health of patients fighting diseases. Specifically, I’ll be working on the Watson for Clinical Trial Matching solution which helps a doctor sift through the pool of available cancer trials and quickly identifies potential matches for a patient. One of my first projects will be helping add support for new diseases to the Clinical Trial Matching product.

As I start the challenge of trying to get up to speed on a new technology, cognitive computing, I ironically find myself following the same advice that my “old” DB2 for i Center of Excellence team has been recommending to IBM i clients.  Build knowledge by getting educated by experts, start with a small project to gain experience, and iterate. 

I’ll still be wandering the halls of the Rochester Lab, so I plan to regularly check up on all of you to make sure that you’re “doing more with data” on IBM i by leveraging the latest SQL and data-centric technologies. So, goodbye and keep up the good work!

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I would like to formally thank Kent for his contributions to the success of our clients and our team. We are all better because of him!

Wishing you all the best with your next challenge my friend.