Built on Power

For a long period of time, many saw IBM i and its predecessors as old fashioned systems. The number one reason for this was the old school 5250/Green Screen user interface. Number two on that list was monolithic applications written in old school RPG language . I have some thoughts about this later in the article..

What is very modern though is such things as:

• In memory technologies (since 1970-s on IBM i)
• Object based operating system (Unique implementation in IBM i)
• Reliability, Availability, Security, Scalability, Serviceability – (It’s all there in IBM Power which is the server IBM i runs on)
• Isolation of programs (no, you don’t need containers for this. Similar functions built into IBM i since the time of AS/400)
• Operating system that was aimed for multiple users at the same time (IBM i was, Windows and Linux wasn’t)
• Branching instead of time sharing operating system (Unique to IBM i and why 80% of all customer are using just 1 or 2 CPU/Cores)
• Highly integrated relational database into the Operating System, not an application on top of it.. (Unique to IBM i)
• Single level storage… (The data is there for you, when you need it. No need to search for it..)
• Openness (IBM i is one of the most open system available on the market today)

Coming back to the reasons why IBM i is seen as un-modern. To start with, 5250 (Green Screens) is not always bad. They are sometimes actually very good. Not as primary way to interact with a business application, for sure. But just like with Windows or Linux, you need something more efficient than a GUI when it comes to do things “under the hood”. And compared to windows and linux terminal, 5250 kicks ass.

Secondly, monolithic applications is not the hottest thing these days. Sure, there are some draw backs with them. But there was also a reason why they were written like that a long time ago. Performance…

The good news though is that you can migrate your monolithic into REST based web services and still stay on the platform. And if you still are stuck with old school RPG, there are convert tools out there to make the code look just like Java or .NET for example..

Sure, there is still the thing called vendor locked in choosing IBM i. But you don’t get away from that which path you choose you follow. The only thing I can promise that this vendor is one you want to be locked in with..

The good thing though, is that IBM i allows you to create smaller chunks of programs just like on any other platforms. Rest based web services works very well today.

(This is originally an article on LinkedIn)

IT is a very if not extremely “dynamic” industry. It is very difficult to see what’s coming next. For sure there will be another programming language you need keep an eye on and see if it will become big like JAVA did. Most of the time the language will fade away and stay the niche language it was built to be and not “THE LANGUAGE”. Because there is no THE LANGUAGE. Or perhaps better described, there are many different THE LANGUAGE depending on your goals. To quickly build a new application where a sales person can easily register contact information when selling new mobile subscription in a mall demands different characteristics of the programming language than building a robust backend system handling thousands of credit card transactions per second.

Well, this was not what I wanted to write about. I want to talk about controlling the future. It is not easy to sit in the huge boat called IT-industry that turns starboard and port (that should be left and right if google translate is correct) all the time and at the same time try to control the future of your own business. But it is not impossible. Today (September 1st) the annual IBM i ISV Advisory Council meeting starts. Of course virtual this year instead of the traditional face to face meeting during the COMMON PowerUP conference in USA.

The advisory council meeting is a place where you as a business application vendor on the platform should be at. If you are an end customer you should make sure your vendor is in that meeting. This is a place where ISV’s can talk directly to the decision makers at IBM about the future of IBM i.There are other places as well. If you have large IBM i installation in your company, the Large User Group is the place for you to be. Three times a year (normally) you’ll meet IBMers face to face where you can influence them about where you want IBM to go with the platform.

If you are in the majority of end customers with medium and small installations, there is still a place for you to be at. That is in a local user group connected to COMMON in North America or Common Europe if you do your business here. They both have their own advisory councils where members like yourself can get their voice heard. And that voice will be heard, for sure!

Nowadays they are using the same “Request for Enhancement” process, (which by the way is open for everyone) where they go through the list of requests and give the ones they think are important to implement in IBM i an extra boost in visibility for IBM. Actually I’ve heard that 60-70 percent of the RFE’s are implemented sooner or later in the OS.

For me this is a very good way of controlling the future of your business. And this is just one reason why IBM i should be your strategic business application platform. Another one is that you don’t have to rewrite your application every now and then. It ran on System/36 back in the 1980’s and it will run on the Power10 monster CPU coming out next year. Without any rewriting at all… That’s called investment protection.

Large User Group

COMMON Americas Advisory Council

Common Europe Advisory Council

Request for Enhancement