Organizations across industries rely on the IBMi for their core operations and it does deliver on what it promises – reliable performance. Here’s what the picture looks like in 2022 based on a recent survey
- >70% organizations using IBMi run more than 50% of their business-critical apps on it.
- 61% are planning to upgrade their software/hardware/both.
- 76% organizations with IBMi landscape use windows servers too.
- 40% have more than 5 developers; 30% between 3-5 developers.
- 67% homegrown; 31% have write-in applications; 15% still with Infor (BPCS, XA, etc.).
- RPG 93%, SQL 77%, CLP 65%, Java 40%, PHP 20% most popular languages for new development.
Current Challenges for Organizations Running IBM i
Even superheroes need help, and so do organizations that are living with AS400s and IBM i. Below are a few typical areas that are on the radar for CIOs managing these systems.
Top Challenges that Organizations leveraging IBMi/AS400 Face are:
Cybersecurity Concerns
Ransomware is affecting every system across the globe. AS400 is no exception. Being a legacy system, the security of this machine isn’t state-of –the-art. The lack of security knowledge coupled with ever-evolving security threats has organizations on their toes to tackle the issue.
Disaster Recovery and High Availability
Having high availability servers provides 100% or 99.9% uptime for applications which help in better customer experience. This is, however, not the case as most organizations running on-premise setups don’t necessarily have HA solutions in place. Next is the DR conundrum that IT teams face. When HA fails, the go-to step is disaster recovery and many organizations have not documented their as400 systems and therefore don’t have a solid DR strategy in place.
AS400 Modernization & Migration
Modernization of iSeries application is inevitable as you progress through the era of advancements. Green Screen is a plague that has been haunting iSeries/AS400 users for quite some time now. Along with that, other application performance and server bottlenecks are also an ongoing challenge for organizations that uses iSeries newer applications are introduced into the IT environment to improve the productivity of the process. These applications' demand can be varying and on-prem servers may not be able to handle them.
Skilled RPG Resources
Getting competent programmers to ensure ops support., modernizing applications, migrating the system, or supporting this behemoth is more challenging than it seems.
IT and process automation
Many tasks like ticketing systems, server, network monitoring, and data extraction are manually done now. This puts a load on IT teams to perform optimally.
Data analytics and intelligence
Since the DB2 is a legacy database, not many are aware of how to pull the data out of it. If they do, the format in which the data is, cannot be used for actionable insights to gain a competitive edge.
Related 1: Why AS400 Modernization is Necessary in 2022?
How AS400 Software Services can help businesses address these challenges?
iSeries Security
You can strengthen the security of your iSeries by upgrading the version of your OS, auditing your systems for errors and security breaches, strengthening your APIs, etc.
Cloud Solutions
Disaster recovery and HA is only a pain if you are running your IBM i applications on on-premise servers. Migrating your IBM i to the cloud will give the much-needed peace of mind, as they operate in a cluster model, where multiple servers act as a backup when one goes down. We assist with migrating the entire iSeries including the DB2 database to the cloud platform of your choice. Popular choices include Lift and Shift and application re-engineering.
Modernization Solutions
This includes, performance tuning, web and mobile enablement, front end modernization with GUI. Many iSeries systems still have the traditional fixed form RPG coding, which is hard for developers to modify and have less application support as well, but converting it into free form can help with better application support and system migration.
Fixed Price RPG Support
Nalashaa has a pool of seasoned RPG/AS400 developers with experience in RPG/COBOL programming, integration, documentation, L2/L3 Support, etc. With our flexible support package, achieving your IT objectives with the best ROI is more than a given.
Related 2: https://www.nalashaa.com/as400-support-services-need-in-2022/
iSeries Automation
RPA’s use case can be applied to a variety of processes from order management in SCM to network monitoring in IT, bots can run the show for you. This not only reduces manual interventions but can also reduce errors and costs significantly. We help with this by deploying RPA that help with automating workflows, notifications, and more.
AS400 Data Solutions
Converting DDS to DDL is beneficial as it is the most widely accepted format/starred across relational database management systems for creating database objects, IBM is pouring money into database access through SQL, and new functionalities support only SQL/DDL. Here’s how you can start:
Convert your database from DDS to SQL by:,
- Migrating your DB2 to Cloud
- Help you make sense of the raw DB2 data and churn out actionable insights
- Data Cleansing
- Data Recovery
What is the Verdict for AS400 Software Services?
Above are pivotal reasons why organizations leveraging these legacy behemoths should strongly consider partnering with an AS400/iSeries Software development vendor. If your need aligns with any of the challenges we have mentioned, drop us a note at info@nalashaa.com, we might be able to help you unleash the full potential of your legacy giant.
