If you'd like to see the new capabilities in action—including demonstrations of the new IFS Connector, AI Tuner, Replication Group Splitting, and AI-Powered Static Code Analysis—watch the full Q2 2026 IBM i Portfolio Update webinar recording at the bottom of this post.
In our latest Q2 2026 webinar, we showcased new innovations spanning Rocket API, Rocket Modern Experience, Rocket iCluster, and Rocket DevOps. These enhancements are designed to help customers unlock more value from their IBM i environments while accelerating modernization efforts and reducing operational complexity.
Continuous Modernization: Expanding What's Possible
New IFS Connector for Rocket API
One of the most requested enhancements from customers is now available in Rocket API 10.6.3: the new Integrated File System (IFS) Connector.
With this capability, organizations can build secure REST APIs that directly read from and write to IFS files on IBM i.
This opens the door to a wide range of automation scenarios:
- Expose file-based business processes through REST APIs
- Automate batch workflows without custom scripting
- Make batch job outputs accessible to modern applications
- Eliminate dependency on FTP-based integrations
- Enable governed access to IBM i file system data
Instead of developing and maintaining custom workarounds, teams can now use Rocket API to securely expose IFS-based resources using the same platform they already trust for API development.
AI Assistance Inside the Developer Workbench
AI continues to transform software development, and we're bringing that capability directly into Rocket Modern Experience and Rocket API development workflows.
Developers can now install a Co-pilot plugin directly within their Eclipse-based workbench, enabling AI-assisted development without requiring a new toolchain or disrupting existing processes.
Importantly, this enhancement is designed to augment—not replace—development best practices.
Teams maintain:
- Existing review processes
- Quality gates
- Approval workflows
- Governance controls
Meanwhile, developers can accelerate repetitive tasks such as documentation searches, code generation, testing assistance, and scripting activities. The result is faster modernization with lower effort and shorter change cycles.
Rocket iCluster: Bringing Intelligence to High Availability
Our Q2 investments in Rocket iCluster focus on helping customers improve replication efficiency, reduce lag risks, and simplify disaster recovery operations.
Introducing iCluster AI Tuner
Diagnosing replication performance issues can be complex—especially when the root cause is hidden within large replication groups.
The new iCluster AI Tuner analyzes replication signals including:
- Journal activity
- Peak traffic patterns
- Group behavior
- Object dependencies
- Replication coverage and latency
It then converts those insights into actionable recommendations that help administrators optimize replication configurations more quickly and effectively.
Rather than manually searching for bottlenecks, teams receive guidance that can help improve disaster recovery readiness while reducing replication lag risks.
Replication Group Splitting
Large replication groups often become increasingly difficult to manage as environments grow.
The new Replication Group Splitting Tool (DMSPLTGRP) enables administrators to move high-impact files into dedicated replication groups. This creates a more balanced architecture that is easier to tune, monitor, and maintain.
Benefits include:
- Improved replication performance
- Simplified troubleshooting
- Better workload isolation
- Easier long-term maintenance
Up to 5x Faster Refresh Performance with *ZLIB Compression
Rocket iCluster 9.4.1 introduces support for*ZLIB compression during SAVRST refresh processing.
This enhancement can deliver:
- Shorter refresh windows
- Reduced network utilization
- Better scalability for larger environments
- Up to 5x faster refresh performance for qualifying workloads
For customers operating large HA or DR environments, this improvement can significantly reduce the time and resources required to complete refresh operations.
New Refresh Time Visibility
Planning refresh operations has traditionally relied heavily on estimates.
With the new Refresh Time Visibility feature, iCluster now records actual refresh durations directly within the Event Log. Teams can use historical execution data to better schedule future refreshes and improve operational planning.
This capability supports both Save/Restore and Record-by-Record refresh methods, providing valuable visibility across common refresh scenarios.
Rocket DevOps: AI-Powered Static Code Analysis
One of the most exciting announcements from this quarter is the introduction of AI-Powered Static Code Analysis for IBM i applications.
Unlike traditional scanning tools, Rocket DevOps combines AI semantic understanding with deterministic validation to deliver deeper, more reliable analysis of RPG, RPGLE, SQLRPGLE, and CLLE applications.
The solution:
- Understands IBM i-specific code semantics
- Identifies context-aware risks
- Validates findings for higher accuracy
- Provides line-level evidence and recommendations
- Operates directly inside the VS Code developer experience
The result is actionable guidance that helps teams identify technical debt, improve code quality, and reduce risk—without creating additional workflow overhead.
As organizations modernize legacy applications and onboard new developers, having intelligent analysis built directly into the development lifecycle can help accelerate delivery while improving confidence in every release.
Watch the Webinar
If you'd like to see these capabilities in action—including demonstrations of the new IFS Connector, AI Tuner, Replication Group Splitting, and AI-Powered Static Code Analysis—watch the full Q2 2026 IBM i Portfolio Update webinar recording here:
👉 Open the Q2 IBM i Portfolio Update Webinar in a new window
We look forward to hearing your feedback and continuing the conversation in our community forums. Stay tuned for our Q3 update, where we'll share the next wave of innovations across the Rocket IBM i portfolio.
