Rocket DevOps, MX, API, iCluster® – Solutions for IBM i™

There's an old adage about how a fish can't see the water - just as we can't see the air. It's there, it keeps us alive, and we don't give it much thought until it's missing. The same is true for legacy systems like AS/400. It's there, it's keeping the business alive, and it's definitely an emergency if it goes down. AS/400, IBM i, IBM eServer iSeries - whatever you call it, this platform is the often-invisible central element of many IT shops. Over 30,000 companies around the world rely on this incredibly robust, resilient platform to run their core business. A better, cheaper, smarter alternative hasn't emerged for decades, so this legacy box continues to deliver. Why? First, it's a workhorse. Many sites have a single machine that keeps on ticking year after year. Distributed systems are built for redundancy and failure, which is an admirable architectural model, but IBM i is built to last. Second, it runs the core applications of the business. Whether it's the ERP or a homegrown app

There's an old adage about how a fish can't see the water - just as we can't see the air. It's there, it keeps us alive, and we don't give it much thought until it's missing. The same is true for legacy systems like AS/400. It's there, it's keeping the business alive, and it's definitely an emergency if it goes down. AS/400, IBM i, IBM eServer iSeries - whatever you call it, this platform is the often-invisible central element of many IT shops. Over 30,000 companies around the world rely on this incredibly robust, resilient platform to run their core business. A better, cheaper, smarter alternative hasn't emerged for decades, so this legacy box continues to deliver. Why? First, it's a workhorse. Many sites have a single machine that keeps on ticking year after year. Distributed systems are built for redundancy and failure, which is an admirable architectural model, but IBM i is built to last. Second, it runs the core applications of the business. Whether it's the ERP or a homegrown app

As I travel around the world (virtually these days) meeting with IBM i customers and discussing the challenges around managing a modern development environment, I am increasingly hearing a common refrain: "My company wants us to manage all of our development with Git." It is completely understandable. Companies would like to have a single repository for all their source code. They want to be able to take advantage of Git's powerful branching and merge capabilities. Most importantly, they want to allow new engineers to work with a tool with which they are familiar. Immediately after they say they want the source managed with Git, they go on to say that they want automated DevOps with continuous integration, automated builds and on-demand or automatic deployments. Typically, these initiatives are being managed by people who have little knowledge of the IBM i. The tools they want to use are typically Jira for issue tracking, Jenkins for continuous integration and builds and Puppet or Che

VP of Solution Sales, Dan Magid, and Senior Sales Engineer, Charles Jones, recently hosted the "Building Bridges: AS/400 to modern platforms" webinar in partnership with IBM Systems Magazine. A recording of the session is available here if you'd like to view it again or share with colleagues. The webinar focused on how organizations can "build bridges" by using services to connect applications built in RPG, CL, and DB2 for the AS/400 with applications and components built in the latest technology-regardless of whether those applications are running on IBM i, or any other platform. The problem for many organizations is their isolated application environments. Often split into core platform developers and new technology developers, the culture of these two application groups can be very different. The difficultly is in how to connect the people who work in the new technology environment with the applications and functions being built and maintained in the heritage environment. It becomes

IntroductionThere are companies willing to invest millions of dollars and take enormous business risk to move their legacy applications and data to new platforms. Yet most don't take the time, or invest the minimal effort needed, to examine the existing options for delivering the latest user experiences on IBM i. If they did, they would find that their understanding of IBM i is-ironically-outdated.There is almost no interface that can be built on Windows, Linux or UNIX systems that you can't do as well-if not better and cheaper-on IBM i. And there is already a thriving ecosystem of tools to help companies modernize quickly.Welcome to the first of our three-part "Productive on Power: Bringing the latest User Experiences to IBM i" blog series. Over the next few weeks, we'll cover modernization initiatives that are making users and customers more productive and more satisfied.These posts will discuss cost-effective strategies to bring great experiences to your IBM i by: Modernizing the U