IBM i and the Future?

Well, IBM has announced IBM i 7.1. Ross Mauri IBM's GM for Power Systems has made a statement that this demonstrates IBM's commitment to the OS (formerly a platform and IBM division with its own General Manager).

Quite frankly if you look closely at the 7.1 offering the bulk of its enhancements are designed to leverage cross platform offerings from the storage group within IBM's STG organization. It also focuses heavily on running on blade servers with a mix of operating systems on blades in the chassis.

Have you read a single word about application development?  You do see a new offering from IBM Rational called "Power Tools" which integrate Java, C/C++ across all three Operating systems that run on Power machines (IBM i, AIX, Linux).

There should be a major message to everyone in this announcement which is that it is time to begin to abandon IBM i the operating system and move to either a Unix or Linux based environment. 

Lets face facts. IBM i is obsolete.  The bulk of the code in the OS and the overhead that keeps IBM i from reaching the performance levels of AIX and LINUX is the overhead devoted to managing 5250 based interactive jobs as well as a heavy mix of batch jobs.

Modern workloads are server based C++ or Java and leverage application server technology.  There is no longer a need for the telecommunications monitors like CICS or the built in support for 5250 in the IBM i.  You need a low profile OS that provides a high performance interface to the hardware that maximizes application performance.

While the embedded DB2 in IBM i certainly adds value to the OS when compared to DB2 on other platforms in terms of the astronomical costs of DB2 on those platforms; it still sadly lags behind other vendor databases in terms of performance and functionality such as Oracle, Sybase, Ingress, Microsoft SQL Server, and others, now including the free open source mySQL.

IBM i folks tend to fail to look objectively at the world around them.  I spent about 3 hours today learning PHP and mySQL to write my first PHP application using mySQL provided by Network Solutions (my hosting company) along with every other major hosting company.  What vendors even supports DB2? 

What about modern Cell phones like the iPhone, Blackberry, and others?  How do you support those with state of the art applications?  They utilize Java based applications. 

Look around at the industry.  Oracle's now completed acquisition of Sun Microsystems will have a huge impact on IBM Power Systems and the IBM i.  Oracle owns JD Edward now as well as PeopleSoft and other major business software packages.

Oracle had been a leading business partner driving IBM i and Power system sales for IBM.  I have no idea what the percentage will be but there will be a huge hole in IBM's revenue when Oracle moves people to their own Sun based hardware platform. 

What should you be doing right now?

If you have an inventory of RPG, Synon2e, and/or COBOL applications you better have a migration plan and be working that plan.  I certainly do not advocate pulling the plug on existing RPG applications, but you better darn well have a plan that moves you away from RPG and IBM i in the next 5 to 7 years. 

More important than the pending demise of IBM i is the need to provide modern systems and interfaces to modern devices like cell phones or specialized devices that are materializing throughout your business from the "cash register" to the loading doc and manufacturing facilities.

You need to analyze your existing systems, prioritize the modernization initiatives and not just migrate to a new language or OS but provide the ability to address real business problems and challenges.

It may be time to look at sending some current CIO's out for early retirement if they are focused on technology and not on the company's problems and bottom line.  There is way too much talk and argument about technology and programming languages and very little discussion about addressing the needs of the business in a rapidly changing world.

I am coming back into the market place and my focus is on IT as a service to the business it is supposed to support.  I am sick and tired of hearing arguments about technology or listening to a bunch of geeks with there heads in a "cloud"...

Lets put IT back on track and support the businesses that it was intended to support.  Lets make sure that the computer systems are running on machines that will survive the next 5 to 10 years, and lets get away from my platform or language is better than yours. 

Languages and Hardware have become irrelevant.  Platform neutral languages and even operating systems like Linux are emerging as clear leaders.  Proprietary operating systems are obsolete and no longer add value but rather introduce extreme risk to companies who cling to aging technology.

Sorry, but my view with no axe to grind.