IBM i Manifest and Maxava iFoundation

On March 31, 2011 Alan Campbell, CEO of Maxava a dedicated IBM i ISV announced formation of the Maxava iFoundation funded with $50,000 to be given as grants to non-profit organizations dedicated to promoting the IBM i operating system on Power Systems (click the link to see details). 

While the phrase "a fool and his money are soon parted" comes to mind, this is actually a very clever manuever to milk the last dollars of revenue out of a rapidly declining market.  You can see more at their web site and praise from the sheep being led to the slaughter at the Linked In group:  IBM i Manifest Americas Group.  Maxava is a New Zealand based company headquartered in New Zealand specializing in IBM i high availability.  They must be commended on some major marketing innovations like a monthly software subscription instead of the traditional upfront purchase with annual maintenance charges.

Maxava must be commended for not only surviving but flourishing in light of IBM's acquisition of Data Mirror Corporation in 2007 that opened the doors for IBM to integrate and sell its storage systems hardware to the IBM i based community.  IBM's acquisition virtually wiped out LakeView Technologies and Vision Solutions who were the leaders in IBM i high availability and data replication.

Maxava will probably recover their investment in the foundation with new customers who see Maxava as somewhat of a hero in trying to preseve the IBM i market.  I personally think it is a good move that will enable Maxava to retain slow to migrate (to modern technologies) companies for at least 10 years out. 

Have you followed the IBM i Manifest Americas group you will see a rather pathetic group of folks both vendors and IT folks trying to promote IBM i awareness and education in spite of the fact that IBM has totally withdrawn all marketing support for the product and reduced a major division of the company to a single product (i.e. an operating system) that runs on Power System machines which is dominated by Linux which is their strategic OS. 

I know I was stunned and shocked when IBM announced that it was shutting down its System i organization in 2007.  Keep in mind that IBM reduced IBM i development from over 5000 people to less than 100!  The lab in Rochester, Minnesota is a ghost town with much of the facility leased to other companies.  IBM still manufactures Power Systems machines at this location as they have manufactured the RS6000 for years.  You won't hear too many folks talking about IBM i in Rochester these days however.

It is laughable to think that a group of individuals can do what a major corporation will not do.  Once again I close by saying The IBM i is finished.  It will not be resurrected.  It is time to move or at least make sure your applications are platform neutral and can be moved to a new operating system when the time comes and it will!  Do it now while you have the time.