In a presentation from IBM recently the idea that IBM i is the 'old
legacy server' was completely destroyed. Steve Will, IBM i's chief
architect, and an IBM Distinguished Engineer, along side of Bill Starke,
who is the Chief Architect for the POWER Processors, also a
Distinguished Engineer covered the history together.
What's old? Mainframe! Younger than that are the Unixes including AIX
and Linux. Then you get into the chain that produced DOS and Windows.
Finally the 'new kid on the block' was the System/38 and a decade later
the AS/400, now IBM i. So this whole business of 'we're old' is
actually backwards. We're the youngest at the table. We STARTED with
Single level storage and so much more.
Then consider the hardware on which we run. Most reliable servers for
the past decade in a row now. Most scalable as well. From the smallest
single core to the largest E1080 the same software will run and run
happily even if the processors are north of 90% busy. And the systems
support vast amounts of RAM and more than double the memory throughput
of any Intel system.
And of course we have Db2. Not just a good database, a great one! And it
keeps getting better every day. And it can be mirrored to another system
with Db2 Mirror, setting our sites on true continuous uptime.
And let's don't forget all the other hardware bits that are supported
like NVMe for example, as well as PCIe gen 5 slots, and new forms of
memory that are more reliable and faster. Then connect the things with
network of 100Gbps and you have one serious workhorse there!
So just drop any pretense of moving to another platform for performance,
reliability, scalability, or any new hardware bits. Any attempt for that
is misguided at best.
As has been mentioned, breaking up your application into many layers on
different platforms some in cloud, some in the data center, some on
Linux, some in Windows, and on and on, means you have SO MANY moving
parts that something is bound to break at any second. And a simple
change in one area could cause havoc in another. Lose a few folks to job
changes and it's probable that NOBODY can put humpty dumpty together
again. Planning a true HA scenario is also fabulously more complicated.
Now your applications? Yeah it's true that IBM i can actually run
programs from S/34, S/38 and S/36, and some of you do (you know who you
are.) And that may be perfectly fine as they do so correctly and
properly support your business. However, many others are feeding those
(ahem) 'way cool' subfiles on which you can page forever. Said subfiles
fail miserably on the basic tablet, smart-phone, etc. But the database
and the logic around that, while almost CERTAINLY not perfect, contain
an untold wealth of knowledge. Transferring that knowledge into a new
language or database, and getting it right and complete, will not take
months, it will take YEARS. The number of such projects that have
completed to great success that I am aware of can be counted on my ring
finger.
Do 'off the i' projects complete? Sure they do. Some complete with the
company going out of business. Some complete with the company being
sold. Some complete with the company just declaring success, and dealing
with the mess they have made.
What's INCREDIBLE to me is how often the new app is asked to do things
the old app did for decades. Sure, sometimes it's the old 'we've always
done it that way' problem, but often the issue is a key process to the
business.
Here is a classic case. Company that sold Conveyor belting (along with
all the supporting bits) had a powerful application to determine the
minimum inventory levels needed at each location. The process understood
that a 100 by 8 ft piece of belt could be cut in both the long and short
directions. Doing so leaves two additional pieces each of which could
fulfill another minimum. When they moved off IBM i, the new software's
solution was 'use square inches.' Just 'do the math' and assure you have
enough sqins of each kind of belt. How hard is this? It was a disaster
of course and the company is no longer in business.
IBM i has so very many strong capabilities and supports so much that
there is 'always a way' to accomplish a needed task.
As has been mentioned it's the user interface where most of these
applications lag. And that CAN be done by non IBM i developers. Look at
what Jack Woehr said in this thread. Use the skills of each type of
developer to turn your IBM i application into a truly modern application
that still remembers all those special considerations built into the
application to make your business the best it can be.
- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis
IBM Champion
On 6/17/2023 2:36 PM, Jack Woehr via MIDRANGE-L wrote:
On Sat, Jun 17, 2023 at 11:53 AM Efield <netnature212@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
1) So why does everyone wants to go after this modernization for Ibm i?
Because it's the only way to deliver the sorts of web apps and dashboards
an enterprise user base and leadership expect from a system these days, not
to mention externals like customers.
It's straightforward enough a process to modernize without leaving the IBM
i platform if you have the folks who are motivated and ready to do the work
involved.
2) Why is Ibm i professionals are so hard to find and why are so less
opportunities for them and why are there salaries no where match to full
stack developers
The second clause of your question answers the first clause!
,why is it to hard freelancing jobs for IBM I compared to
other open source technologies like python, java, cloud etc. ?
See your previous question.
3) Why is everyone running after cloud computing platform?
It's tempting to distribute your apps on serverless hosting, but the cost
and reliability comes back to bite you.
The reliability and security of a single unified platform properly
disaster-recovery-ready is more to the advantage of the enterprise.
Of course you can cloud your IBM i LPARs which is very convenient,
reliable, and disaster-recovery-ready. Absolute Performance, my company,
has a Power cloud.
4) Why should users of IBM I applications have right to get mobile
app/weblinks kind of easyness in terms of their day to day operations?
That's a good idea, and there are many solutions for that.
5) Any idea how many apps based on IBM I around the world have been
decommisioned from this IBM I platform and have been modernized now?
Modernization does not require leaving the IBM i platform!
midrange.com
