Agree!

On 4/24/2025 7:26 AM, Vern Hamberg via RPG400-L wrote:
Hi Gavin

On a small but significant point - I believe it is more exact to say the IBM i (and its predecssors) are the most *securable *systems - your statement here is spot on, about we have to configure the system to be secure, but that explanation is rarely part of how people see systems at first glance.

*Regards*

*Vern Hamberg*

IBM Champion 2025 <cid:part1.UiqRzg09.BXCOeJPH@centurylink.net> CAAC (COMMON Americas Advisory Council) IBM Influencer 2023

On 4/23/2025 11:31 PM, Gavin Inman wrote:
The AIX guys in TX slowly took over everything in Rochester. Rochester tried, but eventually lost the battles.  To the AIX team, it is, just another Database.

An interesting allegation. I wonder if you could provide some proof?

Because of a group I was a member of, I had "sort of" an insider view in IBM back then.  I saw many internal MGT positions for i, filled from TX, not from Rochester. Less $ was spent in Rochester, more in TX. R&D went down.  Marketing all but disappeared. IBM i was even removed from the website main pages. The internal links were there if you knew them or had them bookmarked.
If you went to IBM.COM, there was no way to navigate to IBM i. There was an internal struggle just to get IBM i links back on the main Website.

It never goes down

You need scheduled dowtimes on all platforms for installing updated software to fix security issues.

I should have been more specific.
It goes down for OS upgrades and OS patches, but it's very rare to have an unplanned outage.   One US trucking company has a 3 cluster iseries system.  They never go down, period.  At a minimum, 2 are always up.  They do Backups,  OS upgrades and patches on the node that is down.

|For quite some years, Wintel-PC servers are also proved to be very reliable.

LOL,  if you believe that... one word..  Crowdstrike.   IBM i systems were working that day.

Yes, the platform is secure.  I watched the Silent Signal presentation.  it wasn't real world.  most of their findings showed how they can get in when the system wasn't properly configured. And, Some of their actions would require you do be inside the company with special access to begin with.  No system is safe from a disgruntled Administrator with special access. Don't expect me to argue the details, because I won't.

Citbank, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Chase Bank, just to name a few, all use IBM i.

Next time you buy your Starbucks coffee, that sale is being sent to an IBM i system in Washington State.

Gavin.

On 4/23/2025 5:42 PM, Patrik Schindler wrote:

Hello Gavin,

Am 23.04.2025 um 21:58 schrieb Gavin Inman<midrangelist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

The integrated solution went away when the AS/400 name was retired.  That was also when AIX and AS/400 merged into one unhappy family on Power.

Did't IBM advertise IBM i as "i for integrated"?

The AIX guys in TX slowly took over everything in Rochester. Rochester tried, but eventually lost the battles.  To the AIX team, it is, just another Database.

An interesting allegation. I wonder if you could provide some proof?

However, the best selling point for IBM i is the robustness of the OS.

Not any longer.

E. g. Linux is meanwhile en par, including most of the basic applications (ssh server, Apache, PHP, Postfix, Dovecot, Samba, …) which run on a typical server platform. I have not experienced kernel panics in decades, and said basic applications are also running flawless.

It never goes down

You need scheduled dowtimes on all platforms for installing updated software to fix security issues.

For quite some years, Wintel-PC servers are also proved to be very reliable.

and is the most secure platform out there.

A tough allegation.

IBM faced regular challenges from programmers finding security issues in the pastime. And tried to use their lawyers to shove them under the carpet instead of fixing them. See what happened to Joseph Park and Leif Svalgaard. Not very trust building, if you ask me. Why should they act differently nowadays? Money and reputation, because reputation contributes to market power. How was that? Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM?

https://ibmi.silentsignal.eu/ — they rap IBM's knuckles regularly.

IBM i appears to be as secure as you allege, because it fills a tiny niche and hence isn't an interesting target for malevolent hackers.

That's why many banks still use Iseries on the backend.

I doubt that. The main reason for them to still use IBM i is pretty surely compatibility to existing applications. As in almost every other "IBM i shop", too.

:wq! PoC




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