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The IBM i platform has been a stalwart for many organizations over the past 30 years. Few platforms have comparable longevity and stability. But with that stability, comes the eventual retirement of employees who have been hands-on with the platform for decades.

Aside from the emotional impact of losing core, long-term employees, many companies also fear losing the copious skills developed while navigating the IBM i platform and the mission-critical enterprise applications on it over such a long period of time. In many cases, these long-term employees are the sole repository of intricate software program knowledge, including the mountain of software modifications made over the course of decades. A great deal of intellectual property is stored between the ears of these employees.

All is not lost!

Hire New IT Staff, Leverage Your Team, Or Supplement with 3rd Party Tools?

In our last blog post, we focused on preserving your investment in your IBM i legacy system by integrating newer applications that address your organization's need for more mobility. But to meet mobility goals for the future, IT leaders have more on their minds than their system alone. In this blog, we’ll address key considerations for preserving another significant investment; that is, your IT staff.

Guest blog by John Hamel, Principal, TurningPoint Systems

Prolonged downtime is every manufacturing firm’s nightmare. Even companies running the highly-reliable IBM i OS recognize they need some sort of disaster recovery plan in place to protect their business from major disruptions. 

This article has been updated after original publication in 2016.

It’s been close to three decades since IBM launched the AS/400, and in the technology industry, that may just feel like an eternity. But for people wondering about the marketplace for the AS/400’s progenies (Power i and IBM i) — and where things are headed in the future — there’s good news: there are plenty of signs that serve as reminders that IBM ensures this platform truly is built to last, and here to stay.  

After a recent announcement, the word is slowly rippling through the IBM user community: IBM will be discontinuing support for IBM i 7.1 on April 30, 2018.  

If disaster strikes, how quickly can your business get up and running again? IBM Power Systems running the IBM i operating system (OS) have a solid reputation for uptime of nearly 100 percent. While this is good news for many organizations running the IBM i OS, it can also be dangerous when it leads to complacency. Having the right disaster recovery plan — one that ensures your mission-critical applications are available, no matter what — is as critical as your applications themselves. That may be why High Availability (HA) solutions are growing in popularity. Here, we’ll take a quick look what recent trends tell us about HA solutions —  and what they add to your disaster recovery plan that you may not already have. 

For major projects like an IBM i system upgrade, most companies will readily recognize the need for specialized, outsourced services. In many cases, this means seeking out a traditional managed service provider (MSP) to handle the system essentials – from performing the upgrade, to troubleshooting system problems, to ensuring stable OS performance. For the same project, that same company may also need application expertise and support — in other words, an additional resource to perform the application upgrades that are required to stay compatible with the upgraded OS.  

It’s been close to three decades since IBM launched IBM i, and in the technology industry, that may just feel like an eternity. But for people wondering about IBM i's place in the marketplace — and where it is headed in the future — there’s good news: there are plenty of signs that serve as reminders that IBM ensures this platform truly is built to last, and here to stay. 

It has been a long time since the release of version 6.1 of IBM i. In fact, that version was released in January of 2008, and there are still some companies that have yet to upgrade. We’re also working with several companies that are just now upgrading to 6.1, but most of them are only doing so because IBM will soon no longer support prior versions. However, supportability is not the only reason you should keep an eye on updates. There have been several since the release of 6.1, and this post will focus on the critical components of the latest version, 7.3. 

The enterprise solutions running on your IBM i platform are your most important business assets. Are you covered in the event of a disaster? As reliable as the platform is, every system will eventually face unexpected downtime, and even a short-term hiccup can cause a long-term business disruption. Between re-work, missing data and even lost customers, you can’t afford to leave your backup and recovery strategy to chance. To operate with efficiency and peace of mind, you need a fast, flexible DR solution that meets your company’s unique needs. One way to create a solution based on your company’s unique needs: start with your business requirements. Learn how in The Ultimate Guide to Disaster Recovery.