ibm-power

The IBM i skills shortage isn’t going away

A shrinking IBM i talent pool has been a major concern for years. 

Back in 2015, dwindling access to IBM i professionals was blamed by IBM’s own top brass on revenue shortfalls. A system that had been around for nearly three decades, it was only a matter of time until the veterans left for greener pastures. The problem was, and continues to be, that fewer young professionals have been eager to master the same set of skills.

Depending on when you read this, you are either seeing the final days of support for the IBM Power7 or that milestone is in your rear view mirror. December 31, 2020 is/was the day IBM finally ended support for all IBM Power7 machines.

The change comes as no surprise. Power7 and Power7+ servers have been around since 2010 and 2012 respectively and IBM long ago published the end-of-life dates. But that doesn’t mean many businesses aren’t scrambling to find a solution. HelpSystems‘ 2020 IBM i Marketplace Survey shows that 15 percent of IBM i shops are still running Power6 servers, and 38 percent are running Power7 gear.

If you are like hundreds of thousands of organizations world-wide, somewhere in an office, warehouse or maybe on the dock sits a black box with a silver IBM logo, chugging along, powering your business’ most critical applications, every minute of every day.

More than 150,000 organizations worldwide rely on the IBM Power Systems platform and the IBM iSeries operating system to keep their core business up and running. This includes business applications like enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, banking applications, customer relationship management (CRM) software and health information systems. Because of  the business-critical nature of these applications, companies rely on the iSeries as it is known for its reliability, scalability and stability. But what happens when the unthinkable happens and one of these systems fail?

If you’re an IT professional, you’ve probably heard of IBM’s AS/400. You might know someone with this in their job title or seen certifications for it. But many of us are wondering whether the platform that was introduced back in the 80s is still relevant today. As we approach the digital age and ground-breaking discoveries in artificial intelligence, we’d like to take a look at the AS/400 and discuss why this server is still making an impact.