Rest4i Articles & Blogs

For many organizations, RPG-based applications are the lynchpin of their everyday mission-critical operations.

That’s why many organizations are modernizing those applications, knowing that their RPG code and the essential business logic it represents are core to their businesses. That’s also why they’re stepping beyond 5250 interfaces to expose those applications to a larger world that includes web-like access.

One such company that recognized the modernization imperative is the Colonna Group. Its core business activity is managed by a home-grown software package called SIRIUS, which has been in continual development for years using Adelia to develop ILE RPG code.

At COMMON’s POWERUp 18 conference this May in San Antonio, Steve Will was quoted as putting the number of IBMi companies as high as 300,000. He also explained that sales had grown for two quarters in a row, but sadly, the ability to attract young and talented innovators to the platform, has not seemingly succeeded beyond a steady trickle.

Some innovative companies have embraced hackathons to attract developers to their organisation. Beyond recruitment, hackathons provide a number of other business benefits including:

Drawing upon our own experiences and lessons learned in the global field of digital transformations over the last 5 years, this three-part article covers three key objectives that any organisation needs to include in their Digital Transformation strategy/plan.

When comparing the early adopters and the slow starters, according to Forrester, the arms race for digital transformation already has some compelling statistics: 57% improvement in product quality versus 6%, and 40% cost reduction versus 8%.

To IT, modernization means DDS to SQL, RPGIII to RPG Free, 5250 to Web, Web to Mobile, or any technology specific milestone or objective. To business, modernization means quicker to market, more market feedback, more sales channels, better buying power, lower operating costs, real-time performance, and operational feedback.

In a modern enterprise (a company that exploits both physical and digital growth opportunities) the business typically drives the specifics of all development.

While rarely explicitly stated, the implication in most IBM i shops is that modernization of code/system/database achieves real business value. For many years I partially believed that myself. DDS to SQL, modules and service programs etc are useful, but not as a business driver.

In a digital company (a company that exploits both physical and digital growth opportunities) this mindset described by Sriram Narayan is a big differentiator. The concept that a specific value proposition to the business, is the primary driver for specific modernisation effort, is a relatively alien concept at most IBM i IT shops I work with around the world.

There is a technological solution to this, but its driver still needs to be a business one - digital transformation to a development system that supports continuous delivery. IBM i Microservices (REST API Services in RPG) can deliver this. In the IBM i shops that are already doing this, the business sponsors are rethinking the future of their IBM i legacy, as they enjoy same day turn-arounds on new or changed requirements.