In this episode of the IBM i update, we ask whether IBM i is the perfect platform for native agentic AI? How MCP will be the bridge between your data and AI automation. Ask when IBM i skills become a resilience risk and the latest on the events circuit too…

You can watch the video above or read the blog post below…

IBM Announces IBM Bob Premium

First, we start with BOB, and IBM announced this month that the Bob Premium Package for i is planned for general availability on 24 June 2026.

But what is the Premium Package?

In simple terms, it takes the foundation of IBM Bob and tailors it for IBM i.

The Bob Premium Package for i adds direct IBM i connectivity, RPG-focused skills, curated IBM i documentation, code generation, refactoring, technical documentation and unit test generation.

That matters because it shows IBM is not approaching AI-assisted development on IBM i with a one-size-fits-all mindset.

Instead, Bob Premium Package for i appears designed as a platform-aware assistant that understands the realities of IBM i development, from RPG application structures through to the modernisation pressures many organisations are now facing.

Its another sign that IBM sees AI-assisted development not as a replacement for IBM i expertise, but as a way to help preserve, accelerate and extend it.

Common Norge in Oslo

Now, at the start of the month, I enjoyed the pleasure of attending the COMMON Norge Professional Day in Oslo.

This event brought together the IBM Power community for a packed agenda centred on Power11, AI and the evolving role of IBM Power in enterprise technology.

Hosted at the IBM Client Centre, which was just a nice walk along the riverbank from my hotel in the centre, the event combined strategic sessions from IBM experts with practical technical content for the wider Power and IBM i community.

The day opened with a focus on Agentic AI, exploring how organisations can move beyond isolated AI projects and begin turning artificial intelligence into operational and commercial value.

This theme continued throughout the agenda, with sessions showing how IBM Power is being positioned as a secure, resilient and increasingly AI-ready platform for mission-critical workloads.

I enjoyed meeting new contacts, and the food and company were excellent. Now, I wish I could report more, but unfortunately, the majority of the presentations were in Norwegian – thankfully for me, the slides were mostly in English, so I was able to follow along.

There was one presentation in English, however, and that was mine!

Yes, for the first time, I presented an IBM i Update live.

Here I covered a few pertinent articles from recent updates, including project BOB, what AI means for IBM i developers and analysing the results of the IBM i Marketplace Survey.

My summary? Well, what stood out most was the direction of travel. IBM Power is no longer being discussed purely in terms of stability and reliability, although those qualities remain essential. Increasingly, the conversation is about how the platform can underpin AI, automation, modernisation and secure enterprise innovation.

My thanks to Erik Aasland and the Common Norge team for their invitation and hospitality.

Is IBM i the perfect agentic AI operating system?

Now, while IBM i was not designed for the AI era, many of the design decisions that made it successful may now make it ideal for enterprise AI. So, could IBM i be the perfect agentic operating system?

Well, this was a prevailing theme that ran through the PowerUp event in New Orleans at the end of April.

That IBM may be repositioning IBM i entirely – not just to survive the AI era, but to lead in it.

And that’s because of the intrinsic nature of the architecture of IBM i that provides the foundation layers the AI needs to operate effectively…

Now, this starts with data.

And unlike many open systems environments, where organisations often have to stitch together databases, data lakes, middleware, security layers and governance tools, IBM i already has its core business data tightly integrated into the platform through its integrated Db2.

And this matters! Because AI is only useful when it can access trusted, meaningful, well-governed data.

For IBM i customers, the data often already sits alongside the business logic, security model and operational processes that give it context. That makes IBM i a strong candidate for AI use cases such as:

• Querying live operational data
• Generating business insight
• Supporting decision-making
• Monitoring transactions
• Helping users understand trends and exceptions

The point is not just that IBM i has data. It has business-critical data with context.

In addition, Enterprise AI cannot simply be allowed to wander through business systems unrestricted.

There has to be security in place to help protect the system and data integrity, without being overtly complex, to set up and manage and of course, this is where IBM i has a natural strength.

Security and identity are not bolted on as an afterthought.

They are part of the platform’s design, and that gives IBM i a credible foundation for AI that is not just clever, but controlled.

AI needs to know:

• Who is asking the question
• What that person or agent is allowed to access
• Which actions are permitted
• Which data should remain protected
• How authority is controlled

For agentic AI, this is vital. If an AI assistant or agent is going to interact with live business systems, it must operate within a controlled authority model.

IBM i already has strong native concepts around users, object authority, adopted authority, auditing, access control and system-level governance.

Then there’s access and identity. You see, agentic AI needs to know who is asking, what they are allowed to see, and what actions they can perform.

IBM i already has strong user profiles, authority models and access controls to manage trust, permissions and accountability across the platform.

Now, AI agents are not just chatbots; they may need to run tasks, monitor activity and trigger processes.

IBM i already has native capabilities around job scheduling, batch processing, job queues, message queues and operational state.

These are the kinds of platform-level capabilities that AI agents need if they are going to become useful inside real enterprise environments.

Or, In other words, IBM i already understands how to run business processes reliably. This is a major advantage when you start thinking about AI agents that need to support operations rather than just produce text.

AI agents need to understand:

• What task are they performing
• When should it run
• What happened previously
• What state is the process in
• Whether something is completed, failed, or requires attention

IBM i has always been trusted for transactional workloads. Orders, invoices, stock movements, financial postings, warehouse updates and customer records need to be processed accurately and reliably.

For AI, this is critical.

If AI is going to make recommendations, explain what happened, support users, or eventually trigger actions, then businesses need confidence that the underlying platform can maintain integrity.

That means:

• Transactions must be reliable
• Changes must be traceable
• Activity must be auditable
• Compliance requirements must be supported
• Business-critical processes must not be compromised

IBM i’s strength here is that auditability and transactional integrity are deeply embedded in the platform. This makes it far better suited to serious enterprise AI than environments where governance has to be created after the fact.

If AI is going to support or take action in enterprise environments, businesses need traceability and IBM i already has strong auditing, logging and compliance capabilities built into the platform.

The final point is operational visibility.

AI becomes much more useful when it can understand not just the data, but the wider operating environment. IBM i can expose a huge amount of system information through logs, messages, jobs, queues, SQL Services, performance data and operational monitoring.

This is where IBM i Services and SQL Services become particularly important. They provide a structured way to access system information, which can then be used by AI tools, assistants or agents.

That opens the door to AI use cases such as:

• Summarising system health
• Identifying abnormal activity
• Explaining job failures
• Helping support teams triage incidents
• Reviewing performance trends
• Surfacing risks before they come out

So, what does this mean?

Well, simply speaking, Enterprise AI needs more than a large language model. It needs a trusted operating environment around it.

It needs integrated data, security, identity, scheduling, transaction integrity, auditability and operational visibility.

And these seven foundations are not new concepts on IBM i.

They are part of the platform’s design. And that is what makes IBM’s positioning so interesting.

While many organisations are trying to assemble these capabilities across multiple tools and platforms, IBM i customers may already have much of the required foundation in place.

How MCP is the bridge between IBM i and agentic AI

Now, while the foundational aspect is all there within IBM i, we’ll still need to connect and interact with external systems, tools and data sources.

That’s where MCP (or Model Context Protocol) comes in.

You see, MCP acts as the bridge between IBM i and Agentic AI… Because AI is only useful when it can work with real business context, across the enterprise.

So, your IBM i will already contain huge amounts of trusted operational data within the Db2. However, other operational data, services and processes may be within external systems – perhaps stored within SQL.

MCP gives AI agents a way to access that information in a structured, controlled and useful way.

That means an AI model could, for example, connect to IBM i data, query sales information, review operational trends, inspect system status, or help produce reports based on live enterprise data.

Jesse Gorzinski demonstrated this idea at POWERUp, showing how an IBM i-based MCP server could connect an AI model to sales data in Db2 for i and then generate a PowerPoint presentation from the insights it found.

The important point is that this is not about wrapping a chatbot around an old system.

As Adam Shedivy explained at POWERUp, the opportunity is to build agents that participate in the operating model itself: agents that can reason, decide and act over business processes in a controlled way.

And this is where IBM i becomes especially compelling.

Because the platform already has the core capabilities agentic AI needs: identity, security, scheduling, state management, auditability and access to trusted data.

MCP does not replace those strengths. It exposes them to AI in a more modern and standardised way.

That is why MCP could become such an important part of the IBM i AI story. It provides the connective tissue between AI models and the live enterprise systems where real business happens.

In other words, MCP may be the mechanism that allows IBM i to become not just AI-enabled, but genuinely agentic-ready.

The IBM i skills gap could be your biggest resilience risk

IBM i has always had a strong reputation for resilience.

For many organisations, that resilience conversation has traditionally focused on infrastructure: hardware reliability, backups, high availability, disaster recovery, replication, role swaps, cyber recovery and data protection. All of that matters.

But there is another form of resilience that is becoming just as important: application resilience.

That same argument applies just as strongly to the applications running on IBM i. Because for many businesses, the real risk is not simply whether the IBM i platform is available.

It is whether the business has the right people, knowledge and support model in place to keep the applications running, changing and recovering when needed.

One of the most important observations in Ash Giddings’ article is that deep IBM i knowledge is often concentrated in a small number of individuals.

These are the people who understand the nuances of the environment, the dependencies between applications, and the practical steps required when something unusual happens.

I’m sure that this will sound familiar to many IBM i customers:

• They know which jobs need to run in which order.
• They know which programmes were changed for a specific customer requirement ten years ago.
• They know which interfaces are business-critical, even if they are not well documented.
• They know what to check when a warehouse process, invoicing run or EDI flow fails.
• That knowledge is incredibly valuable.

But if it exists only in people’s heads, it is also a risk.

When those individuals retire, move roles, reduce hours, go on holiday or are unavailable during an incident, the business can quickly discover that its application resilience is weaker than expected.

High availability can help keep systems running. Disaster recovery can help restore or switch environments. Infrastructure resilience is essential.

But application continuity depends on more than the machine being available.

A business also needs to know:

• Who understands the application landscape
• How core processes work
• Where the customisations are
• What dependencies exist between systems
• How incidents are triaged and resolved
• How changes are tested and promoted
• How support is provided when the internal expert is unavailable

This is where application managed services become part of the resilience conversation.

The objective is not simply to outsource support. It is to reduce dependency on individual knowledge and build a more sustainable operating model around the application estate.

Many IBM i applications have been developed and refined over decades. That is often a strength. These systems reflect the business in detail and support processes that generic software would struggle to replicate.

But over time, documentation can drift. Development standards can change. Interfaces can multiply. Batch processes can become harder to understand.

Business logic can become embedded in code, procedures and operational routines that are not always visible to new team members.

A good application managed service should help turn that tribal knowledge into managed knowledge.

That means building an understanding of:

• The application structure
• Core business processes
• Key programmes and data flows
• Batch schedules and dependencies
• Interfaces to third-party systems
• Known issues and recurring incidents
• Change and release processes
• Business-critical periods and operational priorities

This is not a one-off exercise. It should be part of an ongoing service model, where knowledge is continually captured, refined and shared across a wider team.

That is what reduces resilience risk.

A more mature approach would ask:

• Are key applications documented?
• Are critical processes understood by more than one person?
• Are interfaces mapped?
• Are batch schedules and dependencies visible?
• Are support procedures repeatable?
• Are changes tested and promoted in a controlled way?
• Are external specialists familiar with the environment before an incident occurs?
• Is there a plan for retirements, absence or skills loss?

These questions are not always comfortable, but they are necessary.

And the time to act is before the skills walk out the door.  Many organisations only address IBM i skills risk when it becomes urgent.

• A key developer retires.
• A support analyst leaves.
• A critical incident exposes a knowledge gap.
• A project stalls because nobody fully understands an area of the system. A business change becomes risky because the application impact is unclear.

And by then, the business is already on the back foot.

A better approach is to treat application knowledge transfer as a planned resilience activity.

That can include discovery, documentation, shadowing, support onboarding, code analysis, process mapping and gradual transition into a managed service model.

The aim is not to replace internal teams. In many cases, the best model is a blended one: internal business knowledge supported by external IBM i specialists who provide depth, cover and continuity.

That gives the organisation more confidence and avoids the classic risk of relying on one or two people to carry an entire application estate.

IBM i remains one of the most resilient enterprise platforms available.

But platform resilience is only part of the story.

If the applications running on IBM i are critical to the business, then the skills, knowledge and support model around those applications must be treated as part of the resilience strategy too.

High availability protects the environment. 

Disaster recovery protects the recovery path. And Application managed services protect the knowledge, support and continuity around the business logic itself.

That distinction matters.

Because when IBM i skills become scarce, the risk is not just technical.

It’s operational, it’s commercial, it’s organisational.

And for many businesses, the real question is no longer whether IBM i can keep running.

It is whether the people and processes around it are resilient enough to keep the business running with it.

i-UG’s i-Power 2026 event preview with Steve Cast from Fresche

And finally, we’ve a couple of events coming up that I’ll be attending and even speaking at – yes, in the middle of June, we have the COMMON Europe event in Lyon France.

Now, if you’re looking to attend, please join me for the IBM i Update Live – yes, a presentation of some of the hit articles and a little more will be presented by me late Monday afternoon. Do join me if you can.

But before then, we have the i-Power event in Milton Keynes at the beginning of June.

I’ll be there too, hosting the Proximity/Fresche booth at the event.

Please do come and say hello!

Now if you’re ‘umming and arring’ about attending, or just don’t know what to expect – I spoke with COMMON Board member Steve Cast to provide an insight and a bit of a preview. You can see the full interview here:

Time is now of the essence, so if you would like to join the event, please register here – https://iugipower2026.sched.com/

And that’s it for this months update.

I’m Andrew Nicholson, and we’re Proximity, your application support, maintenance and development partners that are in your corner.

If you missed it, catch up on our April IBM i update.

Follow this link to access all the IBM i Update’s in one place.

Alternatively, if you’d like to receive the latest IBM i Update hot off the press to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter version on LinkedIn.

The post IBM i Update: May 2026 – Is IBM i the perfect platform for native agentic AI? appeared first on Proximity.

After three years in Northampton, the Leonardo Hotel in Milton Keynes will host this year’s event.

• Dates: Tuesday 2nd June and Wednesday 3rd June 2026
• Location: The Leonardo Hotel Milton Keynes, 300 Midsummer Boulevard, MK9 2HP, Milton Keynes, UK

Andy Nicholson sat down with fellow IBM Champion, Steve Cast last week to discuss the conference.

Steve is Senior Vice President, EMEA & APAC at Freshe Solutions, and holds the positions of Treasurer of Common Europe and Marketing Director of i-UG.

Catch the full interview in the video below:

In recent years, the i-Power conference has focused on AI and open source capabilities within the IBM i platform as well as interfacing data on POWER for AI purposes.

The theme for 2026? 

AI on IBM i has come of age. 

Day 1 (Tuesday): Workshop Day

• Features a mix of full-day and half-day workshops.
• Gala Dinner takes place in the evening.

Day 2 (Wednesday): Conference Day

• Features keynote presentations to the whole conference, individual conference sessions, networking, and refreshments.

Who should attend i-Power?

IBM i developers, System Administrators, IT leaders, or a mix of topics for all? 

Steve explains:

“We try and stream or section off different parts of the event for different audience members. Very much the first day, so that’s the Tuesday this year, is very much orientation around technical education. So by virtue of it being education and workshops, almost certainly that’s attracting a technical audience. The second day, with the IBM keynote, so what’s IBM roadmap look like? What are the AI solutions that IBM are working on? Everybody’s talking about Bob, so IBM Bob and how that’s going to revolutionise the way we develop software. All of those kind of topics draw in the decision makers, not just the technical teams”.

Those sessions at i-Power confirm what, to many IBM i shops, is the primary concern to the IBM i platform.

The growing skills gap. 

As we’ve explored in previous editions of the IBM i Update, our IT leaders and System Administrators in the IBM i community face a critical resource shortage. 

They’re often managing teams where developers are nearing retirement age.

This is the reality highlighted in the latest Fortra IBM i marketplace survey which highlights that as the number one concern for IBM i based businesses. 

This shortage of experienced RPG developers means business critical IBM i applications are at risk, leaving businesses in urgent need of reliable application support and continuity.

IBM’s Bob has been positioned as a developer assistant designed to help close this gap by enabling newer developers to gain understanding of so-called legacy code.

However, there is a potentially dangerous misunderstanding among some in the IBM i community.

Bob is an assistant for coding, it is NOT a modernisation solution for your entire IBM i application estate.

Steve points out in the interview that is not the tool to convert applications from RPG to another language or to eliminate years of legacy technical debt.

For that, you need skilled, experienced IBM i developer specialists.

“I don’t think there’s much of a shortage of kind of Java developers or open source knowledge,” comments Steve. 

He adds: “They’re all coming out of university, people with those kind of skills. The legacy RPG understanding is a little harder to teach. So maybe with something like Bob that helps us to understand the code. But a really critical point, if I may, is that Bob is very much a developer assistant, so a coding assistant. I think there’s a little misconception that Bob is somehow going to modernise your entire application or understand that entire application”

That’s not what IBM are trying to do with Bob. Bob is there to aid us as a developer.

It’s not there to kind of transform the entire application from one form of RPG to another, or RPG to Java, or whatever route you want to go. Bob’s not really the tool for that.”

For those of you who are interested in learning more about IBM Bob, i-Power has two full day workshops on Day 1 which delve into the possibilities further.

IBM AI: Bob & watsonx Orchestrate is split into a morning (Bob) and afternoon (watsonx) session. The morning includes hands-on demonstrations of some of the capabilities of Bob’s AI-powered Software Development assistant.

The afternoon focuses on IBM Agentic AI through watsonx.

In the other Bob-focused workshop, Carol Woodbury and Scott Forstie look at cyber security around the use of Bob with a demonstration of “the power of using IBM Bob for IBM i security tasks.

In addition, they’ll discuss the security safeguards and proper configurations you’ll want to consider when implementing AI.”

Register for i-Power 2026

You can register and see a complete schedule of events over the two-days through the i-UG website. With the packed itinerary, there’s bound to be something of interest for everyone.

The post What to expect at i-UG’s i-Power Conference 2026 appeared first on Proximity.

In this episode of the IBM i update, we discuss AI on IBM i and ask if we’re heading for a productivity breakthrough or is this just a bubble that’s about to burst?

You can watch the video above or read the blog post below…

Opportunity vs risk of AI on the IBM i

AI has become impossible to ignore in the IBM i world.

Gartner, the huge multi-national technology analyst firm is rather cautious on AI.

If you search ‘bubble’ on their website you get a slew of results that paint a tone of tempered optimism, where the opportunity is acknowledged, but the risk of inflated expectations and short-term disillusionment is never far behind.

As reported by The Register, Gartner’s view is sobering. Estimates suggest that up to 70% of AI projects could fail, while as many as 75% of vendors in this space may disappear.

Scary right? But let’s put some context behind these figures.

The Gartner report was mainly geared towards mainframes, a place where scale and interdependency of these systems make full migration physically and financially unrealistic for most enterprises.

So, the failure rate is largely about ambitious mainframe transformation programmes, not practical IBM i augmentation projects. I would suggest that the 70% failure reflects expectation – not technology failure.

Indeed, Gartner themselves advise caution due to what they describe as “The gap between the ‘marketing promise’ of generative AI…” As such, set your expectations accordingly.

As for the 75% of vendors disappearing, well, every emerging tech scenario goes through this.

The AI bubble vs the .com bubble

If you’re as old as I, then you’ll remember the .COM bubble where all anyone needed to throw money at a project was an idea – valuations of companies exploded with no proven business model.

Thousands of startups launched and investors piled in on potential, not delivery. Most of these startups disappeared within a few years.

Today, we’re seeing the same with products being rebranded as ‘AI-Powered’ but I think we’re learned enough (and with hindsight) understand that expectations shouldn’t run before reality.

So yes, many startups and business born on the AI revolution will appear and disappear just as quickly, and poor projects will fail – thousands of them.

But also, today the .COM the market is now larger than ever anticipated with Google and Amazon leading the charge.

AI is different from the .com era.

The fundamentals are stronger, the technology real and adoption being driven by tangible business value.

The lesson from the dot-com era isn’t that the technology failed – it’s that the hype did.

And we’re seeing the same pattern emerge with AI.

For IBM i organisations, the opportunity isn’t in chasing the bubble, but in applying AI where it genuinely adds value – on top of systems that already work.

How you can achieve good AI outcomes

What should we apply to ensure that we’re not just another nearly-run?

Well, good AI outcomes come from strong foundations:

1. Clear governance
2. Clean architecture
3. Well documented
4. Trusted data
5. Well-defined processes
6. Good people

So, this isn’t a signal to avoid AI, it’s a warning to approach it with clarity, structure and good dollop of realism.

AI-assisted tools can significantly reduce the time, cost, and risk of modernisation, but they need to be applied with a clear understanding of where they add value.

But perhaps the most critical component of this your data.

Indeed, IBM are saying the same thing.

Within their, ’Your AI is only as good as your data’ white paper, IBM explain that “In the AI era, no matter what industry you’re in, you’re in the data business.”

So, AI is only as good as the data that goes into it.

And this alone makes your organisation’s data its most important asset.

You can download a copy of the white paper here.

According to IBM, high-quality data isn’t just about volume, it’s data that is

• Accurate and correctly reflects the business, its processes and outcomes too
• Complete, with all data being present with no missing pieces
• Consistant and uniform across the systems and matching formats [dates, currency, decimal place…)
• Timely, up to date and available for when it’s needed (even archived data)
• Fit for purpose, so relevant for the task in hand be that for process, reference or even audit

IBM are clear – poor data quality is one of the most common reasons that AI initiatives fail.

Put it simply, AI models learn from whatever you give them, garbage in, garbage out.

If the data is flawed, biased or incomplete, the output will be flawed – at scale.

So, where success previously meant good code, in the AI era, success means good data.

AI-based code modernisation on the IBM i

When we have that good data in place, what can we do with that foundation layer?

Well, AI-based code modernisation is moving from concept to commercial reality on IBM i.

As highlighted recently in IT Jungle, new tools are emerging to help organisations understand legacy applications faster, uncover hidden business logic, assist with refactoring, and accelerate productivity.

We’re seeing the likes of Profound Logic, ARCAD and Remain Software providing teams with tools that analyse, convert and test complex estates.

Fresche too provide such tools but in addition, their XA-AI extracts the business logic and leverages this scematical information to support the generation of meaningful – connected code.

And of course, there’s Project Bob that’s pushing AI-assisted development and code understanding further into the mainstream.

But be aware, this isn’t push-button modernisation.

AI doesn’t replace skilled developers; it amplifies them. Human judgement is still critical for preserving business logic, validating outputs, and governing change.

And that’s the big opportunity: not AI replacing developers, but experienced IBM i teams using AI to modernise faster, reduce risk, and do more with scarce skills.

Amid the AI hype, the platform itself keeps evolving… albeit it slower in other areas as IBM i Technology Refresh appears to be arriving later than usual, reportedly to align with a broader Power announcement.

Rather than cause for concern, it may point to a bigger coordinated platform story involving IBM i 7.6 TR2, and potentially new Power hardware.

So, what may be coming downstream?

Well, this is all speculation but we may see better support around AI-assisted development tooling while improvements for project Bob have already been mooted.

Sticking with the AI theme, enhancements to SQL services for metadata access (of which will enhance AI-assisted analysis) plus features aimed at making IBM i data easier to expose to AI workloads may become present too.

Security is always a priority and I’m sure we’ll see more around zero-trust too. It would be a joy so see improvements in performance maybe enhancing DB2 (although this is more akin to tuning a Ferrari).

What are your thoughts, you do you think will be announced – let me know in the comments below.

PTF Guide – Updates for Java Security within the Java SDK / Runtime

And finally, this month’s PTF Guide is really a security story, centred on significant Java vulnerabilities affecting IBM i.

IBM has issued fixes across 7.4 through 7.6, with updates to Java, defective PTF and QMGTOOLS groups.

The takeaway is simple: patch discipline remains a key part of IBM i risk management.

Another reminder that on IBM i, stability doesn’t happen by accident… It’s maintained.

And that’s it for this months update.

I’m Andrew Nicholson, and we’re Proximity, your application support, maintenance and development partners that are in your corner.

If you missed it, catch up on our March IBM i update.

Follow this link to access all the IBM i Update’s in one place.

Alternatively, if you’d like to receive the latest IBM i Update hot off the press to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter version on LinkedIn.

The post IBM i Update: April 2026 – Is AI on IBM i a productivity breakthrough, or a bubble ready to burst? appeared first on Proximity.

In this edition, we’ll look at whether COBOL is the asbestos of programming languages, as described by WIRED, the results of the Fortra IBM i Marketplace Survey 2026 with Mike Davison, a summary of iUG North in Rochdale and iUG South at IBM London, and dive into the recently announced pricing for IBM Bob!

You can watch the video above or read the blog post below.

COBOL: Is it the asbestos of programming languages?

A recent WIRED article called COBOL “the asbestos of programming languages” not because it’s inherently bad, but because it’s everywhere, deeply embedded, and extremely difficult to remove.

But it misses the real issue, replacement isn’t necessarily the answer. What the article fails to observe is that COBOL isn’t failing.

For decades, it has underpinned vast amounts of global infrastructure, particularly in finance and government, where it continues to run critical, high-volume systems.

The challenge isn’t that it doesn’t work, it works exceptionally well… but that the knowledge required to maintain and evolve these systems is becoming increasingly scarce.

This framing feels especially relevant in light of the latest Fortra IBM i Marketplace Survey.

For those who missed last month’s update, I reported that for the first time in nearly a decade, IBM i skills, not cybersecurity, is now the number one top concern for organisations, with around 69% of respondents highlighting the skills shortage as a top issue.

This marks a significant shift. For years, security dominated the conversation.

Now, the industry is recognising something more fundamental, “You can’t secure, modernise, or even run a system if you don’t have the people who understand it.”

Now, couple this with COBOL’s importance in running the world, you start to see the bigger picture.

For example, over 200 billion lines of COBOL code are running as I speak – that accounts for nearly 80% of all working code.

You see, COBOL still quietly powers much of the modern world. Credit card payments, airline bookings, government services – all still depend on it to function.

A quick example, during the pandemic, when demand for services surged, cracks began to show.

Unemployment systems didn’t fail because of infrastructure, they struggled because there weren’t enough COBOL specialists available to maintain and adapt them.

And within the WIRED article, this too highlighted these same structural problem that are echoed within IBM i estates:

Critical systems built decades ago

Many of these applications sit at the heart of the business — handling finance, logistics, and operations — and have been refined over decades. They’re not outdated in function, just in origin.

Deeply embedded business logic

The real value isn’t the code itself, but the layers of business rules built into it over time — often undocumented, tightly coupled, and difficult to separate without risking unintended consequences.

Small, ageing talent pool

Skills haven’t scaled with demand. Experienced developers are nearing retirement, while fewer new entrants are coming through — leaving organisations increasingly reliant on a handful of key individuals.

High risk attached to change

These systems are so business-critical that even small changes carry risk. Large-scale replacement or transformation programmes can introduce more uncertainty than stability, which is why many never fully materialise.

And just like COBOL in the article, IBM i environments aren’t being replaced at scale, they’re being maintained, extended, and cautiously modernised.

What’s the solution for COBOL?

So, I see the WIRED article more like a wake up call, because this isn’t about legacy technology anymore – it’s about operational risk.

And, replacing systems introduces risk at great expense.

The argument here is, “Why remove rock solid code that has worked and continues to work reliably and efficiently and introduce uncertainty?”

The idea of replacing COBOL sounds clean on paper, but in reality it means rewriting years, sometimes decades of business-critical logic, much of which isn’t fully documented.

That introduces risk, cost, and uncertainty.

Refactoring keeps the core logic but restructures it, improving maintainability while preserving what already works.

Recoding sits somewhere in between, translating existing functionality into a new language or platform – these days.

Each approach has its place, but all carry cost, complexity, and risk.

Modernisation, however, allows you to keep the concrete foundations that already hold the business up, and build new capability around them.

And then on the human front, organisations facing the COBOL skills challenge really have three choices: retain, retrain, or outsource.

Retaining experienced developers provides continuity but becomes harder as the talent pool shrinks.

Retraining internal teams can work, but it takes time and still relies on having enough existing knowledge to transfer.

Outsourcing to a managed service provider offers a more immediate and structured solution, bringing in proven expertise, reducing dependency on individuals, and ensuring the system is properly supported.

The key is making a conscious decision, because doing nothing simply allows the risk to grow over time.

And then what of AI?

Could this help with resourcing, refactoring or modernising? AI can certainly help.

Indeed, in February, Anthropic announced that Claude can automate the analysis and migration of legacy COBOL code.

However, considerations about architecture, integration and operational risk are key to a project’s success.

As IBM stated, “translating code is one thing, modernising a platform is something else entirely.”

You see, the real challenge isn’t the COBOL language, it’s everything around it.

Compliance, procedure, operational process, audit, middleware – years of bespoke tooling and code factored in organically around the core systems.

So, using AI to modernise legacy code is a bit like using an automated translation tool. You can translate Chinese into English and get something that looks broadly correct, but without someone who truly understands the language, you risk losing the nuance, context, and meaning behind it.

So, to bring the WIRED article to a conclusion, is COBOL asbestos? No, it’s reinforced concrete. Old, yes, but still holding everything up. A proven foundation to build on, not rip out.

The real question isn’t whether it works – it does. It’s how you design the next layer, how you evolve it, support it, and build on top of it.

The foundations are already there. The decisions are what you do next…

Discussing the 2026 IBM i Marketplace Survey with Mike Davison from Fortra

Now, last month Andy Nicholson reviewed the Fortra IBM i Marketplace Survey.

If you’ve not had the opportunity to review the results, you can find his thoughts in the previous episode of the IBM i Update here: Fortra Marketplace Survey 2026 results and trends

This month, Andy had the good fortune to speak with Fortra Stalwart and IBM Champion, Mike Davison, to discuss his thoughts on the results.

Why has IBM i skills overtaken cybersecurity as the top concern for IBM i professionals?

Andy Nicholson: Now, for the first time in nine years, the IBM i skills gap has overtaken security as the number one concern in the Fortra survey. What do you think has driven that shift?

Mike Davison: I’m sure it’s down to people retiring and no one being available to replace them. Us Gen-Xers who pioneered IBM i are reaching retirement, and because of the perception that IBM i is “legacy” and not cool, younger people aren’t as interested.

However, shifts in development such as using Git and Visual Studio Code and modernisation programmes using AI will help. But I can’t help feeling that the platform is behind the skills curve by quite some distance right now.

Any surprising trends this year?

Andy Nicholson: What was the most surprising trend you observed compared to last year’s results?

Mike Davison: It was absolutely code development shifting by 13% towards using AI. That’s the biggest movement in the whole survey.

It really shows that companies are embracing the AI age, which is great given that the talent pool is shrinking. It’s a strong way to help offset that deficit, and I think it’s a very good use of AI.

What’s driving software and hardware upgrades on the IBM i?

Andy Nicholson: The survey shows a record 70% of organisations planning hardware or software upgrades in 2026. What’s driving that level of urgency? Does it feel like a tipping point for the platform?

Mike Davison: In terms of hardware, Power9 went end of support at the end of January this year, which means no further patches, microcode, or security fixes. With the announcement of Power11 last year, sensible customers will be looking to upgrade their older systems to stay current.

Let’s also remember that Power9 launched in 2017–2018, which is eight years ago, that’s a long time in computing.

The other key factor is that Power9 doesn’t support IBM i 7.6, which was released in April last year. So anyone on Power9 who wants IBM i 7.6 and all the new features will need to upgrade both their hardware and operating system.

What security threats are IBM i users facing?

Andy Nicholson: While cybersecurity has been eclipsed as the top concern, it still ranks highly. What do you believe is the biggest security worry respondents are now facing?

Mike Davison: If we look at the top three concerns from the report:

First, threats are constantly evolving, which creates anxiety around a moving target. Second, the skills gap we discussed earlier, there’s a growing lack of security knowledge on the platform. Third, balancing security controls with business efficiency.

Many customers need to meet regulatory requirements, and when you combine that with the skills gap and evolving threats, it creates a perfect storm.

As I’ve said before, IBM i is highly securable, you just need to know how to do it properly.

What modernisation strategies are gaining momentum?

Andy Nicholson: Based on the survey, what modernisation strategies do you see gaining momentum in the IBM i space?

Mike Davison: 35% of respondents are now using AI for code development, and 68% see it as the future. That’s a significant shift in how development is approached, and it should help make the platform more appealing to younger developers.

However, companies need to modernise their applications, not just their development processes.

The survey shows that 73% of businesses are running in-house applications and 88% are coding in RPG. That’s something that needs a long, hard look as well, in my opinion.

How is IBM i development evolving?

Andy Nicholson: For the first time, Visual Studio Code usage has surpassed RDi. What does this tell us about how IBM i development is evolving?

Mike Davison: RDi is designed specifically for IBM i, whereas Visual Studio Code is a feature-rich, flexible development tool. It integrates well with Git and supports modern development practices.

More companies are adopting Git for source control, and VS Code works very well with that. Even myself, as a non-developer, I’ve moved to VS Code for CL and scripting, it’s simply easier for deployment and version control.

What’s your view on IBM’s Bob?

Andy Nicholson: That makes good sense. Now, IBM has been talking about tools such as BOB to support AI-assisted development on IBM i. What’s your view on BOB and what it will actually do in practice?

Mike Davison: Right now, I see BOB as a tool that can help document legacy code, improve it, and assist with development.

Steve Will’s vision is much broader, BOB supporting the entire modernisation journey from start to finish. That includes writing new RPG code, refactoring legacy code, debugging, unit testing, mentoring, documentation, and even project planning.

A lot of people are excited about it, and after seeing a live demo at Tech Exchange in Orlando last year, I can understand why—it really is impressive.

That said, its true capabilities are still to be fully realised across the wider market.

What does a well-prepared IBM i organisation look like in 2026

Andy Nicholson: When you look at the combination of skills shortages, increased upgrade activity, evolving tooling, and ongoing security concerns, what does a well-prepared IBM i organisation look like in 2026?

Mike Davison: For me, it’s an organisation that is up to date with patches and running on supported hardware and software.

It’s using modern tooling like Visual Studio Code and Git, recruiting and retaining talent with competitive salaries, and avoiding single points of failure—whether that’s a person or a system.

Ultimately, it’s a constantly moving target. If you don’t keep up, it becomes far more expensive to catch up later.

I still see many customers running outdated operating systems or ISV software and wondering why they have problems. Staying current is simply part of the cost of doing business.

IBM i Marketplace Survey 2027 release date

Andy Nicholson: We’ll look forward to the next IBM i Marketplace Survey in 2027. When do you expect that to be released?

Michael Davison: It will likely be around February 2027. We’ll begin collecting responses in October or November this year.

Hopefully, we can increase participation year on year to build an even clearer picture of the market.

Andy Nicholson: It’s incredibly important for the community moving forward. Mike, thank you for your efforts on the survey, thank you to Fortra, and I wish you a very good day.

Mike Davison: Thank you very much, Andy. Until next time!

iUG North & South Summary

In the past few weeks, I’ve been travelling the length and breadth of the country visiting the i-UG North and South. Here’s my quick take on both.

First, for the early starters, it’s always reassuring that the good people at i-UG know how to feed their audience.

At both North, hosted at their spiritual home in Rochdale and South, at IBM in London, on arrival you were treated to an assortment of pastries plus the obligatory bacon butties in Rochdale.

IBM stole the show however with their ‘drinks dispenser’ that did everything from a latte to cappuccino with a myriad of options for milk, espresso strength… the works (you’ll have to watch the video).

Someone in the queue likened it to IBM MQ, a wealth of options but complicated to operate – i liked that.

London too was by far the grander of locations, you were greeted by IBM’s first quantum computer as a display piece in the (rather plush) lobby before collecting your guest pass and being whistled up a few stories to the think suite in which hosted the days proceedings.

Both North and South shared the same agenda and I’ll pick out some pertinent parts to give you a flavour on what it’s like to attend.

Education is always a focus for i-UG and Chairman Mike Ryan discussed their i-ignite initiative of which continues to grow.

Essentially, this initiative has been set-up with partnering universities to train the next generation of IBM i professionals and some of the students who were on the course were at the event to network and learn more.

The keynote speech was conducted by board members, each providing their own insight.

Andy Youens, for example, explained that while in the past he eulogised about ACS, a better method today could be the use of the DB2 for i VS Code extensions to run SQL statements and display the results in a number of more ‘friendly’ ways.

He went on to say that with VS Code you have more flexibility in the way you can chart with selections, filters and queries completed at a click.

Steve Cast provided insight into the evolution of IBM i development tools from SEU way back in the late 1980’s right up to IBM Bob in 2026.

Demonstrating how far we’ve come in the past 40+ years and why developers today have never had it sooo good.

Steve Bradshaw gave us an episode of ‘Why Don’t You?’ and gave us short and simple but valuable advice on areas such as, how to check if you’re being hacked?

How to check if your system is up to date and performing well and how to check for obsolete users too.

But I think of most value was the topic of backup and protection. Here Mike Ryan presented with Eddie Chaffin of ABP Food Group and I always feel it valuable to learn how people have solved problems in real-life scenarios.

Mike opened with the case study of JLR and their effects of the cyber attack inflicted on the business last year – completely shutting down production for five weeks causing over £500m in losses and costs.

To mitigate risk, Mike put forward his perfect infrastructure that included FlashSystem SAN storage and FlashCopy.

The real-word example that Eddie is to use in 2026 was with the FlashSystem 5600. Just above entry level, this 24 core CPU system chewed through 30GB a second… the top spec 9600 moved at a whopping 86GB/s – think about it, in some instances that’s a businesses entire enterprise system flash copied in just a couple of seconds.

Is it expensive, well, yes it is, but not half as expensive as the situation in which faced JLR.

Now, lunch is always a treat at IBM and this year didn’t disappoint. The spread was a delight and a special mention to the fish pie, which was some of the best lunch time eating I’d done all year.

One final presentation I’d like to cover and keeping with the ‘business resilience’ theme, was on Power Virtual Server and the growing ecosystem that IBM is delivering.

Here, Tonny Bastiaans provided insight into how IBMs offering provides a 70% better total cost of ownership over AWS and Azure on IBM i but more than that, Power11 is available with the ability to decouple the OS from physical hardware for virtual serial number licensing.

Today, IBM have 1000+ clients and 24 worldwide datacenters with resilience baked into the offering to provide almost instant server crossover.

We (Proximity) even got a mention with our use of PowerVS for disaster recovery, in which we are now able to recover 50% faster, with optimised performance at 80% less cost.

There was a lot to unpack in his presentation and if you’re looking at virtual servers – this would be the place to start.

There was more packed into the day and if you stuck around until the end, you could have enjoyed a tour and demonstration of various IBM technology including spot the dog.

Pricing for IBM Bob

Now, we’ve all seen the hype around Project Bob… I’ve done a number of posts in the Updates in previous episodes. But what’s been less clear, is how much it would cost. Well, that is until now. Following the announcement, Nick Litten broke this down, and it’s worth understanding because for the majority of us, this is likely how AI tooling on IBM i is going to be consumed going forward. To read the full blog post from Nick Litten, click here.

So, Bob allows you to have a free trial with 40 BOBCOINS… I’ll get to those in a minute. Once they’ve been consumed or a month has elapsed, you have a choice of three tiers. First, Pro at $20 per month is a continuation of the 40 BOBCOIN model, so if you’re an occasional coder, a solo developer or a small shop, this may be the tier for you. Next is Pro+, this provides 160 BOBCOINS and may be the sweet spot for most IBM i shops while Ultra is $200 per user per month and provides 500 BOBCOINS, the tier for heavy coding and modernisation.

What are Bobcoins?

So, what are BOBCOINS? Bobcoins are essentially usage credits. Instead of just paying for the tool, you’re paying for the amount of AI work you actually use. Small tasks cost very little, but bigger jobs like code refactoring or modernisation use more coins. It’s a simple model, but it does mean AI becomes something you actively manage, not just switch on. So, Bobcoins act as a simplified way to measure AI consumption:

• Small tasks: 0.1–0.5 coins
• Code modernisation: 2–5 coins
• Complex workflows: higher usage

This effectively turns AI into a metered resource, rather than a fixed-cost tool.

It’s important to remember that project bob will not remove the need for IBM i expertise, no, instead, it’ll amplify it.

And with this pricing model, AI is becoming commercially structured in a way that directly ties cost to development output.

Once development becomes metered and scalable, the real question becomes, who’s managing it, controlling it, and making sure it delivers value?

That’s where the real opportunity sits.

And that’s it for this months update.

I’m Andrew Nicholson, and we’re Proximity, your application support, maintenance and development partners that are in your corner.

If you missed it, catch up on our February IBM i update.

Follow this link to access all the IBM i Update’s in one place.

Alternatively, if you’d like to receive the latest IBM i Update hot off the press to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter version on LinkedIn.

The post IBM i Update: March 2026 – Is COBOL the asbestos of programming languages? appeared first on Proximity.

In this edition, we’ll look at the 2026 results of the Fortra IBM i Marketplace survey and discuss what they mean and analyse the trends using the previous years’ data.

You can watch the video above or read the blog post below.

Demographics of the Fortra Marketplace Survey 2026

At the beginning of February, we enjoyed the release of the FORTRA 2026 IBM i Marketplace Survey.

This is the 12th edition, and this year surveyed over 360 IT professionals across multiple industries – the majority (22-23%) being Administrators, IT Managers and Others, with developers representing 16% of respondents and 13% at Director or VP level.

So, a good spread.

The global respondents were pretty much the same as the past couple of years, and again, were dominated by the USA and Canada.

In Europe, we’re up a couple of percent high than last year with a move to 23%, but still a considerable drop from the all-time highs in 2023. And the rest of the world remains at 15%.

Now, as last year, the astute amongst you will notice that the figure doesn’t add up to 100% but as before, this has to do with large multinationals responding.

A strong commitment to the IBM i platform

The survey found a strong commitment to the platform with those looking to increase their IBM i footprint at 19%, up 7% on 2024.

Retaining the status-quo is down a few points, and a continuing downturn was with companies staying on IBM i but migrating to cloud. Down from 13% in 2024 to 5% in 2026.

Now, this could be seen as positive news as businesses move from a ‘no change’ standpoint to furthering their investment in IBM i however, the caveat here is an increase in migration of all apps to a new OS or platform, up from 8% in 2025 to 12% this year.

Is the IBM i platform a good investment?

The positivity continues with 95% of respondents rightly thinking that IBM i continues to be a good investment for their business.

This has been bobbing in around this area for the past few years and we see this trend continuing with the added resilience and performance of the Power 11.

The percentage of the majority of core business applications running on the platform is up from 5% to 47% with a further 27% having half to three quarters of their applications on IBM i at the heart of their business.

Indeed, the 25-50% bracket is down 1% from last year and with the upturn of 5% within the ‘majority’ bracket, this suggesting a significant proportion of business workload is increasingly predominantly run on the IBM i.

Main development code languages on the IBM i

RPG continues to be the mainstay, followed by SQL, but both are slightly down on the year previous.

COBOL remains static at 16%.

No huge surprise here, due to its continued presence in the financial sector and its rock-solid reliability.

The modern ‘web’ languages continue to eclipse COBOL with a continuing uptake of Python plus continued good adoption of PHP and Node.js.

One interesting change was in Java however, which had a noticeable drop from 40% to 32 – one thing that Fortra noted was that it may be possible that respondents are not listing languages in which they are receiving AI assistance?

If correct, these are all good signs for modernisation.

Continuing with development, Apache retains its position as the top open-source development tool. Unsurprisingly GIT retains its popularity in second place and I would expect to see this trend continue in the coming years too.

The other big gain in 2026 is perhaps in the ‘others’ category as new and exciting open source tools are adopted to support modernisation and API development.

Skills gap overtakes Cybersecurity as #1 concern amongst IBM i professionals

But the highlight is always the top concerns for the IBM i enterprise and, for the first time in almost 10 years, Cybersecurity is NOT the number one concern amongst IBM i professionals.

The number one slot has been taken by IBM i Skills up nearly 10% from last year to 69%. To put that into context, last year Cybersecurity got 77% of the vote in 2025, this year, it drops down to 64% – so quite the pivot.

What this tells us is that the biggest risk isn’t hackers, it’s retiring developer.

So, before we close, some of the takeaway highlights from the survey. First is with the growing interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Not covered in my previous chart but this year, it ranked 5th in the concern ranking with 42% of the casting vote.

However, the bigger picture here is in the trend line.

Now, if you go back to 2024, this was at just 18%, so a massive leap of 24% in just two years. This demonstrates a legitimate interest in these technologies to support everyday business processes.

AI has moved from a curiosity to active planning where IBM i teams are thinking on how they can use AI, where it may fit and if they are prepared for it.

And some may be more prepared than others as 73% of IBM i systems run fully unattended after working hours.

This shows us that IBM i shops are already highly automated and while this may be with nightly batch processes, and scheduled jobs – it demonstrates that the IBM i is a strong platform to build automation within – AI can only help in this area too.

Trust and satisfaction maintain a high level with 95% of respondents believing that the IBM i gives them a better ROI than other platforms.

But the same people are saying that there is a gap in skills to support, maintain and develop the systems, with 69% of respondents listing IBM i skills as a top concern when planning their IT environment.

Indeed, the Skills Gap is the biggest takeaway in this year’s Fortra Marketplace Survey.

The fact that IBM i skills has overtaken cybersecurity as the number one concern… Well that’s a big moment for the platform.

What it tells us is that IBM i itself isn’t the risk, the challenge is finding people with the experience to support and modernise these systems as teams get smaller and developers retire.

And we’re seeing organisations respond in a few ways: investing in training, using AI tools to help new developers learn faster, improving automation… and increasingly, partnering with specialist managed service providers (such as Proximity) to provide continuity and resilience around their IBM i applications.

Because for many companies, the goal isn’t to replace IBM i but to make sure they’ve got the right skills around it for the long term.

And that’s it for this update and of the IBM i Marketplace Survey.

Follow the link here for the full survey as compiled by Fortra.

And for more like this and to subscribe to the IBM i Update, please see our blog on the proximity website and on LinkedIn too, but for now, I’m Andrew Nicholson, we’re Proximity your application support, maintenance and development partners that are in your corner.

All the best.

If you missed it, catch up on our December IBM i update.

Follow this link to access all the IBM i Update’s in one place.

Alternatively, if you’d like to receive the latest IBM i Update hot off the press to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter version on LinkedIn.

The post IBM i Update: February 2026 – Fortra Marketplace Survey 2026 results and trends appeared first on Proximity.

In this festive edition, we round-up the latest on Project Bob and at the end of 2025, provide a timely reminder on why IBM i is better than the other enterprise ecosystems.

You can watch the video above or read the blog post below…

An Update on Project Bob

If you’ve been following previous updates, you’ll already know about Project Bob.

But there has been a little movement in this space so, a quick update on what we’ve learned from the latest hands-on previews and IBM’s own commentary from earlier this month.

First, some insight from Gregory Simmons who was granted early access…

Now, one of the first observations was that Bob isn’t being delivered as a simple VS Code extension.

Instead, IBM has taken a fork of VS Code, which gives them far more control over how Bob behaves and evolves.

That’s a subtle but important shift from the Watson coding assistant, because it removes some of the limitations IBM has had with that earlier tooling.

From an early user perspective, Gregory explained that Bob can already pull in existing VS Code settings and extensions, which should help reduce friction for teams moving across and it feels like IBM is being very deliberate about not forcing developers to start from scratch.

Another new insight is how Bob handles coding standards and conventions. So, rather than hard-coding rules, Bob uses Markdown-based style guides that teams can define themselves.

That gives organisations a way to codify “how we do things here” and have Bob reinforce it consistently.

This could be particularly useful in mixed-experience teams.

There are also early signs of Bob beginning to understand application context, not just individual files.

In the preview, Bob was able to detect missing objects and even suggest placeholders, which hints at where things are heading once deeper IBM i integration arrives.

So, positive signs that suggest Bob may be closer than we think.

For the full article please see the post here on the IT Jungle

What exactly to expect from Project Bob?

Within another article, Alex Woddie spoke with IBM i’s Chief Architect Steve Will on what exactly to expect.

Now, in summary, what I read was that it’s clear that Bob is being designed to support the entire development lifecycle, not just to write code faster.

The emphasis on Bob is to help developers understand existing applications, explain legacy logic, refactor safely, and support modernisation – and this is good as it’s here in which many IBM i teams struggle today.

What’s particularly noteworthy is the expectation around iMode.

While Bob today is still limited in how deeply it can see into IBM i systems, iMode is expected to unlock native access to RPG, CL, database objects, and application structures.

That’s where Bob moves from “useful” to potentially transformational.

IBM has also confirmed that Bob is intended to supersede Watson Code Assist over time.

That signals a consolidation of IBM’s AI tooling around a platform-specific assistant, rather than generic AI being retrofitted onto IBM i.

Overall, the direction feels very deliberate.

This isn’t about chasing hype, it’s about building something that actually understands how IBM i environments really work and how it can make itself useful, throughout the development lifecycle.

Again, here’s the link to the the full article.

Why is the IBM i such a strong platform?

Alongside all the excitement around new tooling like Project Bob, at this festive time of year, it’s also worth stepping back and remembering why IBM i continues to be such a strong platform in the first place.

In his latest Mark’s Musings post on LinkedIn, Mark McDonnell makes the point that many of the negative perceptions around IBM i come from people who’ve never actually worked with it.

If your experience is limited to other platforms, it’s easy to assume IBM i is outdated, when in reality, it’s just designed very differently.

So in his article, Mark provided some timely reminders of what makes this platform great and I through, as it’s the holiday season, I’d share a summary with you…

One of the first things Mark highlights is integration. It’s baked in – on IBM i, the operating system, database, security, and workload management are all part of the dough that rise together to make our daily bread.

Now, all bread metaphors beside, this level of integration removes a lot of complexity that other ‘crusty’ platforms push back onto the application or infrastructure teams.

He also talks about reliability and availability, which is something long-time IBM i customers take almost for granted.

Businesses running IBM i systems often measure downtime in minutes per year, not hours or days, and that stability is incredibly valuable for core systems that the business depends on every single day.

Security is another big differentiator. IBM i’s object-level security and default lockdown model mean that many vulnerabilities seen elsewhere simply don’t exist in the same way. When security is baked into the platform rather than layered on later, it significantly reduces operational risk.

Finally, Mark touches on performance and efficiency.

IBM i is designed to handle high-volume transactional workloads extremely well, without needing armies of servers or complex tuning.

That efficiency is a big reason why many businesses quietly continue running IBM i, even while experimenting with other platforms around the edges.

Taken together, it’s a strong reminder that IBM i isn’t “surviving despite modern technology” – it’s still thriving because of its architecture.

And tools like Project Bob are really about making those strengths easier to access for today’s developers, not replacing them.

A timely reminder at this festive time that we work on the best platform on the planet – joy to the world!

Here’s the link to his LinkedIn post. I encourage you all to give Marks article a read in full, it’s a great winter warmer!

And that’s it for this edition of the IBM i Update and indeed for the update in 2025 – I do hope you’ve enjoyed all the articles from this year and look forward to providing more pertinent postings in 2026.

For more like this and previous episodes, please see our blog on the proximity website and on Linkedin too, but for now, a very Merry Christmas from me and all at Proximity, your application support, maintenance and development partners that are in your corner.

All the best for the holidays,

If you missed it, catch up on our November IBM i update. We’ve also got a summary of all the IBM i Updates published last year here.

Follow this link to access all the IBM i Update’s in one place.

Alternatively, if you’d like to receive the latest IBM i Update hot off the press to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter version on LinkedIn.

The post IBM i Update December 2025: An Update on Project Bob and the Power of IBM i appeared first on Proximity.

This month I’m reporting from the i-UG Wolverhampton conference, where the sessions, the conversations and the curry, did not disappoint!

The big takeaway? VS Code (Code for IBM i) is becoming hard to ignore.

I spoke with presenter Richard Moulton about the move away from green-screen and RDi, and with our own Dylan Goodacre-Taylor on what it’s like to come from Python/C++ into RPG using VS Code today.

If your team is weighing up whether to modernise its development tooling, this one is well worth a look.

You can watch the video above or read the blog post below…

iUG November 2025: The future is now

Earlier in November, I attended the last i-UG conference of the year in Wolverhampton.

The evening before the big day, delegates arrived at the smartly accommodated Mount Hotel and gathered in the expo hall for a cracker of a curry – a good opportunity to enjoy good company with like minded people.

In the morning, we kicked off with the obligatory bacon butties and after the ‘state of the nation’ update from the i-UG committee members, it was down to business with the keynote speech by Winnie Allen, the Executive Director of Product Management for IBM Power.

Winnie spoke how the, ‘future is now’ and their strategy for the AI era. For IBM i, this starts with Power 11 and introduces 0 planned downtime, ransomware detection in less than a minute and AI.

The latter involving their new Spire acceleration technology and (of course) Project Bob.

Winnie concluded the presentation by providing the four key future innovations and strategic focus.

These were to focus on automation and intelligence, improve security and the developer experience and investing in hybrid technologies to enhance flexibility and scalability – all very sensible.

IBM i roadmap and strategy moving forwards

Scott Forstie then took the reigns and presented the strategy and roadmap for IBM i and IBM continue their rock-solid release and support schedule that takes IBM i well into the next decade.

Enhancements continue to be influenced by the COMMON Europe Advisory Council [of whom were present at this very i-UG event], and the response to the IBM i Marketplace Survey – and if you’ve not completed this years survey, it’s now too late, but there’s always next year.

One thing that was apparent was that, these days, IBM are doing a lot more in keeping the community up to date with what they’re doing. Scott himself was celebrating his 100th episode of iSee, where he provides short demonstrations of tools and techniques.

But of course, the big announcement was with Project Bob and it’s objective to automate the mundane and augment the complicated. Now, I covered the release of Project Bob in the October edition of the IBM i Update – so for an overview on, ‘what’s it all about’ go take a look at that. But, there were a few new morsels for us to digest.

First, in summary, BOB will be an AI-powered integrated development environment and modernisation assistant. It supersedes the Watson Code Assistant for i and aims to become a software development assistant that’s integrated into a code editor.

It aims to understand and explain code, refactor and generate RPG and transform fixed format RPG to free form ILE too. In addition, it should be able to create unit tests – more functionality than Watson ever dreamed of.

For this, IBM has merged it’s AI assistant efforts on IBM i with its other Power counterparts. It’s being pitched as a “junior programmer” or AI development partner for IBM i, System z and AIX/Linux. Bob will rely on a combination of foundation models – IBM’s own Granite model that Watson was being developed on and Claude Anthropic.

How these will be combined is still unknown but should they resolve these differences, then the future looks… well, artificial. When will it be released?

No firm date has been announced yet and based upon the expanded functionality, it’ll be well into 2026 at the earliest.

VS Code for IBM i with Richard Moulton

Now, there were many interesting topics during the event, but I’d like to pick up on one particular presentation by Richard Moulton. Richard’s session was on VS Code and how to get the best from using this IDE within IBM i.

This session wasn’t for the newbie and assumed you had some basic familiarity with Code for i but even for the uninitiated, you would have got a lot from seeing the functionality and flexibility that VS Code brings to a developer… and he covered a lot, from layouts and minimaps to comparing source and source references, in his two hour session you quickly got the picture that VS Code is (to use the keynote speech title) ‘the future now’.

Afterwards, we sat down to dive deeper into why he believes VS Code is transforming the IBM i development experience and what advice he has for teams thinking about making the switch. I started by asking him what first attracted him to VS Code as an IBM i developer?

Richard: Over the years I’ve used pretty much every source editor that has come along — SEU, RDi, MI Workplace and others. About ten years ago I got into open-source languages, and when you’re working with things like Node, the natural environment is VS Code. At some point it just clicked: why not use VS Code for my IBM i development as well?

Andy: Was there a particular moment that tipped the decision?

Richard: Yes. For me personally, it was when RDi dropped Linux support — I’ve been using Linux as my main desktop for about 12 years. But it wasn’t only that. VS Code felt quicker, smoother and more intuitive. RDi is incredibly feature-rich and has capabilities VS Code doesn’t, but it can feel clunky. VS Code just gave me a cleaner experience.

Andy: Do you think VS Code helps IBM i teams attract newer developers?

Richard: Definitely. If a younger developer already uses VS Code for Node, Python, Ruby or TypeScript, then adding the Code for i extensions is a very natural progression. It makes IBM i development feel like part of the wider software world rather than a separate island.

Andy: Suppose someone wants to try VS Code for the first time — what’s the simplest route?

Richard: Just download it from Microsoft. Installation is fast and painless. Then look at the Code for i documentation — it’s a great starting point. I also highly recommend the Seiden Group’s resources. Their “Getting Started with VS Code” video series and their Code for Fridays sessions every couple of weeks are full of practical tips.

Andy: The community around VS Code seems very active.

Richard: It really is. It’s supportive too. There’s Zulip, GitHub discussions, Code for i sessions — if you get stuck, someone will always help.

Andy: Which extensions would you call essential for RPG developers?

Richard: The IBM i Development Pack in the VS Code Marketplace. It bundles around a dozen extensions — RPG syntax and linter support, DDS and CL language highlighting, and the DB2 for i extension so you can run SQL directly within VS Code.

Andy: And what about the big productivity wins?

Richard: My number one is multiple cursors. Editing or formatting several lines of code simultaneously saves huge amounts of time. After that, the RPG linter, which enforces coding standards automatically as you type, and Peek Definition, which shows everywhere a variable or field is referenced. Being able to view two parts of the same source file side-by-side is also incredibly useful.

Andy: Which features tend to impress RPG developers when they see VS Code for the first time?

Richard: First — how fast it installs and loads. You can be up and running in minutes. Second — compile feedback right inside the editor. You submit a compile, and if there’s an error, you click on it and VS Code jumps straight to the exact line. The source comparison view is another standout: you can compare versions of a source file with a Git-style diff without leaving the editor.

Andy: Do you think VS Code will become the dominant development environment for IBM i?

Richard: Yes, I do. IBM’s messaging points in that direction, and the community moves extremely quickly — much faster than the old product release cycles. When you request a feature or report an issue, you often see engagement within weeks.

Andy: After 36 years in RPG development, what excites you most about the future?

Richard: Project Bob — without a doubt. The ability to convert fixed-format to free-format, automatically generate unit tests, work locally and integrate everything with Git… that’s going to be huge for IBM i teams. Especially for smaller development teams, which are so common in this space. I really hope the pricing lands well, because it could be a real accelerator for modernisation.

Andy: Richard, thank you for taking the time to talk with the IBM i Update.

Richard: Thank you Andy — I really appreciate the opportunity.

And my thanks to Richard for sharing his time and thoughts. Should you ever get the chance to join Richard on one of his sessions at an i-UG event, please do so – he has 36 years worth of experience and insight and one of those key people in the IBM i community that’s forever pushing the envelope in development on the IBM i.

You can find out more about Richard and his business over on his website.

If you’d like to explore the tools and resources Richard mentioned, the following links are a great place to start:

Learning RPG in VS Code with Dylan Goodacre-Taylor

Now, while Richard’s interview gives us the perspective of a highly experienced RPG developer who moved to VS Code after decades on SEU and RDi, the next conversation offers a very different story.

Dylan Goodacre-Taylor is one of Proximity’s newest developers, joining the team with a background in Python, C and C++ – and no prior exposure to IBM i or RPG.

Unlike Richard, Dylan began his development journey in VS Code and later discovered RPG through it, giving us a fresh view of how modern tooling can make the platform more accessible to new talent.

I started by asking him, before working with RPG, what programming languages and environments was he familiar with?

Dylan: Mainly Python, plus some C and C++. I used Python in VS Code and C++ in Visual Studio for graphics work with OpenGL — so I was already used to modern development tooling.

Andy: When you found out you’d be working with IBM i and RPG, what were your first impressions?

Dylan: I was really intrigued. I’d never heard of IBM i or RPG before, so I Googled it and saw the classic green screens — which actually made me excited to see what it was all about.

Andy: You spent your early weeks doing RPG development in SEU. How did that feel, coming from VS Code?

Dylan: At first it felt like a lot of features were missing. Text overwriting instead of inserting, copy and paste working differently — it was all very unfamiliar. I’ve grown used to it now, but initially I did struggle.

Andy: Did the ability to use VS Code change how you felt about learning RPG?

Dylan: Definitely. I didn’t find out until about two months in that VS Code could be used for RPG development. I downloaded the extensions and gave it a try — and it worked really well. It made a big difference.

Andy: Do you think your VS Code background made SEU harder at first?

Dylan: I think so. You get used to things like syntax highlighting that instantly show variables, routines and structure. When that’s missing, learning a new language is tougher.

Andy: What surprised you most when learning RPG itself?

Dylan: How rigid it is compared to Python — defining sizes of packed numbers and so on. Starting in fixed format then moving into free format made a big difference. And honestly, I really enjoy coding in RPG now.

Andy: Which VS Code features helped you most when learning and writing RPG?

Dylan: Syntax highlighting, without a doubt — it makes code instantly more readable. The IBM i Development Pack brings around 12 extensions, including linting, RPG/CL support and DB2 for i so you can execute SQL straight from VS Code. The outline view and mini-map are great for navigating large source files.

Andy: Do you use any AI tools in VS Code?

Dylan: I’ve used Copilot. It’s hit-and-miss for answering RPG questions, but it’s very good at predicting the next block of code — which speeds things up.

Andy: If a long-time SEU user is thinking about trying VS Code, what would your advice be?

Dylan: Just open a few scripts in VS Code and try it. I think the benefits become obvious immediately — you can interact with the code more smoothly, see the structure visually, and navigate much faster.

Andy: Dylan, thanks for sharing your experience. It’s really valuable to hear the perspective of someone who came into IBM i via modern tooling rather than the traditional route.

Dylan: No problem – happy to help.

And my thanks for Dylan, one of our newest members of the Proximity development team for taking his time to give his thoughts on VS Code, coming from a different direction than Richard having schooled in Python and C and now being a convert to RPG having being mentored by some of the best coders in the industry at Proximity HQ in Leeds.

So, these two interviews reveal the shift happening across the platform.

For experienced RPG developers, VS Code offers modern tooling without abandoning IBM i. For new talent, VS Code makes IBM i approachable, familiar and enjoyable. And for companies, VS Code helps future-proof development by aligning IBM i with mainstream developer workflows.

In summary, whether your developers are long-time RPG experts or new graduates who grew up with Python and VS Code, the destination is the same – and that destination is VS Code on IBM i.

PTF Update November 2025: Security Vulnerabilities

And all the PTFs revolve (unusually) around security updates. First we have multiple vulnerabilities in the Java SDK that affects the WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Application Server Liberty.

Also, sticking with WebSphere, there is an additional vulnerability within SMTP injection due to Jakarta Mail – again, due to Java.

We also have a BIND issue with accepting records with untrusted data, and finally there was a Remote Code Execution vulnerability issue too.

IBM recommends installing the 5770-JV1 PTF Group to receive all the latest PTF(s)

And that’s it for this edition of the IBM i Update. For now, I’m Andrew Nicholson, we’re Proximity, the IBM i partners that are in your corner. We’ll see you next time.

If you missed it, catch up on our October IBM i update. We’ve also got a summary of all the IBM i Updates published last year here.

Follow this link to access all the IBM i Update’s in one place.

Alternatively, if you’d like to receive the latest IBM i Update hot off the press to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter version on LinkedIn.

The post IBM i Update November 2025: Modernising Development Tooling on the IBM i with VS Code appeared first on Proximity.

But what is Project Bob?

We explore the replacement for the Watson X Coding Assistant for i and explain the differences.

You can watch the video above or read the blog post below…

What is Project Bob on the IBM i?

Project Bob converges both the Watson Coding Assistant (WCA) for i’s RPG and the System Z’s Code Assistant for COBOL (that is primarily there to help COBOL shops port their applications to Java on the mainframe).

So, rather than maintaining separate tools for IBM i and System Z, the effort is consolidated under Project Bob’s umbrella.

This is a sensible approach for IBM, a business that is under pressure from its shareholders.

But what does this mean that all efforts achieved to date on the Watson X Code assistant for i?

Well, the good news is that WCA for i isn’t being discarded altogether, some of its learning, architectural work, and code/training assets may be absorbed into Bob’s ecosystem…

But primarily, it seems like the architectural will be based around Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet. That’s the LLM that was underpinning the System Z coding assistant, while WCA for i was using IBM’s Granite.

How these two will reconcile the models remains to be seen. But, even beyond that, the convergence into one, unified ‘bobby-assistant’ has its challenges.

For example, the main objectives behind each assistant differ.

While the Watson X Code Assistant for i was… well, just that – a generative code assistant, the tool for Z was geared more towards converting COBOL to Java.

So, while having one unified tool across platforms makes sense from a business perspective, you can see that putting these two together isn’t going to be solved by just stitching the two garments together.

No. Threads will be need to be unpicked, remeasured, recut and tailored to make the metaphoric coding clothing wearable, usable and durable.

What to expect from Project Bob?

Now, Project BOB was introduced to the masses earlier in October at TechXchange 2025 in Orlando.

Here, Neel Sundaresan, General Manager of Automation and AI, provided a real-time demonstration of Bob fixing Java code.

I’ve included some ‘highlights’ of the demo in the video above but for the full presentation and demonstration, please see the link here: Watch the full Project Bob presentation

It was impressively intuitive to use.

So much so that even I could have made the change (and that’s saying something!).

What they also demonstrated was the ability to lift Java 8 to Java 17, to do Java framework migrations.

However, there wasn’t much reported on regarding RPG or COBOL at the event.

But post-event, IT Jungle reported more on what the IBM i community is to expect from the initial release of the product.

And its functionality exceeds that which was originally scoped for the Watson Code Assistant for i.

You’ll remember that these were limited to three core functions – AI-powered code explanation, code generation, and test case generation.

And, out of those three functions, only ‘code explanation’ had been delivered as a preview.

Now, contrast that with Project Bob.

First, code understanding will be expanded beyond RPG with CL, DDS and SQL included.

It’ll explain code graphically with diagrams and drill into functionality.

You’ll be able to refactor code and create reusable procedures. The generative ability remains, but will be expanded outside of RPG.

Speaking of RPG, you’ll have the ability to uplift old RPG II and III to modern ILE, plus convert embedded SQL. And on testing, you’ll be able to test down to individual isolated components. So, a big boost to functionality over its precursor.

However, with the additional functionality and convergence of the existing tools, this is going to take some time.

When will Project Bob be released on the IBM i?

And so, while some were looking forward to the WCA on i in the immediate future, all clocks have been reset and there are currently no timelines for delivery.

Should you wish to join the limited customer preview, then there is a waiting list. Join the waiting list

So, super exciting times are ahead… we’ll have to wait a little longer but as things progress, I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop.

Complete the 2026 IBM i Marketplace Survey

The IBM i Marketplace Survey is open… but not for too much longer!

So, this is a quick reminder to complete the survey.

You can do so using the link below – it’ll take less time than a tea break to complete, and your input will help gauge the state of the platform and guide the direction for development and the future of the platform too!

So, I would warmly encourage you to grab a bourbon or digestive biscuit, click the link and complete the questionnaire: Complete 2026 IBM i Marketplace Survey

And that’s it for this edition of the IBM i Update. For now, I’m Andrew Nicholson, we’re Proximity, the IBM i partners that are in your corner. We’ll see you next time.

If you missed it, catch up on our September IBM i update. We’ve also got a summary of all the IBM i Updates published last year here.

Follow this link to access all the IBM i Update’s in one place.

Alternatively, if you’d like to receive the latest IBM i Update hot off the press to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter version on LinkedIn.

The post IBM i Update October 2025: What is Project Bob on the IBM i? appeared first on Proximity.

We also have a look at report from Kyndryl on the state of modernisation and discuss the ROI.

And finally, it’s a call to action to the IBM i community as I discuss the launch of the IBM i marketplace survey with IBM i champion and Fortra stalwart Mike Davison.

You can watch the video above or read the blog post below…

Support Ending for IBM i 7.4 on 30th September 2026

If you’re on IBM i 7.4, then support for this OS release officially ends on the 30th September 2026.

Before that, as of April 30, 2026, IBM i 7.4 will be withdrawn from marketing. That means you won’t be able to buy any new licenses for 7.4 or its associated LPARs after that date.

So, what does this mean for you?

Well, if you have a Power8, 7.4 is the last release that can be run on that server and you will need to plan for an upgrade to a later Power server.

If you’re on a Power 9, it’s time to update to 7.5… but beyond that, for OS 7.6 and any future releases, you’ll need a Power10 or 11.

Now, if you’re behind on your upgrade strategy, then support can be purchased by way of a service extension. However, in the past, these extensions have been offered at twice the cost of standard support.

So, if you’re still on IBM i 7.4, now is less “you might want to think about upgrading” and more “you really need to map a path forward.”

The clock is running, but you’ve got enough time to plan carefully.

Upgrades are never zero-pain, but they’re far cheaper and safer when you don’t leave them to the last minute.

The message from the IBM i Update? Don’t be caught off guard and do prepare accordingly.

Comparing Lifecycles of AIX, Linux, and IBM i

One item I thought about when writing this article was, ‘I wonder how IBM i stacks up against its Power stablemates when comparing lifecycles’.

And the results surprised me.

When it comes to end of support, IBM i is a bit different from the other Power operating systems.

Each release is supported for around seven years, but here’s the catch, upgrades are often tied to the hardware.

For example, 7.4 is the last version that runs on Power8, so moving forward usually means upgrading both the OS and the server.

Compare that with AIX, which gives you a longer 10 to 12 years of support and more flexibility to stay on the same hardware.

And then there’s Linux, Red Hat, where you get a 10 year support model, but you also have the flexibility to run this OS outside of the Power ecosystem.

In a nutshell, IBM i upgrades are big milestone events involving both software and hardware changes.

AIX and Linux on the other hand, may need more intermittent hand-holding but without the ‘once in a generation’ upheaval.

Good news from the Kyndryl Modernisation Report

Now, let’s talk modernisation. I’ve been looking at the Kyndryl Mainframe Modernisation Report, which was covered recently in IT Jungle.

And while the report focuses on mainframes, a lot of the findings apply directly to IBM i too.

Here are some key takeaways…

Modernisation costs are down

First, modernisation costs are coming down while the return on investment is going. The average cost of modernisation projects dropped nearly 20% year-over-year, while projected returns have soared above 300%. For IBM i shops, this suggests modernisation is becoming both more affordable and more beneficial.

Phased approaches becoming more popular

Phased approaches are becoming more popular than “big bang” transformations. The general feeling is that there’s less appetite for wholesale, all-in migrations that don’t realise results for many months or even years; instead, organisations are adopting a more incremental, approaches – delivering pieces as individual projects, delivering achievements quicker but with the flexibility to ramp-up or down depending upon the business climate.

AI is a key driver

AI and automation are playing a big role in modernisation, helping with code analysis and testing. Tools like X-Analysis from Fresche and the IBM Watsonx Code Assistant are already starting to make their mark on modernisation projects.

Skills shortages remain a real issue

Skills shortages remain a challenge, both on mainframes and IBM i. More organisations are turning to specialist partners and managed services, like ourselves, to bridge the gap.

Workload selectivity

And finally, workload selectivity: mainframe customers are keeping their core business logic on-platform – it’s proven and reliable. However, newer developments and cloud are integrated from off platform.

The 2026 Forta Marketplace Survey now open!

One of the biggest events in the IBM i calendar every year is the release of the Fortra IBM i Marketplace Survey. It’s a chance for our community to really take stock of where we are, our outlook into the years ahead plus, our greatest concerns too.

This year, the 2026 edition of the survey has just launched, and I spoke with IBM i Champion and Fortra stalwart, Mike Davison and discussed why this matters, and why your participation is so important.

Andy Nicholson: Mike, welcome back to the IBM i Update. The 2026 Fortra IBM i Marketplace Survey has just been launched, and it’s become a key reference point for the community over the years. Why do you think it’s so important for IBM i shops to get involved and contribute their voice?

Mike Davison: Hi Andy, thanks for having me back. Great question. IBM actually uses this survey heavily in their presentations worldwide. Alongside user group feedback, the results help shape the direction of the IBM i operating system. I’ve seen this firsthand at COMMON and other user group meetings where IBM leaders present slides showing the top concerns from the survey and explain how they’re addressing them. That’s why it’s so important for IBM i shops everywhere to take part, it ensures their voice is heard at the right levels within IBM.

Andy Nicholson: So, who are the right people within an organisation to complete the survey? Is it mainly aimed at C-level leaders, or can developers and IT managers get involved too?

Mike Davison: Anyone involved with IBM i can take part, developers, admins, infrastructure architects, IT managers, budget holders, and anyone working with the system day to day. We really want this year’s survey to be global and not so North America-centric. That’s why, for the first time, we’ve released German and Spanish language versions. Hopefully this encourages even more people worldwide to participate and have their voices heard.

Andy Nicholson: In recent years, security has always been the top concern. Looking ahead to the 2026 edition, do you think that trend will continue? And what other areas do you expect to emerge as hot topics?

Mike Davison: Based on the data from previous years, my prediction is that security will once again be the number one concern. The landscape keeps evolving, and businesses are constantly fighting against new threats.

Number two, I believe, will be skills shortages. This issue has been creeping up the rankings and is becoming a real concern. We’re seeing more companies offshoring system administration simply because they can’t find the skills locally.

And finally, modernisation. It has consistently been near the top of the list and will remain there, as many organisations are still struggling to achieve it.

Andy Nicholson: I think I’d agree with your top three, security, skills, and modernization, but perhaps AI could creep in as well. We’ll see when the results are published in early 2026. Before we wrap up, Mike, how long should people expect to spend completing the survey?

Mike Davison: Honestly, grab a coffee and a biscuit and you’ll be done in about five minutes.

Andy Nicholson: Perfect. I’ll share the survey link in the video description and in the newsletter. Mike, thank you again for joining me on the IBM i Update.

Mike Davison: You’re very welcome, Andy. Please share it far and wide – we want a massive response this year.

A big thank you to Mike for joining me today, and of course to Fortra for continuing to run the Marketplace Survey — it really has become a cornerstone for the IBM i community.

If you haven’t already, make sure you take a few minutes to complete the survey – it only takes around 10 minutes, and your input helps build a clearer picture of the platform’s future. You can find the 2026 Fortra Marketplace Survey here.

And that’s it for this edition of the IBM i Update. For now, I’m Andrew Nicholson, we’re Proximity, the IBM i partners that are in your corner. We’ll see you next time.

If you missed it, catch up on our August IBM i update. We’ve also got a summary of all the IBM i Updates published in 2024 here.

Follow this link to access all the IBM i Update’s in one place.

Alternatively, if you’d like to receive the latest IBM i Update hot off the press to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter version on LinkedIn.

The post IBM i Update September 2025: Support ending for IBM i 7.4 appeared first on Proximity.

You can watch the video above or read the blog post below…

Why the IBM i is more modern than you think

If you’ve spent any time in the IBM i world, you’ll know it’s a bit like that trusty old Volvo estate your uncle still drives… it’s solid, dependable, has all the latest safety features… but everyone assumes it’s from 1993. The reality? IBM i is very much alive, quietly powering banking systems, manufacturing plants, and supply chains across the globe.

And it’s still evolving. just not with flashy TikTok videos.  In a recent article on the Four Hundred, Alex Woodie discussed the pros and cons of IBM i as described by real user review on G2 – the online web community for those wishing to learn more on enterprise IT software.  Here, he discovered what people love about it, and what makes them sigh into their coffee too.

The Good: What people love about IBM i

So, why do people love IBM i?

1. Reliability That’s Borderline Boring

IBM i’s uptime is ridiculous, but in a good way. We’re talking, “near 100% uptime with no known viruses in the wild” levels of stability. One reviewer said their IBM i box has been running the same app for 20 years without failure. That’s not just reliability; that’s “set it and forget it” levels of stability.

2. Security You Can Brag About

While other platforms set alerts and are open to daily attacks, IBM i just quietly shrugs off most threats. Access control, encryption, and integrated security features make it a favourite in industries where data breaches equal career-ending phone calls.

3. The Database That’s Part of the Furniture

Db2 for i isn’t just bolted on, it’s baked into the operating system. That means fewer moving parts, tighter performance, and fewer “Who’s responsible for this server again?” conversations. Developers on Reddit have called it “bulletproof” for uptime and data integrity.

4. Modern(ish)

Yes, it still runs RPG, but also supports SQL, REST APIs, Python, PHP, Node.js, and a few other trendy languages. It’s a bit like your dad finally learning how to use WhatsApp… While, not quite Gen Z on SnapChat, we can still facetime with the rest of them.

The not-so-great: Criticisms of IBM i

So, all good right… well, let’s take a look at the not-so-great bits before we start high-fiving ourselves.

1. The Legacy Stigma

Mention “AS/400” and watch younger developers’ eyes glaze over. The green-screen image is still burned into people’s minds, even though the modern UI can be much more, well, modern. It’s more of a branding problem than a tech one – but a problem that is real and a problem that remains.

2. Learning Curve: Steep and Slippery

If you’re brand new to IBM i, expect to climb a hill… in the rain… while carrying RDi manuals. The tools can be powerful, but they’re not (yet) as instantly friendly as a browser-based low-code platform.

3. Good Talent is Like Unicorn Dust

Finding skilled IBM i professionals is getting harder, partly because many are retiring and not enough new blood is coming in. But thankfully there are reliable managed services available (such as our good-selves, Proximity) who can swoop in like the caped crusader when the bat signal lights up the night sky.

4. Not Cheap for the Little Guys

For small businesses, licensing and maintenance costs can feel steep. On the flip side, the total cost of ownership can be lower over time, but that’s a story for another day in another update (with another coffee).

Why does all this matter?  Well, for organisations running business-critical systems, IBM i is like the reliable team member who never calls in sick, knows everything about the job, and doesn’t need babysitting. But to keep it relevant, companies need to modernise the way they present., develop and support it – updating interfaces, adopting modern languages, and investing in onboarding or equivalent services.

So, while IBM i might not make headlines like AI or quantum computing, it’s quietly running the world behind the scenes. In tech, flashy doesn’t always mean better, and sometimes a “steady-Eddy” rather than ‘flash-Harry” is the exactly what you need.

A look at the Power11 launch

Now, only a month ago, we enjoyed the launch of the Power11.  And with four weeks behind us, let’s see how the press and markets reacted to the launch

I think it’s fair to say that the response to the launch was well received – tech writers and analysts appreciate Power11’s strong emphasis on uptime, AI inferencing, and security. However, there’s a sense that the innovation leans evolutionary rather than revolutionary, somewhat dampening broader excitement.  Picking out four press articles here:

Reuters characterised the launch positively. They highlighting energy efficiency, reliability, AI integration, and simplicity for enterprises deploying AI. However, it also stressed that the market reaction was fairly muted, with neither market frenzy or disbelief. Reuters

Tom’s Hardware praised the robustness, particularly around ransomware resilience.  But flagged that the one-minute alert guarantee covers only detection, not remediation, indicating cautious praise with attention to detail. Tom’s Hardware

TechRadar took a strongly positive tone – celebrating Power11’s architecture, hybrid cloud readiness, quantum safe encryption, and performance gains.  Delivering a clear thumbs-up from the online tech media company. TechRadar

The Times of India emphasised IBM’s smart positioning with Power11 enriching enterprise AI inference without trying to go head-to-head with Nvidia’s, reinforcing the messaging of sensible specialisation. The Times of India

A conversation with David Spurway on Power11

To expand on the market sentiment on the Power11 launch, I took time with David Spurway and discussed his thoughts on the launch, the future of IBM i Power and its place within the enterprise, with AI and ever expanding security concerns…

Andy Nicholson: David, thank you for joining the IBM i Update. You’re an AI and Security Principal at IBM and you speak all over the world on Power. In the past few weeks, we saw a major announcement, the release of Power 11- and you were there at the event. To start with, can you tell me about the buzz around the launch and the response from attendees and the press?

David Spurway: Yes, I had the pleasure of being at the global announcement. This was actually one of the first we’ve done in Europe, rather than in the US. We were in Munich, the room was full, and I was part of a demo area showing off new capabilities. There was a real buzz – lots of questions, great interaction.

We also had a large remote audience, around 3,000 people joined online, with nearly 90% staying engaged. That’s a strong indication we’re heading in the right direction.

Andy Nicholson: Now, there were many technical details released about Power 11, but before we get into those, how would you describe the release to someone outside the IBM ecosystem?

David Spurway: This time we took a slightly different approach. Instead of looking at Power in isolation, we asked “What happens when we bring different parts of IBM together into an end-to-end solution?”

We looked at how Power integrates with software and storage, and how that combination can strengthen cybersecurity. We built from the idea of the ‘full stack’ understanding what challenges customers face, and how we can deliver solutions as part of a wider IBM package that’s accessible and genuinely useful.

Andy Nicholson: That’s a great overview, thank you David. From a technical standpoint, what are the standout innovations in Power 11 compared to Power 10 in performance, security, or AI?

David Spurway: All of the above. One key area we focused on was downtime. IBM Power is highly reliable, and unplanned outages are rare. But customers told us planned outages, maintenance, patching, updates… were all a real pain point. Previously, you had multiple touchpoints and processes to manage.  With Power 11, we’ve streamlined this. In some cases, we can now achieve zero planned downtime. Imagine pressing a single button to manage the whole patching process, with no disruption to services.

We’ve also simplified raising support calls. Traditionally, you needed in-depth skills to gather logs and submit the right data. Now, with a single button on the HMC, you can upload everything directly to IBM Support. Even my son, during a work experience week, was able to do this.

And of course, there are improvements in cybersecurity, AI capabilities, energy efficiency, and overall performance. It’s a broad set of advancements delivered at once.

Andy Nicholson: That’s incredible. And if we put the business lens on – say an organisation is on Power 9 or earlier, what’s the strongest case for upgrading now?

David Spurway: The first reason is simple: you don’t want to be running on unsupported hardware. As one of our IBM Fellows once said, “Software eventually works, and hardware eventually breaks.”

Security is another major driver. Cybersecurity is front of mind for every business. To stay protected, you need access to the latest patches—both hardware and OS. Older systems can’t always support these, which leaves you exposed.

And there are financial benefits too: lower energy consumption, reduced software costs, and lower support charges. Upgrading not only keeps you safe, but it can also save you money.

Andy Nicholson: Thank you, David. Now, one of the big talking points for Power 11 is its AI readiness. Could you walk us through what that means for IBM i customers?

David Spurway: Absolutely. AI is everywhere right now, everyone’s talking about it, from boardrooms to the pub. With Power 10 and Power 11, you can run generative AI directly on the platform. Earlier generations don’t have the necessary hardware inside the servers.

We’ve been demonstrating how AI can sometimes “hallucinate” or give outdated answers. But when you connect it to your data on IBM Power using retrieval augmented generation (RAG), you can trust the responses—they come from reliable, up-to-date sources.

For example, we’ve built IT operations chatbots that can answer questions like “What errors are showing on my Power system?” by pulling directly from documentation. IBM i plays a key role here too. It can run machine learning directly, provide critical business data, and integrate into larger AI workflows.

And then there’s Spire, coming later this year. Think of it as a “get bigger” button—when your AI workloads scale, Spire gives you accelerator power without complex integration. Sometimes it’s as simple as changing a single line of code to unlock faster performance.

Andy Nicholson: IBM also talks about hybrid AI, blending symbolic, dual, and generative AI. What does that look like in practice on IBM i?

David Spurway: Hybrid AI means using different types of AI where they fit best. For instance, we’re working on an insurance demo where a chatbot can guide a customer through raising a claim. The generative AI interprets the request, while the IBM i database handles the back-end processing.

Or in IT operations: the AI chatbot queries what’s happening inside your Power system and provides answers. This can run entirely on-premises, in hybrid cloud, or in both, depending on the use case. The key point is: IBM i isn’t left sitting in a legacy corner. It’s an active part of the modern AI conversation.

Andy Nicholson: That makes sense. And where do you see the biggest opportunities for AI on IBM i?

David Spurway: One exciting area is bridging the skills gap. IBM’s Code Assistant for i will use generative AI to describe RPG code in plain language. This helps both executives who want to understand what the code does, and new RPG developers who need to learn quickly. Over time, it will also generate code.

Beyond that, IBM i can feed into larger AI ecosystems—whether for business process automation, analytics, or data fabrics. The important point is IBM i becomes part of a modern, integrated solution.

Andy Nicholson: Excellent. Now, sustainability is high on every board’s agenda. How does Power 11 address energy efficiency?

David Spurway: We’ve designed Power 11 to deliver equal or better performance while using less energy than previous generations.

There’s also a feature where you can lower energy consumption by around 30% with just a small drop in performance—around 10%. For example, you could schedule this during quiet periods, like weekends, reducing costs and supporting your sustainability goals.

And there’s more to come—future generations will go even further in this space.

Andy Nicholson: That’s a win for both the environment and the bottom line. Looking ahead, what do you think the IBM i platform will look like in five years?

David Spurway: I see hardware, software, and AI continuing to evolve together. IBM Research is constantly innovating at the silicon level, and we can integrate those advancements into servers and operating systems.

AI will increasingly handle the “dull” tasks—constantly monitoring logs, detecting unusual activity, flagging potential cyberattacks—without fatigue or distraction.

And IBM i will keep evolving too. The roadmap stretches well beyond 2030, with many innovations still to come. The core idea of IBM i—an integrated, forward-looking system—remains strong.

Andy Nicholson: And finally, for customers planning their strategy now, what’s your one piece of advice for making the most of Power 11 and IBM’s AI tools?

David Spurway: If you’re on older hardware—Power 9 or earlier—it’s time to move forward. To take advantage of AI, you need Power 10 or 11.

Stay current with both hardware and operating system levels. Work with IBM or our business partners to plan your path, and explore which AI capabilities will actually benefit your business. IBM i will be a vital part of that journey.

Andy Nicholson: Excellent advice as always, David. Thank you so much for your time, and for being such a passionate advocate and resource for the IBM Power and IBM i community. It’s always a pleasure.

David Spurway: My pleasure – thank you.

My thanks to David for taking time to speak with me.

And that’s a wrap for your August 2025 edition of the IBM i Update. I do hope you enjoyed this newsletter and you’ve also had time to enjoy a relaxing holiday too.

If you missed it, catch up on our July IBM i update. We’ve also got a summary of all the IBM i Updates published in 2024 here.

Follow this link to access all the IBM i Update’s in one place.

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