Current Blog Series: Answers to the top 10 Questions CIOs face when considering an IBM i Digital Transformation Project
We recently launched a new blog series. Over the next couple of months, we will be discussing the Top 10 questions CIOs face when considering the Digital Transformation of their IBM i application portfolio. Following is the seventh in the ten-part series.
Question 7: Why not keep my RPG applications on the IBM i and use Webservices, APIs, and front-end technologies to modernize?
Previously in this series, we have discussed the urgent need to modernize legacy IBM i applications to operate and compete in the post-pandemic economy. We have also addressed the fact that there is no "silver bullet" technology available that fully automates the process. As CIO's, your critical mandate for the digital transformation of legacy applications is your most daunting yet unavoidable challenge.
There are three approaches available for truly modernizing your IBM i application portfolio: replacing your applications with off-the-shelf SaaS solutions, rewriting the applications from scratch on a modern platform, or migrating them using automation to the equivalent functionality in a modern language on a modern platform. Though some options are better than others, all these options are expensive and time-consuming.
Wouldn't it be cheaper, faster, and safer to simply leave IBM i applications on the i and use web services, APIs, and front-end technologies for modernization?
Sounds great, but there are many significant drawbacks to this tempting strategy.
One of the IBM i platform's best features is the ease of use provided by its fully integrated technology that enables the platform to be managed by application "generalists." Distinct technical specialists are not necessary to support the database, programming, interactive processing, batch processing, performance tuning, communications, and security functions on a traditional IBM i platform.
The introduction of a potpourri of piecemeal, incremental, and disparate technologies would significantly increase your application ecosystem's complexity. Moreover, this method would silo your technical staff into discreet, separate technical archetypes with little understanding of the code their teammates develop and support.
The complexity created would further challenge you to recruit, retain, and manage resources with various new specialties and expand your already crippling technical debt.
Perhaps, worst of all, it does nothing to address the alarming and dwindling shortage of RPG developers available to keep your critical legacy systems up and running.
Most IBM i shops have deployed front end, emerging technologies for customer and public-facing functions to secure their modern, technology-enabled brand. To avoid the challenge of addressing the enormous code base of mission-critical applications on the IBM i, many organizations have modernized by deploying web services, APIs, or front-end UI tools to take advantage of some of today's cloud and emerging technologies. Few have entirely transformed their IBM i application portfolio to a modern, native platform that seamlessly integrates their critical operational data with powerful, emerging technologies.
This disconnect has created a burgeoning demand for expert data analysts to manually comb through the enormous amount of unstructured and disparate data produced by emerging technologies in an effort to provide the accurate, meaningful, business context required for effective decision support. These expensive and time-consuming manual processes greatly diminish the potential return on investment of these new technologies.
Until critical legacy IBM i systems are completely transformed to a native, modern platform, your organization will not realize the full potential of its greatest strategic imperative - true digital transformation.
#CIOs #digitaltransformation #modernization #migration #criticalinfrastructure #enterprisetechnology #ETS #enterprisetransformationspecialists
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