Talsco Weekly: Hidden RPG Talent

Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

IBM i Brief: 💼 Izzi launches to acquire IBM i software companies. 💰 IBM Power eyes $2B annual revenue milestone. 📈 IBM reports strong Q4 earnings, AI momentum.
AI: 📋 IBM is executing it’s AI Playbook. 🖥️ IBM plans AI-ready mainframe launch.
Development: 💻 Andy Youens launches comprehensive RPG bitwise series. 🧑‍💻 RPG leads development on IBM i in 2025.
Hiring: 🎓Hidden RPG Talent: Train Your Own In-House Experts.
Vendor: 🔍 Transform your IBM i monitoring landscape.

IBM i Brief

💼 Izzi launches to acquire IBM i software companies

Is this just what the IBM i market needs?

I have felt for a long time that the IBM i market is in a tipping point of sorts, in fact, as I see it, another Golden Age.

A new venture called Izzi Software, backed by private equity firms, aims to acquire smaller IBM i and System z software vendors with $2-10M annual revenue. Led by former Rocket Software executives, Izzi plans to invest in and grow acquired companies rather than “strip and flip.” The company has already acquired mainframe debugging software maker ColeSoft and plans more IBM i acquisitions in coming months.

On thing is for sure, Izzi seems to have a pulse on IBM i and Mainframe market, with a keen understanding of the culture and community that drives it.

That’s refreshing.

💰 IBM Power eyes $2B annual revenue milestone IBM’s Power Systems hardware business grew 3.2% to $1.59 billion in 2024, showing steady growth after bottoming out in 2020. With Power11 systems launching this year and potential GenAI adoption among IBM i, AIX, and SAP HANA customers, analysts suggest the platform could surpass $2 billion annually in the coming years. 📈 IBM reports strong Q4 earnings, AI momentum The latest on IBM reveals significant developments, primarily the strong earnings report, that exceeded expectations and the strategic emphasis on AI, driving shares up 8% in premarket trading.

AI

📋 IBM is executing it’s AI Playbook

IBM’s recent investor meeting in NYC showcased their strategic focus on AI, hybrid cloud, and enterprise integrations. IBM is positioning itself as a key player in the AI transformation, leveraging their extensive enterprise footprint and install base.

IBM has been sharpening the saw, positioning itself as an integrator and a “picks and shovels” provider in the AI wave. And they’ve got a massive install base, enterprise-heavy footprint that’s the key to winning in this AI transformation.

🖥️ IBM plans AI-ready mainframe launch

IBM is preparing to release a new mainframe system optimized for AI workloads by mid-2025. IBM infrastructure solutions will enable clients to process AI workloads closer to their enterprise data, suggesting a strategic focus on integrating AI capabilities with existing enterprise systems.

We are certainly seeing this trickle down into the IBM i ecosystem with various projects revolving around Granite LLM.

🤖 Granite: A New Code Generation Model

Granite is a new series of AI models designed for code-related tasks like bug fixing, code explanation, and documentation. Trained on 116 programming languages, these models have shown top performance compared to other open source solutions.

Here is a video on how Granite LLM works.🎥

Development

💻 Andy Youens launches comprehensive RPG bitwise series

A new five-chapter blog series on PowerWire dives deep into packed fields and bitwise operations in RPG Free. The series promises to cover everything from BCD storage efficiency to JSON conversions, with practical code examples throughout. Aimed at both veteran and novice developers, it focuses on essential concepts for modern RPG applications and JSON-based integrations.

Chapter One: The article covers how packed fields store numeric data efficiently in RPG, using Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) format with practical examples showing how digits and signs are stored in nibbles.

🧑‍💻 RPG leads development on IBM i in 2025 According to Fortra’s 2025 IBM i Marketplace Survey, RPG remains the dominant programming language at 91% adoption. Python emerged as the leading open source language at 26% usage, surpassing PHP. Notable growth in Git adoption, jumping to 29%, signals increasing DevOps practices in IBM i shops. Traditional technologies like SQL, CL, and Java continue strong showings in the top tier.

Hiring

🎓Hidden RPG Talent: Train Your Own In-House Experts

If you ask your fellow RPG developers how they became an RPG developer, you will find that a large percentage of them did not start their careers out in IT.

It has only been over the last 20 years or so that there is a perception that to be in IT, you have to have a degree in it.

Furthermore, organizations have relied on colleges and universities to produce the next generation of workers, no matter what the skill set is.

This reliance on traditional education paths has created a blind spot—organizations often overlook the potential of developing talent from within their own ranks.

If you are in an IBM i shop, there is a good chance you have RPG developers who are close to retirement. As you know, we don’t believe that companies need to panic just because of RPG retirements, but we do believe they need to prepare. The RPG developer is an asset to any IBM i shop and is essential to the future of any organization that relies on RPG applications.

Current employees are the most valuable. They understand your business processes, company culture, and systems are prime candidates for transitioning into RPG development roles.

It’s folks like this that will give your IBM i shop the bench strength that it needs.

The key is to develop a comprehensive hiring strategy that includes:

Identifying potential candidates from various departments
Creating structured training programs
Pairing newcomers with experienced internal and external developers

The time to act is now - while creating and implementing a talent development strategy requires coordination, the payoff is well worth the effort, and there are more straightforward options for hiring and training than you might expect.

Interested in learning more?

Join Carol Woodbury, Global IBM i Security expert, in an upcoming fireside chat, as she shares her insight and experience as to how you can build your IBM i talent pool for the future.

BTW: How did you end up learning RPG?

Vendor

🔍 Transform your IBM i monitoring landscape

Nagios Monitoring for IBM i is designed to protect your system and data through continuous monitoring, automated vulnerability and compliance checks, and real-time alerts.

By automating many of the routine security and administrative tasks, it frees up your IT team to focus on higher-value work—saving you both time and resources while ensuring your IBM i environment stays secure.

Who’s it for? AAG, EM4i and HA4i are the perfect tool-set for data centers or anyone managing multiple systems and environments.

Join

Contact us

If you are an RPG programmer looking to explore opportunities or a client who is looking for a talented IBM i professional, please contact us. We look forward to assisting you.

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