Talsco Weekly: IBM i: The Signal Through The Noise

Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

IBM i Brief: 📺 IBM Creates New Ad Campaign. ☁️ IBM Cloud replaces human support with AI.
AI: 🤔Is There A Danger of AI for the Developer? 🧠 Docling: Transforming Document Parsing for AI Workflows.
Career: 📡 The Signal Through The Noise.
Hiring: ❓IBM i : Hiring For What You Don’t Know You Don’t Know.
Learning: 🔌 N2i offers a Db2 connector revolution. 🌐 WMCPA Presents: Python-powered websites on IBM i.
Modernization: 🔎 Modernization vs. Data Readiness: A Critical Balance.

IBM i Brief

📺 IBM: Let’s Create Smarter Business Ad Campaign Here is IBM’s new brand platform that highlights IBM’s unique position amid the growing technology-business disconnect.

While many tech companies focus on consumer AI or individual productivity, IBM distinguishes itself as a B2B partner helping entire businesses become smarter. Check out all the ad campaigns. ☁️ IBM Cloud replaces human support with AI IBM will discontinue free human support for its Basic Support tier in January 2026, shifting to an AI-driven self-service model. What does this mean? It means that customers will lose the ability to open technical cases but can still report service issues via the Cloud Console.

Customers on IBM’s free support tier must rely on AI and documentation from January 2026, or pay for faster response and technical aid.

IBM will enhance its Watsonx-powered AI Assistant and introduce a “Report an Issue” tool while expanding self-help documentation. Paid support starting at $200 monthly remains available, aligning IBM with industry standards despite holding only 2-4% market share. Your take: Will the self-service AI model be worth it?

AI

🤔Is There A Danger of AI for the Developer? This is something that I have been thinking about lately. AI code assistants can see patterns based on data, thus can come up with lines of code. But can AI think in the form of human thought? Many tech companies might want you to think it can. But can it? On the contrary — intelligence in AI is different from human intelligence; it lacks context, intuition, and creativity that comes from lived experience.

The danger is not that AI can code, it is that programmers will forget how to code. - Unknown AI Agent

What do you think? 💭 Will AI replace the developer, or will it be just another tool in their toolkit? While you are thinking about that, check out Docling. 🧠 Docling: Transforming Document Parsing for AI Workflows Here is a short Youtube video that highlights Docling, an open-source tool that simplifies data extraction from PDFs, DOCX, and various document formats, making unstructured data usable for RAG and AI applications. LLM (Large Language Model):

AI model trained on vast text for natural language tasks.
Generates human-like responses, understands context.

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation):

Combines LLM with external data retrieval for accurate responses.
Enhances answers using relevant documents.

Career

📡 The Signal Through The Noise I spoke with an incredibly talented and insightful IBM i Developer the other day (this happens often😊). He recognized a pattern in the IBM i market. While everyone else was looking this 👈 way. He was looking that 👉 way. He noticed a trend and a need in the market that others overlooked. In fact, he overlooked it earlier in his career, which made him realize that he missed the signal before so he did not want to miss it again. What was the signal that he overlooked, you might ask?

In his case, he missed the opportunity as an RPG Developer to learn the IBM i Administrator role as well.

By being attuned to emerging signals before they become obvious trends, this RPG developer positioned himself to be ahead of the market. Reflecting: Each and everyone of us, at times in our careers are either given opportunities or given signals that will shape our professional career if we're paying attention. These signals might be subtle market shifts, emerging technologies, or changing business needs that hint at future demand. It’s important to understand what is in your control, and to stop listening to the noise.

Hiring

❓Hiring For What You Don’t Know You Don’t Know The IBM i is foreign to many in enterprise IT. It has an image of being legacy and thus obsolete. But for those who have grown up on the platform, and kept current, they see it differently. They see the platform for what it is, does, and value it provides. Don’t mistake this for bias. It is instead, insight and a deep understanding of the entire ecosystem that depends on it. This insight and deep understanding of the platform is hard to come by, but essential for operational stability.

Whatever the future of the IBM i is within your enterprise. Finding, and securing the right IBM i talent for mission critical roles is and will be likely one of the most important hires you will make as IBM i professionals retire and the new guard comes in. The good news is, there are folks out there that will help make sense of your IBM i ecosystem. They are the ones that can magically connect the dots and ask the right questions you did not know you should ask. Do you need a second set of eyes to help you understand your IBM i ecosystem? We can help.

Learning

🔌 N2i offers a Db2 connector revolution Mapepire, an innovative open-source library, promises to transform how developers connect to Db2 databases by eliminating JDBC and ODBC complexities. What is Mapepire?

an open-source, cloud-friendly database access layer for Db2 on IBM i, using secure WebSockets to simplify connections from Node.js, Python, and Java. It’s a lightweight proxy server on IBM i, managing encodings and authentication, with client SDKs for dependency-free integration. Used with Db2 to replace ODBC/JDBC, it offers faster performance, lower overhead, seamless cloud deployment (e.g., AWS/Azure), and encrypted, single-port access for secure, scalable apps.

If this interests you, check out this webinar scheduled for September 8 (5:00-6:00 p.m. CT), speaker Jonathan Zak will demonstrate how this powerful tool simplifies database interactions while improving performance and scalability. Developers looking to streamline their Db2 connection processes won’t want to miss this opportunity to learn about a more efficient alternative to traditional connection methods. 🌐 WMCPA Presents: Python-powered websites on IBM i Various tools exist for creating web content on IBM i, with Python offering several options. Here is an in-person training session that will give a brief overview of Django before focusing extensively on Flask and FastAPI frameworks, demonstrating how these lightweight solutions can help developers quickly build and deploy web applications on the IBM i platform. Register here. 🍽️ IBM i professionals in the Milwaukee area can benefit from this valuable in-person networking and learning opportunity over dinner.

Modernization

🔎 Modernization vs. Data Readiness: A Critical Balance Data readiness is frequently overlooked in favor of automation initiatives that dominate strategic discussions, creating significant misalignment that often increases manual work when automating with poor quality data, ultimately undermining transformation efforts. What does this mean for IBM i shops looking to Modernize? It means, everything starts with your data.

Looking to migrate from IBM i to another platform? It starts with data.
Planning to modernize your core IBM i applications? It starts with data.
Still unsure what direction to take? It starts with your data.

Here are some key points from the linked article above:

“Though essential, data readiness is often sidelined in favor of automation, which tends to take precedence in most strategy conversations.”
“It’s a failure for which data readiness, or rather the lack thereof, is primarily responsible.”
“Transformation Starts with Data, Not Software.”
“Without the foundation of clean, structured, and reliable data, such efforts are unlikely to deliver their full potential.”

Does any of the above sound familiar? 🔄 Why Modernization Matters Modernization is essential for IBM i sustainability, with aging RPG programs creating knowledge gaps when developers retire. Modern applications require integration capabilities through APIs and SQL-based designs.

Today's talent demands contemporary tools and workflows beyond green screens.
IBM's roadmap confirms modernization's inevitability—waiting only increases costs and risks as technical debt accumulates.
Forward-thinking organizations are already embracing this digital evolution to secure their competitive advantage.

Here are some discussion points on the need to modernize legacy RPG and databases as to why we are at a tipping point for modernization.

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