Talsco Weekly: Is the IBM i an EAP?

Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

IBM i Brief: 👨‍💼 IBM Power Systems welcomes new leadership era. 🚀 IBM i predictions paint transformative 2025 ahead.
Development: RPG Enhancements: New %HIVAL and %LOVAL Built-In Functions.
ERP: 🔄 EAP systems reshape enterprise solutions.
Hiring: 🔑 IBM i:Key Hiring Themes from 2024 That Will Shape 2025. 👥Job Descriptions: What does it mean to be an IBM i Developer?
Modernization: Base Layer Technologies.

IBM i Brief

👨‍💼 IBM Power Systems welcomes new leadership era The changing of the guard at IBM Power Systems marks a significant transition as Bargav Balakrishnan takes over from Steve Sibley’s impressive 14-year leadership in product management. This shift brings fresh perspective from Balakrishnan’s mainframe division background, continuing IBM’s tradition of strong product leadership that has been crucial in shaping the evolution of IBM hardware and systems. There is a long list of accomplished IBM-ers that have held this role. You can view the list here. 🚀 IBM i predictions paint transformative 2025 ahead

Alex Woodie of IT Jungle has his annual series of prediction posts for the IBM i ecosystem that come from the community.

If you have been in hiding for 2024, this certainly is a good post to catch you up to speed. 😊

The first installment forecasts significant changes for IBM i in 2025, with AI integration, new hardware releases, and evolving developer tools taking center stage.

Some key predictions include the arrival of Power11 servers, increased GenAI adoption, modernization initiatives, and a growing focus on security measures.

Here are a some notable predictions that stand out:

Every vendor will have some AI component in their product mix, with varying degrees of integration and success with their products. - Charlie Guarino, Central Park Data Systems

In 2025, organizations will increasingly prioritize enhancing the developer experience for IBM i professionals. This shift will involve a proactive approach to improving their work environment and equipping them with advanced tools that boost productivity. - Puneet Kohli President of Rocket Software / VP of COMMOM

In 2025, the IBM i landscape is being significantly influenced by three pivotal trends: the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), the ongoing skills gap, and the increasing synergy with complementary technologies. - Peg Tuttle, Sales Director at Lightedge, Host of the Incredible i Show & Treasurer at COMMOM.

The IBM i is an ERP platform and ERP is about automating work flow, business processes, and capturing the resulting data. I think this is the year we see AI integration move from chat bots and letter writing to the front of ERP modernization efforts. - Bill Langston, Director of Marketing of New Generation Software

As experienced RPG and COBOL developers retire, there will be a push for companies to modernize their applications into more widely-used languages that attract newer developers. - Alex Roytman, Founder Profound Logic

For IT, I predict the continued investment in using AI models. Specific industries will focus on creating models for their needs (e.g. healthcare, IT, finance, etc.) and more people will rely on existing models. Large businesses will run models on their own hardware or in a private cloud and smaller businesses will continue to use models provided in the SaaS model for easy accessibility. - Liam Allen, IBM

🤓 We here at Talsco offered a slightly humorous yet relevant series of predictions for 2025 as IBM i-ers wrestle with the ever-changing world of technological innovation both within and outside the IBM i. Here is one of them:

The “Modern” Identity Crisis: The debate over what constitutes ‘modern’ in IBM i will reach new heights. Developers will argue whether adding emojis to green screens qualifies as modernization, while somewhere, an RPG program quietly continues running the world’s economy. - Patrick Staudacher, Talsco, Inc. 🙃

For the full scoop, I highly recommend diving into the first segment of the 2025 IBM i predictions.

IBM News:

🖥️ CoreWeave and IBM join forces to build AI supercomputer: CoreWeave will deliver one of the first NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip-enabled AI supercomputers to IBM, featuring advanced NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems and Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking technology. This collaboration will leverage IBM Storage Scale System to enhance AI capabilities and support the development of next-generation IBM Granite models.
🌟 Lockheed Martin integrates IBM Granite LLMs into AI Factory: The collaboration will empower over 10,000 Lockheed Martin developers with advanced AI capabilities, accelerating project deployment from months to weeks while enhancing national security missions.

🤔 Musings on IBM’s AI Strategy:

The introduction of IBM Granite marks a fascinating evolution in IBM’s AI approach. While traditionally IBM’s platforms (Power Systems, Z Series, IBM i) operated in distinct domains, AI capabilities like Granite are creating new bridges between these environments. This cross-platform integration could lead to interesting developments for IBM i users in the future.

Development

RPG Enhancements: New %HIVAL and %LOVAL Built-In Functions

As part of the latest Technology Refreshes, IBM i 7.5 TR5 and 7.4 TR11, two new RPG built in functions, BiF, were added: %HIVAL and %LOVAL.

Here are the details.

ERP

🔄 EAP systems reshape enterprise solutions

What is an EAP?

An Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) is a software framework that enables organizations to develop, deploy, and manage business applications. It provides a centralized environment supporting integration, scalability, and customization, allowing businesses to tailor applications to their specific needs.

Enterprise Application Platforms are gaining momentum as organizations seek alternatives to traditional ERP systems. While ERPs focus on standardized business processes, EAPs offer a flexible framework for custom application development and integration.

This trend is particularly relevant for IBM i shops looking to modernize their applications while maintaining the stability and reliability of their core systems.

If you think about it, the IBM i is really one of the leading EAPs on the market.

It integrates various components such as a relational database (IBM Db2 for i), middleware, security features, and runtime environments into a single, cohesive system. This integration simplifies the development, deployment, and management of business applications, providing a robust and scalable environment for enterprise operations.

What do you think, does the IBM i have all the characteristics of an EAP?

Hiring

🔑 IBM i:Key Hiring Themes from 2024 That Will Shape 2025

Hybrid Skills Continue to Dominate: The demand for IBM i professionals who can bridge traditional and modern technologies remains strong. Companies seek candidates with a mix of new and old RPG experience, with an emphasis on Modern RPG.
Remote Work Evolution: Remote and hybrid work arrangements have become permanent fixtures in the IBM i job market, expanding the talent pool beyond geographical boundaries.
Cross-Training Emphasis: Organizations are investing more in cross-training their existing RPG staff, particularly in areas like open source technologies, API development, and cloud integration.
AI Skills Integration: There’s growing demand for IBM i professionals who understand AI/ML concepts and can integrate these technologies with existing systems.
Succession Planning Focus: Companies are actively developing flexible strategies to address the skills gap as experienced IBM i professionals approach retirement.

These trends are expected to intensify in 2025 as organizations continue to balance maintaining critical legacy systems while embracing modern technologies and development practices.

👥Job Descriptions: What does it mean to be an IBM i Developer?

The IBM i community faces unique challenges in job title nomenclature, where traditional roles often encompass multiple responsibilities. Unlike the broader tech industry’s trend toward title inflation, IBM i professionals typically possess deep, multifaceted expertise that transcends simple job descriptions. This reality creates both challenges and opportunities for organizations managing talent acquisition and retention.

Here are some tips for when you are looking to hire your next (”RPG Developer” OR “IBM i Developer” OR “EDI Coordinator” OR “IBM i Administrator / Developer” OR IBM i Team Lead”)

Modernization

Base Layer Technologies

This article caught my eye as it relates to base layer technologies.

🔌 TCP/IP powers modern digital communication. The TCP/IP model, a fundamental networking framework, ensures reliable data transmission across networks through its four-layer architecture. From web browsing to email communication, this protocol suite manages how information is packaged, addressed, and delivered, making it the backbone of Internet connectivity and essential for modern business operations.

TCP/IP is a Base Layer Technology.

Base-layer technologies are foundational components that establish the fundamental infrastructure for higher-level systems and applications. They provide the underlying protocols, functionalities, and standards that enable interoperability, security, scalability, and performance, making them essential for building reliable and innovative solutions in various domains.

The IBM i can also be considered The Base Layer.

Even as IBM i shops look to modernize, that is move away from legacy applications, and the green screen (5250), the foundation of the IBM i platform, the OS, HW, and Database is still there, under the covers serving up mission-critical data.

Power Systems, IBM i, and Db2 form the base layer of an amazing platform. It is an interconnected ecosystem where each component relies on the others. Collectively, they are a unified base layer that enables functionality and drives the system as a whole.

There is a perception (or narrative) that there is a need to move away from the IBM i.

As one of our Talsco Weekly readers puts it:

Almost every industry is researching ways to reduce or eliminate IBM i dependencies.

Maybe a better way to put it would be, we should be researching ways to leverage the IBM i, after all it is The Base Layer.

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