Licensing and management software for external SAN storage, including IBM Storage Virtualize and monitoring for IBM i environments attached to IBM FlashSystem.
Common Buyer Questions
Easy Tier is IBM Storage Virtualize's automated data placement feature, moving data between flash and lower-cost storage tiers based on access patterns without manual intervention....
No. AS400Software.com covers the software side only: IBM Storage Virtualize licensing, Easy Tier, replication, and monitoring. For FlashSystem hardware, FlashCore Module...
Emerging AI use cases for IBM i environments, including automation, data analysis, documentation, monitoring, workflow assistance, and IBM Bob modernization planning.
Common Buyer Questions
Safer early use cases usually sit around internal documentation, support workflow assistance, internal search, alert triage help, and reporting summarization rather than autonomous...
Start with data that is already well-governed, well-understood, and useful for bounded internal assistance ... documentation, internal knowledge bases, approved report outputs,...
Keep the first use case narrow, define a measurable outcome, require human review where business consequences are real, and avoid letting the model write directly to production...
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Because it creates leverage around existing expertise without giving the model direct authority over production work. Many IBM i teams depend on long-held workflow knowledge,...
Human review should stay in place anywhere the output can affect customer commitments, financial records, security posture, data exposure, or production system behavior. AI can...
Measure against one operational friction point, not against vague transformation language. Useful metrics might include time saved on support triage, faster knowledge retrieval,...
Yes. AI platforms like watsonx connect to IBM i applications through APIs, Db2 connectors, secure data pipelines, and event streams, not by modifying the underlying code. RPG and...
Yes. IBM i supports AI integration at the infrastructure layer through IBM Power Virtual Server, which hosts IBM i workloads in IBM Cloud, and at the application layer through...
Tools for modernizing IBM i applications, interfaces, workflows, user experiences, development practices, and AI-ready application knowledge.
Common Buyer Questions
Modernization is not one product or one visual refresh. It is the process of reducing friction around the parts of the environment that are slowing the business down, whether that...
Start where business value and execution risk line up best. For some teams that is the interface because usability is blocking adoption. For others it is workflow automation, API...
Break the roadmap into bounded phases with a defined success measure, a rollback path, and a clear business owner for each step. Visible progress matters because modernization...
For IBM i workloads, yes ... IBM's platform support details and S1112 limitations page position the server for IBM i Software Tier P05 only. That is the important commercial point...
No. IBM's S1112 limitations page says IBM i logical partitions on this platform are capped at a cumulative maximum of four cores. Midland's article is useful here because it pushes...
Yes, in almost every case. RPG and COBOL are core to IBM i's backward compatibility model, and IBM has kept application continuity across Power generations a deliberate design...
Expect a licensing conversation, even when it is not a full repurchase. IBM i and most third-party IBM i software are priced against the processor group, or P-group, of the machine...
Test the supported IBM i release path first, then map every dependency around the application.
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Start with the actual gap. If the main need is product selection and licensing guidance, a reseller-style partner may fit. If architecture or project design is unclear,...
Yes. The current platform name is IBM i, but many companies still run critical ERP, finance, manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution workloads on the same business-computing...
Start with platform vocabulary, one safe business workflow, and the tools used in your role. Beginners do not need to understand everything at once. They need to learn what the...
There is no single AS400 price because buyers may be pricing very different things ... an on-premises Power server, IBM i licensing, third-party software, cloud hosting, managed...
Yes. Many strong IBM i modernization programs keep the core ERP in place while improving the layers around it first ... user experience, workflow automation, API access, reporting,...
IBM's S1112 limitations page says the server supports a maximum of four IBM i logical partitions per server. IBM also notes that if you assign more than one virtual processor to an...
Yes. IBM explicitly says Linux, AIX, and VIOS logical partitions can use remaining processor and memory resources on the S1112 after the IBM i limits are accounted for. That is one...
There is no single answer that applies to every shop, because it depends on which IBM i release your applications currently run and the specific Power 10 or Power 11 machine...
Generally yes. IBM i's installed base leans heavily on long-lived ERP workloads, so SAP, JD Edwards, and most packaged or custom IBM i ERP systems have a strong incentive to stay...
Disaster recovery planning, replication, recovery testing, and business continuity software for IBM i.
Common Buyer Questions
Realistic disaster recovery testing means more than confirming one technical step. Teams should test the full recovery sequence they expect to rely on, including data availability,...
If recovery time and recovery point targets are not written down and agreed to by business owners, the software decision is already on weak ground. Those targets define how much...
That depends on recovery objectives, current secondary site posture, connectivity, governance, and cost tolerance. Cloud-based disaster recovery can be useful, but it should be...
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A usable disaster recovery plan includes recovery priorities, system and application startup order, contact paths, network and access prerequisites, external dependency checks,...
IT usually owns the technical accuracy, but business leadership has to own the recovery priorities and approval thresholds the runbook is built around. The strongest runbooks are...
Disaster recovery software coordinates far more than a data copy. It needs to support recovery order, system availability at the target site, access and network prerequisites,...
High availability is built to reduce downtime by keeping a secondary path warm enough for faster failover. Disaster recovery is the broader discipline of restoring the business...
Tests should run often enough that recovery steps stay current with infrastructure, application, staffing, and network change. The exact cadence depends on business criticality and...
The secondary site needs more than compute capacity. Buyers should confirm network paths, remote access, security controls, backup or replication currency, application...
Check recovery time targets, bandwidth for replication and restore, access control, network routing, licensing assumptions, test windows, and who owns failover operations when the...
Reporting, query, analytics, Db2 for i access, and Power BI integration tools for IBM i and AS/400 data.
Common Buyer Questions
Start by deciding whether Power BI needs live data, scheduled refreshes, replicated data, or API-backed datasets. Direct Db2 for i connectivity can be useful, but buyers must...
Only when the team has tested the production risk points.
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Each shared dataset and measure should have a business owner and a technical owner. The business owner approves meaning, exclusions, and calculation changes.
IBM i release planning, version upgrades, PTF strategy, compatibility review, and software maintenance planning for AS/400 environments.
Common Buyer Questions
The modern operating system name is IBM i. AS400 operating system searches usually refer to the same lineage that started as OS/400, later became i5/OS, and is now IBM i on IBM...
Upgrade when support timing, target Power hardware, security requirements, third-party software compatibility, or application modernization makes the current release a constraint.
A useful inventory covers every dependency that can block the cutover.
Workflow, job, alert, file movement, and cross-system automation software for IBM i and AS/400 environments.
Common Buyer Questions
It should prove the vendor understands a real workflow, not just a clean schedule. Buyers should ask to see a dependency, an exception, an alert, a recovery path, and an audit...
That depends on whether the real pain comes from clock-based starts or from dependencies, handoffs, approvals, retries, and cross-system coordination. Many teams think they need...
They help when buyers compare them against their own process design instead of treating them as proof by themselves. Good examples reveal how a vendor thinks about dependencies,...
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AS400 automation software coordinates recurring work that used to depend on manual steps, fragile schedules, or one experienced admin remembering the sequence. That can include job...
That depends on how the process actually starts. Many teams discover they do not really have a scheduling problem ... they have a trigger problem, where a workflow depends on file...
It should if the workflow truly depends on people as well as systems. Many business processes pause for review, approval, exception handling, or customer communication, and...
They matter as soon as the workflow touches business commitments, finance, trading partners, or cross-system updates. Teams need to know who changed the logic, what ran, what...
Tools and strategies for protecting IBM i data, applications, configurations, and recovery workflows.
Common Buyer Questions
A complete IBM i backup scope usually includes more than application libraries. Buyers should confirm coverage for the Integrated File System, user profiles, authorization lists,...
Backup frequency should follow change rate and recovery objectives, not habit. A workload that changes all day and supports customer-facing operations may need more frequent...
The right restore-testing cadence depends on business criticality, audit pressure, and how much change the environment sees. The important point is that restore testing should be...
Run a documented restore test against a realistic scenario, then capture the evidence. The test should identify the proof points that make recovery defensible.
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Often yes. BRMS is a strong policy and media control layer, but it does not natively provide cloud offsite automation, immutable ransomware-proof retention, or cross-platform reporting.
Most environments end up needing both. Tape-integrated software still provides the offline, tamper-resistant copy that ransomware recovery depends on, while cloud-native platforms...
Start with proof of recoverability, not backup destination alone. Serious IBM i backup evaluations should compare save scope, Integrated File System coverage, restore workflow...
Usually yes. IBM i is stable, but the recovery path can still be compromised through shared credentials, connected backup infrastructure, or surrounding Windows and network systems...
A completed backup job only proves that one process finished. Real recoverability means the right data was captured, offsite or isolated copies exist where expected, restore steps...
Financial management, general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, and reporting software for organizations running core finance on IBM i.
Common Buyer Questions
It depends on how well the current ERP financial layer fits reporting, audit, close, and entity-management requirements. Organizations with straightforward finance needs often do...
Typical gaps show up in slow close cycles, weak drill-down from summary numbers to source transactions, limited separation-of-duties reporting, spreadsheet-heavy reconciliations,...
Manual reconciliation is usually the clearest signal that the current accounting workflow is under strain. If teams are stitching together subledgers, spreadsheets, external...
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Usually when close speed, audit evidence, multi-entity complexity, or reporting flexibility start breaking the finance process faster than workarounds can cover it. If controllers...
Customer relationship management software for IBM i environments, covering contact history, sales pipeline, service tracking, and customer data connected to core business systems.
Common Buyer Questions
Most organizations get better results from a dedicated CRM platform that integrates with IBM i data rather than trying to build CRM functionality natively. The real question is how...
Only the data needed to support real sales and service decisions should move, but that set is usually larger than teams expect. Account status, open orders, invoices, shipment...
That should follow workflow, not software licensing habit. If both sales and service need to update or rely on the same customer context, both groups may need access, but often...
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That depends on how quickly teams need the data to act. Real-time synchronization matters when service decisions, order status, credit context, or customer promises change...
Start where the need is clearest and the data requirements are easiest to prove. Many CRM projects stall when they try to satisfy sales, service, management reporting, and...
Buyers should define which platform owns each data type before any integration goes live. Account status, pricing, order history, service notes, contacts, and sales activity do not...
API, integration, middleware, and connectivity tools that connect IBM i systems to modern applications and services.
Common Buyer Questions
Start with a specific use case, an explicit data owner, and a clear access model before any endpoint goes live. Safe exposure usually depends on authentication, authorization, rate...
The right method depends on timing, data shape, failure tolerance, and operational ownership. Some flows need synchronous APIs, some work better with batch or event-driven...
API work often becomes the bridge between stable IBM i transactions and newer user experiences, partner systems, analytics, or cloud services. That makes it a practical...
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Yes. API and integration projects often create one of the most practical first modernization wins because they connect IBM i systems to newer workflows without forcing a full...
They are critical because integration failures rarely stay isolated for long. If an API call fails silently, retries loop incorrectly, or payload errors are hard to trace, the...
A platform usually makes more sense once the team needs shared governance, reusable patterns, monitoring, transformation, and supportable ownership across more than one...
Barcode, inventory, warehouse, shipping, and mobile data collection tools integrated with IBM i applications.
Common Buyer Questions
The best implementations connect at the transaction level, not as a cosmetic layer after the fact. Buyers should confirm how scans update orders, inventory, shipping, and receiving...
Yes, in most cases. Barcode and mobile workflow tools usually connect to existing ERP inventory and order transactions rather than requiring a full platform replacement.
That depends on how the floor actually operates. Buyers should define which scanners, mobile platforms, printers, wireless constraints, carrier labels, and parcel or freight...
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Start with the workflow where errors, delays, or re-keying create the most visible operational cost. For some teams that is receiving because inventory accuracy breaks down early....
Buyers should test what happens when devices lose signal, transactions queue temporarily, or a user has to keep moving through the floor before reconnecting. Real warehouse...
Typical measures include receiving accuracy, pick accuracy, shipment accuracy, inventory adjustment frequency, scans per hour, time to complete a pick path, and the amount of...
Database management, query, reporting, SQL, performance, and data access tools for Db2 for i environments.
Common Buyer Questions
Start by separating the needs of administrators, developers, analysts, and business users. Some need performance insight and SQL tooling, while others need governed reporting or...
That depends on whether the primary need is governed business reporting, ad hoc analysis, SQL development, performance troubleshooting, or some mix of all four. One tool rarely...
They support modernization when they improve controlled access to data, accelerate analysis, and expose structure clearly enough to help integration or application change. They...
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It depends on the goal. Administrators and developers usually need query, performance, and development tooling, while analysts and business users typically need reporting and...
Start with audience and control. Some teams need governed finance or operations reporting, while others need ad hoc query, drill-down, export flexibility, scheduled distribution,...
Document capture, storage, retrieval, workflow, output management, and records systems connected to IBM i applications.
Common Buyer Questions
Most document modernization projects succeed by wrapping better capture, repository, retrieval, and approval flows around the current application instead of forcing a full platform...
Yes, in many environments that is exactly the point of the software. Spool files, generated documents, scanned inputs, and indexed records can be captured from IBM i processes and...
The first priorities are usually retention schedules, role-based access, audit trails, retrieval speed, and any legal or regulatory requirement that affects how documents must be...
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Start with one operational pain point that has clear volume and clear cost, such as accounts payable, HR records, or shipping paperwork, instead of trying to digitize every paper...
It should prove that real IBM i output can be captured cleanly, indexed consistently, and retrieved quickly by the people who depend on it. Buyers should test actual spool files,...
That depends on whether the pain is mainly retrieval or process delay. Some teams need a better repository with search, retention, and access controls. Others need approval...
Electronic data interchange software for IBM i order processing, trading partner connections, compliance, and automation.
Common Buyer Questions
Most teams need a clear inventory of transaction sets, communication methods, partner-specific mapping rules, acknowledgment requirements, and onboarding expectations before they...
That depends on how tightly EDI is coupled to the current ERP, how much visibility the staff needs, and whether the team is trying to simplify partner management or keep processing...
Pain usually drops when mappings are documented, versioned, tested in a controlled path, and supported by a repeatable intake process for partner changes. The problem is rarely...
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That depends on how often trading partner requirements change and how much ongoing mapping work the internal team can realistically own. Frequent partner onboarding or mapping...
Failed EDI traffic has to become visible before a trading partner feels the problem first. Buyers should look for clear exception queues, acknowledgment tracking, alerting, retry...
Clear mapping templates, reusable rules, controlled testing, documented ownership, and a repeatable intake process do more to speed onboarding than a long features list. Buyers...
ERP systems and modernization paths for organizations running core business operations on IBM i.
Common Buyer Questions
That depends on business process fit, customization debt, integration pressure, staffing, and how much disruption the organization can tolerate. Many IBM i teams should evaluate...
The strongest shortlist starts with products whose vendors still publish IBM i roadmaps, ship updates, support modern integration patterns, and maintain an implementation ecosystem...
They often decide it. Heavy customizations can mean the current ERP still reflects important business logic, while a web of fragile integrations may signal that the system is being...
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At minimum, buyers should map order flow, inventory movement, purchasing, financial close, reporting dependencies, and any custom workflow leadership would consider unacceptable to...
Start by separating what must stay stable from what can change in a bounded phase. Many IBM i ERP projects succeed when they modernize one module, one workflow, one reporting...
It should prove the product is still strategically alive on IBM i, not just still being renewed. Buyers should ask about release cadence, integration direction, UI plans, support...
Support, ticketing, issue tracking, and operations workflow tools for IBM i teams and enterprise IT departments.
Common Buyer Questions
Support work should be routed by business impact, affected system or process, owner, and response expectation instead of whoever happened to notice the issue first. If incidents,...
Yes, and they should if the goal is operational follow-through instead of disconnected signals. Useful integrations create tickets or service events with enough IBM i context to...
The biggest gains usually come from better intake, faster triage, clear escalation rules, knowledge capture, and post-incident review for recurring failure patterns. Those...
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Often both, but process comes first. If intake paths and escalation rules are not clearly defined, a new tool will just formalize the confusion instead of fixing it.
Sometimes yes, but only if routing, ownership, and escalation are clear enough that incidents do not disappear between teams. Many IBM i environments need one intake path with...
The platform should make recurring issues easy to group, review, document, and route into corrective action instead of treating every repeat problem like a brand-new event....
High availability tools designed to reduce downtime and keep critical IBM i workloads available.
Common Buyer Questions
Backup protects recoverability from a good copy after something goes wrong. High availability protects continuity by keeping a ready path for failover before the outage becomes...
That answer has to come from business impact, not infrastructure preference. Teams should measure how long order entry, shipping, finance, customer support, or manufacturing can...
The right model depends on application behavior, acceptable lag, operational complexity, and how much hands-on oversight the internal team can absorb. Some environments need...
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Because the license is only one part of the continuity design. High availability usually depends on replication architecture, a second environment, bandwidth, monitoring, testing...
It should keep a trustworthy secondary copy ready, expose replication lag or integrity problems before failover, support a controlled role swap, and help the team restore...
It makes sense when the business needs continuity but does not want to own every part of the replication, monitoring, testing, and failover discipline internally. That is often...
AS400 high availability software buys continuity, not just another copy of data. It keeps a synchronized secondary environment ready enough that the business can move operations...
Lag is only one part of replication health. Teams also need visibility into stalled apply processes, missed objects, journal issues, communication failures, and exception queues...
Role swaps should be tested often enough that the procedure stays routine, the application dependencies stay current, and leadership can trust the continuity promise being funded....
High availability handles shorter continuity interruptions by keeping a secondary path ready. Disaster recovery handles the broader site, process, and business-recovery problem...
Automation and scheduling tools for IBM i batch jobs, workflows, dependencies, and operational processes.
Common Buyer Questions
Usually when dependencies, exception handling, cross-system coordination, or operational visibility become too complex for manual tracking. The tipping point often appears when...
Dependencies should follow the actual business workflow, not just the technical order in which jobs were historically scheduled. That means modeling prerequisites, file arrivals,...
Yes, if the platform handles more than time-based starts. Teams reduce overnight supervision when the software can detect missing prerequisites, retry intelligently, escalate...
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It should prove the platform can handle one real overnight or cross-system workflow from start to finish ... dependency checks, calendar rules, exception handling, restarts,...
Most IBM i environments need both. Time-based scheduling still matters for predictable recurring work, but event-driven triggers become critical when workflows depend on file...
They matter more as the workflow becomes business critical. Once schedules affect shipping, finance, trading partner processing, or customer commitments, teams need to know what...
Monitoring tools for IBM i system health, jobs, performance, messages, availability, and operational alerts.
Common Buyer Questions
Start with the conditions most likely to cause operational interruption ... failed jobs, queue issues, performance pressure, storage thresholds, replication health if HA exists,...
Alerting only reduces downtime when thresholds, ownership, and escalation paths are designed around action. The system has to tell the right person what failed, how urgent it is,...
Usually yes, but the integration should not come at the expense of IBM i depth. Many teams need alerts, dashboards, or ticket flows to land in broader enterprise tools while still...
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The first-alert set should cover the conditions most likely to create business disruption ... failed or stalled jobs, storage thresholds, subsystem stress, message queue issues,...
It should if the platform is meant to improve response instead of just visibility. Good monitoring integrations create actionable tickets or on-call events with severity,...
Security, access control, auditing, compliance, and multi-factor authentication software for IBM i environments.
Common Buyer Questions
Start by separating users by risk and workflow instead of forcing one MFA pattern onto everyone at once. Interactive admins, remote access users, occasional approvers, and service...
The most common gaps are shared or rarely reviewed privileged accounts, weak visibility into special authority use, inconsistent exit point controls, incomplete alerting, and audit...
Most reviews eventually ask for proof, not policy language. That usually means current access reviews, MFA coverage, privileged account inventories, audit logs, alert history,...
iSeries security software covers tools and services that improve IBM i access control, privileged user oversight, MFA, exit point control, audit reporting, vulnerability response,...
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In practice, MFA on IBM i usually wraps the login path, remote access path, privileged action, or web application rather than rewriting the underlying business application itself....
It should, but buyers need more than a raw log export. The useful question is whether IBM i events arrive with enough context to separate real risk from background noise ... user...
QRadar can be part of an IBM i security monitoring workflow when IBM i events are collected, normalized, and forwarded in a SIEM-friendly format. The practical requirement is...