Glossary Term

IBM i

IBM's integrated operating system and platform family that evolved from the AS/400 lineage and continues to run many business-critical workloads.

Definition

IBM i refers to the operating environment and platform ecosystem used on IBM Power Systems for workloads historically associated with the AS/400, iSeries, and System i eras. Buyers researching IBM i software are usually dealing with long-lived applications, stable business processes, and infrastructure that still matters deeply to daily operations.

That is why IBM i software evaluation often looks different from general enterprise software buying. Stability, compatibility, and continuity matter more than trend-driven feature churn.

Example

A manufacturer running order processing, inventory, and finance on IBM Power hardware may still describe its environment as IBM i even if internal stakeholders casually say AS/400.