IBM Power S1112, IBM i 7.6 TR2 and IBM i 7.5 TR8: A Practical Path to Modernisation
IBM has announced three developments that should be considered together rather than as isolated product updates: the new IBM Power S1112 server, IBM i 7.6 Technology Refresh 2 and IBM i 7.5 Technology Refresh 8.
Together, these announcements provide a clearer modernisation path for organisations running small and medium-sized IBM i environments. IBM is introducing a new entry-level Power11 server while continuing to enhance both the latest IBM i release and the widely adopted IBM i 7.5 release.
The message is straightforward: customers can modernise their infrastructure, applications and operational processes without abandoning the stability and integration that have always been central to IBM i.
IBM Power S1112: Power11 for Entry-Level IBM i Environments
The IBM Power S1112 brings Power11 technology to customers operating within the IBM i P05 software tier.
For IBM i, the system supports up to four logical partitions operating within a combined boundary of four processor cores and 64 GB of memory. However, the complete system can be configured with up to 10 cores and 512 GB of memory.
Resources purchased beyond the IBM i P05 boundary can be allocated to AIX, Linux or VIOS workloads. This provides an interesting consolidation model: customers can maintain their core IBM i applications within the P05 tier while using the remaining capacity for open-source applications, integration services, automation, analytics or AI workloads.
IBM i environments on the S1112 can also use up to 12.8 TB of internal NVMe storage, equivalent to 6.4 TB of usable capacity when mirrored. That storage can be dedicated to IBM i or shared with other supported workloads on the server.
This is more than simply a smaller Power11 server.
The S1112 provides a practical replacement option for organisations still running older Power generations that may not require the capacity or software costs associated with a larger system.
Typical use cases include:
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Small and medium-sized IBM i production environments
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Development and quality assurance systems
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Branch or distributed infrastructure
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Managed service provider environments
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Application vendor systems
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Consolidation of IBM i, AIX and Linux workloads
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Infrastructure refresh projects where predictable software costs are essential
Not every organisation needs a large enterprise server. Right-sizing remains one of the most effective ways to control infrastructure and software costs.
The important point is that entry-level no longer needs to mean entry-level technology.
Greater Flexibility Within the P05 Software Tier
The Power S1112 introduces an especially useful resource allocation model for IBM i customers.
IBM i remains confined to the P05 software boundary of four cores and 64 GB of memory, but additional server resources are not necessarily left unused. They can support Linux, AIX or VIOS workloads on the same physical system.
For example, an organisation could run its primary business application on IBM i while using Linux partitions for:
This makes it possible to place traditional and modern workloads on the same Power platform without unnecessarily increasing the IBM i software tier.
It also challenges the old assumption that modernisation requires moving every component away from IBM i. In many cases, the better design is to retain core business logic and data on IBM i while surrounding it with modern services running on Linux.
That is not a compromise. It is a sensible use of the strengths of each operating environment.
IBM i 7.6 TR2: Extending the Latest IBM i Release
IBM i 7.6 Technology Refresh 2 continues the development of the latest IBM i release across several strategic areas, including:
One of the recurring themes is IBM’s continued investment in IBM i and Db2 for i SQL Services.
SQL Services provide structured access to operating system, security, database, storage, networking and application information. They make IBM i easier to integrate with reporting platforms, security assessment tools and automation frameworks.
Traditional commands remain valuable, particularly when diagnosing a system interactively. However, SQL Services are increasingly becoming the preferred interface for repeatable administration and automated analysis.
This is particularly useful for tasks such as:
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Auditing user profiles and authorities
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Reviewing PTF information
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Examining active jobs and resource consumption
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Analysing system history and messages
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Monitoring network and storage resources
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Automating compliance checks
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Integrating IBM i operational data with external platforms
Modernisation is not only about changing applications. It is also about improving how the platform is managed.
Security and System Management
The IBM i 7.6 TR2 announcement includes continued enhancements to IBM Navigator for i and IBM i Access Client Solutions.
Navigator for i continues to evolve as the strategic browser-based management interface for the platform. Enhancements such as improved security visibility, vulnerability information and cryptographic key management help administrators identify and manage risks from a more centralised interface.
IBM i Access Client Solutions also remains an essential part of the IBM i administration and application access ecosystem. Continued development of ACS is important because it supports a wide range of functions, including:
The practical objective should not be to replace every established administration method immediately. It should be to use the right interface for each task and gradually automate activities that are repetitive, measurable and suitable for standardisation.
Application Development Continues to Evolve
IBM i 7.6 TR2 also continues the development of modern application tooling.
RPG remains a central development language for IBM i business applications, but it continues to gain capabilities expected from a modern programming environment. New assertion capabilities, for example, can help developers express expected conditions directly in the application and detect incorrect behaviour earlier.
At the same time, Code for IBM i continues to strengthen Visual Studio Code as an IBM i development environment.
This combination is important. IBM i application modernisation does not require organisations to discard stable business logic simply because it was written in RPG.
A more practical strategy is often to:
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Identify the business logic that remains valuable.
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Refactor areas that are difficult to maintain.
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Introduce automated testing.
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Expose selected functions through services and APIs.
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Modernise user interfaces where there is a business justification.
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Adopt Git and contemporary development workflows.
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Train the next generation of IBM i developers using familiar tools.
The development environment should evolve, but it should do so without creating unnecessary risk for the business.
IBM i Migrate While Active
The continued enhancement of IBM i Migrate While Active is another strategically important development.
Migration projects frequently involve technically manageable work but commercially unacceptable downtime. Reducing the outage window can determine whether an infrastructure refresh is a routine project or a major business event.
The latest enhancements provide additional flexibility in how the target system copy is created. In addition to save and restore methods, IBM i Migrate While Active can use supported external storage replication technologies, including FlashCopy and Global Copy where available.
IBM has also introduced planning, estimation and user experience improvements to help customers understand and navigate the different migration phases.
This is particularly relevant for migrations involving:
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Replacement of older IBM Power servers
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Movement to Power11
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Storage platform changes
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Data centre consolidation
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Migration to IBM Power Virtual Server
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Operating system upgrades
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Changes to availability or disaster recovery architectures
Migrate While Active does not remove the need for planning, testing and rollback procedures. It does, however, provide another valuable option for reducing business disruption.
In infrastructure projects, downtime is rarely just a technical metric. It has a direct operational and financial cost.
IBM i 7.5 TR8: Modernisation Without a Forced Release Upgrade
Not every customer is ready to move immediately to IBM i 7.6.
Some organisations need additional time to validate application compatibility, obtain vendor certification, update operational procedures or align the upgrade with a wider infrastructure project.
IBM i 7.5 Technology Refresh 8 addresses this reality by bringing many important enhancements to the established IBM i 7.5 release.
These include improvements in areas such as:
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IBM i and Db2 for i SQL Services
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IBM i Migrate While Active
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RPG development
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Code for IBM i
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IBM Navigator for i
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IBM i Access Client Solutions
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BRMS
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Hardware and I/O support
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Power S1112 support
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NVMe and networking
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Virtual tape integration
IBM i 7.5 TR8 also adds support for the new Power S1112, allowing organisations to adopt the new entry-level Power11 server without requiring an immediate upgrade to IBM i 7.6.
This gives customers a controlled migration path.
An organisation can refresh the hardware first, maintain IBM i 7.5 during application validation and move to IBM i 7.6 when the business and technical conditions are right.
That flexibility matters in enterprise environments. Forced upgrades usually create more resistance than progress.
New Hardware and I/O Support
IBM i 7.6 TR2 and IBM i 7.5 TR8 also extend support for current storage and I/O technologies.
Among the documented additions are support for a new 15.3 TB mainstream PCIe4 NVMe U.2 module on selected Power10 systems and support for the IBM TS7785 Virtual Tape Library.
The TS7785 support includes native attachment and VIOS client configurations across supported IBM i releases and code levels.
These capabilities may not attract the same attention as application development or AI announcements, but they are operationally important.
Storage capacity, backup architecture, recovery performance and supported connectivity remain fundamental parts of any IBM i modernisation project. There is little value in modernising the application interface while leaving the backup and recovery design trapped in the previous decade.
BRMS and Operational Resilience
Enhancements to Backup, Recovery and Media Services also deserve attention.
BRMS remains a critical component for many IBM i environments because backup is not simply about writing data to tape or virtual media. A complete recovery depends on understanding the correct sequence for restoring:
Improvements that simplify BRMS administration, reporting and recovery planning directly contribute to operational resilience.
Organisations should use the arrival of a new Technology Refresh as an opportunity to review more than the PTF installation itself.
It is also worth validating:
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Whether the recovery report is current
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Whether a full-system recovery has been tested
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Whether virtual tape copies are protected outside the production environment
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Whether encryption keys are included in the recovery plan
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Whether the documented recovery time objective is realistic
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Whether the backup strategy reflects current data volumes
A backup that has never been restored is still only a theory.
IBM Bob and AI-Assisted Development
IBM continues to expand AI-assisted development capabilities for IBM i, including IBM Bob Premium Package capabilities designed for IBM i development workflows.
The relevant question is not whether AI will replace IBM i developers. That is the wrong discussion.
The practical question is how AI-assisted tools can help experienced developers and administrators reduce time spent on repetitive work, understand unfamiliar code, generate documentation, create tests and accelerate modernisation projects.
Potential use cases include:
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Explaining existing RPG or CL code
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Assisting with code refactoring
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Generating technical documentation
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Creating unit test scenarios
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Supporting Git workflows
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Identifying dependencies
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Helping new developers understand established applications
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Converting requirements into initial code structures
The greatest value will come from combining AI assistance with experienced technical review.
AI can accelerate the work. It does not remove responsibility for architecture, security, testing or production quality.
As always, fast and wrong is still wrong, only more efficiently.
What These Announcements Mean Together
The strongest message does not come from any single feature.
It comes from the way the three announcements work together.
The Power S1112 provides an entry point into Power11 for P05 IBM i customers.
IBM i 7.6 TR2 extends the capabilities of the latest operating system release.
IBM i 7.5 TR8 allows customers to adopt many of the same advances while following a more gradual release-upgrade strategy.
Together, they support several modernisation paths:
Hardware first
Customers can move from an older Power system to the S1112 while remaining on IBM i 7.5, subject to the appropriate Technology Refresh and PTF requirements.
Operating system first
Customers on supported Power hardware can adopt IBM i 7.6 and prepare for a later move to Power11.
Application first
Development teams can modernise applications, introduce APIs, adopt Git and use modern development tools before changing the underlying hardware.
Consolidation first
Organisations can combine IBM i with Linux, AIX and VIOS workloads on the S1112, improving utilisation while maintaining the IBM i P05 software boundary.
Availability first
Customers can improve migration, backup, recovery and high-availability processes before making larger architectural changes.
There is no single correct sequence for every organisation.
The correct sequence is the one that reduces risk, delivers measurable value and aligns with business priorities.
Practical Recommendations
Organisations evaluating these announcements should consider the following actions.
Review the current Power infrastructure
Identify servers approaching end of support, systems with limited capacity, inefficient licensing models and environments where hardware age is becoming an operational risk.
Validate S1112 suitability
Confirm whether the P05 boundary of four IBM i cores and 64 GB of memory is sufficient for the current and expected IBM i workload.
Also consider whether additional capacity could be used for AIX, Linux, VIOS or supporting services.
Assess application compatibility
Review application vendor support for IBM i 7.5, IBM i 7.6 and Power11.
Application certification frequently determines the real upgrade schedule, regardless of the technical capabilities of the platform.
Review the Technology Refresh prerequisites
Technology Refreshes are delivered through PTF groups and may require additional individual PTFs, database groups, Java groups, HTTP groups or other dependencies.
The PTF plan should be validated before the implementation window, not during it.
Evaluate migration methods
Compare traditional save and restore, logical replication, storage replication and IBM i Migrate While Active.
The most familiar method is not automatically the best one for every migration.
Test recovery procedures
Use the infrastructure refresh as an opportunity to verify full-system recovery, BRMS reporting, virtual tape protection and off-site recovery procedures.
Build a phased modernisation roadmap
Separate the programme into manageable areas:
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Hardware
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Operating system
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Database
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Applications
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Development tooling
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Security
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Availability
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Backup and recovery
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Automation
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Skills development
Trying to modernise everything in a single project usually increases risk and produces an impressive collection of PowerPoint slides. A phased roadmap produces results.
Final Thoughts
IBM i has always succeeded by combining continuity with controlled evolution.
The IBM Power S1112, IBM i 7.6 TR2 and IBM i 7.5 TR8 continue that approach.
Customers gain access to Power11 technology at the P05 software tier, continued operating system improvements, modern development tools, expanded automation interfaces, new migration options and current storage and I/O support.
At the same time, organisations are not being told to discard stable applications or immediately move every system to the newest release.
That balance is important.
Modernisation should not be confused with replacement. The objective is not to change technology simply because something newer exists. The objective is to reduce risk, improve efficiency, support new business requirements and create a sustainable platform for the future.
For many IBM i customers, these announcements provide exactly that opportunity.
References
IBM Power S1112 server: Modernize Today, Secure What Matters, Enable What’s Next
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/announcements/power-s1112-server
IBM i 7.6 Technology Refresh 2: Driving Modern, Secure, and More Accessible Innovation
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/announcements/i-76-technology-refresh-2-driving-modern-secure-more-accessible-innovation
IBM adds new capabilities and enhancements with IBM i 7.5 Technology Refresh 8
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/announcements/adds-new-capabilities-enhancements-i-75-technology-refresh-8