By Jeff Winter, Chief Marketing Officer, Rocket Software
Many CIOs think the only way they can achieve their AI, hybrid cloud and IoT goals is to switch to x86 systems on-premises or in the cloud. But is that really the right strategy? A new IDC white paper entitled “The Quantified Business Benefits of Modernizing IBM Z and IBM i to Spur Innovation” shows how businesses that remain on these "legacy" platforms and take advantage of the hardware and software innovations have better business outcomes quantitatively and qualitatively than those that choose to replatform. Based on a customer survey of hundreds of IBM i users and replatformers, this research reinforces why your IBM i platform remains central to your modernization initiatives.
Even though IBM i powers some of the world’s most important industries, the public is generally unaware of its capabilities. This tends to be the case for many businesses, too. Although these systems have been around since the late 1980s, they are nowhere near the same platforms as they were back then. As technology has moved forward, so has IBM i with consistently with new integrations and innovations.
When businesses don’t understand that these systems are capable of modern functionality and if they haven’t kept their systems updated, replatforming may seem like the obvious approach. For example, one company that previously relied on the IBM i platform stated that it had not updated its system between 2007 and 2017 and was “unaware of how the platform evolved over those 10 years.” Basing business decisions on unknown factors can be expensive, risky, and result in dissatisfaction from users. Yet, often it’s these misconceptions that drive technology leaders to adopt a rip and replace approach to so-called legacy systems, instead of maintaining and updating them.
Modernization Allows for New Functionality
What happens when companies do decide to replace their legacy systems? Do they get to realize the benefits of hybrid cloud, IoT, open-source and other new technologies that they believe will not integrate with their legacy system? According to the IDC research, businesses that chose to replatform are actually “across the board, less satisfied with the functionalities of the new platform.” By choosing to replatform, businesses gain new functionalities, but often lose, or must compensate for, existing ones. Modernizing allows businesses to retain their existing functionality while simultaneously being able to expand systems to adopt new ones. The net result is that replatformers actually lose functionality, whereas modernizers experience greater capabilities.
Businesses that rely on the IBM i platform can benefit from a multitude of innovations that support modern technologies and allow legacy systems to integrate seamlessly with their IT infrastructure. The top three destinations for IBM i replatformers is distributed x86 servers in their data center, scale-up x86 instances in IaaS at a public cloud SP, and distributed x86 instances in IaaS at a public cloud SP. Although these systems are new compared to IBM i, they often still don’t compare well with the quality of service achieved from upgrading an IBM i platform. Businesses that replatformed report less satisfaction in many modern functionalities—including API, open source capabilities, DevOps, and agility—than modernizers did. In fact in the survey, modernizers consistently rated these capabilities on IBM i to be either "very good” or "excellent".
Modernization Yields Better Business Results
With low overhead and minimal maintenance, the IBM i platform offers incredible protection from data loss and little risk of outages. It is also known for being reliable and resilient, as it supports transactions in major industries and essential infrastructures like banking, emergency response, and government services. It’s for these reasons that many organizations continue to rely on the IBM i platform. In the interest of serving users and customers, the IBM i platform continues to come out ahead of the newest x86 platforms. In the areas of security, availability, and disaster recovery, modernizers rated their platforms as “very good,” whereas replatformers rated their systems as “decent.”
Modernization is More Cost-Effective
Most business decisions come down to a simple cost equation. Although many businesses understand that modernization on a legacy system is more affordable in the short term, there is a common misconception that in the long run, replatforming will be more cost-effective. It turns out that even when IBM i modernizers and replatformers invest the same amount in new hardware, modernizers will pay 3.5 percent less. Since they don’t need to train users on a new system and aren’t risking data loss, they also end up paying less for software, staffing, third-party consulting, and any disruptions.
Although staffing requirements for IBM i are minimal, as it is designed to run with low maintenance requirements, according to the new research, businesses reported that they are still able to reduce costs by 1 percent. They are also able to reduce annual hardware costs by up to 6.8 percent and software costs by 2 percent.
The Case for Modernizing on IBM i
“We have done modernization on IBM i – analytics and AI on a hybrid cloud, using it for IoT, microservices, mobile enablement, and open source."— An IBM i customer
In terms of cost efficiency, security, and performance, there is no other system that can deliver as consistently as IBM i systems do. This is clearly demonstrated in their findings by IDC and the results are consistent across surveyed IBM i customers:
- Overall ratings
- Modernizers: Very Good (4.27)
- Replatformers: Decent to Good (3.96)
- Notable points
- Overall customer experience is higher for modernizers
- Ability to execute on AI, IoT, API development is higher on IBM i
- Even when including hardware upgrades, modernizing is more cost-effective
- Lowers both capex and opex costs
- Correlates to increased revenue
As illustrated, modernization on IBM i offers clear advantages in terms of cost, security, and performance. This is precisely why essential services, from financial institutions to government agencies, rely on these systems to run their mission-critical applications.