The Secret to AS/400 Modernization: Move Business Logic to the Database and Make the Old and New Coexist.

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The Secret to AS/400 Modernization: Move Business Logic to the Database and Make the Old and New Coexist. 

17 days ago

  • The Secret to AS/400 Modernization: Move Business Logic to the Database and Make the Old and New Coexist.

In the beating heart of countless Italian companies, silent yet tireless, a system that made computer history continues to operate: the IBM Power System, heir to the AS/400. A platform that stands out for its proverbial robustness and security, fundamental pillars for the business continuity of those who use it. But behind this façade of consolidated reliability lies a crucial challenge: the transition to the future.

On the one hand, an invaluable heritage of management applications, written with languages and methodologies dating back decades, supports vital business processes. Applications that, however, are beginning to show their age. Maintenance is becoming increasingly complex, caught in the grip of an unbridgeable generational gap: the expert programmers, custodians of those "historical memories" made of RPG, are approaching retirement, without an adequate replacement of new recruits with similar skills.

On the other hand, a constantly evolving world, dominated by modern, agile, and productivity-oriented programming languages, seems to travel on parallel tracks to the "Power world." The new generations of developers, digital natives raised on Python, Java, or Node.js, often perceive the AS/400 as a computer dinosaur, light years away from their comfort zone.

Yet, the Power System, with its extraordinary foresight, proves to be anything but obsolete. On the contrary, it opens the doors to these new languages, offering a solid and performing environment for modern applications, while continuing to run legacy code without batting an eyelid. But how do we face this transition then? How to reconcile the legacy of the past with the needs of the future? This is the crucial question we must answer, exploring solutions that go beyond easy shortcuts and know how to enhance the true potential of the Power System.

Conclusions:

We are facing a crossroads, but also an extraordinary opportunity. The temptation of radical solutions such as a complete "rebuild" of applications or their replacement with standard management packages is strong, but often proves to be a path fraught with obstacles, hidden costs, and unexpected risks. Not to mention the loss of that precious company "know-how" accumulated over years of development and customization.

My vision, instead, points to a different path, a middle ground that values ​​the best of both worlds: leveraging the power and reliability of the Power System to migrate business logic from the heart of legacy applications directly into the database. Imagine those complex algorithms, those intricate decision rules that define the price of a product, the management of discounts, or commercial policies, translated into robust and performing functions within the DB2 for i.

This approach, far from being a simple "patch," represents a true evolutionary modernization strategy. It allows you to keep existing applications unchanged, preserving the investment made and minimizing the impact on the business. At the same time, it opens a gateway to innovation, allowing modern developers to access that business logic efficiently and securely, using the languages ​​and tools that are most congenial to them.

In this way, the Power System not only maintains its strategic centrality but is transformed into a bridge between past and future, an ecosystem where legacy applications and cutting-edge solutions coexist harmoniously. A future where the knowledge of "historical memories" is not dispersed but enhanced and made accessible, allowing companies to innovate and compete with renewed vigor, without denying their heritage, but rather, treasuring it to build a solid and prosperous future. This is not a traumatic revolution, but an intelligent and pragmatic evolution, which recognizes the inestimable value of the Power System and projects it, once again, towards a successful future.

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suman suhag
4 days ago

Dear Sir, In-Depth Analysis of IBM's Zero Downtime Load Balancer Deployment Strategy

Q1: What is the challenge of IBM in deploying distributed systems? A1:

IBM faces the challenge of disintegration during updates or restarts, resulting in loss of memory flushing and existing connections. This challenge is particularly important for load balancer for managing millions of connections on the same server. 

Q2: Which initial solution did IBM consider to address this challenge? A2:

IBM considered two primary solutions: Using advanced programming languages ​​that support continuous deployment, such as Erlang. However, this will require a significant rewriting of their existing load balancer services, making it impractical. Using proxy to host all the connections in a load balancer. During a load balancer restart, the proxy can be cloned, by mimicking the file descriptors, all active connections can be transferred to the new example. 

Q3: How does the proxy-based solution of IBM work to ensure zero downtime? A3:

 When a load  balancer needs to be restarted, a clone of proxy is made. The file details of the active connection are copied from the old proxy to the new. This method ensures that the ongoing connections persist, as the new proxy continues to handle the connection without the need for re -installation. The old server then dries its connections and stops responding to health check -ups, allowing the new proxy to handle it originally.

Q4: What is the architecture of IBM's load-balance system? A4:

 IBM appoints a multi-tier load-balance system:

The first tier consists of proxy at edge locations that eliminate user connections and eliminate further requests for upstream data centers. At the second level data centers include proxy that request for the application server. The hand-off mechanism ensures that the existing connection is maintained during the proxy update or the file is restarted by taking advantage of copying the descriptor.

Q5: What is the benefit of IBM's zero-downtime load balancer perfection strategy? A5: 

Strategy provides many benefits: Easy user experience with no disruption during updates. Increased strength and reliability of infrastructure. Scalability to manage millions of servers and user connections efficiently.

Q6: How does an IBM load billions to ensure a spontaneous user experience during updates? A6:

IBM ensures a multi-level architecture, connection hand-off mechanism and novel signaling techniques to maintain a connection without updates and interruptions during the restarts. 

Q7: What is the importance of IBM's zero-downtime load balancer perfection strategy? A7:

IBM's zero-downtime load balancer  perfection strategy gives an example of advanced engineering to achieve uninterrupted service continuity. Taking advantage of adopting a proxy-based solution and copying the file descriptor, the IBM ensures that updates and restarted are transparent to users, maintaining the highest level of service reliability.