• Where We Are And Where We Are Headed With AI On IBM i

  February 16, 2026 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Here we are in 2026, and we have gotten used to GenAI like we did the coronavirus pandemic after it largely ran its course after three years. The difference, of course, is that there is no vaccine for GenAI, especially when a substantial part of the growth in the global economy is coming from enormous capital spending on GenAI hardware and software.

  I have spent a large portion of my career as an IT journalist and analyst tracking high end, large scale, distributed computing in its many forms and have been fascinated by the clever and creative advances in the …

  Read more

• IBM Unveils Expert Query To Replace Db2 Web Query

  February 16, 2026 Alex Woodie

  IBM’s Technology Expert Labs is launching IBM Database Expert Query for i, a new tool that allows users to create and run reports against the integrated Db2 for i database from the comfort of a Web browser. IBM is positioning Expert Query as a replacement for Db2 Web Query, the business intelligence and analytics tool that it abruptly killed more than two years ago.

  Expert Query was developed over the past year by Technology Expert Labs (formerly Lab Services). We have heard rumblings that Big Blue was gearing up a replacement for the well-liked Db2 Web Query product, and it …

  Read more

• Guru: Are Binding Directories A Shortcut Or A Source Of Chaos?

  February 16, 2026 Gregory Simmons

  Ask any IBM i developer about binding directories, and you will usually get one of two reactions: A grateful nod or an eye roll. For some, binding directories are a lifesaver, making compile commands cleaner and projects easier to manage. For others, they are a ticking time bomb, introducing hidden dependencies that come back to haunt you months later.

  I have seen both sides. In fact, one of the worst compile-day disasters I’ve witnessed started with a well-meaning developer adding a single service program to a global binding directory. Suddenly, half the shop’s programs were linking against the wrong version …

  Read more

• IBM Takes On The Memory Crunch With New FlashSystem Lineup

  February 16, 2026 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  There is a shortage of main memory and flash in the world right now. This is due, in large part, to the explosion in investments in yottascale AI systems that burn tens of gigawatts of juice. Such systems require a huge amount of HBM stacked memory on their GPU and XPU accelerators as well as high performance DRAM and flash in their hosts and truly enormous shared flash storage to serve up datasets.

  The biggest companies buy up most of the DRAM and flash chips a year or more before they are even made, but with demand skyrocketing, the memory …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 28, Number 7

  February 16, 2026 Doug Bidwell

  First, we wish you all a happy belated Valentine’s Day, which we were thinking about because we put the IBM i PTF Guide together on Saturday.

  Second, there is a new System Planning Tool, Version 6.26.041.0, which is available for download at this link. We also note that the link to the IBM Systems Workload Estimator and the link to the IBM Systems Energy Estimator no longer work and just take you to a generic IT Infrastructure page that is, how shall we say?, not particularly useful.

  And third, we have Security Bulletin: IBM WebSphere Application Server could provide …

  Read more

• IBM Starts Winding Down Power10 System Sales

  February 9, 2026 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It may be hard to believe it, but the big, bad Power E1080, which is based on the Power10 processor, has been selling since September 2021. The remainder of the Power10 line, including entry and midrange machines, was announced in July 2022. And now, with the Power11 machines announced last July shipping in volume from top to bottom excepting the Power S1112 Mini, which should be coming out soon, and IBM doing build to order for all of its Power11 machines, it only stands to reason that Big Blue would stop selling Power10 iron as soon as …

  Read more

• Guru: Service Programs And Activation Groups – Design Decisions That Matter

  February 9, 2026 Gregory Simmons

  If you have been writing service programs for a while, you might treat binding like flipping a light switch: write some code, compile it, bind it, done. It works – until it doesn’t. Behind the scenes, IBM i is doing a lot more than just connecting your program to a library of procedures. And if you’re not paying attention to activation groups and how you structure your service programs, you might be setting yourself up for sluggish performance or debugging nightmares down the road.

  Let’s demystify what is really happening when you bind and why activation groups deserve more of …

  Read more

• Strategic Topics To Think About For 2026, Part 1

  February 9, 2026 Philippe Magne

  Longevity is an amazing thing. ARCAD Software has now amassed more than 34 years of expertise centered around everything related to DevSecOps transformations. To start off the new year, I would like to share six strategic ideas that will help shape 2026 in the IBM i market, and beyond it.

  The big new development for ARCAD is our fourth brand, called DISCOVER, which is focused on application intelligence. It’s the newest addition, and it’s very promising. We’re delighted to have convinced more than 25 customers by year 2025, and I think this will evolve significantly this year.

  DISCOVER is all …

  Read more

• Shield Gooses Performance Of Nagios Monitoring Tool, Adds AI Reporting

  February 9, 2026 Alex Woodie

  Large IBM i installations that experienced performance issues with older versions of Shield Advanced Solutions’ Nagios monitoring tool will be happy to hear that version 3.0 delivers a 2X to 3X performance boost. The new version, which Shield announced last month, also includes an early release of an integration with ChatGPT that automatically generates reports based on the real-time IBM i server metrics gathered by Nagios.

  Nagios is a very popular open source IT infrastructure monitoring tool that’s been deployed millions of times around the world. It works by constantly pinging targets, which could be anything from server or storage …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 28, Number 6

  February 9, 2026 Doug Bidwell

  Here is something handy if you are contemplating moving to IBM i 7.6: A comparison of IBM i 7.5 to IBM i 7.6, from IBM Support and available at this link. If you are moving from releases earlier than IBM i 7.5 to IBM i 7.6, then you should definitely take a gander at this as well. We have added a link in the Guide tab “Links” for this should you need to get to it later and to keep it top of mind.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level since we last …

  Read more

• Rolling The Die In 2026: IBM i Predictions, Take Two

  February 2, 2026 Alex Woodie

  A traditional Chinese curse states “May you live in interesting times.” That curse may apply to IBM i shops in 2026, which opens with equal parts uncertainty and anticipation. Artificial intelligence looms large, not only over information technology, but life as we know it. Add in the other variables impacting the midrange in the second year of the second quarter of the 21st century Anno Domini, and what you get is…well, interesting.

  We start our second and final compilation of 2026 predictions with Bargav Balakrishnan, IBM’s vice president of product management for infrastructure. Balakrishnan took over the post …

  Read more

• Perhaps 2026 Is The Year For Power Systems To Boom A Little

  February 2, 2026 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In wrapping up IBM’s call with Wall Street analysts in the wake of Big Blue reporting its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025 – which was a very good one for the most part, by the way – chief executive officer Arvind Krishna referred to the IBM Company as a “software-led, platform-centric company.”

  This is no news to any of us who have been using or programming or analyzing the business of IBM over the many decades. Of course this is true. But for IBM, the main platform that is driving the big bucks at the top and …

  Read more

• Guru: Binder Source Is Your Service Program’s Owner’s Manual

  February 2, 2026 Gregory Simmons

  If service programs are the backbone of modular RPG development, then binder source is the owner’s manual you didn’t know you needed. It’s not glamorous, but it’s the piece that ties everything together: Controlling what you export, defining your public API, and managing change over time. Yet, far too many shops treat binder source as optional – if they use it at all. That’s a mistake.

  Let’s start with what binder source actually does. When you create a service program, you need to tell the system which procedures should be visible to callers. You could just use EXPORT(*ALL) and call …

  Read more

• Skills Displaces Cybersecurity As Top Concern For IBM i Shops

  February 2, 2026 Alex Woodie

  Well, it was bound to happen eventually. After nine straight years as the top concern in the IBM i community, cybersecurity has finally fallen out of the number one position in Fortra’s annual IBM i Marketplace Survey. Taking its place atop the closely watched survey is IBM i skills, an issue that has been lurking in the background but now must be considered a priority for IBM i leaders.

  Fortra’s annual IBM i Marketplace Survey provides a broad barometer on what’s going on with the IBM i community. One of the most closely watched questions in the survey, …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 28, Number 5

  February 2, 2026 Doug Bidwell

  This week there’s another winter storm whacking the eastern half of the United States, and we are also putting together the IBM i PTF Guide a little early in case some of the people working on The Four Hundred lose power. If all goes well, and you are reading this on Monday, then we got it all done before anything bad happened.

  This week, we start off with two security vulnerabilities.

  First, we have Security Bulletin: Multiple Vulnerabilities in IBM Java SDK affect IBM WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Application Server Liberty due to the January 2026 CPU, which you …

  Read more

• Shaking The IBM i Magic Eight Ball For 2026

  January 26, 2026 Alex Woodie

  After one more trip around the Sun, the IBM i community is back at it for another turn. What will become of our favorite box in 2026, let alone the people who work on it? That is not easy to say. As the great ballplayer/philosopher Yogi Berra once said: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” But we try anyway.

  We kick off 2026 IBM i predictions with some targeted insight from Bill Langston, director of marketing, New Generation Software:

  “I feel like 2026 will be a quiet year with the most adventurous IBM i customers …

  Read more

• IBM Power Offsite Data Protection That Fits The Way IBM i Shops Already Work

  January 26, 2026 Don Gentile Steven Dickens

  For decades, IBM Power systems have supported some of the most critical systems of record in the global economy. Banking, insurance, healthcare, retail, and government organizations all rely on IBM i environments for stability, data integrity, and predictable operations. These are not necessarily the world’s flashiest workloads, but they are essential for keeping the lights on, transactions flowing, and making sure the trains run on time.

  Yet even in these well-managed environments, Offsite data protection remains a persistent challenge. Local backup and availability are rarely the issue. Most IBM Power shops have mature backup routines and, in many cases, high-availability …

  Read more

• Guru: Access Client Solutions 1.1.9.11 – Security First, With Continued Investment In SQL Tooling

  January 26, 2026 Gregory Simmons

  Big Blue has released IBM i Access Client Solutions (ACS) version 1.1.9.11, and while the release is anchored by an important security fix, it also reflects IBM’s continued investment in the SQL tooling that has become central to day-to-day IBM i development and administration. This is not a feature-heavy update on its own, but it arrives after a series of releases that have steadily expanded the usefulness of both Run SQL Scripts and SQL Performance Center.

  The primary driver for upgrading to ACS 1.1.9.11 is the remediation of CVE-2025-66516, an XML External Entity vulnerability related to how ACS processes certain …

  Read more

• It Looks Like 2026 Will Be a Good Year For Power-IBM i Upgrades

  January 26, 2026 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  We look forward every year to having our hands on the latest IBM i Marketplace Survey results, which are gathered in the fall and presented in January the following year. This is the 12th IBM i Marketplace Survey, and we never forget that it was our own Dan Burger who talked to Tom Huntington at HelpSystems, now Forta, to get the survey started. We do our part to try to get you all to take the survey and we use it as grist for our models of the base, which we also share with you.

  This being a new year …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 28, Number 4

  January 26, 2026 Doug Bidwell

  Big Blue is changing its IP addresses for important stuff once again, and that makes this change a High Impact/Pervasive or HIPER issue for IBM i shops. So, customers have to prepare firewalls and proxies for the upcoming infrastructure changes on IBM Fix Central system, which you can read about more at this link. Public internet IP address are changing for the IBM servers that support internet delivery of fixes and updates for customer system’s software, hardware, and operating system. Hostnames are not changing. IBM will complete the implementation of the infrastructure improvements to electronic fix distribution by March …

  Read more

Previous Articles