Nowadays, everyone is talking about cloud technology. According to a research report of Cisco, approx. Nine out of ten IT workloads will migrate to the cloud in upcoming years.
Meanwhile, many businesses keep chugging along with their decades-old legacy system like IBM iSeries. Organizations whose IT demands are not increasing with time can disagree with the belief that there’s no need to fix broken technologies. And on the other hand, large enterprises with ERP systems may also be hesitant to explore the opportunities in the cloud.
The primary challenge is that legacy technologies are not like a wine that improves with age. Ultimately, legacy technologies cross a cost limit where replacement seems easier and cost-efficient than maintenance.
As your organization evaluates the available options, keep these points in mind:
Replacing Hardware won’t Be Pocket Friendly
The size of your organization is directly proportional to the cost of data centre replacement. The capital expenditure of $5-$10 million can be difficult to justify when the same amount can upgrade customer services or drive additional sales.
Furthermore, you’ll pay for configuration, installation, support, network, and hardware services. And electricity will remain a significant expenditure. Also, your equipment will be on the verge of being outdated from the day you install them. Meanwhile, you may face difficulty in recruiting professionals for your data centre.
Such challenges highlight the importance of the cloud in an IBM AS400 iSeries enabled environment. On cloud setup, someone will be responsible for recruiting staff and data centre experts. Also, you’ll get updated equipment from your cloud service provider, and you’ll save valuable time.
You may End-up Buying More Computing Capacity than Need
The cost of computing power decreases with time. It means, when IBM iSeries enabled companies want to replace their existing servers, the new set comes with 5X computing capacity in comparison to the previous one.
It means, unknowingly, you end up paying for the resources that you won’t be using. Ultimately, this can’t be called an intelligent buy.
On the other hand, an IBM AS400 cloud service provider will charge only for the resources you use. You won’t pay for the services you didn’t use or the capacity you didn’t utilize.
And the flexibility of the cloud services ensures that you can quickly scale up the capacity as per business needs.
Recovering Systems from Disaster may End-up In Trouble
Legacy systems seem to have legacy backup technologies like magnetic tape and optical drive. But sometimes, such methodology takes days or even weeks to provide complete backup. Also, the backups process can fail in such a long time and leave the enterprise in a puzzling situation.
Cloud technology provides infinite storage capacity, which makes it an ideal solution. Moreover, servers from a remote location can give you a measure of distance between you and an earthquake or flood. And technologies like virtualization and containerization have also joined hands with replication software to ensure disaster recovery in real-time.
Global organizations are not the only one in the market to store unwanted backups. Nowadays, an organization of any size can establish a disaster recovery program that comes with minimum downtime.
Experts of Legacy Systems are Retiring
Experts are retiring throughout the industrial world, but IBM iSeries is most affected by this challenge.
Many enterprises are only one or two retirements away from losing subject matter experts who are well-versed with their systems. Unfortunately, colleges and universities are not providing training to IT professionals about these legacy systems.
But it doesn’t mean there are no experts on legacy systems; they are just hard to find.
Managed Cloud Solution: The Best Choice for Your Business
Cloud services providers are successful because they offer distinct advantages in capacity, services, computing power, and cost. But you don’t underrate the difficulty of incorporating cloud services and how they’ll perform according to the workload. Cloud services must be designed, implemented, and managed carefully, per distinct business needs and available resources.
That’s why many organizations are partnering with Integrative Systems to seek help. We help companies in their cloud migration journey so that they can focus on core business objectives. Our services help companies deploy robust technologies and put them in line with significant competitors.
The IBM AS400 iSeries has enjoyed a remarkable journey. IBM introduced AS400 in 1988, and it evolved as iSeries in 2006, and since then, it has been evolving continuously under IBM’s Power Series.
But three decades of solid performance is not enough to overcome the challenges of managing the legacy IBM iSeries. The hardware and software up-gradation of the system is complex & not so pocket-friendly. Furthermore, it’s not easy to find IBM iSeries developers and programmers. Meanwhile, cloud migration offers flexibility and scalability in terms of system administration.
Luckily, adopting a cloud doesn’t mean that you need to unload your IBMi infrastructure. All you need is a clear strategy for cloud migration. And to be ready for cloud migration, you need three things in place. Let’s walk through those things in detail:
The Staff to Implement, Manage, and Support
Before you start IBM iSeries cloud migration, you need to solve various challenges.
The cloud migration strategy must be designed carefully, i.e., it must suit your existing setup or unique business needs. The curve can be expensive and time-consuming if you don’t have prior experience in cloud migration strategy designing.
Staffing:
As IBM iSeries is a matured technology, young IT professionals cannot handle the overall process, as they haven’t mastered the iSeries technology. Furthermore, many IBM iSeries developers are nearing retirement age, and finding a replacement is not easy. But it is not like that there is a shortage of IBM iSeries developers. There is plenty of iSeries talent available; the difficult part is to get them on board and connect with the IT team.
Management & Support:
If you’re short of talent within your environment, it can be challenging to manage IBM iSeries.
The Power & Space
Many organizations have more processing power in their legacy systems than they need or use. And, deciding to migrate to the cloud means they’ll get more power & space than the actual requirement, and it will help it cost-cutting also. Moreover, the process is necessary for the organization whose needs fluctuate continuously.
Moving your setup to the cloud means it will reduce your overall IT expenditure while corresponding your processing power with the specific needs. Also, with a cloud solution onboard, you’ll only pay for what you need or utilize.
Backup and Disaster Recovery Program
Innovations in virtualization, containerization, and replication permit an organization to develop robust backup and disaster recovery programs.
Cloud backup and recovery programs can create real-time support for mission-critical applications like e-commerce, where downtime is a killer.
Have a look at the things that you need in place for migrating IBM iSeries to the cloud:
- Replacement Plan for Tape-drive: The cloud setup permits you to change tape-drive systems. Although, many legacy forms of archived data might return on tape. Your backup & recovery system will work out on this.
- System Design: You can develop a system that uses a virtual server to imitate real-time backup & recovery. The challenge is to create a system that can handle changing business needs & business architecture.
- Recovery Goals: You need to define recovery time and your operations. Moreover, it would be best to describe Recovery Point Objectives to know how many hours or weeks of data you need to recover.
- Testing: To ensure that system is working in full swing, conduct backup, and recovery drills. The system goes down temporarily in the testing phase, so it needs to be done with care.
- Documentation and Support: You need comprehensive guidelines so that your backup assistance is accessible in an emergency. Furthermore, you need support staff to monitor the systems continuously and provide real-time information if any trouble occurs.
Integrative Systems: Partner for Your IBM iSeries Cloud Migration
Integrative Systems provides resources and technology for migrating iSeries technologies to the cloud. For many organizations, it makes sense to partner with an iSeries expert like Integrative Systems for cloud migration.
Cloud migration can help you incorporate transformative, data-driven technologies like AI and the IoT. Integrative Systems, where our experts will deliver the talent and knowledge you need for a smooth migration of technologies, you can make it happen quickly.
Integrative Solving CIO Challenges
The technology challenges come at organizations from every angle. And it would be best if you had a perfect partner on board to manage all the needs related to cloud migration and keep the C-suite happy.
Integrative Systems deploy full-timers, part-timers, and contract-based employees to provide maximum benefits in the shortest time possible and within optimal budget.
Here’s a look at four main challenges you can address with Integrative Systems:
Three Problems faced for IBM iSeries Cloud Migration
Difficulty in Finding Experts
Sometimes the process of recruiting, hiring, and onboarding employees for a full-time role can be frustrating for employers. Have a look at the sample annual salaries (based on US News & World Report):
- Software developer: $102,280
- IT manager: $135,800
- Network architect: $101,210
- Security analyst: $92,600
Note: These are average salaries, and employers pay more than this.
A unified IT solution can put experienced IT experts to work within days. Also, they have specific training and certification as per business requirements. Furthermore, they are capable of working at any level.
Limited Resources & High Expectations
The nature of the IT processes to deliver productivity benefits is that an enterprise gets more ROI with fewer people. IT leadership can’t evade the tension to grasp excellent performance from limited resources.
A unified IT team can help you enhance performance with no new hiring on board. Your consulting partner can combine talent with part-timers and skilled specialists who can join the role whenever you need them.
Legacy Systems Present More Challenges
Organizations often stick with legacy applications because they feel comfortable with old technologies, tools that suit their needs, and sometimes they think that implementing a new system could be expensive.
But what they don’t realize is, the maintenance of these legacy systems becomes more expensive with every passing year. Furthermore, talented and expert techies are nearing retirement age, and universities are not training people to maintain these legacy technologies.
However, legacy technology experts are still there. It’s just they are challenging to find. Or you may take help from a consulting company like Integrative Systems, which specializes in providing IT experts who can help you get the job done.
Your Organization Needs to Evolve and Innovate Quickly
Venture capitalists provide millions & billions as funding to the start-ups. IoT, AI, Big-data, ML, and cloud technologies present captivating chances to build a trench around your enterprises and resist disruptive threats.
It requires talent to capture such opportunities. And that talent could be hidden or distributed among half-dozen technologies or certifications. Generally, you don’t need full-time staff to handle this work, but you’ll need a project team to design a solution, implementation, and staff training.
Staffing up with Integrative IBMi Consulting Services
Over the past two decades, Integrative Systems have solved complex IT challenges of companies in every sector. Delivering such solutions require highly trained professionals across multiple technology disciplines, for which we have a strong pool of subject matter experts that make it easy for you.
If you have any queries about cloud migration and modernization of your IBM iSeries, feel free to connect. Just send us an email at [email protected], and someone from our team will get in touch with you in shortest time possible.
