Survey Paints a Picture of IBM i Community, Product Usage
May 2, 2018 Alex Woodie
The folks behind the All 400s website have published the first results of an online survey that seeks to illuminate the state of the IBM i community, ranging from possible plans to migrate off the platform to third-party product preferences. The first 400 people have taken the 25-question survey, and the results may surprise you.
About a week ago, John Rockwell, the owner of the All 400s website (www.all400s.com) announced in the LinkedIn group “IBM i, iSeries, and AS/400 Professionals” that the first set of results has been released. The survey, which is hosted by Survey Monkey, remains open, and every time another 400 people take the survey, the results will be updated, Rockwell says.
The survey, which is called the “IBM i (AS/400, iSeries) Products and Services Survey,” asks a wide variety of questions, including what versions of IBM i are being used at the survey-taker’s company, whether the company plans to migrate off the server, what conferences the company plans to send employees to, and what name people call the server.
COMMON, which has renamed its annual meeting POWERUp, rated as the top IBM i conference with 37.5 percent of the votes, followed by System i Developer‘s RPG-DB2 Summit with 12.6 percent. The OCEAN, WMPCA, NEUGC, MAGIC, and TUG user group meetings also were mentioned as good bets for those on tight budgets.
Migrations are a fact of life in the IT business, but there doesn’t appear to be any sign of mass migrations to or from the IBM i platform. Nearly 82 percent say they’ve always used the IBM i and didn’t to it from some other system, which indicates how loyal and long-lived the installed base is. More than 57 percent say they have no plans to migrate off the IBM i platform. However, 9.7 percent say they plan to migrate away from IBM i in the next five years. Nearly 15 percent answered “maybe” when asked if they plan to leave.
The bulk of All 400s’ survey is dedicated to exploring product usage trends at survey-takers’ companies. Product categories covered by the survey include: ERP packages; graphical user interface (GUI) development; change management; job scheduling; security; backup and recovery; high availability and disaster recovery; credit card processing; and development tools.
The survey generated some interesting results, including some that are downright concerning. When All 400s asked “Who do you get your security product from?” about 21 percent say they developed their own software. However, 31.2 percent responded “None,” which would indicate no security software is installed. About 17 percent say they get theirs from HelpSystems (including PowerTech and StandGuard). Microsoft garnered about 6 percent of the votes, while Cisco and Raz-Lee Security both nabbed about 4 percent.
Other security tools getting more than 1 percent of the votes were IBM Lab Services PowerSCTools (3.6 percent), Townsend Security (3.4 percent), Syncsort (including Enforcive and Cilasoft — 2.3 percent), Kisco Information Systems (1.8 percent), Pentasafe (owned by Micro Focus – 1.3 percent), and Arpeggio Software (1.0 percent).
On the topic of GUI tools, the answers once again retrograded into the dismal past when about 28 percent of survey-takers declared that they did not have any GUIs and that 5250 green screens are just fine, thankyouverymuch. An even 20 percent say they got their GUI tools from IBM, which would indicate the use of things like Host Access Transformation Services (HATS), while about 11 percent say they build GUIs in-house using technology like CGI, HTML, and CCS.
CNX‘s Valence framework surprised with a solid 8 percent showing on the survey. That placed it ahead of Fresche Solutions (including looksoftware and BCD – 7.5 percent), Rocket Software (Legasuite, JWalk – 6.0 percent), Profound Logic (5.8 percent), Easy400 (CGIDEV2 – 4.7 percent), LANSA (3.8 percent), ASNA (2.8 percent), and Zend (2.0 percent).
Nearly 30 percent of users say they get change management functionality from in-house development, while 19 percent they have none at all. Among change management software vendors, Rocket Software led with its Aldon product, which had a 15.2 percent share, followed by UNICOM Global and its SoftLanding offering at 14.6 percent. Jira, a proprietary bug-tracking system developed by Atlassian, nabbed 5.8 percent of the votes, the same amount as Git, an open source version control system.
There appeared to be some confusion surrounding Implementer, the IBM i change management system that was once sold by MKS. While 3.9 percent of All400s survey-takers said they used MKS, another 3.0 percent say they use PTC Software Implementer (PTC acquired MKS in 2011). Remain Software got a 3.3 percent share while Midrange Dynamics and ARCAD Software both scored 1.9 percent.
Infor was the big winner in the ERP category. Infor LX (BPCS) landed 7.3 percent of the votes, followed by Infor XA (MAPICS) at 6.2 percent. Oracle‘s JD Edwards World product had a 6.2 percent share, followed by SAP and its Business Suite at 5.2 percent. Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne had a 4.4 percent share, followed by several more Infor products, including System 21 (3.1 percent), M3 (Lawson — 2.6 percent), PRMS (2.3 percent) and Infinium (2.3 percent).
VAI scored a 1.8 percent share with its Enterprise S2K product, while Finastra scored 1.3 percent with its Midas (Misys) banking system, a figure matched by Island Pacific. Other ERP packages getting 1 percent or less included Friedman‘s Frontier, Infor A+, HarrisData, Infor Mac-Pac, Cerner‘s (formerly Siemens) MedSeries4, TMW Systems‘ Innovative Computing dispatching system, and Accenture’s Dealer Business System. About 48 percent of users reported they develop their own ERP software or don’t use ERP.
On the job scheduling front, most survey-takers (42.6 percent) say they use the native commands that come with IBM i, while about 30 percent say they have custom programs and WRKJOBSCDE. HelpSystems dominated among third-party software providers with 25.6 percent.
Tapes still rule backups, and garnered a 56.5 percent share in All 400s’ survey. About a quarter of the survey-takers say they use IBM’s BRMS software, while 16.5 percent say they don’t know. UCG Technologies‘ VAULT400 impressed with a 5.4 percent response rate, while Dell‘s Data Domain VTL and de-dupe appliance also did well with 4.2 percent.
There were some surprises in the high availability and disaster recovery category. The fact that Syncsort’s (formerly Vision Solutions) MIMIX product garnered a 26.4 percent share was not one of them, and neither was the showing by Syncsort’s iTera HA product, with 9.2 percent. The Quick-EDD product that was formerly developed by Trader’s (and which was acquired by Syncsort in January) had a solid 5 percent showing. Rocket’s iCluster software logged a 3.3 percent share, followed by Maxava at 2.4 percent, Vision’s old OMS/ODS product at 2.1 percent, HelpSystems Robot HA at 1.5 percent, Shield Advanced Solutions HA4i at 0.9 percent, and iSamBlue with 0.6 percent of the votes.
The surprise was that more than 13 percent of survey-takers say they get HA and DR from IBM via APSU or InfoSystems, which are IBM business partners that provide hosted HA and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) for IBM i customers out of the same building in Chattanooga, Tennessee. IBM has contracted these companies to provide HA services on its behalf, and when IBM i users call IBM to get help, the phone rings in Chattanooga. But perhaps even more surprising is that IBM’s PowerHA offering got just 0.9 percent of the votes.
The most satisfying question on the survey had to do with what people call the system (they were allowed to make multiple entries). An overwhelming 93.4 percent say they call it “AS/400,” or just “The Four Hundred” (which coincidentally is the name of this newsletter). About 21 percent say they call it “iSeries.” Only about 11 percent call it by its current name, “IBM i,” while just a hair over 3 percent call it either “Power System” (although the correct term is “Power Systems,” even if you’re just talking about a single server) or “System i.” Less than 2 percent say they refer to it as “i5,” which actually was one of the official names from IBM.
Interestingly, some users call the system by completely different names. Apparently about 2 percent call it “JDE.” More than 1 percent call it “The IBM.” Less than 1 percent call it “Infor” or “VAI” or “The Harris System.” But apparently nobody calls it “Frank,” after the IBM engineer who had a big hand in creating the AS/400 back in 1988.
You can find links to take the survey and view initial survey results at www.all400s.com.
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Many thanks for letting your readers know about the survey and its results. One additional note – although an updated summary of the survey’s results will be created after eachy new set of 400 responses has been received, the results are also updated daily and posted at all400s.com to give decision-makers as close to a real-time view of the landscape as possible.
If you’d like to take the survey on behalf of you company you can do it here – http://cli.re/Lkqzod
If you want to see the current results you can see them here – http://cli.re/Lwx5zA
It’s fascinating. This survey was done within a group that has the old branding in its name. It is not a balanced indication of the community.
The results are skewed because the survey takers are those who live in the world of “the 400”. Out in the real world, IBM i is taking over. IBM i people have moved on from misbranding and misusing the platform name. Survey those people, and you’ll find 100% call it IBM i.
Trevor, since your company is ranked near the top for the question regarding the source of modern user interfaces and over 90% of the people who took the survey say the users are still calling it an AS/400 then you have a math problem on your hands. Many of the people who put your company near the top are the same ones who are calling it an AS400. Or did a skewing of the results accidentally put your company into the upper ranks? You can’t have it both ways.
Someone did bring up a valid question about the results possibly being skewed because we asked what the ‘users’ called the system though. Their objection was based on that person never hearing anyone who was high up in an organization still using the name. So to be fair we added another question asking what whoever held the highest title in the company called it. Roughly 70% still went with ‘AS400’.
By the way, we have connections with every major vendor and most of the smaller ones and made sure all of them are aware of the survey and know it’s an ongoing venture. It reflects the real world as closely as possible. And yes, that means we even have connections to people in your company too. It had, and still has, the opportunity to convince its customers to take the survey if for no other reason than to answer just the ‘name’ question so it skews in your favor. All of the questions are optional so they can skip to the bottom afterwards and just hit ‘Submit’ to save their answers.
Trevor, I should also point out that when I looked at a subset of the survey responses where Fresche Solutions was chosen as the answer (in the Modern UI and Consultants Companies Were Satisfied With questions), a majority of both the users and the person with the highest title at those companies still call it an AS/400.
Maybe you’re only hearing people use the IBM i label around you because they know what they’ll have to listen to if they don’t. I’d prefer them to feel comfortable calling the platform whatever they want – it’s still an IBM Midrange System and I can still successfully promote it regardless of the label they use. .
With the most huge respect, Trevor, your obsession with naming is not truly beneficial to the platform. Deriding those who diligently work to build the ecosystem because they use popular terminology is not constructive. Denying its roots and common identity as AS/400 detracts and distracts from the value propositions we work to relate. I would rather spend time singing the virtues of IBM i (since IBM refuses to) than arguing with customers and prospects about a name.
Our company, Curbstone, has hundreds of customers and we speak with prospects constantly. As much as we support the “new” vision of the system as the “Power System running IBM i operating system”, the REALITY is that the majority of people we talk to refer to this system as “the 400” or AS/400. This is irrefutable.
Try as we might, the name is embedded in society, and until young people REPLACE all of the existing humans who have long-term careers on the platform, your well-intentioned dream of universal displacement of the term AS/400 will not be realized. And given the INSANELY egregious marketing from IBM to obfuscate the platform in favor of just selling high-margin Websphere and consulting, we have a platform with no valuable identity.
If you research the Google search history for all the terms, my point is well-evidenced that the ONLY absolute trend is the steep decline in searched for ANY term. All graphs fall like autumn leaves. I suggest we do as much as we can to sing the virtues of the platform in whatever language our constituents want to hear.
The stale arguments that the IBM i has the latest computing features and AS/400 is now antiquated is offset by the fact that our customers and prospects – all already on the box – are there for a reason. Don’t think that many new sales are being made to companies magically convinced this is a modern platform because you call it IBM i operating system. We might not have had an inquiry from a “new” IBM i customer in years that I can remember. Every prospect we talk to is a long-time user.
Would like to thank John Rockwell for being a documentor of the ecosystem members. Without his diligent work, we would not have any idea of the population of companies on the Power System running the IBM i operating system! His efforts are of huge benefit to all related to this wonderful platform.
P.S. Trevor, you said: “IBM i people have moved on from misbranding and misusing the platform name. Survey those people, and you’ll find 100% call it IBM i.”
Sort of like survey all the people named Trevor and 100% will say their name is Trevor!
Reminds me of the old song from the Good Girls: “Call me anything, just call me.”
Trevor, “a group that has the old branding in its name”. You mean like “The Four Hundred”, the newsletter you read this article in? .
Ouch!