• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • IBM i 7.4 Rolled Out, And IBM i 7.3 Tech Refresh Rolled Up

    April 24, 2019 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    Every couple of years, we get a new release of the IBM i operating system from Big Blue, and it has been quite a number of years since we have seen a new version of the platform. But that’s alright, since IBM has its Technology Refresh mechanism for adding support for new hardware and for adding significant new software function to the platform without breaking release-level compatibility and therefore requiring customers to requalify their applications, or worse yet, be forced to port their applications to an updated operating system.

    This new Technology Refresh approach has been a very good thing, and we are not eager to see a new version that causes everyone to stop innovating and port their code. Anything that can avoid that scenario is a good thing.

    This week, IBM rolled out IBM i 7.4, the latest release, as well as IBM i 7.3 Technology Refresh 6, which adds many of the features of that are also in IBM i 7.4 into that older release, which came out in 2016. There is not a Technology Refresh for IBM i 7.2, not with a new release out. So from this point forward, IBM i 7.3 and 7.4 will get the refreshes and PTF patches will be available under extended support for IBM i 6.1 and 7.1, which went off normal support back in 2015 and 2018, respectively. IBM is only going to keep at most three releases active on regular support at any given time, although sometimes, if a release runs a bit late there might be a short time when only two releases are on regular support, as was the case briefly in late 2018 and early 2019. Here is a graphical representation of the release support coverage:

    And here is the cadence of releases in the past five years, with placeholders for years hence where IBM iNext and IBM iNext+1 will be coming.

    The releases are not tied to particular hardware, so the naming has not ever been consistent where the Power chip level and the operating system level had the same name, although that would be convenient. But the operating system versions and releases come out separately from processor and system releases, and this is a good thing even if it does violate our sense of symmetry.

    We will be going through the details on Technology Refresh 6 for IBM i 7.3 as well as the new IBM i 7.4 releases in detail, but for now we can give you some of the highlights. IBM i 7.4 and its Db2 Mirror clustering add-on will be available on June 21, while IBM i 7.3 Technology Refresh 6 will come out on May 10. If you can’t wait for our analysis, IBM’s developerWorks site has supplemental information on IBM i 7.4 available here, and for IBM i 7.3 TR6 there. You can also dive into announcement letter 219-214 for the feeds and speeds on IBM i 7.4 and peruse announcement letter 219-213 for the initial details on IBM i 7.3 TR6. We are still chewing on all of this information, which came out yesterday, and also gathering up some more materials to do more complete coverage. Details about the Db2 Mirror feature of IBM i 7.4, which provides continuous availability through active-active clustering of a pair of Power Systems servers running IBM i, are provided here, by the way.

    Speaking very generally, this cadence of enhancements, and the details of them, are aimed at the strategic directions that Big Blue has for the IBM i platform, and this is perhaps as important as the specific enhancements. Here is how Alison Butterill, the IBM i product offering manager for many years now, laid out those strategic directions to IBMers and business partners ahead of the launch this week:

    These objectives are consistent with IBM’s overall goals as a company as well as for what can be reasonably expected to be attractive to customers running IBM i on Power Systems servers.

    The trick for IBM is to find the right cadence for new releases, which usually require recertification of applications, given the needs of customers and third party software developers. According to Steve Will, IBM i chief architect, the independent software vendors think four years between releases is too slow, and customers think that a two-year cycle between releases is too fast, so with IBM i 7.4, IBM is splitting the difference and doing a release after three years.

    Now everybody can complain equally.

    In any event, stay tuned for more detailed coverage on these updates to the IBM i platform. We will be diving in.

    RELATED STORIES

    IBM i Announcements Loom, and So Does POWERUp 2019

    Big Blue Moves Up Technology Refreshes For IBM i

    New IBM i Technology Refreshes Announced; Available Mid-March

    IT Jungle Readers Respond To Tech Refreshes

    IBM i Strategy: Technology Choices And The Vendor Ecosystem

    Investment And Integration Indicators For IBM i

    TRs for IBM i 7.3 and 7.2: Enhancements, No Big Surprises

    SQL And Database Shine As Next Tech Refresh Approaches

    Overdue Upgrades Perplex IBM i Shops

    Technology Refreshes Go Unnoticed By Most IBM i Shops

    Technology Refresh Highlighted By Development Languages And Native Flash Storage

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: DB2, Db2 Mirror, developerWorks, IBM i, IBM i 7.3, IBM i 7.4, Power Systems, PTF, Technology Refresh, TR

    Sponsored by
    VISUAL LANSA 16 WEBINAR

    Trying to balance stability and agility in your IBM i environment?

    Join this webinar and explore Visual LANSA 16 – our enhanced professional low-code platform designed to help organizations running on IBM i evolve seamlessly for what’s next.

    🎙️VISUAL LANSA 16 WEBINAR

    Break Monolithic IBM i Applications and Unlock New Value

    Explore modernization without rewriting. Decouple monolithic applications and extend their value through integration with modern services, web frameworks, and cloud technologies.

    🗓️ July 10, 2025

    ⏰ 9 AM – 10 AM CDT (4 PM to 5 PM CEST)

    See the webinar schedule in your time zone

    Register to join the webinar now

    What to Expect

    • Get to know Visual LANSA 16, its core features, latest enhancements, and use cases
    • Understand how you can transition to a MACH-aligned architecture to enable faster innovation
    • Discover native REST APIs, WebView2 support, cloud-ready Azure licensing, and more to help transform and scale your IBM i applications

    Read more about V16 here.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 16 Power Systems Bucks The IBM Trend And Grows

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 29 Issue: 26

This Issue Sponsored By

  • New Generation Software
  • COMMON
  • CNX
  • ProData Computer Services
  • WorksRight Software

Table of Contents

  • IBM Brings Active-Active Mirroring Into Db2 For i Database
  • Melding System Monitoring And Capacity Planning
  • Power Systems Bucks The IBM Trend And Grows
  • IBM i 7.4 Rolled Out, And IBM i 7.3 Tech Refresh Rolled Up
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 16

Content archive

  • The Four Hundred
  • Four Hundred Stuff
  • Four Hundred Guru

Recent Posts

  • Liam Allan Shares What’s Coming Next With Code For IBM i
  • From Stable To Scalable: Visual LANSA 16 Powers IBM i Growth – Launching July 8
  • VS Code Will Be The Heart Of The Modern IBM i Platform
  • The AS/400: A 37-Year-Old Dog That Loves To Learn New Tricks
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 25
  • Meet The Next Gen Of IBMers Helping To Build IBM i
  • Looks Like IBM Is Building A Linux-Like PASE For IBM i After All
  • Will Independent IBM i Clouds Survive PowerVS?
  • Now, IBM Is Jacking Up Hardware Maintenance Prices
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 24

Subscribe

To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

Pages

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Four Hundred Monitor
  • IBM i PTF Guide
  • Media Kit
  • Subscribe

Search

Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle