After the release of IBM i 7.3 this past spring, we’ve traveled six months down the road and it’s already time for a Technology Refresh. That’s TR 1 for the fresh-faced 7.3 and TR 5 for i 7.2, which was hatched in May 2014. For the record, let’s also note that i 7.1 debuted in April 2010 and the Technology Refresh program is now six years old. Here’s the latest stuff from the TR pipeline.

As always, there are added features to appreciate in this latest TR. After all, the software is guided by requests from the IBM i advisory

As we have been hearing on the grapevine, IBM is indeed going to put out a cloudy, revved up version of its four-socket Power Systems machine, the Power E850C. This system actually features a faster–and hotter–Power8 processor, which gives the machine a little more oomph so it can better compete against systems based on Intel’s Xeon E5-4600 and Xeon E7-4800 motors. This machine also represent the entry level of the C-style cloudy systems that IBM has cooked up, which sport OpenStack cloud controllers and PowerVM hypervisors for building private clouds.

But like the Power E850 predecessor that Big Blue

IBM today unveiled several enhancements to PowerHA for i as part of its semi-annual Technology Refresh for the IBM i stack. First up is a new Capacity BackUp (CBU) system that will be more affordable and easier to use. The company also announced that it will officially be supporting PowerHA’s HyperSwap functionality on SAN Volume Controller (SVC) appliances, not just the DS800. Cloud-based IBM i storage and Unix-only resiliency features round out what’s new in PowerHA.

IBM is rolling out a rehashed CBU for Power Systems offering that will be better than last year’s CBU program. IBMers say last year’s

You can add one more item to the long list of products that HelpSystems offers: high availability software. Following its recent acquisition of Bug Busters Software Engineering, HelpSystems last week unveiled its new Robot HA product, which will be targeted largely at small and medium IBM i shops that haven’t had HA before.

Robot HA is the new name for RSF-HA, the IBM i data mirroring product that Bug Busters launched more than 10 years ago at the bargain-basement price of $1,300. Over the years, Bug Busters president and sole developer Bruce Lesnick expanded upon the core functionality shipped

The IBM i Strategy and Roadmap document lays out the plan for the future. That’s great. We need to see where we’re going. But the annual IBM i Marketplace Survey indicates whether IBM i shops are following the roadmap or charting their own courses. Now in its third year, the survey is our best view of the ecosystem. October is survey month and we encourage IT Jungle readers to get involved in this IBM i assessment.

The 2016 Marketplace Survey was based on the responses of 834 IBM i shops. That was more than three times the number that weighed