• Here Come The AI-Based Code Modernization Offerings

  April 6, 2026 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that are stuck with old code but don’t have the manpower to modernize it themselves are now considering the use of AI to handle much work. This new era of AI-assisted application modernization that we are now entering has the potential to be a boon for understaffed IBM i shops, but it raises new questions and concerns that IBM i professionals should keep in mind.

  The capability of AI to understand, document, and generate computer code has increased significantly over the past year. Thanks to fundamental improvements in large language models (LLMs), we’re now at the point …

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• Izzi Partners With Capricorn For IBM i Services And Bluehouse For Software Peddling

  March 23, 2026 Alex Woodie

  UPDATED: Izzi Software has partnered with a pair of companies with connections to IBM midrange and mainframe systems, including Capricorn Information Systems, a New York provider of IBM i technical services, and Bluehouse, a software distributor with a global network of sellers.

  Izzi emerged in early 2025 with a goal to buy smaller, founder-led software companies with revenues in the range of $2 million to $10 million who play in the IBM i and System Z markets. The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company has made a handful of acquisitions to date, including System Z development tool provider Colesoft in 2025, …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 28, Number 11

  March 16, 2026 Doug Bidwell

  The Power11 processors and their systems have in the field since last summer, and for those of you fortunate enough to have a server with that “new car smell,” now is the time to learn about the new processor and systems and figure out how to optimize performance on these machines and take advantage of their special features.

  To that end, IBM has put out a new best practices guide called IBM Power11 Performance Optimization For IBM i to help you begin the processor of tuning up your new machine. You can download it here.

  In addition to this, …

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• IBM Gets Bob 1.0 Off The Ground

  March 2, 2026 Alex Woodie

  IBM this month finally will get a coding co-pilot into the hands of its IBM i installed base with the launch of Bob. The general availability of Bob 1.0.0 on March 24 will mark the end of the long wait for IBM i customers – and in particular, the large population of RPG developers – to start using IBM-branded AI software to maintain and develop IBM i software.

  The world of generative AI moves quickly, as the large language models (LLMs) from frontier providers improve on a weekly, if not daily, basis. This is both exciting, as the capabilities of …

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• 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 …

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• Profound Says New Agentic AI Dev Tool Delivers Huge Productivity Boost

  January 19, 2026 Alex Woodie

  Profound Logic is rolling out a new AI-powered development tool that it says will increase the productivity of individual developers by five to 10 times. Dubbed CoderFlow, the software coordinates the work of multiple AI agents to assist with the development new IBM i applications or the maintenance and modernization of existing ones.

  Existing AI copilots provide some productivity gains for developers working in an IDE, somewhere around 20 percent, according to Profound Logic chief executive officer Alex Roytman. But CoderFlow is a different type of product. It is not a coding co-pilot, he said. Instead it is a framework …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 28, Numbers 1 Through 3

  January 19, 2026 Doug Bidwell

  We are determined to get you all caught up on the happenings with PTF patches and such that have happened so far in the new year after getting you caught up with what happened at the end of 2025 in last week’s issue.

  So, without further ado, here are the first three editions of the IBM i PTF Guide for 2026, which will end our “Ketchup” Weeks until the next holiday rolls along. (Technically, it is Martin Luther King day in America as we go to press, which is a holiday for many but not for all.)

  We will start …

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• Bob More Than Just A Code Assistant, IBM i Chief Architect Will Says

  December 1, 2025 Alex Woodie

  When IBM i professionals finally get their hands on Bob, the new AI-powered tool currently in development in Big Blue’s labs, they will find that it is much more than just a code assistant, IBM i chief Architect Steve Will said recently. “It has a lot of knowledge,” he said. “It knows things about IBM i.”

  While precise details about the timing of the release of Bob are slim, IBM is widely expected to release a public preview of the new AI-powered plug-in for VS Code in early 2026. The new software, which was unveiled in early October around the …

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• Where Infor Is Headed With Its ERPs For IBM i

  November 17, 2025 Alex Woodie

  As the largest provider of IBM i-based ERP systems that isn’t named Oracle or SAP, Infor wields a significant amount of influence over the midrange marketplace. Companies that run XA, LX, and System 21 rely on Infor to keep their ERP systems up-to-date and viable with changing business and technology requirements. To that end, Infor shared some of its roadmap items with the user community during the recent inPOWER 2025 event.

  More than 450 people attended the inPOWER 2025 conference, which took place in late September in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. The event was sponsored by the XA, LX, System 21, and …

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• Fresche Taps AI For New RPG-To-Java Conversion Tool

  November 10, 2025 Alex Woodie

  Fresche Solutions has launched X-Modernize AI, a new offering that uses generative AI technology to convert legacy RPG and Synon code to modern Java. The software, which is based on large language models and its X-Analysis cross-reference and code understanding tool, will speed up code conversion projects by a significant amount, the company claims.

  Fresche Solutions is no stranger to legacy modernization projects and tools that convert RPG code into languages like Java, PHP, and .NET. In fact, the company’s very first announcement after it changed its name from Speedware to Fresche Legacy way back in 2012 was the acquisition …

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