• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 28, Numbers 23 And 24

  July 20, 2026 Doug Bidwell

  It is Ketchup Week here at the IBM i PTF Guide once again, and Big Blue made it a little more interesting by announcing the Technology Refreshes for IBM i 7.6 and IBM i 7.5 last week.

  Let’s dive in, starting with Volume 28, Number 23, dated July 11 and beginning with two bugs and two security vulnerabilities you need to be aware of.

  First, we have Security Bulletin: Multiple vulnerabilities in IBM Rational Developer for i, which you can find out more about here. IBM strongly recommends addressing the vulnerability now by upgrading. This upgrade fixes 15+ CVE …

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• Big Blue Ships Bob 2.0 And Premium Package For IBM i

  July 13, 2026 Alex Woodie

  IBM’s push into the world of agentic coding continues, as Big Blue officially started selling and supporting major updates to its Bob agentic AI software. There are two separate but related pieces of news to cover, including the release of IBM Bob Premium Package for i and the release of Bob 2.0.

  As it is wont to do, IBM generated some confusion with its Bob launches, as both Bob 2.0 and the Bob premium packages became available on the same day, June 24. However, Bob 2.0 and the Bob premium packages are not the same thing, and their announcements were …

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• Your IBM i Jobs Don’t Live On An Island Anymore

  July 13, 2026 Rob Newman

  When I am on a call with a prospective customer, one of the first questions I ask is: Are you looking to schedule and automate IBM i jobs specifically, or do you need to incorporate all of your cross-platform dependencies? That question tends to land with a thud. Not because people don’t understand it, but because often they have never really thought about it that way.

  They have been running their IBM i jobs the way they always have, and somewhere else in the building, someone else is running Windows jobs a different way, and maybe a Linux process a …

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• PTC Adds Support For VS Code With Implementer 12.7

  June 15, 2026 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that rely on PTC’s Implementer software to manage their RPG development will soon be able to use the tool within the VS Code development environment. The upcoming release of Implementer 12.7 will introduce several other important features as PTC begins the process of modernizing the tool.

  Implementer is a well-established change management system targeting the IBM i environment. The software traces its roots to 1987, when four Pansophic (creators of the PRMS ERP system now owned by Infor) employees founded Silvon Software in Chicago. One of their first products was a tool to manage source code …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 28, Number 20

  June 8, 2026 Doug Bidwell

  Welcome to this week, where we are getting closer and closer to both the beginning of summer and the AS/400’s 38^th birthday. There are a bunch of changes that Big Blue is making to various technical support services that customers and partners need to be aware of. And a bug in Java you need to contemplate.

  First, let’s start with the Java bug, which is Java 21 (64-bit) Applications Fail After Updating IBM i 7.5 Java Group PTF SF99955 to Levels 19 or 20, which you can read about here. The affected IBM i Java Group PTF Levels …

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• Big Blue Unveils Bob Premium Pack For IBM i

  June 1, 2026 Alex Woodie

  Early Bob users who were frustrated with the inability to work with source code residing on IBM i will be happy to hear that the functionality will soon be available in the Bob Premium Package, which IBM announced in May and will start shipping in June. The Premium Pack also includes some other new capabilities that will be useful for IBM i developers, including new modes, skills, and tools.

  The first version of IBM’s Bob, the AI tool that help developers understand, document, and generate code in RPG and other IBM i languages, generally has been well-received by the IBM …

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• Raz-Lee Revs iSecurity Suite With 2026 Updates

  May 11, 2026 Alex Woodie

  Raz-Lee Security used the recent POWERUp conference in New Orleans as the launch pad for a major new release of its iSecurity Suite. As CEO Shmuel Zailer tells us, the company made substantial changes to ensure that all of the products within the suite work in a more integrated fashion.

  Raz-Lee is one of just a handful of independent IBM i security software vendors left in the market following a period of consolidation by larger firms. However, Raz-Lee’s iSecurity Suite is arguably one of the most complete, with around two dozen point products across seven suites, spanning authentication/authorization; auditing and …

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• 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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