Future of IBM i?

Lots of heated activity on the AS/400 forums on Linked-in.  It seems to come down to the realists and to those whose livelihoods are locked into the platform.  Folks who sell products or services, or developers with no other path but AS/400 aka iSeries aka System aka IBM i on Power defend the platform regardless of facts or fiction.

Here is a link to Google search hits on various AS/400 aka IBM i related terminology.

Here is a link to jobs by various system names from major job search sites:

This one is my favorite.  It is the number of Google hits when restricting the search to the IBM.COM web site:

Here is one I just did searching on programming languages including RPG!  For the RPG programmers out there, read it and weep.  For managers, business owners, and executives with a large install base of RPG code, you better take some action to replace your RPG code!

Note that Java is the clear leader by all of the search firms and languages.  Microsoft's Visual Basic dwarf's RPG today!

So what do all these numbers mean?  It means that while IBM continues to support the IBM i operating system on its Power line of machines, it is not marketing or promoting the OS.  No one is selling IBM i, and the programming population of RPG developers (RPG runs only on IBM i) is diminishing.  On the linked-in forums you will see recruiters posting jobs for RPG folks and having tremendous difficulty filling the jobs.  The average age or RPG programmers is approximately 60!  These folks are retiring.

The bottom line is that sentiment measured by hits on Google is that the majority of folks dealing with computer systems have no interest in IBM i or have never heard of it!

Once again, I don't recommend pulling the plugs on you IBM i or OS/400 based machines, but taking positive action to protect yourself and free your company of the dependancies of RPG or IBM i aka OS/400.  Be prepared to move to another platform (be sure you can move), and the hold out for IBM to withdraw the OS.