AS/400: support, opening up and migration
The system has run without complaint for twenty years, but it sits on an island. We keep the AS/400 running and get the data out, so the rest of your IT can reach it.
Reliable, but cut off from everything else
An AS/400 — later iSeries, today IBM i — lasts for decades. That is precisely why you are running into it now: the people who knew the system have moved on, the data is locked away in DB/400, and every new package you buy cannot reach it.
Replacing it is often costlier and riskier than it looks, because the programs hold years of business rules that are written down nowhere else. So we usually take a different route: the system keeps running, and we make sure the data gets out and other applications can talk to it.
Get in touch →Keep the system running, get the data out
In practice it is rarely all or nothing. It usually starts with one report or one integration, and grows from there.
Support and monitoring
Bringing the AS/400 into the day-to-day management and monitoring of your server estate, alongside the Windows and Linux machines. Availability, backup and an alert when something goes wrong.
Opening up the data
Making DB/400 data available outside the system: for a reporting tool, a dashboard, or simply as a file your people can work with.
Building integrations
A bridge between the AS/400 and your other applications — over SQL, automated file exchange, or a REST/JSON service we put alongside it.
Reporting
Turning figures from the AS/400 into reports the organisation can actually use, without anyone having to go into the green screen for them.
Database migration
If the data really has to come out, we move the DB/400 database to MS-SQL, PostgreSQL or Oracle, for instance — including the check that everything arrived complete and correct.
A modern shell
A web or desktop application alongside the AS/400, so users get a current interface while the old system underneath simply keeps running.
What we do not do
We do not write new RPG or CL programs, and we do not take over maintenance of your existing RPG code. Our strength is around the outside: support, monitoring, opening up data, integrating and migrating. If you are looking for an RPG developer, we are the wrong firm — and we would rather say so now than after three meetings.
AS/400 alongside Windows, Linux and Unix
We have run server estates where the AS/400 was simply one of the machines in the rack, next to Windows and Linux servers, monitoring included. When rolling out authentication solutions, the AS/400 was among the platforms that had to be watched as well.
On the data side we have migrated an OS/400 database to a different platform. That combination — knowing how the system behaves and knowing how to get data out of it safely — is exactly what this work asks for.
Outdated does not mean unusable
An AS/400 is rarely the only system asking for attention. We work just as readily with Delphi applications, older database formats and custom software in Python, PHP or JavaScript — whatever it takes to make the whole thing work together again.
