With countless users all over the globe – from the USA to Australia, Asia, Europe, Latin America and more – the IBM i platform is as popular as ever. Here we take a glance at statistics highlighting the present state of IBM i usage, including companies’ top concerns (like security), high availability implementation, and opinions on future outlook.
The Current State of IBM i
The biggest concern for IBM i users is something we all have in the back of our minds: security.
When it comes to top concerns for IBM i users, IBM i security tops the list for an estimated 72%. This isn’t so surprising, considering the ever-growing list of high-profile data breaches, leaks, and downtime raising awareness all over the globe. What is surprising is how few users are taking the necessary steps to put their minds at (relative) ease.
Simple steps like implementing antivirus protection for IBM i, staying aware of your exit point security, implementing database encryption, and having disaster recovery (DR) solutions as a fallback can all go a long way. But remember: even though companies that face regulatory compliance tend to perform better on security issues, security for compliance purposes is not enough. Too many companies fail to understand the shortcomings of security just for compliance’s sake, and what they are consequently overlooking in their system security (check out this article for more information).
Meanwhile, virtualization is still becoming increasingly popular, and the IBM i marketplace is no exception. An estimated 75% of companies are running multiple partitions with the virtualized POWER server. By consolidating the view of performance data, companies therefore find it easier to maintain business availability. On a similar note, high availability (HA) solutions are implemented in nearly 50% of companies as well. With today’s 24/7 marketplace, this number should continue to grow.
Future Outlook
Users of IBM i are reliable, confident in their systems’ ROI, and investing in a future with this platform.
With just about 1.5% annual attrition, the IBM i marketplace is clearly stable, with more shops looking to increase their IBM i footprint than those who plan to change. And with an estimated 72% of users running over half of their core business applications on IBM i, it doesn’t look like this will be changing anytime soon.
Similarly, an estimated 93% of users state that they believe their IBM i platform provides better ROI than other servers – and 72% of those users operate in heterogeneous working environments, giving them the experience to back that claim. Meanwhile, about 75% of users are using open source development tools to write about 70% of applications running on their IBM i systems in-house. With this level of confidence in development and ROI, and such a low attrition, it’s clear that the IBM i platform isn’t going anywhere soon.
For more information on the present state of IBM i and how to keep your systems resilient, contact us today at 317-707-3941.
Source: The 2018 IBM Marketplace Survey Results by HelpSystems