IT personnel naturally have their fingers on the pulse of today's innovations and one eye fixed on the future. As a result, each rising generation of systems administrators and application developers seems convinced that they know better than their forefathers and can remedy all kinds of issues with new tools and tricks. Unfortunately, this appetite for innovation can cause overzealous administrators to fix what isn't broken and swap out systems and practices that are still delivering strong results.
Such is the trouble facing companies operating in IBM i environments. While their affection for the technology may be strong, there is the lingering concern that the next generation of IT talent is not interested in learning the platform. However, a few salient points could convince them otherwise.
A Rock Solid Foundation
The first generation of IBM i may have been introduced before some of today's young guns were even born, but the platform remains as vital as ever. It also enjoys a consistent reputation for high availability, security, and disaster recovery capabilities. Regardless of what a firm's future IT ambitions look like, those traits will always be highly prized attributes.
With strong fundamentals in place, the hassle and expense of downtime can be a distant memory and companies can be more aggressive in their strategic pursuits.
A Bridge to the Future
Whether or not the younger generation of IT professionals care to admit it, business technology is sequential in nature. Even so-called disruptive developments like cloud computing have clear roots in practices and principles that came before. With that said, learning an IT department's past and present modes of operation are a worthwhile pursuit for any new hire.
At the same time, IBM i can also facilitate smooth transitions in an era when the pace of innovation is faster than ever. The robust platform can reliably support legacy programs holding up back-end operations while leaving plenty of room for the ingenuity of home-cooked applications to thrive.
Automation Is Your Friend
Going off that last point, workload automation is becoming all the more valuable as IT environments grow more complex and distributed. When staffers are confident that bread and butter operations are reliably humming around the clock, they have more time and energy to push the envelope with strategic pursuits that can unlock new business opportunities.
IBM Is Listening
Finally, IT young guns should know that IBM i is by no means a static platform. Big Blue understands that it will have to honor emerging developments and new rules of the game with new features and possibilities. So any lingering fears that tying one's fate to the OS could leave them behind the curve can and should be put to bed.
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