State of the System i
It’s no secret that System i sales are doing poorly. The third quarter of 2005 was the last revenue growth quarter posted by the System i. Back then, Bill Donohue, System i vice president of worldwide sales, said, "We've started a run, and we're gaining momentum. The market is moving into our sweet spot, which is solutions based on integration and simplicity." Read more.
Alas, that sweet spot didn’t last too long. For the 3rd quarter of 2007, System i revenues were down 21 percent. The graph below shows the annual history of System i revenue. The source information for this graph was gleaned from an IT jungle article and from IBM annual reports. The System i has all but been in a revenue slide since its introduction.
The graph below compares the revenue for the last eight quarters for the System i and the System x platforms. Even comparatively, the System i revenue story is grim.
A study last spring by iSeriesNetwork showed that 88% of shops using a System i have had been using that platform for 11 years or more, and that nearly half of that group have been using it for more than 20 years. The System i clearly has a loyal following. What it doesn’t have are new customers. Only 13 of 637 respondents have had the System i for two or less years.
Many of those 88% of System i customers probably don’t care much about revenue graphs or that the System i isn’t getting new customers. These businesses are happy with their System i platforms and don’t have immediate plans to replace the platform. For businesses choosing to retain the System i in their enterprise, ASNA will be there with the same terrific midrange products, support, and services that we’ve offered for more than 25 years.
However, many businesses are starting to face the realities of the System i. These businesses are torn between staying on a dying platform and moving to another platform. The vast majority of these businesses know that screen scrapers are a dead-end (they add little value and leave you stuck on the System i platform) and that rewriting hundreds of thousands of lines code isn’t feasible. Abandoning otherwise very valuable System i assets (such as lots of RPG source code and RPG-based programming teams) is a tough business decision. These issues are why so many businesses today are using ASNA Monarch to migrate their existing System i assets to the .NET platform.
Whether you have your sights set on keeping the System i for a long time, or moving to another platform next month, ASNA has the products and services you need to propel your existing System i assets well into the 21st century.