As a CIO, you’ve likely seen the transformative impact that modern DevOps practices can have across an organization. You recognize that there are reasons over 100 million developers around the world use Git for version control and tools like Jenkins and Azure Pipelines for process automation. Increased visibility to changes, faster debugging, higher productivity, streamlined workflows, improved collaboration, simplified audits, and accelerated delivery cycles are just a few of the benefits that DevOps has brought to your company’s software development efforts. But if you’re like many CIOs, there may still be one holdout in your technology stack – the IBM i.
It’s time to change that. In this CIO-level perspective, I’ll explain why extending your company’s DevOps investments to your IBM i applications is essential and how doing so can unlock significant value for your business.
Bridging the DevOps Gap
Because the IBM i has a unique architecture, it can take time to adapt your IBM i development processes to the new tools. The IBM i traditionally does not store things in directories. It uses library lists in its object creation process. Its dependency and authorization structures are unique. It also has a rich ecosystem of legacy change management systems, proprietary version control, and manual deployment processes that work differently from modern DevOps tools. These issues combine to create an island – isolating your IBM i from the rest of your technology landscape.
This gap introduces inefficiencies and risks as applications become increasingly integrated across platforms. It makes audits more difficult as auditors need to understand different DevOps processes for the IBM i. It makes it more challenging to recruit the next generation of developers who have learned Git, Jenkins, VS Code, and other open tools in computer science programs. As a CIO, aligning all systems and applications with your overarching DevOps strategy would simplify your life.
Unlocking the Benefits of DevOps for IBM i
By extending your DevOps practices to your IBM i applications, you can bridge this gap and unlock a wealth of benefits:
- Better visibility into change activity.
- Increased Agility: Deliver new functions faster by leveraging the speed and flexibility of Git-based workflows and automated processes to accelerate application development and deployment cycles on the IBM i.
- Improved Collaboration: Integrate your IBM i codebase into your organization’s central repository, fostering cross-team collaboration and visibility.
- Enhanced Compliance: Leverage the audit trails and control mechanisms of modern DevOps tools to ensure compliance across your entire technology stack.
- Reduced Costs: Streamline your change management processes and eliminate the need for proprietary, IBM i-specific tooling.
- Talent Attraction: Empower your developers to work with the tools and technologies they’re already familiar with, making your IBM i platform more appealing to the next generation of talent.
Eradani DevOps: A Seamless IBM i Integration
At Eradani, we’ve built a DevOps solution specifically designed to bridge the gap between your IBM i applications and your company’s broader DevOps ecosystem. Eradani DevOps provides a lightweight, minimally invasive integration that allows you to:
- Leverage the power of standard Git for version control and collaboration
- Automate build and deployment processes through CI/CD pipelines
- Take advantage of the ease of use and powerful automation functions provided by hosting environments like GitHub, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket, GitLab, and others
- Integrate with your existing tools and platforms, including Jira, Service Cloud, ServiceNow, Azure DevOps, and more
- Empower your developers to work in their preferred IDEs, like RDi and VSCode.
- Reduce the transition friction by allowing your developers to continue working in PDM and SEU.
By adopting Eradani DevOps, you can extend the benefits of your company-wide DevOps transformation to your IBM i applications, ensuring that your critical business systems can keep pace with the rest of your technology landscape.
The Time is Now
As a CIO, you understand the importance of aligning your technology strategy with the needs of your business. In today’s fast-paced, digital-first world, you must equip every system and application – including your IBM i – with the tools and processes that drive innovation, agility, and efficiency.
Keep your IBM i applications from falling behind. Embrace the power of modern DevOps and integrate your IBM i into your company’s broader technology ecosystem. Reach out to Eradani today to learn how our DevOps solution can help you bridge the gap and unlock new levels of value for your business.
