“3rd officer’s log, Stardate 102783.9: Our ongoing modernization mission continues…”
I love Star Trek. A lifetime of watching every single episode, series, and movie (as well as short and very short treks) has allowed me to notice an unexpected parallel in the history of the IBM i platform. Both Star Trek and the IBM i have experienced Strange New Worlds over four decades, both share a cast of courageous people, and both have just the right amount of scientifically believable technical jargon to be comparable. If you aren’t a superfan like me, this one might be difficult for you to follow, but if you know your Star Trek trivia, buckle in and enjoy the ride!
My mom started me on TOS (The Original Series) reruns in the ‘80s, and when TNG (The Next Generation) launched on UPN in ’95, we were there from opening night to the end of the series. It was our bonding time. She even went with me to early fan conferences (tiny, geeky crowds in downtown Chicago) so I could hang on every magical word of that original crew. I was in awe that something I enjoyed so much was shared by so many others – I even dragged my girlfriend there and bought her a Vulcan IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) necklace. She is now my wife, and she still owns it almost 30 years later!
Many readers of this article still run their original green-screen 5250 applications (our Original Series stalwarts) and are quite content in their ways. Why wouldn’t they be? They own their source code, it’s performant and secure, it runs great on the latest hardware, and its costs relative to newer options are minuscule. Others who have fully embraced IBM’s blended approach – core applications loosely coupled to modern technology (hello, Picard crews!) – are just as happy. They respect the core business code, and it seems like every year they get to plug in another of the latest technologies: open-source, TypeScript APIs, Pub-Sub Messaging, and Git CI/CD DevOps.
So, let’s engage in a metaphorical look at the ongoing mission of modernization through the lens of each of the Star Trek TV shows! *
* Note: except for “Strange New Worlds” (because it’s a remake) and “Discovery” (because it’s in the future)
Enterprise (System/3, 32, 34, & 36)
Like the NX-01’s experimental Warp 5 engine, the System/3x represented IBM’s first bold venture into integrated business computing – a prototype for everything that would follow. Those first lines of code are STILL running decades later! Before the S/36 and relational databases, these systems laid the groundwork for an entire technological lineage.
Remember Captain Archer’s frustration with Vulcan oversight? The same tension existed between early programmers and the limitations of hardware. Every kilobyte of memory was precious, every processor cycle a resource to be carefully allocated. There’s a reason so many “Monolithic” RPG programs exist today: these early pioneers tried to cram as much into a single program as possible due to those costs and hard limitations! These weren’t systems you could simply upgrade with a software patch, they required physical intervention, hands-on expertise, and sometimes a bit of engineering improvisation that would make Trip proud.
Enterprise established for us a messy, uncertain foundation that would eventually grow into the idealistic Federation. These early systems, with all their limitations, contained the DNA (RPG) that would evolve into the sophisticated platform (RPG Free) we know today. That early “Enterprise Series” version of the IBM midrange relied on:
- Moving from 80-96 column punch cards (20% more “storage”)!
- The release of the RPG II programming language
- Dual-Processor architecture
- Job Scheduling! Magnetic tape storage!
- Paper-based documentation that filled entire shelves – rooms?
- Overnight processing windows that humans monitored in person
Yet, like the faithful crew of the Enterprise, we keep advancing: “We are all explorers, driven to know what’s over the horizon, what’s beyond our own shores. And yet, the more I’ve experienced, the more I’ve learned that no matter how far we travel, or how fast we get there, the most profound discoveries are not necessarily beyond that next star. They’re within us, woven into the threads that bind us, all of us, to each other. The Final Frontier begins in this hall. Let’s explore it together!” – Captain Archer, “Terra Prime”
The Original Series (AS/400)
In “Arena,” Captain Kirk is transported to a desolate planet and forced to battle the Gorn with nothing but his wits and available resources on the planet. Our bold and brave (and merciful) protagonist constructs from bamboo, coal, diamonds, and salt a CANNON – talk about a resourceful combination!
What a great parallel to those young scrappy developers, taking limited resources and crafting ingenious solutions to keep those end users happy and the business running. They’ve served as guardians of the critical business logic (that transcends time – you see what I did there?), preserved in massive monolithic code. Change requests were becoming more popular than new code – regulatory compliance updates, more data onto existing (text-based) screens, upgrades, patches, and just waterfall releases a year or more every time. Early versions of RPG commanded the bridge, systems that were powerful but challenging to navigate. Integration? Primitive at best—shared printers or batch jobs processing using internally described flat files.
Undocumented RPG III programs with fixed columns and divisions, cryptic variable names, indicators, and spaghetti logic were here for the mission… but their shirts were red. We are now equipped with a faster machine, the OS integrated DB2 database itself, object-oriented architecture, single-level storage, and it is still compatible with all the original programs already written!
The Next Generation (iSeries)
Much like TNG introduced diplomacy, structure, and a more refined approach, organizations were doing the same thing with refined approaches (diplomacy instead of fists) and graphical interfaces (instead of just 5250 – imagine a primitive holodeck). This era is when modernization became a term and really got started!
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra = cooperation. However, the universal translator couldn’t understand the meaning of this metaphor-based language without cultural context! This is exactly what happens when modern systems try to talk to the iSeries – the syntax might translate, but the meaning gets lost. That’s why modern API development serves as your Universal Translator — providing not just technical connectivity, but semantic understanding (business logic and real-time transformation) between systems.
As the Enterprise-D vastly improved upon its predecessor, the iSeries environments were a significant evolution with the new generation. Notable updates included:
- Web Services integration and XML support for the first time
- The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) was introduced
- ILE multi-language development
- C,C++, COBOL, RPG IV, and CL were all unified together
- Teams shifted focus from mere coding to architectural thinking
- The first (primitive) steps toward web enablement (and Java) appeared
Note: for the incredible history of the platform up to the iSeries, I recommend finding an old copy of Frank Soltis’s book “Fortress Rochester: The Inside Story of the IBM iSeries”
Deep Space Nine (System i)
Welcome to the New Frontier of Integration! The DS9 space station held its position right at the edge of Federation space– reliable, consistent, a hub for everything. But what happens right in the first episode? A wormhole to the unexplored farthest-away quarter of our galaxy was discovered! Do you see the analogy? The System i (note the name changes to reflect the platform evolution) didn’t have to be flashy, but it was right there at the edge of the latest and greatest happenings! It was now time to connect to other systems safely, quickly, and without anyone (RPG developers) abandoning their posts.
“Trials and Tribble-ations” is my favorite episode of the series, perhaps of all of them, but not for the nostalgic crossover story itself – it’s for the technical effects. Talk about the perfect embodiment of the integration challenge! Our fearless DS9 crew travels back in time and has to seamlessly integrate (film footage) from the classic TOS story “The Trouble with Tribbles.” This was not easy in those days, the production team faced the monumental task of merging 1960s and 1990s film seamlessly to the viewers…just like these System i professionals needed to integrate decades of business logic-infused code with the whole outside world of modern technologies!
What’s most striking is the value preservation across generations – I feel the story works because both eras maintained their integrity, AND created something new together. Preserving the past (critical business logic, programs) and enabling the new (PHP, Java, Ruby, and the outside world).
Captain Sisko came to appreciate Kirk’s time by experiencing it firsthand, like the young, newer developers were starting to appreciate the object-oriented platform for the solid foundation it provided.
At the same time, just like modern developers are often confused by what they see in the legacy code, the DS9 crew was flummoxed by what they saw in the past (what happened to the Klingons? “I’d rather not talk about it” – Worf). However, many new innovations arose during those times:
- Free-format RPG arrived
- SQL is directly embedded in RPG
- The IFS (Integrated File System) arrived
Voyager (System i)
Let’s stick a little longer with the System i, just as Voyager and Deep Space Nine ran for a while at the same time.
Legacy isolation. A time of innovation and true exploration. The starship Voyager was stranded far from home, with no choice but to adapt and innovate…or perish. I imagine System i teams at the time felt the same; the isolated “black box” platform and people, separate from the rest of IT, had a rock-solid mission to focus on keeping things going one day at a time.
The “Year of Hell” is up there as one of the most intelligent, exciting, and passionate stories in this entire universe, and I feel it resonates with the experience of many System i professionals as they attempted modernization projects. We’ve all known someone working at a shop where they faced their own version of this — maintaining mission-critical systems, shrinking teams for the first time, shrinking budgets (this was about 2006), all while being asked to start integrating more.
It was a whole new quadrant of the galaxy to work with! Janeway (my favorite of all the Captains) was intense, yet adaptable. It was time for new species, new technologies, and new situations, including the i5 Processors, an integrated system capable of now running AIX and Linux. LPAR virtualization was introduced! Just as Seven of Nine (and super lovable Hugh) brought Borg tech and methods to enhance Voyager’s systems, IBM started integrating the platform and bringing it to the modern era. Strategic refactoring into RPG free made even the most vulnerable flat file code a red shirt.
Picard (IBM i)
Legacy: “Something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or the past, as in the legacy of the ancient philosophers.”
Legacy is GOOD, it’s respected, it’s rock-solid. It’s the strong foundation that survived the test of time and has made it to the present with proud battle scars. Welcome to the IBM i.
Like Picard himself—seasoned, distinguished, and wiser from decades of experience—the IBM i platform represents the pinnacle of evolution. Picard’s Season 3 brought together the best of all eras, just as the IBM i has finally assimilated its multi-hardware / multi-version / multi-NAME past. Mon Captain has arrived in the modern world, ready to adapt (integrate and meet the latest crazy user requests), true to the core (RPG and COBOL code), making a difference (by keeping the costs low, the security high, and the results consistent).
“The past is written, but the future is left for us to write.” – Picard
The complete API economy is now accessible for integration with the IBM i, providing high security, high performance, and a beautiful modern user experience for whatever any business requires. Zero trust security frameworks, full real-time cloud integration, and SSO & MFA are all possible with this system.
- Open-source integrations have become embedded in the OS
- Modern RPG free-format syntax
- REST/SOAP API has become the norm
- Modern DevOps, like Git, has become the norm
- AI RPG LLM technologies have been introduced
The integrated IBM i, like Picard, doesn’t just survive in the modern era—it thrives by adapting without compromising its principles. Picard is dependable, IBM i is dependable, but it’s the whole crew that makes it legendary.
In Summary
Modernization isn’t about abandoning the platform. It’s about giving it new life—new propulsion. It’s about taking the mission forward with better tools, modern interfaces, and a more connected galaxy of technology. Treat your IBM i like any other platform in your department. It doesn’t need to go back to Utopia Planitia, it just needs to be upgraded. Give it warp speed (a Power 10). Give it a cloaking device (secure APIs). Give it modern tooling (VS Code and Git).
“You treat her like a lady, and she’ll always bring you home.” – Admiral Leonard H. “Bones” McCoy
Does anyone know how Eradani got its name? It’s a deep-cut Star Trek reference (with a slight re-spelling). Shoot me a note if you want to take a guess. Until then – live long, and continuously modernize. 🖖
Post Script: Lower Decks
Oh, if you thought this article would end without mentioning Lower Decks, then your sensors must be malfunctioning. Let’s show some major respect and applause to the ones who do the real work, IBM itself! They are our USS Cerritos, mopping up the messy First Encounters (new technologies), keeping everyone in one united Federation (maintaining backward compatibility), all while the Command Crew gets the glory (our End Users). I raise a glass of bright blue Romulan Ale to you, IBM!
Mitch Hoffman, VP of Worldwide Sales, Eradani
Mitch Hoffman is the VP of Worldwide Sales and a co-founder of Eradani. With over 30 years in IT and 15 years of IBM i experience, he serves on the board of the Nashville IBM i Regional User Group and is a COMMON volunteer, demonstrating his commitment to the technology community. Reach out to us today to learn more!
