Topic: Observability Insights

IBM i risks often stem from organizational challenges and lack of visibility as experts retire. CIOs must enhance system transparency with tools to prevent inefficiencies. Training and succession are vital. Robust disaster recovery plans are needed for HILP events. AI-assisted observability offers predictive insights, improving reliability. i-Rays by Omnilogy provides tools for proactive risk management, aiding CIOs in safeguarding IBM i environments and maintaining resilience.

IBM i experts, including Omnilogy’s Maciej Wielgus, discussed the future of IBM i and Power, focusing on the massive opportunities ahead. They explored where Power is headed, both technologically and in business terms. Read the transcript to discover insights about the Power ecosystem's future.

In IT operations, a green dashboard on IBM i systems may falsely assure everything is fine, leading to hidden costs. Traditional threshold-based monitoring often misses subtle early warning signs, delaying problem detection until issues become critical, causing significant business disruptions.

Major outages on IBM i rarely come out of nowhere. Response times creep, batch jobs drift, lock contention climbs — the warning signs show up weeks before anything breaks. Here are the eight signals to watch before they turn into downtime.

Omnilogy's Slawomir Michalik shares his thoughts on observability in an article published in APM Digest.

IBM i faces challenges like an outdated image and a skills gap, as it's often seen as legacy technology. Despite this, IBM i has evolved to support modern cloud environments and sophisticated business applications with robust security and high availability. The aging workforce of IBM i programmers highlights the need for new talent skilled in RPG and Db2. To attract new developers, IBM i must modernize its development environment by integrating open-source tools and advanced technologies like AI and machine learning. Its future success depends on adapting to AI and cloud demands, enhancing interoperability, and maintaining competitive performance. IBM and partners offer training to bridge the skills gap, supported by the COMMON community, fostering innovation. i-Rays, an AI-powered observability solution, helps alleviate expertise shortages by providing actionable diagnostics and enhancing operational security. Together, these efforts aim to revitalize IBM i as a platform for future business applications.

Dawn May emphasizes the significance of affinity scores in optimizing system performance.

Airline pilots spend years preparing for serious problems that may never occur – but no matter how unlikely a scenario may be, they have to be ready for it. Systems administrators also have to constantly prepare for extremely rare events that can have catastrophic consequences. Welcome to the world of HILP: High Impact/Low Probability events, unpredictable anomalies that while rare can carry devastating consequences that can cripple projects, economies, or infrastructure. Because traditional risk models often overlook them, organizations must prioritize resilience and contingency planning over simple probability forecasting.

IT Jungle interviewed Omnilogy's Marek Walczak about how i-Rays has grown from a promising product to a mature solution, addressing critical performance issues in IBM i applications.

POWERUp 2026 in New Orleans was an exhilarating experience, showcasing the largest IBM i community event globally. Held at the New Orleans Marriott from April 27-30, it featured hands-on training and cutting-edge tech innovations. Keynote speaker Hillery Hunter, IBM Power's general manager, captivated the audience with insights into AI, Git, VS Code, open source, and IBM Bob, linking them to COMMON's Project 2030. Her demos on AI integrations for enterprise apps were particularly inspiring. The event offered diverse sessions, from quick tech dives to full-day workshops, including hands-on labs on open-source tools and VS Code for IBM i development. The expo hall was a hub for IBMers and vendors showcasing transformative solutions. Community-building events, like the COMMON Problem Solving and Pups and Cups, emphasized networking and fun. With New Orleans' unique atmosphere, the conference was a launchpad for innovation and connections, leaving attendees, including Marek Walczak, empowered and inspired.

The IBM i platform, vital for enterprise IT, faces challenges due to aging professionals and a scarcity of younger talent skilled in its use. This skills gap, highlighted by Fortra's survey, is a pressing issue as many IBM i experts near retirement.

IBM i legend Dawn May outlines IBM i's unique strengths in observability and telemetry while exploring ways to extend those capabilities to other environments. Introduced in the late 1980s, the AS/400’s advertised strength was applications.

Let's face it: everybody likes to work in their comfort zone. And for a lot of companies working in the IBM i ecosystem, that means talking with other people in the IBM i world. So it’s no surprise that companies within the IBM i ecosystem have found comfort in collaborating with peers by sharing best practices, co-developing solutions, or partnering on projects. While this approach has its merits, the rapidly evolving digital landscape demands a broader outlook. To remain competitive and foster meaningful innovation, IBM i companies must actively build relationships with organizations in verticals such as logistics, shipping, healthcare, and beyond.

iBM i can run for years "without issues"... until one day everything looks like an issue at once. This post explains why threshold-based monitoring often misses the real causes of IBM i incidents - and how a behavioural approach (baseline + context) reduces alert noise and speeds up root-cause diagnosis.