Many IT managers find themselves facing escalating enterprise demands for strategic software capabilities at a time when application platforms and other technologies are rapidly evolving and growing more complex. Managing the delivery of business applications is increasingly difficult even in 'greenfield' situations where most applications are completely new. The job is even tougher in a typical IBM i (System i, iSeries, AS/400) installation where large amounts of legacy code must be modernised and integrated with new applications. This presentation was delivered to the 'Scoring with Power' conference attendees at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester on 28th October 2008.

4. Demanding more from IT “ The innovative use of IT got us ahead of the competition … but today we are stagnating and our systems are holding us back.” People, process, platform are the fundamental elements of a modern application architecture

8. From System i to SOA (or whatever you want to call it) 5250 Green Screen Procedural Code Embedded Functions (RPG / COBOL) DB2 Database (integral validation) AS/400, iSeries, System i Components Business Objects Callable Services Any SQL Database (external validation) Windows GUI Rich Web Client Mobile / PDA System i, Microsoft .NET, Linux, Unix Data Services Layer Meta Data Repository Application Server Visual Framework Web Services Interface Today Future

9. Platform vs. Product