RE: [EXTERNAL] Re: Calendar entry generator

I'm much less fond of using RPG directly these days to do stuff that is better suited to the open source APIs such as:
-Web service calls
-Spreadsheet exports
-Data importing
-Sending email
-Receiving email
-Interacting with Office365
etc.

Then I just call them and integrate to RPG/CL and let it do what it's good at.

The best of both worlds

I generally agree with Richard. But my perspective may be different. My perspective has been influenced by the concept of next gen apps (POWERUp 2021 conference) and by a consistent finding in the HelpSystems Marketplace Survey that around 65-75% of IBMi shops also use Windows.

At the 2021 POWERUp conference, I heard speakers talk about next gen apps. I agree with the conference speakers that next gen apps will become increasingly prevalent. The challenge is that pesky multi-layer architecture of next gen apps. Next gen apps have multi-layered architectures. As one example, a next gen app might have: (1) a client frontend layer, (2) an API gateway layer, (3) a microservices layer, (4) a data access layer, and (5) a data layer.

Naturally, at a COMMON POWERUp conference, the focus is how to run all of these layers on the IBMi. This can definitely be done. I am not criticizing this approach at all. It will be the right choice for some organizations and some development situations.

Yet, in the 2022 IBMi Marketplace Survey by HelpSystems, 76% of shops that use an IBMi also use Windows. If this reflects shops having development capacity with the Microsoft platform and/or Azure Cloud, then these shops may find it appealing to use the Microsoft platform and/or Azure Cloud for their client frontend apps, their API gateway(s), and their microservices. Such shops may use the IBMi primarily for the backends of their next gen apps: the data access layer, and the data layer.

IBM is doing a great job of bringing open source technologies to PASE to handle all layers of next gen apps. IBMi vendors are making some great products to handle all layers of next gen apps. At the same time, shops that already have development capacity with the Microsoft platform and/or Azure Cloud may choose to leverage their expertise with these technologies to develop everything but the backends of next gen apps. This is just a matter of Microsoft already having its foot in the door.

Why stay on the IBMi if it is only used for the backends of next gen apps? The data likely lives on the IBMi because mission critical programs run on the IBMi. A next gen app may treat the IBMi as a backend. But other mission critical programs may continue to run entirely on the IBMi--and these programs may not be going away any time in the foreseeable future. It is even possible for the number of next gen apps to increase at the same time that traditional RPG/COBOL/CL programs on the IBMi increase.

It will be interesting to watch for trends in how the marketplace positions the IBMi within the architecture of next gen apps.

Thanks,

Kelly Cookson
Senior Software Engineer II
Dot Foods, Inc.
1-217-773-4486 ext. 12676
www.dotfoods.com