IBM iSeries, System i, Midrange AS/400 RPG Programming & Application Development using RPG, ILE, CL, DB2, COBOL & Synon

G&G is uniquely qualified in iSeries, System i midrange AS/400 RPG programming, application development, offshore outsourcing, migration, and modernization. Since the very beginning of G & G's inception we have been involved in application development, programming and outsourcing using RPG, ILE, CL, COBOL, Synon/2E (AllFusion/2E, COOL:2E or CA 2E), SQL, Java/J2EE, Perl, OS/400, UDB DB2 and more. In the last many years it has been critical for many organizations to do migration and modernization of legacy systems and applications using AS400 RPG programming, and also using CL and COBOL on iSeries, System i (Systemi) midrange computers. We executed many of these migration and modernization projects while we converted and migrated applications to web based technologies by programming in Java and J2EE, WDSC (Websphere Development Studio Client), SQL, Perl, Microsoft .NET (Dot Net), C#, C, C++, XML and many other technologies from traditional RPG II, RPG III, RPG IV, RPG/400, ILE, CL, and COBOL.

Most user of iSeries AS/400 System i midrange platform around the world are striving for contemporary technologies and environments like J2EE, Java, Microsoft .NET (Dot Net) to migrate and modernize their legacy applications and legacy systems from AS/400 RPG programming and ones designed and developed in COBOL, CL / OCL, DB2, and Synon/2E (AllFusion/2E, COOL:2E or CA 2E) in the 80's. While dealing with legacy applications on this midrange computing platform in the last many years our developers gained substantial experience and expertise in case tools like AllFusion Plex, Synon, AS/SET, LANSA, PHP, Progen Plus and many others. In numerous financial, sales, inventory management, manufacturing, warehouse Distribution and educational industries projects we implemented object oriented programming architecture using Java and J2EE, WDSC (Websphere), client server technologies like ODBC, JDBC, Apache / Tomcat web-servers for multi-tier applications. Similarly G&G developers also implemented AIX, Linux, Lotus Domino, Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 along with OS/400 using the LPAR feature on AS400 iSeries (System i) midrange platform. Many of our recent legacy modernization and migration projects include converting programs to development languages that offer new capabilities (like Java / J2EE or .NET), adding graphical interfaces to green-screen applications, or breaking up monolithic RPG and CL / OCL applications into modules to support Web services. Many of these contemporary technologies such as J2EE, and XML were optimized for integration and communicating across different networks and applications, because most AS400 RPG applications and other legacy systems lacked the programming interfaces required to support the level of integration required to fulfill customers and end users' requirements. For many of the present web applications the iSeries' OS/400 memory management, system administration or disk usage may not be adequate. Although the relational database UDB DB2 is very reliable and proven, many AS/400 iSeries System i web applications are choosing to use other SQL based relational databases.

A Brief History of AS400 iSeries System i

The iSeries AS400 System i is an extension of System/38 architecture of an object-based system with an integrated relational database DB2. One of the main reasons for AS/400 iSeries System i's success and survival was the availability of high-level instruction set which enables application programming to take advantage of advances in hardware and software without recompilation. This is conceptually somewhat similar to the virtual machine architecture of programming environments such as J2EE, Java, .NET and Smalltalk. The iSeries AS400 includes an extensive library-based operating system, OS/400, and is also capable of supporting multiple instances of Linux, Lotus Domino, AIX, Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. Programming languages available for the System i iSeries AS/400 include RPG, CL / OCL, SQL, DB2, C, C++, Java, J2EE, Perl, Smalltalk, COBOL, assembly language, BASIC, PHP, PL/I, Pascal, and REXX. Several CASE tools like AllFusion Plex, Synon, AS/SET, LANSA, ProGen Plus, PHP are also available. The iSeries fully supports the Java language, including a 64-bit JVM that is implemented below the Operating System layer, closer to the hardware for superior performance. For traditional business programming languages such as RPG, COBOL, C and SQL, the System i, iSeries, AS400 has support for external files, display files and object-oriented programming, which allows for increased programming productivity. Although announced in 1988, the AS/400 remains IBM's most recent major architectural shift that was developed wholly internally, and one of the most successful computing platforms ever created.