For decades, the IBM i (iSeries/AS400) platform was the backbone of JD Edwards (JDE) environments. It was stable, secure, and dependable. But in 2025, what used to be a strength has become a strategic liability.
The signs are all around: hardware is aging, support costs are climbing, and the RPG talent pool is shrinking fast. Meanwhile, the business pressure to modernize, through automation, AI, and cloud-native integration, is only increasing. So why are many organizations still waiting?
In this article, we’ll explore the real risks of delaying your IBM iSeries modernization, and why moving to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is no longer just an option. It’s a necessity.
When your JD Edwards environment runs on IBM i (iSeries/AS400), hardware can become a ticking time bomb. While these systems were built to last, they were not designed for the elasticity, automation, or real-time demands of today’s cloud-first businesses.
And they’re expensive to maintain.
According to sources, the cost of maintaining outdated infrastructure as a result of delaying IBM iSeries modernization increases by at least 15% annually as vendors reduce support incentives and push toward modernization paths.
This isn’t just about IT spend. It’s about the financial burden of doing nothing, and being forced into a rushed, expensive decision when something breaks.
Every time you renew hardware or OS licenses for iSeries, you’re committing to another 3–5 years of a static, closed platform. And you’re doing so at a time when the rest of the ecosystem is adopting:
The longer you delay IBM iSeries modernization, the harder it becomes to catch up.
One of the most critical and least visible risks of delaying IBM iSeries modernization is the shrinking talent pool. JD Edwards customers who rely on iSeries are increasingly struggling to find professionals with the deep knowledge needed to maintain, troubleshoot, and optimize these systems.
The reason is simple: most RPG and iSeries experts are nearing retirement age. And there’s virtually no new generation stepping in to replace them.
RPG, Report Program Generator, is the primary programming language used on IBM i. While incredibly powerful in its day, it has not aged gracefully:
Result: you’re dependent on a shrinking group of high-cost, low-availability specialists to keep your business-critical systems afloat.
What happens if your senior iSeries admin retires, goes on extended leave, or takes another job? For many JDE shops, that person holds the tribal knowledge of how the system operates:
In these environments, continuity risk is enormous. Even a minor issue could take days, or weeks, to resolve if the right expert isn’t available. In high-stakes sectors like manufacturing, finance, or supply chain, that kind of delay is unacceptable.
Modern IT is moving toward automation, observability, and agility, but IBM i environments are notoriously difficult to plug into this world:
The result? Technical debt and human dependency grow over time.
In today’s market, IT isn’t just a cost center, it’s a growth engine. Whether you’re optimizing supply chains, launching digital products, or leveraging AI to predict customer behavior, innovation depends on one thing: flexible, modern infrastructure. And iSeries just doesn’t deliver that anymore.
IBM i was never intended for the cloud-native world we now live in. While it can run JD Edwards workloads dependably, it does so in a silo, cut off from many of the technologies that modern businesses rely on:
The result? You’re constantly building workarounds instead of launching what’s next.
Even if your team has creative ideas, mobile apps for field service, AI-powered forecasting, embedded finance tools, they’ll hit walls trying to implement them on iSeries. Those walls include:
And while competitors are launching new services in weeks, your innovation cycles get bogged down by technical constraints and approvals for custom AS400 legacy system workarounds.
By contrast, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is purpose-built for running JD Edwards workloads with the flexibility and extensibility of modern cloud:
With OCI, you don’t have to abandon JDE to innovate. You extend and evolve it.
Every year you delay your IBM iSeries modernization is a year you miss out on generous Oracle incentives, and the ability to modernize your JD Edwards ecosystem with lower risk and greater agility than you might think.
Many IT leaders assume that migrating off iSeries means rewriting their entire ERP or rebuilding decades of business logic. That’s no longer true. Oracle and its partners now offer tools, programs, and strategies that make the move smoother than ever, and even cost-effective.
Let’s break it down.
Oracle is actively encouraging iSeries customers to migrate JD Edwards workloads to OCI. That’s why they’ve rolled out a range of incentive programs that reduce both cost and risk:
Depending on your situation, Oracle can cover a significant portion of migration-related expenses, especially if you’re moving to OCI in the next 6–12 months.
One of the biggest myths about IBM iSeries modernization is that you’ll have to rip and replace your JDE environment. Not true.
With tools like Oracle GoldenGate, the right partner will help clients migrate their database from DB2 to Oracle with:
For customers with complex integrations, expert partners use low-disruption strategies like:
In short, you keep the logic and reliability of JD Edwards, while leaving the brittle, expensive iSeries infrastructure behind.
Delaying your IBM iSeries modernization doesn’t just mean more support costs. It means you’re missing a shrinking window of migration support, cloud incentives, and platform expertise.
Oracle and its ecosystem of partners have built frameworks to migrate JDE to OCI safely. But those frameworks are evolving toward AI, microservices, and GenAI integration, not backward compatibility with RPG or DB2.
Every renewal cycle you delay means:
Smart organizations aren’t waiting for a crisis; they’re getting ahead of it with a proactive migration roadmap.
If you’ve ever struggled to forecast next year’s IT budget because of iSeries, you’re not alone. One of the sneakiest risks of sticking with AS400 legacy system infrastructure is that it creates cost traps you can’t fully see until they explode.
The older your system, the harder it is to plan, predict, and contain costs.
Every workaround, patch, or delayed upgrade adds to your technical debt, the cost of doing things the old way rather than investing in a scalable, modern solution.
On iSeries, this shows up in many forms:
And technical debt isn’t just a developer concern. It’s a CFO’s problem, too.
With iSeries, it’s hard to model spend because:
You might not feel the pain in a single fiscal quarter, but over a 3–5 year horizon, the cost of staying can exceed the cost of IBM iSeries modernization.
Compare that to OCI, where:
It’s not just “cloud is cheaper.” It’s that the cloud is more predictable, more transparent, and easier to optimize over time.
As finance and IT leaders work closer together, budget predictability and risk reduction are now part of the same strategic conversation. CIOs can no longer justify supporting aging systems that consume:
That’s why many are moving to OCI, not just to save money, but to take back control of their IT roadmap.
Staying on IBM i isn’t the safe, stable option it once was, it’s a strategic liability.
Every year you delay your iSeries exit:
Meanwhile, your competitors are moving forward, adopting flexible, modern architectures on platforms like OCI that allow JD Edwards to evolve instead of survive. You don’t need to rip and replace. You need a plan.
The right partner will help you safely exit iSeries and land on modern, future-ready cloud infrastructure. They will understand the nuances of:
Build your IBM iSeries modernization plan with the right partner, the one who will strategize on your timeline, with your business goals in mind.
