IBM Power Legacy Hosting

Keep your legacy IBM systems running without having to keep the infrastructure or skills

Still running an AS/400, iSeries, pSeries, RS/6000, IBM i or AIX environment that you can't quite switch off?

You're not alone.

Many organisations still rely on legacy IBM systems for critical applications, historical data or regulatory and business requirements, even when the strategic decision has already been made to move away from the platform.

Baby Blue can provide a long-term home for these environments in our UK data centres, allowing you to retain access to the systems and data without maintaining the specialist infrastructure and skills yourself.

We can relocate your existing hardware or move the workload onto infrastructure provided by us, then host, maintain and manage the environment for as long as you need it.

Not Ready to Switch It Off?

Legacy doesn't necessarily mean obsolete.

IBM systems have an extraordinary lifespan, and many AS/400, iSeries, pSeries and Power environments continue to run applications that have supported businesses for decades.

But maintaining an older platform can become increasingly difficult.

You may be facing:

• A data centre closure or exit
• Ageing IBM hardware
• Increasing maintenance costs
• Loss of internal IBM skills
• Retirement of key technical staff
• Difficulty finding experienced IBM i or AIX resources
• An application migration that will take several years
• A requirement to retain access to historical data
• A system that is rarely used but cannot yet be decommissioned

Our legacy hosting service is designed specifically for these situations.

Two Ways to Host Your Legacy IBM Environment

Depending on the age and condition of your existing system, there are two main approaches.

Move Your Existing System

If your current IBM hardware remains suitable, we can help lift and shift the physical environment from your existing location into our UK data centre environment.

Baby Blue can assist with planning, shutdown, relocation, installation, restart and validation of the IBM environment.

Once relocated, we can provide the hosting, maintenance and IBM technical skills required to keep it operational.

Move Onto Our Infrastructure

Sometimes moving ageing physical hardware isn't the best option.

Where appropriate, we can migrate your existing IBM i or AIX environment onto IBM Power infrastructure provided and hosted by us.

This can remove the dependency on ageing customer-owned hardware while allowing the operating environment, applications and data to remain available.

We'll assess the existing system and recommend an appropriate approach based on the operating system, application, hardware, data and ongoing access requirements.

Supporting AS/400, iSeries, pSeries, RS/6000 & Power Systems

Baby Blue's experience goes back through multiple generations of IBM midrange and UNIX technology.

We can help with environments based around:

• IBM AS/400
• IBM iSeries
• IBM System i
• IBM RS/6000
• IBM pSeries
• IBM System p
• IBM Power Systems
• IBM i / OS400
• AIX

Whether you call it your AS/400, iSeries, pSeries or Power system, we understand the technology and why these environments often need a different approach from standard x86 infrastructure.

Hosting While You Migrate Away

Sometimes you know exactly where you're going - you're just not there yet.

An organisation may be moving away from an IBM i or AIX application to a new ERP, cloud application, SaaS platform or other strategic system, but the migration could take months or years.

At the same time, you may need to exit your existing data centre or reduce the cost and resources associated with maintaining the legacy platform.

We can host and manage the IBM environment while your migration programme continues.

Your team can concentrate on moving the business to the new platform while Baby Blue keeps the legacy environment available and supported in the background.

And when you're finally ready to switch it off, we'll help you complete the decommissioning.

Already Migrated - But Still Need the Data?

Moving away from an application doesn't always mean you can immediately delete the old system.

Historical business records may need to remain available for audit, regulatory, legal, financial or operational reasons.

But maintaining a complete production environment for a handful of users occasionally accessing historical information can be expensive and unnecessarily complex.

We can provide a low-management legacy hosting environment designed specifically for this requirement.

The system can remain available with:

• Limited authorised users
• Read-only access where appropriate
• Controlled network access
• Backup and recovery
• Basic system monitoring
• IBM i or AIX administration
• Hardware maintenance
• Security management
• Technical support when required

Rather than maintaining a full production support model, the service can be designed around the much lower requirements of a historical or archive system.

You Don't Need to Keep the IBM Skills

One of the biggest challenges with legacy IBM environments isn't necessarily the technology.

It's finding the people who still understand it.

As experienced IBM i and AIX specialists retire or move on, organisations can find themselves maintaining a platform that nobody internally wants to own.

Baby Blue can take responsibility for the specialist IBM elements of the environment.

Depending on your requirements, this can include:

IBM Hardware Maintenance
Keeping legacy IBM Power, iSeries, pSeries and associated storage infrastructure supported.

IBM i & OS400 Administration
Day-to-day administration, troubleshooting, PTF management, security and system support.

AIX Administration
Operating system administration, patching, performance, security and troubleshooting.

Backup & Recovery
Maintaining an appropriate backup and recovery strategy for the environment.

Monitoring & Management
Providing the level of monitoring and management appropriate to the role the legacy system now performs.

Technical Support
Access to experienced IBM specialists when something needs attention.

These services can link directly to the relevant Baby Blue IBM maintenance, IBM i and AIX service pages.

From Production System to Long-Term Archive

The support model doesn't have to stay the same forever.

A system may initially arrive with us as a fully operational production environment.

As applications and users migrate elsewhere, we can progressively reduce the level of infrastructure, management and support required.

Over time that might mean moving from:

Production → Limited Use → Read Only → Historical Archive → Decommission

This allows the service to evolve with your migration rather than continuing to pay for a production-level environment that the business no longer needs.

Decades of IBM Experience - Available When You Need It

Legacy IBM environments require people who understand where the technology has come from as well as where it is today.

Our experience spans more than 30 years of IBM midrange and Power technology - from AS/400 and RS/6000 through iSeries and pSeries to today's IBM Power Systems, IBM i and AIX environments.

That means we're comfortable supporting technology that many general infrastructure and cloud providers simply don't have the skills to manage.

Keep It Running for as Long as You Need It

You may need your legacy IBM environment for another six months.

You may need it for another five years.

Either way, you shouldn't have to maintain an entire data centre footprint and specialist IBM team just to keep one legacy application or historical dataset available.

Baby Blue can provide the infrastructure, hosting, maintenance and IBM expertise required to keep the environment available for as long as your business needs it.

Still have an AS/400, iSeries, pSeries, RS/6000 or IBM Power environment you can't switch off?

Talk to us about moving it into our UK data centre environment.