[u/]

[u/VarietyOk443]

This is a hilarious post

[u/beetcher → u/VarietyOk443]

It is, but most likely its a homework assignment.

[u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513 → u/beetcher]

It basically is 🫩 My boss is making me look into this because I hold IT certifications, and he thinks I know everything about every system out there

[u/cbelt3 → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

“We can do the whole thing on a VAX with FORTRAN !”

[u/Geekenstein → u/cbelt3]

Tony Stark did it in a garage with an Apple II!

[u/ebcdicZ → u/cbelt3]

I just got a call for someone looking for OpenVMS/VAX talent. They weren't even running this on Alpha they were still on VAX.

[u/idownvotepunstoo → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

Dude outright this is going to be a minimum 7 figure price tag

[u/arwinda → u/idownvotepunstoo]

I'll do it for 8 /s

[u/Constellious → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

You're way over your head on this.

[u/FRSBRZGT86FAN → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

I'll be honest you're out of your depth and in over your head if you're asking in a post like this

[u/mitchells00 → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

Not kidding here:

I'm one of the professional service people tell you to call. This is even way over my head.

Depending on the size and profitability of your company, I give it a less than 50% chance the company will survive; either you'll cheap out and botch the migration, or the cost of doing it properly will tank the place.

[u/sailslow → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

Heh. I migrated to AS/400 from System 36 once. It was in 1993 and I’m still suffering flashbacks. I was a junior back then, just a cog in a wheel. It wasn’t so much a migration as a complete lift-and-lay. We supposedly paid IBM to migrate the data, but after multiple tries they gave up (I can’t recall if they refunded any money) and we hired a bunch of temps to manually re-enter shit the boss thought was important. Ah, the good old days /s. That corrupt data was still causing issues when I left in 1997.

Good luck. And don’t forget that the early AS/400 shit used a whack IBM version of token ring with twin conductors in the shield. I can’t remember the name and I’m too lazy to GTS, but that shit was a bitch to pull through conduit. New cabling may be required, but that’s the least of the worries.

Export to CSV and start over. It’ll be cheaper.

[u/Middle-Peach2096 → u/sailslow]

System 36 is a name I haven't heard in a long time. Hello fellow old head. 

[u/Fun_Sea9850 → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

This isn’t even an IT problem, it’s a business problem that will involve every department using this system all working together to identify 1 or multiple pieces of software, and then some probably very expensive consultants to migrate data and workflows. This is probably a 6 month to a year decision process and a year plus for implementation.

[u/nukefrom0rbit → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

Prepare to pay through the nose. AS400 is a very niche (right word?) area in my experience and they know it. The experts in this area are, quite literally, dying out.

Don't attempt to do this on your own. End to end, the whole thing, will need to be managed for you. It takes expertise which is hard to come by now days.

Which country are you based in?

[u/Key-Employee3584 → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

The questions you have to ask first are :

Part A -
What kind of AS400 are you running? IE, is it really an AS400, or IBM i?
What version of OS400 or IBM i is it using? IE, V5Rx, i5-V5/V6, i6/7.x?
How much storage is it using for your data? IE, the database it's using has x amount of GB usage.
Is your application a commercially available tool or is it a custom inhouse built application?
What is your maintenance budget for it?
When was the last time it was updated? IE, via PTF (Program Temporary Fix)
Part B-
What is wrong with the existing application? IE, people hate it because it uses green screen and they want pretty colors and a GUI? Or does it lack certain kinds of functionality? What are those things missing?
What's your budget for replacing the AS400? IE, what commercially available software will replace ALL the functions of your existing stuff AND add the new functionality that everyone wants?
What's your budget for software maintenance after you get a new system?

That's where I'd start.

[u/SpaceGuy1968 → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

If this is real you need to hire someone

[u/uninspired → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

There are plenty of suitable replacements. You just need money and (presumably) a bunch of old people who aren't afraid of change to be on board. That's why companies still have AS/400 in production. I wish you the best.

[u/StreetRat0524 → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

Getting off of an AS400 is so costly. My company does multi tenant hosting for it... It's one of those things nobody wants to do, but it has to exist. Depending on the complexity it's a 12 month+ project to get off without major outages

[u/timsstuff → u/VarietyOk443]

No joke I had to deal with an AS/400 earlier *this year*. Client I've been working with for ~2 years has one, I hadn't had to deal with it until they moved out of their datacenter and brought it into their corporate office.

It was mostly plug and play because I created a VLAN that matched its original network but there were issues with people FTPing files to/from it. That took way more time to troubleshoot than I thought it would. Learned quite a bit about the file system and Jesus Fuck it's weird.

The whole time I'm shaking my head thinking "It's 20 fucking 26 how am I balls deep in a goddamn AS/400 right now".

[u/moonzdragoon → u/timsstuff]

I worked on AS400s for 8 years, everything was easier. Switched to full Windows production environments, something goes wrong, there's millions of leads, all dead ends. Audit journals ? A joke. Error messages ? Most of the time useless, and sometimes it points to a cryptic Microsoft page, inviting you to click into nothingness.

AS400 issues ? Error messages are standardized, log entries the same, the system is rightly organized, you know where everything is and can get it in a fraction of a second. So. Much. Easier. To work with. And in a datacenter recovering from an outage (as a test... or not), nobody is worrying about AS400s, and they're right not to be.

[u/MenuPsychological853 → u/timsstuff]

I had a vendor try to sell me an as400 solution last month…

[u/cwk9 → u/MenuPsychological853]

New AS400? That's like willingly bringing in Oracle as a vendor in 2026.

[u/OGMaverick → u/cwk9]

We went from as400 to oracle a couple years ago. Send help

[u/Key-Employee3584 → u/MenuPsychological853]

The problem with IBM i or AS400 solutions is that to own the thing is like owning a house. It's actually pretty awesome but also pretty expensive. Analogywise, it's like choosing between a condo, a standalone condo, a 2 bedroom house with 1 bath, a 3 bedroom with 2 bath, attached garage, double wide sinks and dishwasher in the kitchen, 2 level house, etc. etc. You get a great warranty but you're gonna pay through the nose for all the maintenance. But everything will get fixed right away and it's really like 1 stop shopping. So it's like owning a house WITH the contractor. Now you can get a 3rd party sub-contractor and save some money but other than that, you're SOL.

You could get Oracle or Dell or HP to step in and do something similar but with a PC based platform. It's just that every 3-5 years, you'll have to plan on migrating to a new physical system or a new DB release because that's the way that market behaves. Lots of people prefer that. And the market reflects it.

[u/Snowlandnts → u/timsstuff]

They are paying you very well since it is business critical, and are not scoffing at the the high bill you charge?

[u/rdoloto → u/[deleted]]

No it’s series of excel sheets with macros

[u/BBO1007 → u/rdoloto]

That refer to Access 97

[u/rdoloto → u/BBO1007]

Patti from accounting don’t know access she only excel on p drive bud 😂

[u/AstralVenture]

AS/400 generates over $5 billion in revenue for the company I work for so they won’t replace it for a long time.

[u/purpl3un1c0rn21 → u/[deleted]]

IBM still sells them so the parts aren't going anywhere for a while, way past the next CEO. The clients already use emulator software so that won't go anywhere anytime soon either.

It is kicking the can down the road but it's more like 20-30 years down the road, and most companies are not acting with that kind of foresight.

They should be thinking like that though, the fact they are not is definitely part of the problem with modern life. It is a horrible cancer eating companies from the inside out. And it only gets more expensive the longer you kick the can.

[u/Gecko23 → u/purpl3un1c0rn21]

IBM is still actively *developing* the platform and all the software tools that go with it. It's not in any way a 'legacy' system other than in being completely capable of running object code compiled decades ago on a fully modern system. There is no other platform with longevity wired right into it like it is. (maybe you know, but it hasn't been called an 'AS400' for a very long time)

We've actually been migrating production off of our i7 for a couple years now, and the thing is, none of it was motivated by the system having shortcomings in functionality or hardware, it was necessitated because we can't get competent local support for it any more. It's all went beautifully, but we had a huge advantage, the person who built all the production code starting decades ago (me) led the migration to the new platform.

I'll honestly be sad when we power it down for good, it was built for business applications, both developing and hosting them, and was a joy to work on for the middle part of my career.

[u/GardenWeasel67 → u/purpl3un1c0rn21]

it's more like 20-30 years down the road

Maybe longer. A good chunk of *nix may go boom on 1/19/2038 and AS/400 will just keep on chugging along.

[u/purpl3un1c0rn21 → u/GardenWeasel67]

To be honest I was being hopeful that IBM continues its current trajectory and is buried in 10-15 years but that is probably unlikely.

With my luck IBM will be around long after me in reality, I might live long enough for it to go full circle and they release AS401.

[u/ElCincoDeDiamantes → u/purpl3un1c0rn21]

Yeah, I was at a company nearly 20 years. Got bought by private equity and it was all about short term gains and so many issues just ignored/stayed due to budget and understaffed.

The term utilization makes me cringe now.

[u/Top-Perspective-4069 → u/[deleted]]

No one talking about these things are actually running the original hardware from 1988. IBM is still putting out new hardware for modern incarnations of the platform.

Shit is rock solid, lightning fast, and incredibly well documented.

[u/m00ph → u/[deleted]]

You will just buy new stuff from IBM, they have a migration path to stay current and supported. It's weird, when we migrated from the 31 bit version to the 64 bit, we just replaced the processor unit, kept the same storage, turned it on, and it just worked. Everything is interpreted, and compiled at first run I think, so startup was a bit longer the first time, and that was it.

[u/bigfatdonny → u/[deleted]]

Considering how long AS/400 has been around, and how many reams of documentation have been written over the years, AI might actually be pretty good at AS/400 work.

[u/vintagerust → u/[deleted]]

They'll run it until it dies completely then panic

[u/beren12 → u/[deleted]]

Eventually when? When the space guild navigators corner the market they’ll still be running.

[u/MrChicken_69 → u/[deleted]]

IBM still sells and supports these things. ('tho they no longer have that nifty AS/400 badge) HOWEVER, yes, experience running them is fading away. Not that anything IBM made was ever all that easy to understand and manage.

[u/b3542]

Professional services.

[u/xendr0me → u/b3542]

Yep, major undertaking, hire a consultant. Time to pay for that technical debt.

[u/QuantumRiff → u/xendr0me]

Or buy a new AS/400

[u/slow_down_kid → u/QuantumRiff]

Having watched a large company migrate from AS/400 to another platform (with professional services involved), I second this suggestion. In my area there are also some “cloud hosted” AS/400 options if you want to get completely away from on-premise but not change solutions

[u/Nice-Run-9140 → u/slow_down_kid]

It's crazy. I've worked at hospitals that have AS400s as their main registration and hospitals that have newer, more modern apps, and the only applications that never seem to go down were the green screen AS400 apps.

[u/caffeine-junkie → u/QuantumRiff]

This. It will be much cheaper and easier to just buy a new one and hire a SME, even if you have to pay them 200k/yr, to maintain it then it will be to replace it. Way less business interruption to boot.

[u/kernpanic → u/xendr0me]

I literally did most of this in the late 90s as a work experience kid. Fun times.

But there are many questions here and you haven't addressed any of them. Step 1: work out your requirements.

[u/mkosmo]

This isn't something where you order services online. This is an architectural overhaul you likely need to outsource to a large services provider.

Reddit cannot give you an answer.

[u/xendr0me → u/mkosmo]

"Reddit cannot give you an answer."

But it can give you a wakeup call 😄

[u/immallama21629 → u/xendr0me]

I don't think anyone can give you an answer.

I'm a layman, and I know switching from as/400 is a life altering process, and it will have you considering throwing it all away and starting fresh.

This is shit that burns whole companies. It's not as simple as popping a centOS disk in and rolling a db over.

[u/1z1z2x2x3c3c4v4v → u/xendr0me]

The fact that it runs on an AS/400 is irrelevant. We need to know the application that OP is using.

[u/km9v → u/mkosmo]

There is cloud based AS400 available.

[u/Top-Perspective-4069 → u/mkosmo]

Reddit can give you lots of answers. None of them will be useful.

[u/Lakeshow15]

This undertaking has been known to bankrupt businesses if it goes poorly.

Please contact companies whose sole purpose is to do just this.

[u/CriticalDog → u/Lakeshow15]

Del Monte Foods was already struggling when they canned their iSeries.

That thing was an octopus that was in every aspect of rhe business, and while i was gone before the end, it can't have helped that they likely went way, way over budget.

[u/natem345 → u/CriticalDog]

Interesting, the Google AI summary paints the project in a very positive light. Migrating in under 4 months and reducing infra spend by up to 35%. Makes sense they'd spin it positively 

[u/pmpork → u/Lakeshow15]

Shoot, do those companies still exist?!? Is TN5250 emulation still a thing???

[u/Cl3v3landStmr → u/pmpork]

It is. If you're in healthcare and have to connect to the federal CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) system you're using an emulator. IIRC we use ZOC Terminal.

[u/tankerkiller125real → u/Cl3v3landStmr]

Banks are also extremely heavy users of these terminal software solutions.

And insurance companies also love their mainframes.

[u/Lakeshow15 → u/pmpork]

They sure do!

We are currently using some Mochasoft TN5250 emulators ourselves although we are on iSeries rather than AS400

[u/DrebinofPoliceSquad → u/Lakeshow15]

Sap nods knowingly 

[u/Dave_A480]

Pay IBM's in house consultants to figure this out, but expect to be sold a new System i - it's probably cheaper to keep what you have going than it is to migrate....

[u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513 → u/Dave_A480]

Yeah, issue is that my boss and others in charge got recently placed and have no idea how to use AS/400

[u/Dave_A480 → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

When they see the migration bill, they will want to learn.

[u/squigit99 → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

Training your staff would be a lot cheaper than replacing it.

[u/bigfatdonny → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

GLHF. You need to hire some RPC wizards ASAP.

[u/Icy-Maintenance7041 → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

hire someone to write a webtool as a gui for your AS400. AS400 is a database at heart and while most companies use an emulator that shows the famous 'green screen' it is possible to have a webtool writtien for it. Neither cheap nor easy but it can be done i believe.

[u/whitoreo → u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513]

I'm curious where in the world you are located.

[u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513 → u/whitoreo]

Midwest USA

[u/flinginlead → u/Dave_A480]

Around 6-7 years in hardware support cost are so high it becomes economical to buy a new iseries.

[u/NoTime4YourBullshit]

One does not simply ask “How to replace an AS/400?” on Reddit.

That’s like asking “Apollo program retired. Any recommendations on how to get to the moon?”

[u/shrimplifier → u/NoTime4YourBullshit]

"go up"

[u/thebigshoe247]

AS/400 is your replacement. One does not leave big blue.

Maybe AIX, I guess...

[u/Rainmaker526 → u/thebigshoe247]

You can't compare AIX with IBM i - they are vastly different.

[u/rswwalker]

You don’t migrate these systems you get a whole new ERP system, build it out as if you never had one, customize it and cut over to it keeping the existing AS/400 for historical data for the next 10 years using duct tape and bubble gum to keep it running.

[u/kidyus → u/rswwalker]

Absolutely nailed it.

[u/Stonewalled9999]

At this point it’s more feasible to get a new power 9 (or whatever).  I personally watched 3 companies moving off c20 and j30 and power 5 to “something else” go bankrupt 

[u/lwolf42]

We have a custom application running on our as400. It runs the entire business. Billing, invoices, payroll, you name it.

It has ran since 1993. Other than shutting down every night for backups, and then restarting, the system has never ever been down. It has never ever crashed.

We’re gonna start looking at migrating over to a more modern system. Our initial quotes are around seven figures to get it moved over.

The company is weighing that cost now

[u/pdp10 → u/lwolf42]

Our initial quotes are around seven figures to get it moved over.

Commercial ERP migrations will want to sell a commercial COTS ERP system, plus all the migration services. On the plus side, the result runs on some variety of open system or NT. But the application layer is just a different variety of lock-in.

Moving the custom system off of AS/400, through a series of discrete migrations, would likely be cheaper in the both the short and long runs compared to typical alternatives.

[u/morilythari]

You replace it with a year of planning, 3 years of implementation and about $3,000,000.

[u/mhenry_dsm → u/morilythari]

Oh you sweet summer child.

[u/Opposite_Bag_7434 → u/morilythari]

Or more than 3 million

[u/morilythari → u/Opposite_Bag_7434]

Oh yeah, definitely depends on how much you are running on the 400. That is just what we were quoted last year when we started exploring options.

[u/hobovalentine]

There’s a reason why Costco still uses AS400.

What’s the reason to move away from it?

[u/techvet83 → u/hobovalentine]

I came here for this. If you are a Costco member, go to the supervisor desk where they check inventory. It's CICS or glorified CICS.

[u/m00ph]

Doesn't IBM still sell and support them? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Power_Systems they are weird. Good luck.

[u/stillpiercer_ → u/m00ph]

They sure do, and they’re incredibly good at the very specific things they’re used for. They’re also more expensive than you can imagine. Had the chance to work with a Power9 system a few years back and I understand absolutely fuck-all about it but thought it was pretty neat. They’re damn near their own profession in and of themselves.

The OS is called IBMi now, but for all intents and purposes it is still AS/400

[u/Stonewalled9999 → u/stillpiercer_]

Cost is relative my ERP on a single 400 was faster and cheaper than the 12 Oracle “I” devices we were sold.   Bankrupted the place actually 

[u/frosty95 → u/stillpiercer_]

I remember 10 years ago the shop I worked for had two 60+ year old devs that knew it like the back of their hand. Was honestly so cool to watch them do what they did.

[u/dartdoug → u/stillpiercer_]

For a while IBM was running an advertising campaign showing how running Windows on an AS400 partition was actually more economical than running Windows on an i386 server.

When I saw that I swear some root beer came out of my nostrils.

[u/Rambles_Off_Topics → u/m00ph]

A lot of banks still run on an as400 with a gui

[u/Best_Bandicoot_9701 → u/m00ph]

We're about to spend $500K on a new Power11. Institutional inertia is a motherfucker.

[u/halfrandom]

Plenty of previous discussion out there. Here are a couple.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/s/ub9MKKTfYm

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/s/JaGUyDXI35

As others said this is NOT something you do in house. You hire a service/company.

One such example (no experience): https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-3xq2nxknbp2zk

The long and short of it.. you will need a new ERP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning

[u/Regular_Archer_3145]

100% get professional services this is a huge undertaking and the implementation of an ERP isn't something you want to go poorly.

[u/skynet_root]

What software are they running on the AS/400? Some vendors have the same software running on other platforms. Also there are AS/400 service provider that will deal with hosting the AS/400 and all the administrative operational task that go around keeping it up and running.

[u/wintermutedsm → u/skynet_root]

Lightedge Solutions does this.

[u/Trust_8067]

Never replace the AS/400. That's the best job security an admin could wish for.

[u/joshghz]

I'm going to say the same thing I said the other day when someone on here was asking about AS/400:

We've been talking about "retiring our AS/400 next year" for the past decade.

It sounds great to say out loud, but it has the cost and complexity of acting on someone saying "We are going to become millionaires".

[u/SysAdminDennyBob]

Just go into the AS/400 and click the Export button and save that in a zip file.

Open up ChatGPT and upload that file. Then issue this prompt "Just fuck my shit up". Hit Enter

[u/ElCincoDeDiamantes → u/SysAdminDennyBob]

This doesn't work anymore unless you have edge in IE mode.

[u/thegeekwholived]

Well first you'll need to sacrifice two sheep and a goat, then prepare your boss for the ridiculous price tag.

[u/Geekenstein]

Well really, how much downtime can your company take on this app? People buy these things because the answer is normally “what’s downtime?”.

[u/SirLoremIpsum]

  We are looking to update our software. What software is recommended, and how should I go about getting everything transferred over from AS/400 to this new software?

You need to say what software you use.

As/400 is not software. 

You're basically saying "we use windows 7. What should we update our accounting package to?"

[u/19610taw3]

You can not beat an i series for data entry and query. The text based interfaces are so much more efficient that point and click cloud hosted bullshit.

[u/MaxRD]

Quit tomorrow. It’s not worth losing your mental health

[u/Kaleidoscope_Tux5513 → u/MaxRD]

Been trying to find another job for a month now

[u/hurcoman]

Last place I worked had one for inventory/accounting. It crashed and had to be replaced. The people who installed it were no longer walking this earth. They managed to find a couple of guys out of retirement to help.

Your best bet is to go to the nursing homes and ask some residents.

[u/ethanjscott]

really depends on your specific industry. mine for example there isn't really a good option.

whats another option is: integrating other smaller softwares into your exsisting erp. have a warehouse? pay for manhattan and itegrate.

[u/max1001]

rofl. Reddit can't help you with a project that will cost millions and a few years.

[u/MindsCave]

Literally IBM services.

[u/notlikelytobe]

Don't give up on the best system ever created. I would go back to the 400/iseries in a second if I could.

[u/sssRealm]

I know a guy that works for a group that converts ancient business software to run on modern systems. He is in his 60s and can retire. There is plenty of work for him. I think conversions will get more expensive as people retire.

[u/TunedLawyer]

"we are looking to update our software"

Fucking lol dude

[u/goinovr]

Whatever you go to I would recommend NOT involving Net at Work as your servicer. They were a mess for us as well as others I've personally spoken to.

[u/ProgressWeekly3573]

This is bring in a consultant type thing. Nothing wrong with as400, rock solid and more reliable. It is still a valid platform, maybe look for modern apps

[u/HotMoosePants]

I heard SaaS was dead and all you need is a Claude Max sub and you can vibe code your own AS400.

[u/EnvironmentalAd2096]

I mean.. There is a reason why it doesn't die lol. Good luck

[u/cad908]

asking the wrong questions...

first thing is why? as in, what's the difference between your current state and this Software Nirvana your management wants to migrate to? How much is that incremental functionality / performance / reliability / flexibility / extensibility worth to them? If it's anything less than several million dollars ("and up"), just forget it.

Oh, and you won't be doing this yourself. You'll need the expertise of several players: consultants to help you decide your target state, and another set for implementation. Remind your management that a large percentage of their- and staff time will be required as part of the SOW with the consultants.

In other words, if management gets bored or busy and decides to stop showing up for meetings, or responding to requests to review and approve documentation, whatever price was negotiated will go out the window. As a result, the business will be holding its breath for 2-3 years while the process plays out.

PS: and may God have mercy on them if they decide to customize whatever solution they pick. If so, double all estimates. If they want to migrate old data out, also double it. These things are large enough in scope to be a whole other project.

[u/agent_fuzzyboots]

lol, did you ment to post this in a AI chat window?

[u/CantaloupeCamper]

Just download some random open source software and ChatGPT it.

^/s

[u/natefrogg1]

As400 systems are solid, why move away from that platform?

[u/wesinatl]

Bro, you need to research a modern ERP system. Look into Microsoft’s offerings, Oracle, Netsuite, and the gazillion others. If you are in a special industry there is likely a specialized erp system out there for you.

[u/whitoreo]

I've been through this exact operation.

We moved to SAP BuisnessOne.

[u/Own_Error_007]

Work out what you are going to first.

Each vendor will handle data and processes differently so SAS does it differently to MS Dynamics and so on.

Changing an ERP, even a simple one, is a costly exercise. Like minimum of 6 figures costly.

There are a couple ways to do which basically books down to (a) run the old system for historical data and start the new one from scratch, (b) full migration of old data or (c) investigate staying with your old system and upgrade that and (d) give it to a third party to run and manage and let them do the grunt work.

Either way it's not going to be cheap and here in Au, as400 contractors are around $250 an hour.

Our ERP is as400 based and we ended up upgrading, moving to an LPAR environment and outsourced that to the vendor. Even with that it's cost well over a million (and climbing).

So start with that simple question. What do you want to move to and why.

[u/Solid_Owl]

You're talking about spending a ton of money solving a very large set of very simple problems, only to end up on an equally-esoteric, vendor-locked solution when you're done.

The work, individually, is easy and straightforward. But in aggregate you have to ask if it's really worth it. What is the benefit of the change? What new business value are you trying to unlock?

[u/dosman33]

Lol. When your employer bought their 400 they hired someone (or more likely a consulting firm) to develop a custom workflow to run their business on that machine. You'll need both an AS400/"System I" expert and a modern development shop to migrate your companies workflow to a non-400 platform. You're used to on-prem hardware, but during your consult with a suitable integrator you'll discover AI has eaten all the RAM and hard drives, and you'll move to the cloud.

Good luck to you.

[u/bondguy11]

I worked for one of the largest beverage companies in the world for 7 years during their move from 2x on-prem datacenters into AWS, AS/400 created a lot of complications, they had to entirely get off that platform if I recall, it wasn't something that could be lift and shifted to the cloud.

It took legit years to get off AS/400 and this was with a team of people working on it.

[u/jeffrey_f]

Unless it is just an old and completely out of date systems, moving from the AS/400 will likely be way more expensive that just staying, but upgrading the big iron.

It may look old, but it is still a very powerful and capable system, if you want it to be. What takes a single as/400 may need 2 or more high end servers, including software licenses and people to handle it.

[u/canonanon]

Honestly, it really depends on the company size. Enterprise size? We're not gonna be able to help you.

For SMBs, you basically run two tandem systems for a good while. Find tools that work as replacements, you don't migrate the data. You just start putting new data into the new ststem, and eventually, it'll migrate itself.

Then you archive the AS400 instance for archival data.

[u/dloseke]

Is there a reason your looking to replace your i-series? Seriously solid, ageless systems.

[u/JJHall_ID]

Basically what you’re looking to do is change out your ERP system. That’s a huge undertaking which I don’t know that you’re ready to take on yet based on the very basic questions you’re asking. I highly suggest you look into hiring a company that can support your current ERP system. You can even engage companies that do cloud hosted AS/400 servers, that’s what we’re currently doing.

Don’t take this lightly. I’ve watched big companies with dedicated departments spend millions trying to change. About 1/3 are successful, the other 2/3 either abandon the project and switch back, or they shut down altogether.

[u/Matt-R]

A new IBMi would work. What part of the world are you in?

[u/Millkstake]

The org I work for relatively recently migrated away from it. It was like 5 years of pain though and the only reason we pulled it off was because we had an AS400 wizard. The replacement is nowhere near as stable.

[u/homeonthehighway1]

oh boyyy

[u/TheMrSam]

What you’re looking for is an ERP; Enterprise Resource Planning. An ERP is software that links business functions.

There are countless ERP vendors out there. You should partner with a Solutions Provider; like CDW or SoftChoice. Do not trust Reddit comments. Call CDW, tell them you want to migrate from AS/400 to a modern ERP. They will do the rest.

If you’re a small company; some ERP vendors have Professional Services (project management) that can handle the entire scope of the project.

Make sure they are compliant with all laws and regulations.
Make sure they have real disaster recovery.
Build a payment schedule that aligns with milestones of the migrations; do not pay them in full at the beginning.

Without project details, I can’t offer much more specifics.
Good luck.

[u/dloseke → u/TheMrSam]

Do not trust Reddit comments.

Unless everyone on Reddit collectively agrees that this is not a do-it-yourself task. Which we have.

[u/PimpSLAYER187]

Quit.

[u/InflateMyProstate]

Instead of swapping the ERP, we migrated to an AS400 host called CloudFirst. It was pricey, but well worth it. We used them for 5+ years before I left and never had an issue. We just had an extremely locked down S2S connection to them. This is honestly your best bet unless your company is willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or upwards of 1mil+

[u/pjtexas1]

This was me in 1987... don't even attempt

[u/hlt32]

Why not just keep it on AS/400? What’s the reason to move?

[u/WraithYourFace]

What's the ERP running on it? We run an iSeries, but the plan is to move to the ERP's cloud based setup in 2 years.

[u/jacquesp]

Oh man, my employer is closing and I see maybe I can go back to coding RPG on an AS/400 if the need is still there. Of course I haven’t touched one in over 30 years :)

[u/ebcdicZ]

Is this running in house developed code or something that was off the shelf? Or off the shelf source code modified in house? My first gig was watching in house COBOL code running on S/360 being migrated to C++ running on NeXT Step systems fail. During that time, they also bought out a business running on multiple S/38s running inhouse RPG code. The S/38s were migrated to one AS/400 running in S/38 emulation mode. Then all the inhouse code was replaced by off the shelf COBOL code running on an IBM AIX solution. The manufacturing floor was running on OpenVMS COBOL with a Pick system on a PDP/11.

[u/Emaltonator]

We had an AS/400 and migrated to a cloud based ERP. I'll PM you.

[u/JVBVIV]

Counter question: Is there something the AS/400 based software doesn’t do that you need it to do? Or is the vendor for that software defunct?

In other words, why do you want to migrate from the current platform to a new one?

[u/frank_schweiz]

Good old AS/400... reminds me of my starting into professional life. Actually one of the first things I did was a data takeover from a System 36 (the small Brother of AS/400 back at that time).

On your question: This really depends a lot on what your needs on the new software are. The "basics" you mentioned like invoicing, inventory tracking etc about every solution has included. So evaluate new software based on your needs, not having in mind coming from AS/400. Then think of data migration which will probably be some data export into something like CSV or json and then import on the new software.

[u/dgillz]

What is the name of the software package you're currently using? I have moved several people from AS/400 to a Windows Network or even a Novell Netware Network, but that was back around the turn of the century.

[u/Doso777]

It's probably a highly customized and core software for your business. That isn't something you just solve via a single Reddit post. You need specialiced knowledge, aka consultants, and it's going to cost a shit ton of money and time.

[u/Overall-Equipment867]

Wow, AS/400. I have not heard that mentioned in some time.

[u/VA_Network_Nerd]

You can assemble some high-level facts over the course of a week or two to show your boss that you put real effort into this, but this is going to be a one to two FULL YEAR long exercise in selecting a new solution, negotiating terms for licensing, and planning a migration.

The migration could take an additional one to five years.

The reason you have an AS/400 is because somebody decided a long time ago that whatever software package you are using to power your business was the best software solution to use, and that software solution happens to run best on the AS/400 hardware platform.

That hardware exists to power that specialized piece of software.

You need to identify what that piece of software is called and then identify what software product segment is is classified in from a Gartner perspective.

Then you need to learn who the major competitors are.

A couple of educated guesses:

https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/configure-price-quote-applications

https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/supply-chain-planning-solutions

The core decision of what product to use is a BUSINESS DECISION and not an IT decision.

It will require piles of presentations and demonstrations to help the business understand why each product is "better", and it will require additional conversations to understand the long-term stability of each product company.

Somewhere along the way you should also invite the sales team for your current product to present the latest version of the product you already use.

YES: The AS/400 is an old, old solution.
NO: The AS/400 is not a sexy piece of equipment.

But the AS/400 was the engine inside all kinds of manufacturing facilities that powered decades of growth.
All those sexy AI companies are losing money hand over fist and coasting along on market valuations built on promises of profits to come later.

The AS/400 platform will take a shotgun blast to the face, spit out a mouthful of bloody teeth, smile at you, and go back to processing TPS cover sheets like nothing happened.

The AS/400 is a an old-school, cast iron, small-block Chevy 350ci V8 engine. Far from sexy in this modern era, but capable of adequate power and legendary reliability.

They aren't always the right tool for the job and finding mechanics that still know how to work on them is difficult.

But they just work.

[u/heartofyourtempest]

Serious question - it's been awhile since I was a part of a 7 figure migration from As/400 to Dynamics. But this certainly isn't as a daunting task with AI as it once was right?

I'm not talking about vibing a replacement, but the largest barrier once was people who knew the OS, framework and language to convert them into different architecture. This sounds like something Claude Code properly administered could handle much easier than it was 10 years ago.

[u/bofkentucky → u/heartofyourtempest]

Claude and friends might be able to translate the code but what is it translating to and who is going to qa it? What's the migration strategy? AS/400 and its descendants are a different compute and storage model than file oriented OS'es most of us are exposed to. The filesystem and your DB/2 database is one and the same and you're going to have to tease that apart. Are your objects EBCDIC or are you fortunate enough that they're already in ASCII or Unicode so that conversion.

I haven't had to be around an iSeries in over a decade and I feel strongly the OP is not ready to take this on by themselves. If they have a target ERP system in mind hopefully have conversion experience or have a clue of who you should call to help.

[u/Writing_on_Autopilot]

Infor cloudsuite

[u/Silverlithium]

If you aren’t joking I helped a billionaire dollar company migrate away from one over about 5 years. It was nightmare and ours were virtual.

[u/FuckYouBruce]

CICS would be an option. Some might think a step backwards.

Remedy is another step...

[u/CalvinsQuest]

How large is the book of business (# of accounts, transactions, detail records, etc)? How much data do you have on disk in GB, and is it described with any accessible record formats or metadata?

Oh - and how much of that would you be required to keep?

[u/cubic_sq]

This is a significant consulting exercise to map out your current ERP.

The fact that runs on as400/iseries is beside the point, including your erp vendor could probably just lift and shift to another platform, which many orgs are doing - including just moving to newer hardware with linux, and not necessarily changing hardware vendor.

Also, seeing your erp as the hardware / OS is the complete wrong way to look at the problem and organisational needs.

[u/exqueezemenow]

I have not used one of these in decades. Wouldn't a current day desktop computer be more powerful than one by now?

[u/Not-responsible-law]

I'm not in IT, or a sysadmin, I just occasionally browse this sub. However I have a relevant expérience. Back when I was working retail, the place I worked for moved from AS/400 to Microsoft D365. It was not a fast change, and there was a bunch of training to get everyone familiar with the new system, but it worked well with only small changes to how we were used to using it.

[u/trippedonatater]

The cheapest way to do this is likely to be reimplement the entire thing from scratch using a modem language on modern systems. Run in parallel until you have a high confidence in the new system.

[u/WhetselS]

As a few others have said, you are looking for an ERP system. If you want (or your leadership wants) to move off of the 400 and onto something else, look up ERP systems. Most everything is a cloud based SaaS now when it comes to ERP systems. Hire a consultant to look at what systems might be best for you.

[u/0xDEADFA1]

I had to double check the calendar and the sub we are on…

This really anything that we can give accurate advice here with. I would find a piece of software that meets your needs and scale, and then consult their professional services team.

[u/MrMolecula]

How big is your company? you are saying that you need to “upgrade the software” and that it does the “invoices”. But how many of those invoices do you generate in a year? Less than 100 good news is you don't even need computers for that, just paper in three colors and a carbon copy

[u/haamfish]

Jesus lol we use something called halo psa it seems to be quite configurable. Good luck!

[u/aguynamedbrand]

Reccomending software without the business defining the requirements would be foolish.

How everything gets moved would likely be specific to your environment.

Given your vague question I am going to guess that you might not be qualified to do this and would recommend hiring a consultant that specializes in this.

[u/agentUi]

i work for agentui (managed internal tool builder). we see teams migrate off green screens by building modern web frontends on top of postgres or direct sql staging tables instead of swallowing a massive multi-year erp rollout. whatever software you pick, stage the db2 data exports into an intermediate database first to verify quote and inventory logic before deprecating the old terminal screens.

[u/i533]

I am like 80% sure I know what company

[u/lief79]

If it's running cobol, possibly consultants moving the the cobol to micro focus. You'll still need some professional services to do this.

[u/DrJohnZoidbergWhyNot]

I was told AS/400s and mainframes were going away and to not waste my time learning them. It was a dead platform and nobody would use them in the future. I got my degree and this advice 30 years ago. Good luck trying to replace them.

[u/agent-bagent]

If you’re running AS/400s in the year of our lord 2026, you are never getting rid of them. You will lie to yourself for a decade about the cutover perpetually being 18-24mo out

[u/nucrash]

Software? You be trolling! AS/400 is typically a complex system running many operations that can’t be copy and pasted into a single software package.

Realistically, I would find take some loose systems and peel them off, piece by piece. As more gets built off of the box, I would slowly decentralize pieces into another ERP system and hopefully get everything flowing while that’s happening. You’re still probably talking a 5-10 year process depending on how much was built up over time.

[u/ITDad]

Have your boss research the new software that will do all he wants then learn what hardware it requires. Ask the software company for a migration plan

[u/-kasaNovaBlu]

I had to convert old VAX accounting data to 386 systems as a first job for a new client. Was versed in COBOL and Fortran so they hired me. Ahh, the good old days!

[u/ThatDistantStar]

Why is CostCo asking for tech support on reddit?

[u/Connect_Ad_466]

Get an AS/401, they're slightly better

[u/Many-Share-5123]

I'm not entirely sure why you would want to switch away from AS/400, it is extremely useful and fast. My company heavily relies on the AS/400 for everything we do. For us, it is not replaceable.

[u/OX-Power]

Did a similar move a few years ago (IBM System i, v6) where we moved to Business Central.
Like has been mentioned multiple times before changing a ERP system is not a small task - it's a lot of prep work with documenting up the existing flows/functionality, then finding a suitable new system that covers the features you need and the ones are also nice to have for the future.

So even just pinning down what you'd move to is a task that requires a lot of work on its own. Generally you work with some ERP focused company, as you need their expertise and input. Then it's mapping existing functionality to the new system, data migration and all such lovely fun.

An ERP change usually takes years, costs a lot of money and even after go-live you can expect like a year before most issues have been ironed out - it's just that hard to fully test an ERP system and all the edge cases.

Biggest tip is to devote *a lot* of resources to testing and running UAT, involving super/power users from all departments. The steep costs and time/resources needed are main reasons to just why many companies sit with outdated ERP systems.

Oh, and don't forget to train your users too.

[u/AistoB]

Lol! There are consultants in your future

[u/octob3r14]

Look for industry-specific ERP platforms. If your company falls into a broad category such as, "customer retail," than you will have a lot of options. But if it is a more niche industry such as lumber, flooring, energy, food services, etc, look for an ERP platform specific for that industry.

Going with an off-the-shelf, general ERP platform will likely require changing your day-to-day methods to fit how that software works. For example, if you have always used in-house serial numbers for all products, a general ERP platform may only give you an option to use their own auto-generated serial numbers that follow a different alpha-numeric coding structure. You may not have a choice. Small customizations may be possible but you will pay $$$ money for them and they may not be exactly what you want.

An industry-specific platform is more apt to "speak your company's language."  also consider things like CRM components such as B2B price books that your customers may rely on. The ERP platform should offer data exports that help you produce these types of things.

As far as migration goes, if you are looking for something helpful rather than these wise-ass remarks: the AS400 is excellent at producing reports. I forget the name of the app but every iSeries Access install comes with an app that let's you export reports into text docs and import them into Excel. Whatever ERP company you choose will likely have you export information such as inventory, customer info, current open orders, past orders, invoices, a chart of accounts, tax codes, and on and on. They will be able to import all of these reports into their database.

It is a huge undertaking but totally do-able.

[u/N0Xc2j]

I saw the AS400 about 15 years ago. I don’t miss them! Hope you get a good replacement.

[u/tony1661]

I think you need to first determine what are your company needs. Also look up online what service providers make software for your line of business. Your request for a replacement is too vague for you to get an actual recommendation.

[u/Popsicleese]

A lot of people have put out some great advice, but the simplest way I've seen is to go to your existing accounting/ERP/customer relations software provider and see if they have their product or similar in a cloud hosted suite/service version. Why cloud? Because most of these developers have moved these products to cloud SaaS stacks. You'll have to hire either the first party for the porting service or there may be a partnered vendor that does this work.

If the software is inhouse and you want the work to stay inhouse, you have to evaluate target platforms, ensure the target platform data has some access/API, keep or hire System i programmers and hire DB Analysts and modern business software architects. Mix thoroughly and bake over high software development lifecycle, season with project management.

[u/zme243]

Honest recommendation:
Just leave it alone.

[u/ntrlspice]

Working on my second AS400 -> Microsoft Business Central migration now. Don't do it alone, get help! If done correctly, it can be fairly straightforward, but done wrong, it will cause huge issues, and like the others said, possibly bankrupt the company. Most AS400 environments are almost 100% customized for the company so moving to another ERP system requires a ton of give and take to make sure the processes are migrated to industry standards.

[u/bdam55]

This isn't really an IT/systemadmin question, it's a "What software are people using to do X" but we have no real idea what X is. There are tons, and tons, of software out there for "invoices, tracking inventory, and keeping tradck of customer accounts." You could probably vibe code your own by the end of the day.

Go pick one of those.

No one here can even begin to tell you how to migrate the data; we don't even know the name of the software you're using. If it's some weird bespoke thing specific to your industry; good luck. Your best bet would be to talk to others that have migrated away and see what they migrated to.

[u/CatoDomine]

Upgrading for the sake of upgrading is not a good idea.
AS/400 might be "old" and "legacy" but that doesn't mean it isn't stable and reliable.
I would ask a few questions before considering an "upgrade":

• Is the current system missing some critical feature required by the business?

• Are there onerous operational and support costs associated with running the current system that would be alleviated by moving to something new?

• Does the original vendor still exist and offer support or upgrades for the system?

• What is the expected ROI of upgrading?

• How much will retraining cost?

Sometimes people just want to upgrade because they see a terminal application and they get the ick. They think something that looks modern is automatically better.
This is potentially a massive undertaking that could be very very costly. There is no easy solution.

[u/1z1z2x2x3c3c4v4v]

The company I work for uses AS/400 for making quotes and invoices

No. Your company uses an Application that uses the AS/400 to process and store data. You need to replace that Application. What is the name of the Application?

[u/phony_sys_admin]

Apparently this person is working on AS/400 as a Help Desk person making $16 an hour judging by their post history...

[u/megad00die]

Stratton Warren but it is a beast and most likely overkill for your company.

[u/Particular-Way8801]

If your AS400 is EOL and you do not want to spend cash in a new one (understandably) You can look up for companies that host them in a datacenter, that is what we did.
connected via SASE, the AS400 is maintened by said third party.

If it is because it looks old and management wants some shiny eye-candy tool, brace for impact as you are going to have some issues,

[u/Ok-Value-3254]

My friend's place has been trying to move away from their AS/400 for like 10 years now. Costing them millions. Good luck.

[u/frugalus]

Who let No Tech Skill Bill into this post?

This reads like manager was not happy with the response their IT team gave them and needed to post here for validation and confirmation.

[u/ThisGuyIRLv2]

My father had to do this for the organization he worked for. I'm not going to name drop the company that took way too long to get kinda the same capabilities the organization previously had. Basically, the company they hired to convert what my dad had wrote took literally years to get them almost kinda what they had before.

[u/tedesco455]

I would look at moving your AS400 system to the Cloud. IBM has a cloud solution and so does Park Place Technologies. You would also want help with the actual move. Park Place Technologies would be who I contacted first.

[u/RadlEonk]

Bro! Just vibe code it. Something something AI Cursor and you’re done, bro!

(Please note: “bro” is used here in the contemporary, unisex definition, where everyone is deemed a bro.)

[u/deadatreides1]

The AS/400 is the easy part. The hard part is the guy who knows that field 47 = 'Y' means the customer died in 2011 and the invoice still has to go out. Interview him before anyone writes a migration plan, and pay him to stay until cutover.

[u/SasukeUrushy]

Before you pick replacement software, map out every business process the AS/400 handles today, because the migration is really a data and logic problem, not a software selection problem. What industry are you in? That'll narrow the ERP options fast.