I just came back from vacation and I’m shocked with the information that the development of key IBM i products: BRMS, PowerHA for i, IBM Rational Developer for i (RDi) and L3 support are moved to HelpSystems.
I have a mixed fillings about it. From a customer perspective it is sort of transparent deal, we are not directly impacted by the change. IBM must have a good contract with HelpSystems to get the same code and support quality which can be delivered to the customers.
What is interesting, I can’t find any official information about this deal on IBM channel, while the message is very serious. “IBM is giving away the most strategic IBMi products to 3rd party vendor” and this is happening during holiday season.
In my humble opinion IBM management probably wasn’t keen to invest a penny to enhance the development team. And we all know that business is business. They know how much money these products bring and how much they need to invest to keep the quality level.
Microsoft can deliver a patch for a major bug within next day, while for IBM dealing with SMBv2 support took months for V7R2, moreover. This could tell that they struggle with development force from time to time.
Maybe in the end, it will no be such bad move, maybe HelpSystems can provide more resources and more features then IBM did. It will be their key strategic product/products. Lenovo also made a positive deal acquiring x86 line.
IBMi.org - Bart's blog 