B2B Data Integration and Transformation Blog

Perhaps as an EDI professional you found yourself somewhere between curious and concerned by the recent IBM announcement that operating systems such as the iSeries and UNIX (most flavors) will no longer be supported when IBM rolls out its newest version of IBM Sterling B2B Integrator sometime next year.

Here are 5 things you can do to reduce the impact of that announcement.

If you think myths went out of fashion with the ancient Greeks, you would be wrong on that count. Myths are alive and well, even in today’s enterprise. Modern myths just do not involve gods or fantastic creatures such as chimeras.

The term “digital transformation” refers to the use of technology to radically improve the performance or reach of a business. Some industry experts complain it is a vague term, and the definition does not shed more light on what “digital transformation” really means.

On Thursday, October 5, 2017, IBM announced that with the next major version release of IBM’s Sterling B2B Integrator and Sterling File Gateway it will remove support for the following operating systems: iSeries, HP-UX, and Solaris. The next major release of B2B Integrator and Sterling File Gateway is scheduled for the middle of 2018, schedule subject to change. The version number for the next major release is still to be determined. This major release will only support Windows and Linux operating systems. Those clients that purchase the next major release new or upgrade to the next major release version, will need to run on Windows or Linux operating systems.

Every so often major players in EDI have business improvement initiatives that impact EDI standards, communications, industry initiatives, or technology deployment. These initiatives often have a ripple effect across the Supply Chain impacting an entire block of trading partners in an industry. These initiatives can be mandated upgrades to a given X12 EDI standard version, industry initiatives related to data synchronization and GS1, RFID technology deployed in conjunction with EDI, or communications protocol, encryption, and certificate changes such as that found in SHA-2 implementation.