Come September 30, 2015, IBM will be ending support for its iSeries v6r1 and v6r1m1 operating systems. IBM will be offering extended support options; however, if you don’t upgrade before the September 30 deadline, you will run the risk of incurring high support fees.
Although the deadline is looming and the migration process seems like a major undertaking, there are options to reduce potential headaches. Many organizations struggle with the additional resources required for an operating system migration. However, a new trend is to use a sandbox/proof of concept approach in the cloud. It is a low cost, risk-free way to test operating system upgrades or new applications.
There is not much time left. Migrating today to IBM System i 7.1 today is your best bet to prevent incurring the considerable support fees after the September 30th deadline and also to benefit from the increased flexibility, scalability and efficiency that the newer version has to offer.
Secure Infrastructure & Services (SIAS) will provide a free sandbox/proof of concept for up to 90 days to help reduce the in-house computing resources required on your end.