Welcome to the #IBMi update for January 2024.
In this update, I’ll discuss articles focusing on the top priorities for IBM i shops in for the coming year, plus some predictions from industry leaders too.
You can watch the video below or read the full article underneath.
Watch the Video:
The Top Priorities in 2024 on the IBM i
In mid January, Alex Woodie published an article on the top priorities in 2024 – and spoilers… it’s security and AI.
This should come as no real surprise because, as discovered within last years IBM i Market Survey, Cybersecurity has remained the top concern within IBM i shops since 2020 with the trend continuing right through to 2023.
Cyber Security as a Top Priority in 2024
Now the results for the 2024 survey are yet to be published but it would be a surprise if Cybersecurity doesn’t remain as the top concern…
Why, well the article sites a report published by Cybersecurity Ventures.
In this, it was reported that the forecasted damages from cyber security events would grow from $6 trillion in 2021 to $10.5 trillion by 2025.
By comparison, it was only $3 trillion back in 2015.
Indeed, drilling into the report, it revealed that it is forecast that Ransomware would cost its victims approximately $265 billion USD annually by 2031.
This is up from $20 billion USD in damages and equates to an attack every 11 seconds in 2021.
The reports suggested that companies should take a proactive approach to dealing with malicious threats with the largest growing area being in emails with malicious links with over 44 billion emails being send in 2023.
This is up 144% from the previous year meaning that companies should not only use enterprise grade security solutions but also invest in training to maintain security awareness throughout the workplace.
As a result, it was suggested that Cybercrime will propel global spending on cybersecurity products, services and training to $1.75 trillion USD, cumulatively, for the five-year period from 2021 to 2025, according to Cybersecurity Ventures.
With expenditures for cybersecurity products and services globally to grow to nearly $459 billion USD on an annual basis in 2025.
AI as a Top Priority in 2024
With AI, Alex identifies that the rise of artificial intelligence promises a different kind of impact on companies with AI being either be the key to unlocking new business growth, or the downfall of companies that fail to adapt to new tech.
Alex went onto cite an article by the International Monetary Fund in which it explained that, “Up to 60 percent of jobs in high-income countries will be impacted” , dropping to just 26 percent for low-income countries, the IMF analysis found.
Within a given country, “workers who can harness AI seeing an increase in their productivity and wages,” the IMF stated.
And, As Alex continues in his article, IBM i is a platform dedicated to business process automation and as such, is destined to cross paths with AI at some point. It’s certainly something that IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will is keeping a close eye on.
“IBM i is probably internally already using AI for some problem determination,” Will said during a recent appearance on an N2i webinar.
“But we’re also working with some of our customers on specific projects that they want done with AI to make sure that we invest in the things that are going to actually make the most difference to our customer base. And you’ll hear more about that as we go through the first couple quarters of this year.”
As for predictions for the coming year, Steve also commented that, “2024 will likely see an even stronger presence of in-person participation, building on the connections and networking people enjoyed during the 35th anniversary celebrations, the whole community is going to want to talk to one another about what their companies are doing with security, open source, cloud, and AI.”
Brain May, VP at Profound Logic forecasts that “2024 will mark the emergence of generative AI as a pivotal force presenting unparalleled opportunities for those who date to embrace this evolution.
Going against the AI trend, Ash Giddings, product manager at Maxava, sees 2024 as the year in which IBM i shops taking steps to ensure business continuity.
He says, “The looming shortage of IBM i skills has been a concern for a while, and 2024 may mark a crucial turning point where businesses begin to experience adverse effects if proactive measures are not taken,”
Donnie McColl of Fortra predicted the need for more software to help bridge the gap following retirement of skilled IBM i professionals.
IBM Marketplace Survey 2024
Finally, as I record this, details on the the annual IBM i marketplace survey have been released.
Now, I’ll cover this in the next episode, but a quick summary on IBM i base investment as reported by Timothy Prickett Morgan of the very excellent Four Hundred.
Now the poll sample is from approximately from 300 respondents but the results show that, in 2024, nearly a third of IBM i shops are planning to invest in either hardware or software with, again, a third planning to invest in both.
These are big figures and looking at the past previous couple of years, follow a trend of continual investment into the platform – this can only be good for the IBM i business and paints an optimistic outlook for the year ahead.
Again, we’ll look at the results of the survey in more detail next time.
But for now, thank you for taking the time to read (and watch) the blog post.
Until next time,
Andy
Catch our previous December IBM i Update here. Alternatively, if you’d like to receive the latest IBM i Update hot off the press to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter version on LinkedIn here.
Posted by Rob on 5th February 2024.