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April 30 Marks End of Support for i5/OS V5R3

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IBM is withdrawing support for i5/OS V5R3 on April 30, and system administrators may wish to upgrade their operating system version either to V5R4 or to IBM i 6.1.

Users will be able to upgrade directly to V5R4 until 2010, but lacking support for V5R3 could pose problems if their system fails, and IBM isn't supporting their version of the OS.

The upgrade to IBM i 6.1 is considered the most desirable upgrade in order to take advantage of all the new functionality in the latest version of the operating system, but it requires more planning and effort than upgrading directly to V5R4. Some may find they don't have the time between now and April 30 to prepare their systems for 6.1, so a move to V5R4 may be more practical in the interim.

IBM suggests keeping on top of dates when support is withdrawn in order to avoid costly manual upgrades.

"If a direct upgrade to the latest software release is not available, you need to conduct a multiple-step upgrade," says IBM on its Web site. "This requires upgrading to an interim release to enable upgrading to the latest release. If all direct upgrades to subsequent software releases have been withdrawn, there is no supported way to upgrade the system. The only alternative is to perform a labor-intensive manual upgrade, which typically requires hiring custom services."

Here are several links that may prove useful in deciding which upgrade path to take.

http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/i/planning/software/i5osschedule.html

http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/i/library/techoverviews/index.html

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/support/systemsi/lifecycle/

The IBM business model is built to support two principal goals: helping clients succeed in delivering business value by becoming more innovative, efficient and competitive through the use of business insight and information technology (IT) solutions; and, providing long-term value to shareholders. The business model has been developed over time through strategic investments in capabilities and technologies that have the best long-term growth and profitability prospects based on the value they deliver to clients. The company's strategy is to focus on the high-growth, high-value segments of the IT industry. The company's global capabilities include services, software, hardware, fundamental research and financing. The broad mix of businesses and capabilities are combined to provide business insight and solutions for the company's clients.

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