The IBM midrange platform has been around a long time. Its longevity is a testament to the robust design. In 1998 IBM introduced the AS400, following in the proud tradition of S36, S38, and earlier systems. In the 30+ years since then, the AS400 went through a few name changes. iSeries, System i, and now IBM Power System. Software on some of the models still running, goes back even further. Much of the older software was written in RPG with a green-screen as the users' interface to the system. With the accelerated pace of technological advances, many companies found themselves in need of modernization.
Modernization can mean different things to different organizations. Often, organizations think of modernization as replacing green-screen user interfaces with web-based interfaces. Consequently, this may lead to it becoming a re-evaluation of the tools and techniques used to build and maintain applications. Finally, modernization also includes reviewing the database design and data access methods.
We have helped several customers in there quest to modernize. For example, we have built web-based applications for customer payment portals, mobile order system for public uUtilities, and data mining applications. Incidentally, all these apps work directly with the legacy database.
One of the ways we build the apps is using PHP to manage the data access from a DB2 database, and relying on HTML, CSS, Bootstrap and Javascript to interact with the user.