Enterprises sometimes hold on to legacy systems like IBM i (AS400/iSeries) simply because “it works”. But over time, what worked becomes a burden. Each year you delay migration or modernization, costs creep up and problems accumulate. The unseen drain grows. Without investing in proper AS400 modernization services, you may be paying far more than you think, in money, risk, and lost opportunity.
In this post, we’ll explore the hidden costs of sticking with legacy AS400 setups. We’ll understand why many organizations benefit from partnering with an expert IBM i modernization company to apply iSeries modernization, IBM application modernization services, and other strategic modernizations.
Why Legacy Systems Like IBM i Become Cost Traps
Legacy systems were once the backbone of enterprise operations. They were stable, reliable, and trusted. But times change, and business demands evolve. And legacy systems often resist change.
Maintenance and Support: A Growing Drain
Older hardware needs ongoing attention. Operating systems fall out of sync with aging infrastructure. Replacement parts grow scarce, and support agreements lapse. Vendors increase the cost for extended support or stop offering it altogether.
For organizations that do not modernize, costs tend to stack up. According to one provider of IBM i modernization services, many clients report 15–35% year-on-year cost savings on infrastructure post-modernization, and as much as 74% reduction in hardware, software, and staffing costs.
Technical Debt and Budget Uncertainty
Over decades, businesses running AS400 accrue sprawling libraries of custom code (RPG, COBOL, SYNON, etc.), patches, workarounds, custom integrations, and tweaks. Every time regulations change or external systems are updated, you patch the legacy system. Over time, complexity multiplies.
According to modern accounts on legacy systems, organizations often spend 60–80% of their IT budgets just to keep these systems running.
When budgets go to maintenance, there’s little left for innovation. This negatively impacts agility and competitiveness. This also turns your IT team into firefighters.
Talent Shortage and Rising Staff Costs
Legacy platforms like AS400 rely on specialized skills. Many programs are written in older languages like RPG or COBOL. The pool of developers familiar with these has been shrinking. A 2025 survey among IBM i shops reported 54% of organizations having difficulty finding RPG or COBOL developers.
When talent is scarce, costs go up. Retaining or hiring specialists becomes expensive. Training new staff is hard. Institutional knowledge risks being lost when veterans retire.
Moreover, bringing new developers into an environment built on green-screen interfaces or decades-old architecture can slow teams down. Modernization changes that. With support from an IBM i modernization partner, legacy codebases can be translated into modern languages and cleaner interfaces that today’s developers actually enjoy working with. It becomes easier to onboard talent, build features faster, and keep the system moving forward.
Challenges Adapting, Scaling, and Integrating
Modern business demands flexibility. You may need cloud, APIs, real-time data flow, mobile or web interfaces, and integration with new tools. Legacy AS400 systems are often monolithic. Their architecture resists change.
Legacy code resists modularization. Green‑screen (5250) UIs remain clunky. Integrations with cloud, mobile, or SaaS apps become costly, brittle, and slow.
As a result, adding new features, building customer-facing portals, analytics, or reporting becomes cumbersome. This slows down time to market.
Security, Compliance, and Risk Exposure
Legacy systems were built in a different security era. Many of them don’t support today’s authentication methods, encryption standards, or compliance requirements. As regulations continue to tighten, whether it’s GDPR, new privacy rules, or industry-specific mandates, older platforms can leave gaps that put the business at risk.
Moreover, the lack of updates and patches makes old systems attractive targets. “Good enough” code eventually becomes a liability.
Downtime, failure, and data breaches are not just IT headaches. They pose reputational, regulatory, and financial risk.
Opportunity Cost: Stifled Innovation and Missed Growth
Leadership drives ambitious goals: digital transformation, richer customer experiences, advanced analytics, and cloud‑native innovation. Yet the daily effort to maintain legacy systems undermines progress. AS400 has become a barrier, slowing growth and limiting opportunity.
Time spent troubleshooting old technology is time that could have gone into new products or better customer experiences. Money that goes into maintenance isn’t available for trying new ideas. Bit by bit, this starts to slow the business down and makes it harder to stay ahead of competitors.
What Modernization Could Save: Real Results from iSeries Modernization Services
Real-world data and surveys paint a clearer picture. A 2025 survey among IBM i shops revealed:
- 78% of IBM i users now cite modernization as their top IT priority, rising from 65% in 2024.
- More than half of responding organizations (51%) that have undergone modernization reported operational cost reductions of 20–35%.
- Many modernization projects led to improved security, reduced reliance on legacy tooling, and better integration with cloud, APIs, and DevOps practices.
In addition, firms that opted for AS400 modernization saw hardware, software, and staffing costs drop drastically, with one reported case showing reductions of up to 74%.
These are not optimistic projections. They are real outcomes from real businesses.
Why You Should Consider Engaging an IBM i Modernization Company
Considering the mounting costs and risks, it may feel tempting to postpone modernization for another year. After all, “if it’s working, leave it alone”. This mindset often reflects short‑term thinking.
Engaging an iSeries modernization or AS400 application modernization services firm brings focus, discipline, and planning. Here is what such a partner gives you:
- A clear audit of existing systems: what works, what is risky, what is obsolete.
- A path to refactor legacy code (RPG/COBOL/SYNON) into modern languages or architectures without sacrificing business logic or data integrity.
- UI modernization: move from green-screen interfaces to intuitive, web-based GUIs compatible with modern workflows.
- Integration with cloud, APIs, modern data systems, analytics, and mobile apps to unlock agility
- Better security, compliance, and governance practices that align with modern regulatory demands.
- Predictable total cost of ownership (TCO), lower maintenance overhead, and capacity for innovation.
In short: the consultant becomes the bridge between legacy and modern, helping you make modernization a strategic investment, not a risky rewrite.
A Realistic Scenario: What Happens If You Don’t Modernize
Imagine a mid-sized enterprise using AS400 systems for core business operations. They rely on green-screen ERP, custom payroll and inventory apps, and legacy integrations with suppliers and partners. They have a small team maintaining it. Over time:
- Hardware ages. Power systems require replacement every 5–7 years. New hardware costs rise, and parts become harder to procure.
- The number of people comfortable with RPG/COBOL shrinks. When a key developer retires, you struggle to find a replacement.
- Integrations with new SaaS vendors or cloud tools demand custom interfaces or manual workarounds. Every new integration becomes a multi-month, high-risk project.
- Regulatory requirements tighten. Data privacy laws demand encryption and stronger access controls. The legacy system does not support MFA or modern auditing. You risk non‑compliance.
- Business demands agility. You want mobile access, analytics dashboards, and a better user interface, but the old system resists changes.
The result: slowed growth, rising costs, frustrated users, and risk exposure.
After five years, you realize the annual maintenance cost is maybe double what a modern stack would require, and there is nothing new to show for it.
Now imagine you had chosen iSeries modernization services three years ago. The aging hardware would be gone or upgraded. Your codebase would be cleaner and easier to maintain. Teams would be working with modern, user-friendly interfaces. Employees would be fully trained on updated workflows. And those cloud-native integrations you once postponed? They’d already be delivering value.
You’d be in a far stronger position with lower costs, more flexibility, and a platform that’s prepared to support real growth and ongoing innovation.
Conclusion
Holding on to a legacy AS400 system may feel safe. But safety comes with a cost.
Maintenance costs keep climbing, and technical debt piles up. Skilled staff becomes harder to find. Integration options narrow. Security and compliance gaps widen. And with every year that passes, opportunity slips a little further away.
Many organizations reach a point where they realize the system hasn’t failed. It’s the ecosystem around it that is collapsing. Modern tools do not connect neatly. New hires do not understand RPG or CL. And critical processes depend on knowledge that lives with a handful of people who may soon retire. The system keeps running, but the business around it becomes harder to move.
By working with a trusted IBM i modernization partner, you’re not throwing away legacy value. Instead, you are preserving what works and transforming the rest. You keep the reliability your teams depend on. You gain flexibility, security, scalability, and the freedom to innovate without wrestling with technical constraints.
AS400 modernization services do more than replace a platform. They reclaim momentum and give your business room to grow. This ensures that your technology enables the future instead of holding it back.
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