The AS/400 Revolution: “The System is the Solution” 🖥️

The AS/400 (introduced in 1988) was revolutionary because it was one of the first systems to integrate the hardware, operating system, and database into a single box — way before that became a common concept. IBM’s “The System is the Solution” campaign was one of the most successful in computing history, and the platform lasted so long that it was rebranded as IBM i in 2008, yet still actively used in thousands of businesses worldwide in the 2020s.

Even more impressive? RPG, which was created in the 1960s, is still in active use today — making it one of the longest continuously used programming languages in history. Many companies still rely on RPG programs written 30-40 years ago that continue to run flawlessly on IBM i systems.