System i
What is System i?
System i is the current name of IBM's proprietary, mid-range computing platform for general business use. It was previously known as the iSeries.
The System i platform is a complete computer system including hardware, operating system, database, and programming tools to develop application software. IBM's System i hardware runs the i5/OS operating system and i5/OS runs only on System i hardware.
System i can run multiple applications and even multiple virtual servers including Linux. Most businesses need only one system. On Microsoft/UNIX/Linux servers, most application software requires it own, exclusive server. That means many servers per business or many virtual Linux servers are capable of running inside a System i.
Where does System i fit?
The uses for System i is for traditional commercial applications; transaction oriented such as Order Processing, Inventory, MRP (Material Requirements Processing for manufacturing), logistics, Accounting, Purchasing, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning - integration, analysis, and optimization of transactions through the supply / manufacturing / distribution chains) emerging commercial applications: compute and transaction oriented: e-commerce, web services, Java transaction: a purchase, sale, accounting or other business event recorded in a database, generated by on-line interactive or batch process.