One of the greatest benefits of attending COMMON events like POWERUp is getting the inside scoop on what’s coming next in Power Systems and IBM i technology. And the best man to hear it from is Steve Will, the man steering the ship.
In his role at IBM, Will leads system level architecture and design of the IBM i operating system as CTO and Chief Architect. He’s a Distinguished Engineer who’s faithfully served our community for over 40 years.
Recently, he’s spearheaded development of a new AI product called IBM watsonx Code Assistant for i, formerly known as RPG Code Assistant, that helps IBM i users “with their massive inventory of code, especially code written in RPG.”
CloudFirst got the chance to speak with Will during the POWERUp 2025 conference in Anaheim, California.
This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.
What do you see as the future of IBM i?
IBM i will continue to be the best platform to run business solutions on.
We’re going to keep optimizing for running in cloud environments and on-prem environments. At the same time, we’re interacting with AI and working to create an AI platform that will bring us into the future.
What should business leaders understand about the role of IBM i going forward?
Business leaders need to understand that our focus on being an integrated platform with low total cost of ownership is steadfast.
No matter what new technology comes along—whether it’s cloud, analytics, or AI—we’re going to focus on making that easy for your business to use in a very reasonable and reliable way.
Why is it important to run IBM i on the cloud?
IBM i on the cloud is often the best solution for people who don’t want to manage their systems anymore.
Speeds these days are so good, and hosting providers know so much about how to run the platform. So many customers are better off if they just don’t have to worry about that part, meaning they can just focus on their business.
What are the advantages of running a hybrid or multi-cloud setup?
So many of the advanced applications that are being written today, or that you might even be writing, require services from multiple clouds. That’s very valid, and a perfectly reasonable way to do things.
So whether you’ve got part of your solution on-prem or not, you’re probably going to reach out to a cloud for various services. That’s the most efficient way to do it for a lot of applications.
What is the most fulfilling part of serving the IBM i community?
The most fulfilling part is seeing how much what we do with IBM i affects our users and our customers.
Our customers are passionate about our platform because it helps them do what they need to do, so they can focus on their business—or their families—and not have to worry about their platform.
More coverage of COMMON POWERUp 2025
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