Unleash the POWER: IBM i & Beyond

AI is creating excitement across every industry, but successful AI adoption requires more than just choosing a tool or launching a pilot project. For IBM i organizations, AI readiness starts with the fundamentals: trusted data, strong security, clear governance, operational visibility, and well-defined business goals. Greg discusses why many AI initiatives fail to deliver value, how poor data and...

In this episode of  Unleash The Power , Greg Schmidt explores a practical and people-focused view of AI. Rather than seeing AI as a replacement for employees, Greg discusses how organizations can use it to educate newer resources, scale expert knowledge, shorten the learning curve, and strengthen the team while keeping human oversight in place. Learn more about your host, Greg Schmidt:  https://po...

COMMON POWERUp is the largest IBM i community event in the world—and POWERUp 2026 heads to New Orleans April 27–30 at the New Orleans Marriott. In this episode, host Greg Schmidt sits down with Floyd DelMuro, President of COMMON, for a practical preview of what attendees can expect: the biggest themes shaping this year's agenda, how to choose sessions that match your role (ops, security, developme...

In this episode of Unleash the Power: IBM i and Beyond , Greg Schmidt is joined by Bob Butcher to discuss the importance of High Availability, Disaster Recovery, and resilience in IBM i environments. They explore the difference between HA and DR, why backups alone are not enough, common readiness gaps organizations face, and how testing and automation play a critical role in keeping the business r...

In this episode, we explore why document and workflow management matters more than ever for IBM i organizations and how to get started in a practical, manageable way. While IBM i environments continue to power critical business operations with trusted data and stable systems, many organizations still rely on manual, disconnected document processes that create delays, reduce visibility, and increas...

In this episode, we dig into the real-world truth about IBM i storage: issues rarely show up as a "big problem" on day one. Drawing on experience of industry expert Bob Butcher, from both the MSP side and the customer side, we break down how storage problems actually start, the early warning signs teams often miss, and what you should be monitoring to catch growth before it becomes an outage. We'l...

In Episode 1 of Unleash the Power: IBM i and Beyond , Greg Schmidt unpacks the biggest message from Fortra's 2026 IBM i Marketplace Survey : the IBM i skills shortage is now the top business concern. Why does that matter? Because skills shortages don't just affect staffing they impact security, modernization, resilience, and the ability to keep critical operations running smoothly. In this episode...