i-Rays Stresses Observability AI as Essential for IBM i Environments

Company offers key advice for switching from reactive to proactive best practices

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--i-Rays, an observability platform developed by Omnilogy, a global technology developer focused on the IBM i environment, is raising concerns that traditional IBM i monitoring often stops at surface-level events and alerts, leaving IT teams to diagnose the root cause. New AI observability systems are helping teams predict issues before they show symptoms, but embracing these ideas requires a fresh outlook on observability, a shift from alerts to predictive insights, and adopting the Observe, Understand, and Act framework.

“Users assume that because IBM i is one of the most reliable systems on the market, it will simply keep running flawlessly. But there is no universal, always‑correct configuration,” says Marek Walczak, General Manager of i-Rays. “But what works today may already be misaligned tomorrow as a business evolves, workloads shift, applications change, integrations grow, hardware gets refreshed, and system parameters move. Many leaders think monitoring alone is enough, but while monitoring detects irregularities and resolves known problems, observability explains issues and handles unknowns.”

Investing in observability leads to proactive management, which beats a reactive approach every time. Reactive management means issues are discovered by users, leading to outages and emergencies as teams scramble to put out fires without context or insight as to root causes. Better than this high-stress, high-cost, high-downtime approach, a proactive management strategy detects weak signals and anomalies before failures can occur using predictive analysis and automated prevention mechanisms, with planned maintenance replacing emergency fixes.

Observability AI expects Linux/Windows-like telemetry and tends to struggle with the unique architecture of IBM i, sometimes misinterpreting IBM i messages and behaviors. Regardless, AI-powered observability is essential, as advanced AI and machine‑learning algorithms analyze patterns, detect anomalies, and understand dependencies at a scale no person could maintain. These systems replace guesswork with real, data‑driven insights, adapt to business changes, and prevent the butterfly effect before minor problems can spiral out of control.

“The Observe, Understand, and Act framework is the ideal approach to implementing observability AI for IBM i systems,” Walczak adds. “When you observe your operational risk index, understand the explained insights available, and follow the AI’s recommended parameter adjustments, you can transition from a reactive to a proactive approach, stop putting out fires, and start enjoying seamless operational continuity.”

About Omnilogy

Omnilogy is a global technology company focused on enhancing the performance, reliability, and security of IT environments in the IBM i ecosystem through observability, monitoring, and cybersecurity solutions. As a Dynatrace partner, Omnilogy implements and extends solutions to help companies in the banking, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and e-commerce sectors, proactively manage their infrastructure and applications. The company is based in Warsaw and is privately held.