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Nisha JoshiNisha Joshi 

What are the options to integrate AS400 with Salesforce?

Hi,

What are the options to Integrate Salesforce with As400 system?
 
  1. Real Time - Show Real time data in Salesforce but, do not actually store the data. Due to data storage concerns.
  2. Daily batch upload data in Salesforce
Are there any middleware applications that already do this?

Regards,
N
NagendraNagendra (Salesforce Developers) 
Hi Nisha,

AS/400 or iSeries applications can be integrated into Salesforce.com using mashup technology. This technology features short time to market and gives real time accurate as/400 data within salesforce.com. See this demo:
  For more information may I suggest you please check with below links which might help you to accelerate further with above requirement. Please let is know if this helps.

Regards,
Nagendra.
 
ArchieTechie6ArchieTechie6
Hi @Nagendra, 

Can this be achieved simply by using apex and not by using any 3rd party tools/ middleware? 
I have a similar requirement and I am trying to understand the options. 
Basically, I want to get Account data(bulk) from as400 once in a month. AS400 exposes an API to get this data. 
Also,I want to insert/ push data to as400 whenever an account is changed/created. 

Thanks!
Dmitriy Kuznetsov 8Dmitriy Kuznetsov 8

Responding to this old thread in case it is still relevant for the original author or others in the community. There are several methods of connecting Salesforce with IBM i (AS400) based system:
1. AS400 has embedded DB2 RDMS. When AS400 data needs to be surfaced in Salesforce it would be the same approach as it would be for any other RDMS such as mySQL or Oracle. The biggest challenge is with update or insert use cases that typically have to be processed through the AS400 business logic (RPG or COBOL programs) instead of direct DB operations.

2. Calling AS400 programs to execute business logic from Salesforce (i.e. publish new orders) - typically this is done via middleware tools such as Mulesoft that can connect to AS400 and perform the operations. You can learn more about this approach here: 

https://www.infoviewsystems.com/connect-ibm-i-as400-to-salesforce-with-mulesoft/ 

3. There is a number of AS400 tools, including IBM's Integrated Web Services, that enable AS400 teams to develop and operate REST APIs or SOAP web services directly on the AS400. This could be a good quick method for companies that have capable AS400 dev and support teams, however it may still make sense from the security perspective to introduce the middleware layer that could help block the potential attacks, as opposed to connecting to the backend system directly.

4. Of course there are good old batch / file based integration methods where Salesforce or AS400 or ETL / middleware could orchestrate the periodic data exchange between the systems, and execute the data import or export logic as needed on the respective end point. 
 
fabrizio bianchifabrizio bianchi
My client, a luxury automotive car maker, has an architecture that laverages AS400 operations using the 4th approach, kinda old school one as you said. As we are in the midst of reviewing the entire architecture, including the adoption of partner community and cpq for community, I would rather go for the 2th leveraging mule anypoint platform. Do you have any good insights on that one?
Dmitriy Kuznetsov 8Dmitriy Kuznetsov 8
@fabrizio sorry for late response. Yes indeed most larger companies we are working with leverage middleware such as Mulesoft or Confluent platform / Apache Kafka to interact with IBM i (AS400) based back-end systems. Please contact us via https://www.infoviewsystems.com/contact-us to setup a discovery session with your client and discuss the best option. Cheers! Dima