Within minutes, GiAPA identified there were sixty issues within the application code and the file access that had been slowing the system down for two decades. It highlighted the expected improvement in runtime. The ROI was clear, so they purchased the product. GiAPA gave them a list of precise problems to solve, written in plain English in order of priority. For application developers, administrators, and management, the output was clear and actionable.

A couple months later, the biggest issue was fixed.

• Performance improved immediately.
• Users were overjoyed.
• The new core was no longer needed.
• And the IT department saved tens of thousands of dollars.

The limit to growth that was in the application code was fixed. They were ready to take on new business with confidence.

That’s the power of robust performance data. Here’s how it could work to improve your performance, too.

Slow performance costs more than you think

IBM i is extremely good at what it was designed to do: keeping the system stable, balanced, and capable of handling workloads reliably.

But they were never designed to answer a different question: are your applications using that hardware efficiently?

Most IT teams can’t answer that question. They’re in the dark, unable to see how their applications are using the system.

Sometimes, those IT systems are on the edge of a cliff, where a small increase in workload may push them over and cause painful repercussions across the business. A company watches as their batch jobs take longer and longer, no longer fitting in the required window. Another company tries to add ten new stores and the whole system slows down to a crawl, yet the cores are not busy. It’s not a problem they can simply throw hardware at. The issue is in application code.

Without the tools to identify the application code performance, these teams are forced to choose between two costly options:

• Hire a rare, expensive application performance expert. Right now, application analysis is considered a difficult task, requiring a rare specialist. Analysts target specific jobs and often recommend collecting data for only short windows because of the heavy burden on the machines. This is expensive, slow, and gives only a small, brief glimpse into your system’s performance.
• Overprovision hardware to compensate for inefficiencies. Without knowledge of the root problems, the default solution is often to add capacity. But on IBM i, adding a core is not a small decision. It can cost tens of thousands of dollars without even fixing the real problem. For some companies, it’s not financially possible.

GiAPA introduces a completely new way to analyze performance

GiAPA is a fundamentally different approach to IBM i performance analysis. It continuously collects everything happening in your environment. It captures both application behavior and database access patterns in parallel, building a complete and detailed picture of how your system actually works.

What makes it unique is not just the data it collects, but how it delivers it:

• It analyzes 100% of your workload, not just selected jobs or time windows, so it finds problems in areas you didn’t even know to look at.
• It runs continuously using a fraction of system resources (less than 0.1 percent of a core!), so there is no impact on performance and it can run continuously.
• It translates complex analysis into plain English recommendations, clearly explaining what is wrong and what to fix.
• It provides effort estimates in hours, so you understand exactly what each improvement requires of your team.
• It offers hundreds of visualizations and diagrams, emailed directly to you, giving IT leaders multiple ways to explore and understand your data.
• Developers can use GiAPA to test and optimize code before it goes into production, so new performance issues are not introduced into production.

Does that sound incredibly useful? That’s not by accident. GiAPA was created by a long-time IBM i performance analyst who spent years teaching in over 24 countries. (He also built a performance consulting service based on ‘‘no gain no pay’’. Throughout his career the customer always paid, as he always found the issue.)

GiAPA emerged from the tools and systems that analyst, Kaare Plesner, used for his clients. It has continued to evolve for years in Europe, responding to user requests to become exactly what an IT department needs.

There is nothing else like this in the IBM i ecosystem. And it’s finally becoming known in North America.

Clear, prioritized insights that drive better decisions

What makes GiAPA so powerful is that it does not just show you data. It gives you direction.

Instead of raw metrics, you receive a prioritized list of improvements that tells you:

• Which issues are having the biggest impact
• What needs to be changed in your code or database access (identifying the line of code!)
• How much effort each change will take
• Where to focus first for the highest return

This transforms performance tuning from guesswork into decision-making.

IT leaders can finally see where time and resources should be invested. Developers know exactly what to fix. And teams can move forward with confidence, knowing they are addressing the right problems.

If your team does not have the bandwidth or specialized expertise to implement those changes, external partners like R2i’s application development team can step in to execute them, ensuring that insights turn into measurable improvements and ROI.

How to use GiAPA

GiAPA is designed to deliver value quickly.

The process typically begins with a free trial:

• The tool is deployed safely with minimal impact.
• It begins collecting and analyzing data immediately.
• You receive a summary of performance issues across your system.
• You gain detailed insight into the recommendation that is third in priority.

When you purchase GiAPA, you get the details for your entire list of performance issues. Then your team, or outside experts like R2i, get to work fixing the problems.

After your first run with GiAPA, the process is iterative. You make improvements and then run GiAPA again to confirm you’ve solved the problem and look for the next improvement.

Because GiAPA is always running, you can also:

• Go back in time to analyze past events
• Compare performance across periods
• Confirm that fixes have delivered the expected results

This continuous visibility is a major shift from traditional, reactive troubleshooting.

You don’t even need the source code. You can run GiAPA without source code and send the identified problems to your application provider to address.

Faster systems, happier users, and real cost savings

GiAPA delivers something the IBM i world has been missing: complete performance visibility, clear guidance, and actionable results.

Improving performance yields big business results, too.

• Users experience faster response times, which directly improves satisfaction and productivity.
• Batch jobs complete hours more quickly, reducing operational bottlenecks.
• System load decreases, freeing up capacity for business growth.

In many cases, organizations that were considering purchasing more hardware discover they already have the capacity they need. They just were not using it efficiently.

If you are facing performance challenges, or if your system feels like it is approaching its limits, this is the solution to try first.

Contact R2i for a demo and see how GiAPA can help you unlock hidden performance, reduce costs, and get more from your IBM i environment.