AS/400 connected. No modifications.
A 20-year-old AS/400 ERP. 25 years of critical data. No API. Several vendors said it was impossible without migrating. Integrafy connected it without touching a single line of the AS/400.
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A 20-year-old system nobody dared to touch
An industrial manufacturer had been running an IBM AS/400 for 20 years. The system held 25 years of production, inventory, order and accounting data. It was the absolute core of operations: if the AS/400 went down, the factory went down.
The AS/400 had no API. No web services. Nothing that looked like a modern integration interface. Data lived in a DB2 database with legacy-format tables: fixed-width fields, EBCDIC encoding, 6-character column names.
The company needed to sell online. They had 15,000 product SKUs they wanted to publish on a PrestaShop store. But the online store was a complete island: no connection to real inventory, no price sync, no order flow back to the ERP.
They consulted several integration vendors. The answer was always the same:
- "You need to migrate to a modern ERP" — a 2-year project minimum
- "The AS/400 can't be integrated without modifying it" — nobody wanted to take the risk
- "You need to install middleware on the AS/400" — the IT team refused
- Migration quotes beyond what the company could absorb
The alternative was keeping the online store as a static catalog with outdated pricing and no stock management. A sales channel that created more problems than revenue.
Integrafy as middle layer: read DB2, write via EDI
Integrafy didn't have to modify the AS/400. The strategy was to use what the system already had:
Direct DB2 read. Integrafy Core connected to the AS/400's DB2 database in read-only mode. Nothing installed on the AS/400. No configuration touched. The connection reads inventory, items, pricing and order-status tables directly.
Data Hub normalizes the legacy data. AS/400 tables use EBCDIC encoding, fixed-width fields and 25-year-old naming conventions. Data Hub transforms that data into a clean format PrestaShop can consume: readable product names, categories, attributes, linked images.
EDI file write. To send orders to the AS/400, Integrafy generates EDI files in the exact format the system expects. Those files land in a shared folder the AS/400 was already monitoring with an existing RPG program — the same one it used to process orders from other channels.
The AS/400 processes the file with its regular RPG program and produces a response file in the same folder. Integrafy reads that response and updates the order status on PrestaShop. The full cycle works without the AS/400 "knowing" there's an online store connected.
Integration architecture with a legacy system
1. Integrafy Core connects to the AS/400's DB2 (read-only)
2. Reads items, stock and pricing tables every 30 seconds
3. Data Hub normalizes legacy data (EBCDIC, fixed-width fields)
4. PrestaShop receives the updated catalog and stock
5. PrestaShop order → Integrafy generates an EDI file
6. File dropped in the AS/400 folder
7. Existing RPG program processes the file (already there for other processes)
8. AS/400 confirms via response file → Integrafy updates status on PrestaShopWhy it works without modifying the AS/400
JDBC connection to DB2. The AS/400 exposes DB2 natively. No extra install or configuration required. Integrafy reads like any other database client.
The shared-folder file pattern is the standard way systems talk in the AS/400 world. The RPG program processing those files already existed — Integrafy simply uses the same channel.
Data Hub converts EBCDIC to UTF-8, expands fixed-width fields, maps legacy codes to modern categories and attributes. The PrestaShop catalog is clean even though the source is from 1995.
«They told us it was impossible without migrating. Integrafy did it without touching the AS/400. 20 years of data, intact.»
15,000 SKUs online, AS/400 intact
For the first time in the company's history, the AS/400's stock is visible in real time from an external sales channel. The 15,000 product SKUs are published on PrestaShop with up-to-date pricing, real stock and normalized descriptions.
Online orders flow into the AS/400 through the same mechanism the company was already using for other processes. The IT team didn't have to learn anything new or maintain any extra component on the AS/400. Integration risk was zero because the legacy system wasn't modified.
The company avoided an ERP migration project that would have cost years and a significant budget. Instead, they got a fully functional online sales channel in weeks. When they decide to migrate the ERP in the future, Integrafy will reconnect to the new system without disrupting the online store.
This case proves a core Integrafy principle: there's no impossible system. If the system has data, Integrafy can read it. If the system accepts files, Integrafy can write them.
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We connect AS/400s, legacy systems, API-less ERPs and databases from any era. No migrations. No risk.