Every municpality I've worked for runs a majority of their systems on the IBM System i (iSeries, AS/400)
IBM is very slow to update any of the tools for Windows that are included with these systems. Ditch the green screens, use the IBM EasyAccess or whatever they call it on Windows, you just saved some $.
Now, there are database tools and admin utilities that are also included in this. Most of them don't work with anything after Windows XP, so you're in a position where you can't upgrade to securable versions of Windows, because you'll lose IBM access.
Oh let me rush to defend my favorite platform, the iSeries.
The platform, regardless of which, is not to blame. It is the laziness of most IT shops which either don't have any process in place or only pay it lip service.
iSeries machines (AS/400) serve many different client interaction methods, from green screen, web services, ODBC, NodeJS via Qshell, and more. If employed properly the iSeries has some of the best security in the industry, reason why many are used by banks all over the world, hospitals, the gambling industry, and more. Failure occurs for the same reason it does anywhere else, not having a process in place and following it.
As for currency with what is available today, iSeries access is facilitated through a JAVA based client which works on Windows, OS X, and Linux. It is the same java application throughout and even provides ODBC access through java drivers and for windows you can opt into a subset of windows exe/dlls. There is a full blown web service hooked to it as well that runs on the server as needed. It is up and down fully SSL too.
We can partially blame every software vendor that’s ever existed. In 10 years we will be blaming Google for applications that only run on outdated versions of Chrome because the API the developer used only existed in Chrome and wasn’t accepted into the standard and then was removed a few years later.
I don't think much of anyone makes stuff for old Chrome versions given how aggressive Chrome is about auto-updating. Chrome doesn't have any official options to disable auto-updating as far as I know.
Every municpality I've worked for runs a majority of their systems on the IBM System i (iSeries, AS/400)
IBM is very slow to update any of the tools for Windows that are included with these systems. Ditch the green screens, use the IBM EasyAccess or whatever they call it on Windows, you just saved some $.
Now, there are database tools and admin utilities that are also included in this. Most of them don't work with anything after Windows XP, so you're in a position where you can't upgrade to securable versions of Windows, because you'll lose IBM access.