Why Modern Enterprises Are Migrating from IBM InfoSphere Optim to Solix – A Compliance-First Archiving Strategy

 Enterprises today face mounting pressure to manage data growth, meet strict regulatory mandates, and retire legacy systems effectively. Many organizations long relied on IBM’s InfoSphere Optim solutions for application-retirement archiving and structured data lifecycle management. However, with withdrawal of support, connectivity and access risks have escalated. The new datasheet from Solix outlines how they provide a seamless migration path enabling full access, governance and control of archived data. Replace IBM Infosphere Optim with SOLIXCloud

This article examines:

  • The risks posed by continuing with IBM InfoSphere Optim,

  • Why Solix is a compelling alternative,

  • Key benefits and migration considerations for enterprise archiving.

The Risk of Staying with IBM InfoSphere Optim

As outlined in the datasheet, IBM announced effective December 16, 2022 the withdrawal of marketing, entitlements and support for critical components of InfoSphere Optim—specifically the “Optim Connect” technology supporting ODBC/JDBC connectivity to proprietary archive files. 

Key risk areas include:

  • Loss of support and future patches for Optim Connect or Archive components. 

  • Proprietary archive file formats: access to historical records may be compromised without the original proprietary drivers. 

  • Compliance and governance exposures: with data access becoming limited, enterprises may struggle to respond to audit or legal requests, subject rights (e.g., GDPR “right to be forgotten”) or secure e-discovery. 

  • Technical debt and inflexibility: older architectures may hinder cloud adoption, multi-cloud strategies, broader data types (semi-structured/unstructured) and modern analytics. 

In short: organizations still relying on InfoSphere Optim are confronted with a ticking clock. Without a migration strategy, they may end up with inaccessible archive data, higher cost, regulatory risk and reduced agility.

Why Solix Is Positioned as the Smart Replacement

The Solix datasheet presents their solution as not simply a “like-for-like” swap, but a strategic upgrade. Key factors:

  1. Continuity of access
    Solix ensures archived data from InfoSphere Optim can be migrated into the Solix Common Data Platform (CDP) or SolixCloud Enterprise Archiving without data loss and with full access capabilities. 

  2. Modern architecture and multi-cloud readiness
    Rather than remaining bound to legacy formats, Solix enables archiving of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data, supports legacy application retirement, multi-cloud storage and tiered ILM (information lifecycle management). 

  3. Governance, compliance & data privacy built in
    Solix emphasises policy-based retention, legal hold, sensitive data discovery, redaction capabilities and “right to be forgotten” compliance. These are increasingly essential for global enterprises. 

  4. Cost and risk reduction
    By migrating off obsolete proprietary formats and retiring legacy hardware, enterprises can reduce infrastructure costs, remove vendor lock-in risk, and future-proof their archive strategy.

  5. Proven enterprise footprint
    The datasheet highlights Solix’s enterprise customers and credibility across regulated industries (banking, healthcare, government) which is a key trust signal for CIOs and compliance officers. 

Combined, these attributes demonstrate Solix not simply as a replacement for InfoSphere Optim—but as a strategic upgrade aligned with modern data management, governance and cloud-first imperatives.

Key Benefits of Migrating to Solix

From the enterprise perspective, the migration delivers specific tangible benefits:

  • Preserved access to archived data: Ensures continuity of access for audits, e-discovery, reporting.

  • Unified archiving across data types and applications: Enables archiving of applications (CRM, ERP, mainframe), databases, files, email etc.

  • Cloud-first scalability: Elastic storage, pay-as-you-go economics, tiered storage strategies.

  • Simplified governance and compliance: One platform, one data repository governed by retention policies, legal holds, metadata management.

  • Reduced operational and infrastructure cost: Retire legacy archive drivers and hardware, migrate to lower-cost cloud or modern storage, reduce administrative overhead.

  • Improved performance of active systems: By archiving cold/historical data off production systems, you reduce load on active applications and databases.

  • Future-proofing the data strategy: Flexible architecture supports evolving analytics, generative AI, data lake/warehouse integration.

Migration Considerations & Best Practices

For CTOs, CIOs and data governance leads planning a migration from InfoSphere Optim to Solix (or similar) the following steps are prudent:

  1. Assess archive landscape

    • Identify all archive pools reliant on InfoSphere Optim (structured, semi-structured, files).

    • Map proprietary formats, schema, retention rules, legal hold status, e-discovery flows.

  2. Define governance and compliance requirements

    • Document retention policies, legal hold requirements, subject-access request obligations.

    • Define access and audit requirements, metadata lineage, reporting needs.

  3. Create migration strategy and phasing

    • Determine target repository (Solix CDP/SolixCloud).

    • Decide on migration waves (e.g., decommission less-critical archives first).

    • Plan for referential integrity, restore/test capabilities and validation.

  4. Ensure minimal disruption

    • Maintain access to archived data throughout migration.

    • Validate query/reporting functions, ensure user UI continuity.

    • Monitor performance and retention transitions.

  5. Governance, metadata and integration

    • Leverage Solix’s metadata repository, business glossary and unified search capabilities.

    • Integrate with enterprise BI/analytics platforms and data lakes if needed.

  6. Decommission legacy systems

    • After successful migration and testing, retire InfoSphere Optim systems, remove proprietary drivers and third-party dependencies.

    • Update operational runbooks, support models and audit documentation.

  7. Monitor and optimise

    • Post-migration, review cost savings, performance improvements, compliance readiness.

    • Adjust retention/ILM policies and storage tiers over time.

Why Time is of the Essence

Given the discontinuation of key support and connectivity for InfoSphere Optim (Optim Connect withdrawal)  organizations delaying migration face escalating risk. Without proactive action they may encounter: inaccessible archived data, unsupported systems, increased compliance exposure, and legacy maintenance burdens.

Migrating sooner rather than later enables organizations to capture benefits—cost reduction, improved governance, enhanced agility—and avoid being caught scrambling when a compliance or audit request cannot be met.

Conclusion

For enterprises still relying on IBM InfoSphere Optim, the landscape has fundamentally shifted. Legacy archiving strategies built on proprietary formats, limited vendor support and siloed architectures are no longer tenable in a world defined by cloud-first, data-governance and evolving compliance demands.

The Solix datasheet clearly outlines how the Solix Common Data Platform and SolixCloud Enterprise Archiving deliver a safe, accurate, and modern replacement for InfoSphere Optim. Organisations migrating to Solix gain continuity of access, governance, cloud-scale flexibility and a future-ready architecture.

If you are a CIO, CDO, or compliance officer charged with reducing risk, controlling data growth, and retiring legacy systems—now is the time to prioritise your InfoSphere Optim replacement strategy. Solix offers the platform, services and ecosystem to get you there.

Call to Action
Download the Solix datasheet and schedule a demo to evaluate how your archive landscape can be seamlessly migrated from InfoSphere Optim to Solix with minimal disruption and maximum benefit.

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