Modernization on IBM Power: Is Europe Ahead?
With Common Europe Congress 2026 coming up, outgoing Common Europe President Juan Manuel Alcudia goes on IT Social Hour to reflect on the state of the continent's IBM Power community
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The following transcript was edited for clarity:
Andy:
Juan, thanks for doing this. Maybe the best way to start out would just be to talk a little bit about Common Europe Congress. I’ve been to a couple POWERUps but not the big European conference. So maybe you want to just give me the lay of the land with this conference, how long has it been around and is it basically the same idea with PowerUp or are there different twists?
Juan:
Yeah, it is the same idea, but I think the ambience is I think a bit different because it’s a multicultural, multi-language environment and it’s nice. And I think it probably is a bit of less professional because everyone in Common Europe is a volunteer, so we don’t have staff in Common Europe, like in Common USA, I mean. But the thing is that I think the vibe is more close to the people because as we are not professional staff, we are probably closer to the people and I think it’s also a kind of difference kind of situation on the conference. But especially lately we are trying to make this more and more professional even that we do it on our spare time. So it takes a lot of our family time and our business time to work with Common because it’s extra work for our day-to-day things.
It’s not that we have people working to do the conference on their primary job. But it is nice and it’s always good to see a lot of people of different countries just collaborating just to create this great event.
Andy:
Do I have it right? It’s 18 countries that are part of common Europe?
Juan:
Yeah, yeah. Because we have, for example, some countries that have two different organizations like Switzerland because they have the French part and the German part. But then for example, for Spain and Portugal, we have only one organization because both organizations disappear in both Portugal and Spain and we create a new one just to join the two countries under one umbrella and it’s nice. The main difference between a common Europe and Common USA, Common North America is that we are just the umbrella of the local user groups. So each country has their own activities, but then we collaborate with all the countries to help them get speakers or just deal with it with common North America to be able to access the library. But we do one a year, the big conference that is the CAC (Common Advisory Council) that every year is in one different country and we work together to do that.
And that is nice because it’s country, it’s a different country, different culture, different way of living. So each country is special because we try to do one in the north of Europe and one in the south to mix the different cultures of Europe and I think it works very well.
Andy:
Are you excited for Lyon then?
Juan:
Yeah. And especially Leon is so nice because it’s one of the European gastronomic cities, capitals and it’s so nice because probably some people will gain some weight over there because the food is amazing, but it’s also a city that is so used to make a lot of conferences because we are in the Cité Internationale. That is a place in Lyon in the outside of Lyon near a big park that is very nice to walk, and they is a part of the city that is, they made it for international congresses. So we are in a very special place in Lyon where there is a lot of restaurants also over there ,and we are going to be in the Congress Cente—that is a very nice venue. I am very excited to be there because this is my last year as president of Common Europe after four years and I want to finish it with a great success in this tech.
Andy:
Yeah, go out with a bang, huh? As far as session topics go, what are the big themes this year? There’s certain, I mean at POWERUp just about a month ago, AI on IBM i was the big thing and is it the same, or?
Juan:
Yeah, I think Bob will have a lot of highlights over there, but we have very nice speakers and not only the classical IBMers, but we have really nice speakers here. Some of them are part of SIAC, that is the European Council and they are experts on system administration, but also on modernization, on creating a lot of things with open source. So I think it will be so nice. And we all also have these non-IBM i tracks. We have these very freak people that—these nerds from the AIX and Linux for Power World—that they also made a great agenda because they are porting things to Power and they have really, really interesting topics outside of the IBM i world. And that is so good because that way we grow the community, we are not only restricted to the IBM i world, but we also explore other things with AIX and power and bringing new people to the conference.
Andy:
Right. Yeah. You can’t just talk about one platform anymore, huh? It’s kind of a lot of increasing connectedness and all that. So when you’re putting these sessions together, and I don’t know how much you personally are responsible for all of that, I imagine you have a big part of it.
Juan:
What we have is we have different groups because in the past we have only one group to decide about all the sessions, but now we have different groups of experts. So the AIX guys, they do their own agenda. The IBM i experts, they do the administration and others do the application development and modernization. So we are trying to be more specialists trying to do the different tracks. So we also have the aid of IBM, but we try to put, especially the guys from CEAC to have a very important role on deciding what is important for the members of Common Europe, because sometimes we don’t agree 100% with IBM about what 2% because sometimes we have some more things that IBM will think, well, maybe this is not what we want to say, but other of our users are interested on, I don’t know, mixing things with hybrid applications, with cloud and everything. And we try to just give the answer to all the questions for our users.
Andy:
And CEAC, that’s Common Europe Advisory Council, right? Yeah. It sounds like they’re the ones that have their finger on the pulse of what the actual users are looking for.
Juan:
Yeah, because many of them are end customers, but many of them are also business partner that are working closely with other end customers. So they know the real thing that themselves or their customers are asking. And that is so interesting because they gave really good feedback about what the people need. And that is why, well, they help a lot just voting what ideas for IBM toimplement like CAC does in the States, but I think that CEAC are more sometimes in the modernization because we use here a lot of open source and the last thing that IBM developed for the platform. And I’m proud of that, that we are trying to be in the state of the art of the platform.
Andy:
Yeah. I wanted to touch on that. So there’s more modernization happening in Europe basically?
Juan:
I think so. I think so. I’ve been working with some American customers, also collaborating in some projects with Charlie Guarino. And I see that I think the European companies are less afraid on implementing new things than the Americans that I think they are more conservative in that area. And also I see that with all the regulation we have in Europe, sometimes we need to evolve faster than the Americans because with all the regulation we have, with all the secure software development and all those things that regulation like NIST2 or DORA and make the customer—then we need to implement things like DevOps more quickly or get rids of all habits that sometimes make hard to be okay with the regulations that the European government asks for.
Andy:
So this modernization when Europe maybe doing more of it, is it mostly driven by regulation, would you say?
Juan:
I think it’s part is driving by regulations, but part is driving because I think probably the customers are less conservative than in the States, so they are more open to try new things. Well, I think it’s nice because that makes the platform evolve. And like Niels Liisberg, that is one of the guys of CEAC, he always say that he wants to make IBM i normal and I think that this is a good thing to do. So just be one part, one more item of the IT and not just a black box that only two guys know how it works. So I think it’s a good thing to evolve the machine to make it last in the future, because if we keep trying to make it so strange and hiding, then people tend to wants to leave. But I think the platform, if you use it well, I think it’s here to stay for more years.
Andy:
It’s kind of like you can’t really be walled off anymore, right? I mean, you could almost think of it as globally if you’re a nation and you’re walled off, that’s maybe not great for you also either. It’s become increasingly hard to do that with the increasing interconnectedness, I guess and also applies to computer platforms.
Juan:
Yeah, it’s true.
Andy:
So maybe going back to touching on the Europe Congress again coming up, I’m interested in the multicultural aspect and the fact that I think Steve Bradshaw was telling me, wait, 19 user groups you said. Okay. I was thinking languages, but 19 different user groups. How many different languages are spoken there?
Juan:
Well, there are probably more than 10 different languages, but the thing is that we try to communicate because many of the countries can communicate themselves, for example, in France or in German and Spanish and Portugal can almost speak in Spanish, but we also use some kind of English that sometimes it’s not perfect English, but it’s work because—
I remember that sometimes when I was working at IBM, they send me to Greece and they say, “Well, I don’t know what you talk with how do you speak with the Greece people,” but just seems to understand each other. Even if we don’t understand which kind of English are you talking, but you seem to understand each other so well. So yeah, we do the effort and that is a nice thing of the community that we do the effort of communicating with each other on just change the difference things from each country. We try to, for example, in the board of directors meetings, we always try to show something from the local country to the others. So this is the especial biscuit that we eat in Sweden, or this is the coffee we drink in Italy. So it’s nice because you change not only the IT ideas, but also the cultural ideas.
And I think it’s make the conference right in this aspect because you learn not only things about the IT, but also about the cities you visit. Sometimes people bring their families to go visit Italy or France or Spain. It’s nice to do it and to travel with your family to visit some interesting cities around Europe.
Andy:
Yeah. Oh, definitely. And I also noticed at POWERUp in New Orleans, there were a lot of Europeans there too. And it was kind of cool. They would bring maybe a special candy from their country, that kind of thing. And yeah, that just makes it a little more special.
Juan:
And that is our day-to-day, just bringing special things from each country or special wine and special sweet. And so it’s always nice.
Andy:
Do people at these Common Europe conferences, do people walk around using the translate function on their phone to communicate much or they’re able to pretty much.
Juan:
No, not really. They try their best to communicate with each other. Sometimes they are more side to talk, but especially as we are mostly talking about the IT things, they know the words related to the work. And then when you go out and drink one or two beers, you are suddenly better at English.
Andy:
I’ve heard other people say that. Is that true? Just it flows more?
Juan:
You understand everything.
Andy:
And you don’t care. And even if you don’t, maybe you care a little bit less, right?
Juan:
I think that is the good thing that you open and if you are having fun, I think you start opening yourself even if you don’t need to drink at all to do that. But if you are having a good fun with friends and with people that are trying to help you, I think it’s so nice because people try to start talking and try to be more open. And I think that is so nice. I think the community give that and I think it’s very special with the IBM i community because people have a strong sense of ownership on the community. They feel they belong there. So it’s not that you are with the strange people, but you are with the IBM i people, so they are almost your family.
Andy:
Your family. Yeah. Yeah. And you may speak different languages, but I mean, you all speak the IBMI language, not just IBMI, I guess, but you all know RPG, I guess, and you all know all the different niche terms and everything.
Juan:
And most of us have the same issues with the machines and the same missus in the installations and the same issues with the development. So you are with the people that are doing the same things as you, but in other countries. So I think it’s so nice to have this kind of community.
Andy:
Same challenges, same things that you’re excited about, all that. Yeah. We should talk a little bit. So you mentioned you’re just finishing up. So is your term as president over after this conference basically?
Juan:
Yeah, yeah. I’ve been four years as president and one year as vice president and I had to replace Ranga. That was a big guide over there because with the pandemic, he stayed one extra term because normally you only can be in a row four years as president, but Ranga, due to the pandemic, need to stay one extra term because it was difficult to create a new board and everything. So it was a big thing to go on after him because he knew everything, but I tried to be a different president, try to trust more in my team, give them more liberty to work on their own. I didn’t want to control everything.
And we are trying to bring new people to the board because I think one of the more important things for the community is to keep the communities live in the future and for that we need to bring new blood. And as long as I will want to stay in the executive committee forever, I think I should lead by example and say, okay, I’ve been five years in the executive committee and I think we need new blood, but the way to let new blood enter is that I step out because I can just stay in the easy with other position. But I think if I want to tell the people that we need to renew all the charges slowly, I need to start with myself because I would love to stay in the EC forever, but I think in order to let new people enter, you need to exit.
And I think because for me it was nice because being in the AC is a lot of work, but it’s also a lot of nice experience. And at the end, the people that you work with are your friends, not only your partners. So it’s so nice to be there, but I think in order to evolve the community, in order to evolve Common Europe, we need to bring new people with new ideas that come with a fresh mind, because after five years, I’m no longer the new guy that comes with the new ideas.
I’m becoming the establishment. So I think it has been probably one of the best years of my life in terms of relationship with the community and traveling, representing Common Europe, but I think it’s also time to let other people to step in and bring new ideas, especially young people, or even try to get more women in the board. I am jealous that common North America has, again, one female president and not long ago was Dawn May; she was also a woman. And here we had presidents that were women in the past like Olga Miralles, but recently we didn’t have this. Now Heidi from Common Germany is about to enter the EC if she can enter in the elections. And I think it’s good to have different kind of—because to have women in the committee, to have younger people in the committee, I think it’s good to have different people in the representative roles from the community.
Andy:
Diversity of voices. When you get just one kind of person maybe in there, you might be missing on lots of different things. And I’ve heard you say, were you saying EAC or—
Juan:
You- Yeah, we have two governance teams. One is the Board of Directors that is all the countries as a representative in the Board of Directors and that is the, we meet twice a year and we do the special votes that the important things are votes by all the countries. But the day-to-day are made by the Executive Committee—that is the president, vice president and treasurer and two more guys. And we do the day-to-day, we do the CAC and that is they are elected from the people that the board of director nominates, and normally we try to be one from a different country to not put many people from the same country on the EC to not avoid trouble. I think it is nice, because that is kind of what they have in Common North America that they have the executive, like it can be Manzoor, but the thing is that we are not professionals. We are just volunteers from the part of the, normally part of the guys from the Board of Directors from the EC, but that is the people running the day-to-day operations.
Andy:
And so you’re staying on the EC still after this?
Juan:
No, no. After this, I’m leaving this time, I don’t know if we come back in the future if they need me, but at least the next two years I will take a break.
Andy:
You’re just free the next two years.
Juan:
Yeah.
Andy:
Okay. Okay. That might be kind of nice to have a little break, huh?
Juan:
Yeah.
Andy:
And then so maybe a good way to close this out is just to … Where would you like to see Common Europe go in the next five years now that you’re going to be stepping away a little bit from this role? I mean, well, actually, wait, let’s rewind a little bit. The last four years I think have probably been a really interesting time to be in your role. I mean, that’s basically the entire … The rebirth of the AI push, I guess, with generative started basically three, four years ago basically. So you kind of got in right in when this started happening, when this started happening, right?
Juan:
When all this exploded, yeah. And I think Common Europe, I think will remain relevant because now that most of the users need to make a lot of decisions on what to do with their environments, some are thinking on living, that is not always the best idea. Some others are thinking on modernizing their applications. So I think that the next years will be challenging times for the platform, but even if you want to stay, you want to go, you need to know about what you can do with the platform. So the education will be so important, especially I think in the next years what we will have is a lot of feedback on what the others have done with the AI, what you really can accomplish with the AI, if it’s magic like they say, or if it’s not like that, if you can modernize with AI or not. So I think it will be very important to keep yourself educated and to keep yourself—I think to have the feedback of the other users. So I think the community in these times will be still relevant because you will need to learn from the experience of the other people. So I think in the next years, I think we will still be hearing a lot on AI, but we will see the real outcome of the AI, because I think it can be a very interesting tool to help you, but still you need the knowledge of the platform, the knowledge of the applications. So I think it will help. I think if the guys are good with it in the platform AI will help a lot, but that doesn’t mean that some consultants that don’t know anything about IBM i will be able to transform everything with the AI without the knowledge on the platform. So I think being in the community will be so important.
Andy:
If you’re a good developer, it’ll make you a better developer, but if you don’t know anything like me, then I guess you’re probably still out of luck.
Juan:
Yeah, you lose a lot of time. If you start playing with the AI without knowing what you’re doing, you are just burning credits and burning time.
Andy:
Yeah, because you have to know if it’s on the right track and that’s giving you the right output. And if you don’t know anything about it, how would you know? Yeah. Well, this has been a lot of fun, Juan. Thanks for telling me about the Europe Congress and about your thoughts looking forward. Congratulations on completing the four-year term as president. That’s a big deal.
So I know you’ve shepherded Kameron Europe through some interesting times, and it’s going to continue to be that way, I think. So yeah.
But thanks again for your time, Juan. It’s been a lot of fun talking with you and have fun at Common Europe Congress and enjoy the next couple of years of maybe a little more free time.
Juan:
Yeah. Thank you.
Andy:
All right. Take care.
Juan:
Bye. Okay. Bye.