Smaller businesses love it as an OS because it is designed for ease of use, as well as being simple to deploy and maintain. Like any systems that have been around for a while, IBM i has a dedicated following and an ever-growing catalogue of resources and tools to help them run it.

There are a couple of great, third-party companies that have evolved with IBM i and other IBM products to lend support. Some operate in specific areas like security. They will specialize in things like IBM multi-factor authentication, encryption, anti-virus and anti-ransomware measures, and audits and compliance. Most of them operate in the same spirit of IBM i to give midsize and enterprise businesses tools that are easy to use. 

This availability of security support has made IBM i one of the safest operating systems on the market for business. One of the reasons it is so safe are its strict multi-factor authentication protocols. The best security tools for IBM i have strict access controls. IBM multi-factor authentication for IBM i is good enough to exceed the United States government’s cybersecurity standards. That is important in modern business since so much of it has gone online. 

No one who runs a small to midsize business wants to worry about the common pitfalls of e-commerce. IBM i and its security tools make for a safe online environment to conduct business. While safety is a massive selling point of IBM i and the ecosystem that surrounds it, another reason smaller businesses flock to this OS is how efficient it is. Like most operating systems, IBM i works best when it's running at a high level of optimization. 

Something like an IBM audit is probably a good idea for any sized business. However, for small and midsize businesses, making sure your OS is helping your company be its most efficient is crucial. Big companies and corporations have much wider margins when it comes to their money. Small, midsize and enterprise businesses don’t have nearly as much leeway. Efficiency and optimization on all fronts are necessary for these companies to stay in the black. 

Using an existing set of IBM i adjacent tools to run an audit of your OS is a cheap and easy way to optimize your operations. An IBM audit could lead to you finding something in your day-to-day ops that could be slowing your company down. That sluggishness could be costing your company money, which in turn could cause your business to fail. 

    Your business doesn’t have to be in trouble for you to take the time and audit your operations. It is a good idea to know where your company stands if you are trying to expand. Growing your business should be a primary goal and using IBM i could be a great platform to help do just that.