AS/400 as Religion??!! (was Re: Denise Buonaiuto Leave's AS/400 Job)

Ooooohhhh Hank,

In a message dated 8/19/99 2:12:44 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
HankHeath@aol.com writes:

> Al exaggerates only slightly  to make a point. However, the AS/400 as a 
brand 
>  is losing clout - no doubt. However, the move may be to strengthen IBM as 
a 
>  brand, instead. To those who worship the AS/400 religion (I was one once), 
>  this is painful. However, the brand has run its course. It's time for IBM 
to 
>  consolidate and take on the competition. Do Win-tel, Sun, HP rely upon 
brands 
>  within their major category?

Methinks that thou hast let slip the dogs of flame war with this one!  Let me 
try and stop it before it starts.  We had this argument _WAY_ back when IBM 
first started the somewhat hermaphroditic "e-business" campaign -- pushing 
all platforms in advertising yet offering no strengths for _any_ and 
providing even _more_ confusing advice depending upon which IBM office you 
contacted.  I do not worship the AS/400 as a religion, but as the only 
customer-oriented box that the company produces.

If, within the IBM family, you could choose your own OS, database, security 
system, connectivity, etc. with impunity, your point would be well taken.  
But you can't.  If a small company could purchase any platform within the IBM 
line and receive the same service your argument would have merit, but they 
cannot.  "Mom and Pop" cannot _afford_ an ES/9000.  Nor can they afford the 
staff to support a NetFinity or RS/6000 box.  To compare Win-Tel, Sun, and HP 
to IBM is to compare the Shrine Circus to Ringling Brothers, only worse.  
Shrine (at least as they present locally) has one ring, Ringling has three, 
and IBM has four (five if you count PC's, but everything in _that_ arena 
still sucks except for the ThinkPad).  However, only one of IBM's rings can 
serve a customer from "cradle to grave" without great pain -- the AS/400.

If you want to make a "religious" statement out of this, eleven years ago 
there were only _two_ religions -- pro- and anti-IBM.  I was in the anti- 
crowd.  IMO at the time, _everyone_ did _everything_ better than IBM when it 
came to computing.  It continues to this day, in that most of the available 
clones are better than the PC's that IBM turns out (although IBM did 
_FINALLY_ figure out that it shouldn't take twenty minutes to check memory 
integrity).

My anti-IBM sentiments changed when my platform of choice ceased production 
around the same time as the advent of the AS/400.  The AS/400 had all of the 
hallmarks of my last platform:  write once run anywhere, ease of maintenance, 
ease of use, easy to program.  When I decided to retrain and studied 
available midrange platforms in depth, my considered alternatives (DEC, HP, 
Unisys) did not and _still_ do not offer these features.  IMO (both then and 
now) the AS/400 remains a "best buy" from the customer standpoint, and that's 
all that matters.

Now, as to your rather specious arguments as to "the AS/400 as a brand is 
losing clout" and "the brand has run its course", what the _HECK_ planet did 
_YOU_ wake up on this morning ;-)?  Sales of AS/400's to _new_ clients in 
1998 were both robust and unprecedented since the system's initial 
introduction, when IBM was constantly running the old M*A*S*H advertisements 
(as opposed to the somewhat spurious advertisements that Mr. Jarosh was able 
to exact from Armonk during 1998).  Due to its unique operating system 
architecture, the AS/400 is able to incorporate all of IBM's latest 
technology along with the world's latest "hot" languages without upgrade on 
RISC systems.  Every single major ERP vendor that wasn't already there has 
now ported to the AS/400.  The AS/400 provides 64-bit technology _NOW_, 
without rewrite, while the world still waits for Merced, Windows 2K, and 
other "promised" 64-bit technologies that _WILL_ require rewrite.

I'm sorry, but this "brand" has _NOT_ "run its course."  Show me an entry 
level NetFinity, RS/6000, or ES/9000 that costs less in software, hardware 
and personnel requirements, is as scalable, and spouts a 99.97%uptime, and I 
may change my stance.  Until then, quit writing obituaries for the AS/400 -- 
it appears that "the trades" finally have...

JMHO,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"You must do the things you think you cannot do." -- Eleanor Roosevelt
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