RE: What is an AS/400?

How about, "Microsoft abandons 23 AS400 that were running their core
business for Thousands of NT servers.  With-in a year They contract out
their core applications to a third party with 23 AS400s."  Ok it is here say
and I cannot prove it, but it would attract attention.  8>)

Christopher K. Bipes    mailto:ChrisB@Cross-Check.com 
Sr. Programmer/Analyst  mailto:Chris_Bipes@Yahoo.com 
CrossCheck, Inc.        http://www.cross-check.com 
6119 State Farm Drive   Phone: 707 586-0551 x 1102 
Rohnert Park CA  94928  Fax: 707 586-1884

 
If consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, only geniuses work here.
Karen Herbelin - Readers Digest 3/2000 

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Dixon [mailto:rob.dixon@erros.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2000 3:21 AM
To: midrange-L@midrange.com
Subject: What is an AS/400?


I have only recently put the URL of my site on DNS, and now there is public
access to it, I was thinking about what AS/400 links I might provide. 
In the vain(?) hope that one or two non AS/400 users might drop by, as a
result of external links to my site that I intend to create, I thought that
the first AS/400 link on my own site should be to a site that can answer the
question "What is an AS/400?".  I am not looking for a detailed account of
the differences between V4R4 and V4R5, but an unprejudiced factual
comparison of the AS/400 with its competition. 
IBM provides  IBM AS/400e Brand Overview Guided Tour (what a mouthfull!).
Whilst it provides many excellent points, I do not think that it provides an
overview that will inspire NT or Unix users to jump ship. Unless they get
something positive from the top level, they may not be bothered to navigate
through the links.  If, like most of the rest of the world, you knew nothing
about the AS/400, would this opening page compel you to investigate further?

For instance, in the first sentence it refers to 600,000 systems sold  If
you have large numbers of small servers in your company and do not realise
that one AS/400 might replace the lot, then you may not be impressed. You
might well dismiss IBM's claim that the AS/400 is the world's most popular
multiuser busines computer out of hand and read no further.  You might be
more impressed by it being installed in 98% of Fortune 500 companies as
stated in the second sentence, but the competition can probably make similar
claims these days. 
BTW, I thought that 700,000 systems had been sold - what is the correct
number?. 
What do others think?  Is there a better link? 
If there is no other link and, like me, you think the IBM link above is less
than perfect, should we together create a document that we can all use?  If
this is the only choice, and people post their bullet points - not essays -
on the list (or send them to me direct), I would be willing to pull them
together into a finished document which can be further refined over time.  I
am thinking of a two or three page summary that would explain what makes the
AS/400 stand out in a crowd. Since we are all bursting with ideas about why
the AS/400 is so good, it may not be easy to distill these into a succinct
synopsis. 
If people think that there is also a need for something more detailed, then
this might be done as a second stage. 
It might also be good to provide some links to AS/400 successes - such as
the reported migration from 23 AS/400's to 1600 NT Servers at Microsoft and
then back again to 23 AS/400's.   I would be willing to put up links to such
stories or the stories themsleves provided that they can be substantiated
fully. 
We shouldn't have to do IBM's job for them but ...! 
Your reactions please. 
Rob Dixon 
________________________________________________________ 
Erros plc 
44 (0) 1844 239 339 
http://www.erros.co.uk - The AS/400 Neural Database for the Internet 
_________________________________________________________ 
  
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