Re: iSeries Disk Pricing

I just picked up a 120gig drive for my server for just over $230....oh
well...

------

On Wed, 1 May 2002, Paul Raulerson wrote:

> The AIX disks are not that much cheaper, if at all. I just paid IBM over 
>$1200 for
> 18g drives in a  B50 AIX box.
>
> -Paul
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Larry Bolhuis" <lbolhuis@arbsol.com>
> To: <midrange-l@midrange.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 6:23 AM
> Subject: Re: iSeries Disk Pricing
>
>
> > Andy,
> >
> >    IMHO You are spot on. Of all my customers I can't even think of 2 that
> > use 17G drives for the exact reason you specify - Arm Count.  We deal almost
> > exclusively in the 270-820 space and those machines just don't normally
> > house databases large enough to be able to utilize 17G drives.  I was very
> > sorry to see that IBM ignored the 8G units in this pricing action. If you
> > consider that the 8G drives ALSO require twice the cage space, twice the
> > controllers, and double the maintenance dollars for the same capacity they
> > are a much MORE than double the cost of 17G units.  This all makes it more
> > difficult to compete against the average Wintel and Lintel solutions because
> > there disks are SOO much cheaper.
> >
> >    My fear at the end of the year when 8G units go away is that we'll sell a
> > customer a system with enough arms that the capacity yield will have them
> > set for years! This may even hamper the ability to sell upgrades.
> >
> >    My .02
> >
> >      - Larry
> >
> > Andy Nolen-Parkhouse wrote:
> >
> > > Friends,
> > >
> > > While it is good news that IBM is significantly reducing the price of
> > > their disk drives, for many workloads there may well be no change.  This
> > > announcement prices the 17 GB drives at exactly the old price of the 8
> > > GB drives ($1,400).  For those who require raw capacity, this represents
> > > a significant savings.
> > >
> > > For those of us who have routinely sized DB2-based transaction systems,
> > > frequently we end up configuring excess storage capacity in order to
> > > obtain an appropriate number of disk arms to ensure adequate
> > > performance.  This general rule applied for me in most systems using 8
> > > GB drives.  I needed the arms more than the capacity.  Because the 17 GB
> > > drives seem to have roughly the same rotational speed and seek times as
> > > the 8 GB drives, it stands to reason that a number of systems will
> > > require exactly the same number of drives at exactly the same price.
> > > There will be a significant increase in the amount of excess storage
> > > using the 17 GB drives, but the end result could well be no cost
> > > reduction.
> > >
> > > I'd welcome comment on this, but I think my reasoning is sound.  Some
> > > systems would be better served by reducing the cost of 8 GB drives
> > > rather than discontinuing them.
> > >
> > > I would prefer to be wrong because I'm trying to focus on the good news
> > > of the announcement, and there is a lot.
> >
> > --
> > Larry Bolhuis           | IBM Certified Solutions Expert
> > Vice President          |     iSeries Technology V5 R1
> > Arbor Solutions, Inc.   |     e-business for AS/400 V4 R2
> > (616) 451-2500          | IBM Certified Specialist  AS/400
> > (616) 451-2571 -fax     |     RPG IV Developer
> > lbolhuis@arbsol.com     |     System Administrator for OS/400 V4 R4
> > www.arbsol.com          |     Professional Network Administrator
> >                          |       Network/Multiple Systems
> >                          |     Client Access
> >
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