Re: Planning for an iSeries future -- MIDRANGE-L

Ken,
I certainly recognize the situation you are in. The best luck at moving
management to
move on an upgrade is to find a savings or new features you can implement
"because" of the upgrade. Where is your business and your industry going in
the
next 3 years? Most likely no single project will justify this, but a plan of
multiple future projects (requiring more cpw and/or partitions, and newer
software.
IBM and/or Business Partners can help you justify this. Your under no
obligation,
and IBM trains them well to make this pitch to your management. IBM also has
Executive seminarsthat can be very effective at moving them in the right
direction.
good luck
jim.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Graap, Ken" <keg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'Midrange'" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 6:56 PM
Subject: Planning for an iSeries future


> Geesh! I consider myself an implementer and problem solver... That is why
> I'm a Systems Administrator!
>
> Now I'm finding myself being nudged into a additional role... The role of
> project manager and having to show a positive return on investment value
for
> keeping current on the AS/400 / iSeries platform.
>
> We currently have an AS/400 model 730... It was upgraded from an 530 about
3
> years ago. This year we made a fatal mistake!
>
> We let ourselves get talked into owning this machine after the lease was
up
> taking our hardware cost to ZERO, except for ongoing maintenance costs.
>
> We became the owners of the 730 on 1/1/03. We figured we would coast for a
> year and then upgrade.
>
> As you all know IBM has decided to remove our upgrade path in October....
> Needless to say we didn't budget for this but even worst, the people in
our
> company who hand out the money for this stuff now want to know why we
can't
> just keep this machine we own until about 2006... They like hardware costs
> of ZERO...
>
> I've discussed with them the idea that this machine will probably become
> hopelessly obsolete by 2006 and that we would have to purchase a new one
> because nothing about the model 730 would be upgradeable that far in the
> future. Of course they ask "how much will that cost?" I tell them I don't
> have any idea! I don't even know what IBM will be selling us then.
>
> I have always worked with AS/400 savvy managers who have understood that
in
> order to get the most out of an AS/400 investment you budgeted to keep
> current on the hardware figuring that you would upgrade every 3-4 years.
> This has served me well since 1988. We had invested in this server and
> planned to continue to add new function to it so we kept it current.
>
> In my environment today this perception of investing in a platform (except
> WinTel, because it is the only desktop game in town) doesn't exist...
> Management is now saying, if nothing is broke, why do we have to spend any
> money at all?
>
> I'm now struggling to come up with an argument against this philosophy...
>
> My gut feeling is that if we do nothing, the machine will become more and
> more obsolete and when we do want to provide some new software function,
> like a Linux based processing or some other new state of the art process,
we
> will have to tell the planners that our old system can't do that unless we
> invest a million dollars to bring it current! In other words, by doing
> nothing now, we are creating a self fulfilling prophecy where we won't be
> able to do anything new later either.
>
> Is anyone else finding themselves in this situation? If so, would you mind
> sharing how you justified a continuing investment in an iSeries platform?
>
> Like:
>
> How do you quantify in dollars,  things like 98% uptime 7/24 and 100%
uptime
> during prime working hours?  Save while active backups? The ability to
> actually restore a system in an emergency instead of rebuilding it? ?????
>
> Kenneth
>
> ****************************************
> Kenneth E. Graap
> IBM Certified Specialist
> AS/400e Professional System Administrator
> NW Natural (Gas Services)
> keg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Phone: 503-226-4211 x5537
> FAX:    603-849-0591
> ****************************************
>
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