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Things that would justify an iSeries include its stability, its history, its support, its interoperability, and in the case of a company that already has one, like you do, the fact that it has systems and data that currently support your business (squatters rights, if you will). <G> However, to counter some of the statements that others have made about the windows alternative. 1) You may not need Enterprise edition of SQL. Planning on more than 4 processors or 2 gig or memory? Those are the big differences between Standard and Enterprise edition. Standard edition is only 5K/processor (less with VLP). 2) Virii. Yes, Windows has virii. However, a well configured _server_ shouldn't get infected, ever! Yes, it could _host_ an infection, just like the IFS can host an infection on the iSeries, but why would you ever run something on your server that could infect it. This is a server, leave it alone! In fact, Microsoft has said, publicly, that they are not aware of _ANY_ properly configured Windows Server 2003 box that has been infected by a virus, none! 3) Disk price - I can't go as far as Joe here. Disk is cheaper on PCs, yes, but _good disk_ will still cost you. However, PC servers play much nicer in a SAN environment than the iSeries does so you can spread your usage, usage spikes, and cost over a number of servers. 4) TCO - OK, I've seen lots of TCO numbers, and many show the iSeries and cheaper. However, what I've also seen in those TCO numbers is a belief that you'll loose the cost of the windows support people if you go with an iSeries. Unless you're planning on deploying 5250 twinax green screens you're going to have windows support people, so when you look at your TCOs you can't take them out of the mix. 5) Uptime - Everything crashes! I'm aware of a large iSeries shop that lost their entire development box for nearly a week because of a problem during an upgrade. Did they do stupid things, probably, but then again, most of the windows problems I've seen come from people doing stupid things -- how many of us are running as an administrator-level user on our own PCs? 6) Old Facts - OK, so what, the iSeries was 64-bit first. And MS runs, ran, whatever their distribution on iSeries, and old Lan-Manager-style passwords are a joke. Who cares? These are old issues. Windows is now 64-bit, has been for a while on the server side of the world if you want to include datacenter. I don't really care what another company uses for their business, what works best for mine, and if you're still using lan-manager passwords then you've not read what Microsoft and NSA have had to say about password security for years! Look, Ford had a car long before Porsche, but I'd still like a Porsche today! 7) One box vs. many - Yes, you can jam more under a single iSeries "roof" than a windows roof. But why would you want to? I'm having a problem at one client site testing massive data changes because there are hard-coded library names in programs, so testing is a bitch. If I had a second machine it would be a breeze. Plus, if it's all under one roof I have a single point of failure! I don't care how stable something is, it goes down! I can do rolling upgrades on windows boxes because I have many of them, the application is never down because there are other machines to take it's load. How do you upgrade your single iSeries? 8) Software to "avoid" the interactive tax -- sorry, not going there. Windows is cheaper too if you don't license it. <G> -Walden ------------ Walden H Leverich III Tech Software (516) 627-3800 x11 WaldenL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.TechSoftInc.com Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur. (Whatever is said in Latin seems profound.)
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