RE: New Hardware -- BPCS-L

Tom:

I've been in the IT field for a very long time.  When I started punch cards
had round holes and 90 columns.  While the punch cards have gone the way of
the dinosaurs some things have not. One of those that has not disappeared
over the decades is the failure to look at Total Cost of Ownership (TOC)
when contemplating a platform switch.  The failure to look at TOC has bitten
more than one MIS manager in a certain part of their anatomy.

For example:
* The Windows world is very much a flat earth model  - each app runs on its
own server.  Where you have one server now, there will be 10's of servers
tomorrow.  By the way, good heavy duty Intel based machines don't come
cheap, even from Dell.
* Check the uptime statistics for Windows servers.  Gartner and others can
provide the numbers.  The last I heard the stat was at about 98.5 percent.
Assuming a 24 hour a day, 5 days a week operation, month in and month out
means you are down just short of 30 hours per month on each server.  To
provide for this level of outage sites generally set a duplicate server in
place on critical applications.  Oh yes, this up/down time stat is the
reason why IPL-ing a Windows box is no big deal  - Windows sys admins do it
all the time.  When was the last time you IPL-ed your AS400?  And it's not
the hardware.  I have clients running UNIX on the same hardware who go 1 to
2 years between IPL events.
* Check the staffing levels of Intel architecture sites.  In my experience
they generally carry twice the staff found at an AS400 site.
* Do not forget Windows does not come with the DB engine.  Whether it's
Oracle or SQL server or MySQL or Progress or DB2 there is an extra cost to
license the DB stuff for each server.
* What do you plan to do about the language "barrier"?  Frankly, RPG is a
dirty word in the Windows world.  And while C++, java, SQL, etc. are all
capable languages they all require training and ramp up time - read more
money.
* And the biggest hurtle of all: the conversion of your business to the new
platform will cost 3 times as much as budgeted and take twice as long as
planned.

When management looks at the TOC I suspect they will determine the
risk/reward ratio simply does not support the change.  Yes, lots of sites
take on the challenge; that's where the "cost 3 times as much as planned and
take twice as long as allowed" comes from.  It's also why the IT manager's
door in a few shops is a revolving door.


Roy Luce

Main:   847-540-9635
Cell:   847-910-0884
Fax:    208-330-9032
Email:  lwl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: bpcs-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bpcs-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Tom_Page@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 4:39 PM
To: bpcs-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: New Hardware

I am running BPCS 6.101 mixed mode on a AS400 720 with  120 CPW for
interactive.  As we continue to hang more and more bolt-ons to BPCS we are
being forced to upgrade platforms.  We are looking at a AS400 810 with 1492
CPW and no interactive limits.  This is quite expensive and our IT director
is not a real IBM fan and has asked me to find out more about the Windows
2000 server capabilities.  We have a 130 BPCS license  count.
Has anyone had experience with the SSA product on the supposedly supported
windows platform?  I am sceptical on how we could even size a Intel
platform large enough to support our already overloaded system.
- Tom
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