MS Talks about the IBM AS/400 -- MIDRANGE-L

All

Sorry -  Correction

Right company wrong Mag.   It was in AS/400 Technology SHOWCASE (a MC Mag)
the July Issue.

--------
(Have a taste;  remember this is an interview where MS talks about the
AS/400 !)

<<<< SHOWCASE's Craig (setting up the shot):  The other part of that
question was regarding reliability.  That's probably one of the greatest
AS/400 strengths over the years.  What specifically are you doing in the
area of reliability?

(MS Salesperson - (I mean Spokesperson)   Mark Hassall:  Windows NT Server
has been architecture, From day one, to provide a very reliable platform. 
We can handle hardware system faults.
We can protect user programs from each other.  So, if you have an error
in applications, it's not going to bring down other applications or
bring down your operating system.  And we can provide a variety of
different ways for recovering data in the event of some kind of system
crash.  >>>>>>>>>


Here's a bigger snippet for those who don't receive it.

<Snip>


MC Showcase's Craig Beery:  What do you see as the long-term strategic
positioning of BackOffice on
Windows NT Server with SNA Server and SQL Server vs. A pure IBM offering
of DB2 and the AS/400?

MS,  Joel Sloss:    Your question raises an issue that needs clarification
before we move forward.  I'd like to explain the distinction between
BackOffice Server and the BackOffice Family of server products.  First,
there is the BackOffice Family that is comprised of individual server
components:  Windows NT Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, and SNA
Server.  Then, there's the BackOffice Server product, which is a bundle
of the family components into one comprehensive server suite.
        The BackOffice Server suite is the result of a significant
amount of integration effort that brings all of the technologies
together into one easy-to-use solution.  I think that strategically, it
is the BackOffice Server product that aligns most closely with AS/400
capabilities.  Microsoft's position regarding the coexistence and
integration of the AS/400 environment is to allow organizations to
preserve the investment in existing systems, while providing a new
foundation on which to build next generation business applications.

How does your Exchange product fit into the BackOffice positioning
strategy?

Joel Sloss:        Exchange is what provides the core email, messaging, and
collaboration services in BackOffice.  You can consider it as the
provider of email, calendering, and file sharing through public folders,
and discussion/news groups, and so on.  Or, you can consider Exchange as
the foundation for building collaborative applications in conjunction
with other BackOffice server components.  This combination enables
organizations to use their Windows NT Server Web infrastructure, and
build sophisticated environments that take advantage of lower cost
models and provide uniform access through highly functional browsers,
like Internet Explorer.

Tom Kreyche:        With regard to SQL Server on Windows NT Server, we see
a
variety of implementations in AS/400 environments.  For most
organizations moving toward Web computing, there is considerable synergy
between what they are doing on the AS/400 and what they want to
accomplish with Web-based computing using BackOffice.  For example, the
majority of years of data is built up on the AS/400 and parts of that
data generally need to be made available to Web users.  Organizations
can replicate data from the AS/400 to SQL Server on the Web platform
where it can be incorporated into Web-based solutions because SQL Server
is tightly integrated with Internet Information Server.  With our
solutions, we believe we offer a lower cost of ownership on a wider
variety of hardware platforms, which gives the customer a lot more
choice.

Mark Hassall:        I'd just like to add (<<Insert  Commercial>>) 
something on top of that from a
Windows NT Server point of view.  We see the market as being clearly
segmented into three different areas.  At the initial entry point of the
marketplace, we offer Small Business Server, which includes a version of
Windows NT Server that is designed for small businesses.
        Then, the next segment is the work-group server, which we're
addressing with Windows NT Server Standard Edition.  This particular
product scales from one to four processors, which is the real volume
marketplace.  Ninety-five percent of customers needs and requirements
can be addressed using the standard edition.
        However, for our larger enterprise customers, we have Windows NT
Server Enterprise Edition.  With all of these versions, we're doing a
lot to address the key concerns of our customers.  Whatever their size,
customers are rapidly adopting our value proposition because our
platforms have reliability, scalability, availability, and
manageability.


Tom Kreyche:   One of the big advantages of the Windows NT Server and the
SQL Server platform is that we've done a lot of work to improve ease of
use.  We don't believe that running your applications on this platform
is going to require anywhere near the level of expertise that you would
for an equivalent platform on the AS/400.

SHOWCASE;  That is an interesting take because the AS/400 is finding itself
in the
position where it has a definite shortage of people who understand the
RPG language and are used to programming the AS/400.

Joel Sloss:  The point about the availability of expertise is a very
good one.  Right now, there are many tens of thousands of certified
professionals, developers, trainers, and systems engineers-people who
have specific product knowledge-to provide support in IT departments.
        Just to add onto what Tom said about the solutions, there are
over 600 BackOffice logo applications that have been certified and meet
a specific set of requirements to run on the BackOffice family.  And
there are many more thousands of applications that are designed to run
on various BackOffice applications, such as SQL Server and Exchange.

SHOWCASE:  A lot of AS/400 managers have concerns about the scalability and
reliability of the Windows NT Server and BackOffice solutions.  How do
you address those concerns?

Mark Hassall:    I'd like to clarify our position in terms of what
scalability is.
        First of all, it's important to scale up to support growth as
your organization grows.  But it's equally as important to scale down.
As organizations divest, they pass on IT technologies to satellite or
branch offices, or they acquire new businesses and are forced to
implement new systems in those organizations.
        Second, it's very important to be able to achieve scalability
cost effectively, whether you're a large organization or a small
business that is growing.
        We effectively have two approaches to scalability from an
operating system point of view.  The first is symmetrical
multiprocessing-the ability to scale up by adding processors to create
very large single nodes.  And the second is support for distributed
computing, i.e., the ability to have multiple, tightly coupled operating
systems.
        We think our approach is different from IBM in that scalability
can be achieved with commodity hardware, commodity processors, disks,
interface cards, and memory, and therefore we can offer a very cost
effective solution.
        We support the two different approaches, symmetrical
multiprocessing and distributed computing or clustering, without any
change to the applications that you're using to build solutions.

The other part of that question was regarding reliability.  That's
probably one of the greatest AS/400 strengths over the years.  What
specifically are you doing in the area of reliability?

Mark Hassall:     Windows NT Server has been architecture, from day one, to
provide a very reliable platform.  We can handle hardware system faults.
We can protect user programs from each other.  So, if you have an error
in applications, it's not going to bring down other applications or
bring down your operating system.  And we can provide a variety of
different ways for recovering data in the event of some kind of system
crash.

Showcase:   What about cross-platform integration?

Joel Sloss:    Integration is a key and powerful message for us.  The
drive behind BackOffice in legacy environments is working with what you
already have.  We work with your existing IT infrastructure.  So, if
you've got AS/400s, or UNIX systems, or other Windows NT Server systems
running other backend applications-we can inter-operate with
those-whether they're databases, whether they're other mail systems, or
other file systems.

Craig Cumberland:    It ultimately comes down to customer choice.  I think
from an IT standpoint, or from our own understanding of what enterprise
customers have requested, interoperability is a key issue.  Customers
have to have the opportunity to use the solution that best fits their
needs in a particular scenario.
        So, our goal is to make sure that if they want to use Windows on
the desktop, or Windows NT Server on the middle tier, to connect to an
IBM mainframe, or to the AS/400, that they have that capability.  It's
basically driven by what the customer wants and what the customer needs.

And that's how we do it.

<<< End of Commercial >>>

"and THATS how we do it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John Carr

 "We don't believe that running your applications on this platform (NT) 
is going to require anywhere near the level of expertise that you would
for an equivalent platform on the AS/400."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Has anyone read the article in this month Midrange Computing's mag?

"MICROSOFT PRODUCT MANAGERS TALK ABOUT IBM'S AS/400"

Is it just me, or does it really look like an Info-mercial by MS posing as
a objective article ??

I guess it's just me.

John Carr<

+---
| This is the Midrange System Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
+---