AS/400 Gasping For Air ?? -- MIDRANGE-L


What's your opinion on this article ??    Do you agree with Sandy?

Maybe Drop her a line.    She is the Editor I think of Inforworld Today.  
Visit the site below to see 
the graphs.

I personally didn't think she could spell AS/400.

John Carr
EdgeTech
Have Classes, Will Travel

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 http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayNew.pl?/reed/reed.htm


By Sandy Reed 

       December 28, 1998 / January 1999 

       Some see the AS/400 as losing the race, but
       others say it's just getting started

       Depending on how you look at it, the IBM AS/400 is either taking its
last
       breath or just getting its second wind. There's no doubt it's been a
       commercial success during the past 10 years. What's in question is
how long
       it can stay in the race against increasingly powerful opponents.

       Among those who see the AS/400 gasping for air are analysts at the
Gartner
       Group, a research company that sometimes seems to be as interested
in
       shaping trends as in spotting them. In a recent report, Gartner
predicted
       trouble for the AS/400 platform because of three related technology
trends:
       enterprise resource planning (ERP), Windows NT Server, and the
year-2000
       problem.

       The charts accompanying this column
       illustrate Gartner's predictions for ERP
       database server sales in 1998, 2000,
       and 2002. They're based on a survey of
       1,300 ERP customers worldwide.
       InfoWorld Associate Editor Jim Battey,
       who analyzed the study, notes that the
       charts represent units sold each year,
       not total installed base.

       The main reason companies aren't
       buying AS/400s as ERP servers is that
       ERP vendors have turned their attention
       to NT Server. PeopleSoft, for instance,
       recently acknowledged that it won't
       support all newly planned applications
       on the AS/400. Earlier this year, Baan announced a "special
relationship" with
       Microsoft founded on NT products. (See "PeopleSoft stumbles on
support,
       school apps" and "Baan counteracts poor financials by striking deal
with
       Microsoft.")

       Gartner predicted that the trend toward ERP on NT will accelerate
once IT
       shops pass the year-2000 problem. In fact, the analysts said that
the
       year-2000 problem has actually delayed the defection to NT because
       companies are so busy focusing on it.

       To other observers, the reports of the AS/400's demise are
exaggerated.
       They predict that what's to come is a second wind, not a last
breath.
       InfoWorld's Maggie Biggs heard agreement from hundreds of readers
after
       she wrote in her Enterprise Toolbox column that the AS/400 has
morphed
       "into a server platform capable of reliably servicing legacy,
client/server, and
       Web-based business computing." And InfoWorld Editor at Large Ed
       Scannell noted a similar reaction to his article, "IBM AS/400s
quietly find
       success." Both cited the fact that IBM responded to the NT challenge
by
       making it possible for AS/400 users to run both OS/400 and Windows
NT
       from the same box.

       How do you vote? Is the AS/400 gasping for air or just getting its
second
       wind?


     
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