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

John,

I lost faith in anything much that Gartner Group had to say (or at least
took/take it with a HUGE grain of salt) after they wrote the AS/400 off, what 
was
it 4 or 5 years ago ? Remember that ? Think that REALLY paints a great picture 
of
them. They seem to be yet another NT drone. What will be REALLY interesting is 
if
these figures are really correct (which I SERIOUSLY doubt) is to see all the
companies stumble or even fail trying to run on NT as an AS/400 replacement...

Chuck

John Carr wrote:

> 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
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------------------------
>  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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