Re: ROCHESTER PUSHES BACK 2000 ANNOUNCE DATE

[LLeach@xxxxxxxxx]

"If you're expecting Rochester to announce new AS/400 hardware and 
OS/400 software this spring, don't hold your breath. Big Blue has 
pushed back the release date for its hardware refresh and OS/400 
upgrade - IBM hasn't yet decided whether it should be called "V4R5" 
or "V5R1" - to the second half of the year to give folks a breather 
from Y2K."


There is a direct correlation between the recent High Availability 
discount announcements and the "Y2K Slowdown" that IBM is perceiving on 
new business/systems installations.  Roger Arndt from IBM indicated in a 
conference call that there will be no new announcements/refresh of the 
product line until mid-year.  IBM's thinking is that High Availability 
projects implementing a 2nd "Hot" system can be implemented without 
impacting Y2K "lockdowns".  This of course does not take into account 
implementing Opti-connect or HA software (Mimix, Visions, DataMirror) on 
an existing production system, products which are required as part of the 
existing HA rebate promotion.

My concern is with the possibility of OS/400 V5 being announced, and how 
that will impact existing 1-3-5 year Software Subscriptions.  Most of my 
customers refer to Software Subscription as Software Extortion, and will 
be madder than mud-hornets if the next release of OS/400 isn't covered by 
the existing Software Subscription.  Part of me thinks that if IBM does 
announce V5  instead of V4R5 and it is NOT covered by existing SW 
Subscriptions, that their justification/spin will be something along the 
lines of "well, we had V4R1, V4R2, V4R3, and V4R4 covered by those 
agreements".  Regardless of whatever spin they put on it, many customers 
will be very upset, and the amount of fur flying around will only be 
rivaled by what we saw when the V3R1 was released.  Best case scenario, I 
would only forsee one more release of V4 being announced before we see V5.

Lane Leach
AS/400 Systems Engineer
The Kalos Group

402.334.0333 ext 333

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