Micro$oft using AS/400

Several people have wondered about if MS uses AS/400.
I have collected the (non-flame) postings from comp.sys.ibm.as400.misc
since 6/2/00:

================
In the past people have mentioned that MS uses AS/400's for their
backend processing.  Are they still using AS/400's (or was this just a
rumor to begin with)?  What applications are they using them for?

George Bennett
--------------------

George:

Microsoft was running their manufacturing with MACPAC on the AS/400 (an ERP
system - mfg planning, distribution, gl, etc).  I don't know if it's still
the case, but I used to work for Andersen Consulting (author of MACPAC).

David Shea
-----------------------

My understanding is that they finally got rid of the last AS/400s in the
past year or so.  It took them about five years longer than they
expected to get NT et al to handle the load.  No telling how many NT
servers they had to install to get rid of a handful of AS/400s.

Daniel Hicks
------------------
I can't recall where exactly, but I remember reading somewhere recently
that they still had in the region of 200 AS400s; but it didn't state
what they are being used for.  It also outlined how the latest attempts
to migrate to NT/2000 had been 'unsuccessful'.  Shock, horror !

Anton Meyer
--------------------
There is a rumor floating around that they had to outsource back to an AS/400
solution after pulling the plugs on their AS/400s.

Kent Milligan, DB2 & BI team (IBM)
---------------------

I heard (more rumour mongering, isn't it great?) that a special version
of NT was ported to DEC (Compaq) Alpha RISC to help with performance
problems.
I could have told them if they had asked: it's not how far you can p-ss,
but how much you can pass :)

PRM
------------------
I'm sorry to spoil the joy but:

1. Microsoft uses sap (and not on the as400). It got rid of the as400
after many years.

2. for sap They use nt over intel (same as the ones used to run the
microsoft web site one of the largest there is)

3. They probably pay much less now (and their cpu's are faster then the
as400 cpu).

To sum it all:

1. The as400 is still more stable and scalable but nt is getting closer
rapidly.
2. NT is much cheaper and more friendly for development plus there are
more developers for nt.
3. NT. is probably going to win small to medium as400 accounts in the
next few years.
4. NT. clusters can play with the big guys.
5. Both NT and the as400 are much easier to maintain then Unix.

Sharmar Mor
--------------------
This year I took part at the Common Europe Congress and Mr. Soltis
told us that MS tried to replace a few (I believe 23) AS/400 by a lot
(I believe) 1200 NT server. Of course they failed and moved back to the
AS/400. But they out-sourced the AS/400 in order to be able to tell
everybody that they do not *own* any AS/400 any longer.

Thomas Raddatz.
----------------------
Frank Soltis is not part of the marketing and sales team.  He's a great
speaker,
he does not need to make up lies to entertain his audience.

Now the outsourcing indirectly to AS/400s, does sound like a marketing trick
that MS would use.

Kent Milligan, DB2 & BI team
---------------------------
Microsoft was heavily influenced by Anderson Consulting for a long
time. Microsoft picked MACPAC and the AS/400 for their international
distribution systems, and ran MACPAC for many years.

When NT became what Microsoft considers to be a REAL operating
system..(ahem..skewzz me ..)... they found themselves in competitive
situations with the AS/400... and the edict came down to get rid of
AS/400.... After several years in the process they finally moved them
out.

They have converted to SAP on Compaq.  One of the first departments to
go over was Accounts Payable, where they started with 19 servers.
(READ 19 servers for A/P... WHAT A JOKE!)....

They had a very large AS/400 in Dublin, Ireland running the sales and
distribution for Europe, and it may still be there.  Obviously, they
don't want to talk about that.  There are some AS/400s in Redmond, but
now it is just for testing and benchmarking.

Dan Riehl
---------------------
According to a reliable IBM Source, Microsoft replaced their 23 AS/400's with
1200 NT server. After that project failed, Microsoft contracted with an
outside firm to do the business processing required. That firm uses 6
AS/400's.

David Dunfield
------------------------

That all folks. After all that, I still don't know what the answer
to the original question is...

Leif Svalgaard

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