AS/400 Story in Today's Investor -- MIDRANGE-L

Overall, a great article!

I have a problem with being labeled cultish or cliquish, though.  Those are
terms I associate with non-thinking arrogance.  Loyal?  Sure, I'm loyal with
whatever works well, day in and day out.

Uh, who is Sue Aldrich?  Hers is not a name I've heard of before; "... an IBM
system programmer when she came up with the product concept..."  I thought
S/38-AS/400-iSeries was mostly Frank's baby.

>The current Iseries product line is very different from the AS/400...

Huh?  How is it *very* different from the latest AS/400?  I musta missed that
marketing hyperbole.

Dan Bale
IT - AS/400
Handleman Company
248-362-4400  Ext. 4952

-------------------------- Original Message --------------------------
The following story is in today's Investor's Business Daily.  It's a very
positive piece that speaks to the virtues of the AS/400 and bridges to
eServer iSeries.

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Investor's Business Daily: IBM's 1980s-Era AS/400 Boasts Cult-Like Following
By Sheila Riley
Investor's Business Daily
February 16, 2001

A workhorse server developed by IBM Corp. in the 1980s -- an eternity ago in
tech years -- has managed to not only avoid the glue factory but to find a
huge following of loyal fans.

It's called the AS/400, and there are 230,000 small to midsize businesses in
150 countries that still use it, says IBM product manager, Drew Flaada.

Indeed, the AS/400 and its successors -- the Eserver Iseries servers -- are
used in 95% of Fortune 100 companies and 85% of Fortune 500 companies, he says.

The server inspires a passion that is unexpected in computer hardware circles.

"People who use this product are more fervent than Apple users," said IBM
spokesman Tim Dallman.

Ex-IBM employee Randy Lakner, who worked with the AS/400, is one true believer.

"If you want to buy something that runs your business and doesn't drive you
out of business, this is the platform," said Lakner, now Vice President of
Business Integrators Inc., a Houston software and hardware service company.

He belongs to a surprisingly large unofficial AS/400 community.

"Worldwide, there are probably 200,000 to 300,000 'loyalists'," he said.
"It's somewhat cultish or cliquish."

Lakner and the server's other vocal supporters have good reason for their
devotion, says Tom Bittman, a Stamford, Conn., analyst with research firm
Gartner Group. The server is both reliable and easy to use.

"It's very easy to administer," he said. "It absolutely takes fewer skills to
administer an AS/400 than any other system out there doing the same workload."

This makes it a good bet for companies focused more on the bottom line than on
having the latest and greatest technology, Bittman says.

It's also easy to upgrade -- and it handles older applications smoothly, he
says.

Unique Capabilities

And although Microsoft Corp. and makers of UNIX software are investing heavily
in getting servers to handle "mixed workloads" -- running multiple
applications -- the AS/400 already does it, he says.

"There are some unique capabilities in the AS/400," he said.

The AS/400 is the Lear Jet of servers, and it makes everything else look like
wheelbarrows, says another ardent supporter, Skip Marchesani, a Newton, N.J.,
information technology consultant specializing in server
databases.

Marchesani, who retired after 30 years at IBM and also worked with the AS/400,
has nothing but good things to say about it.

"The AS/400 happens to be the best IT system in the industry today," he said.
"Anyone who approaches it with an open mind is amazed."

Sue Aldrich, an analyst at the Patricia Seybold Group, has unique insights
into the server. She was an IBM system programmer when she came up with the
product concept and organized a group to prove that it was technically viable.

Varied Reasons

Why does she think her brainchild has done so well?

"The reasons are somewhat muddled," she said. " They're partly economic and
partly emotional."

Of course, inertia may be contributing to the AS/400's staying power.

It's tough to persuade people to look at a new system, she says. They've
invested time and money in the old one and feel they have it under control.

What's more, the idea of moving billions of bytes of data to the new system is
daunting, Aldrich says.

AS/400's famed reliability makes users even more nervous about upgrading, she
says.

One AS/400 user has not rebooted their server in a year and a half, Aldrich
says.  And it was a server that thousands were using every day.

"The basic architecture of that machine was obviously well-designed. And, you
can keep adding to it. There's no incentive to move," Aldrich said.

Surviving Disasters

AS/400s also have a Calamity Jane role in server lore of surviving every
disaster and coming up smiling.

A tornado tore through an office housing AS/400s at a Fort Worth, Texas
application service provider last year.

It forced the company to temporary digs, but workers were able to quickly
reboot the server and resume business, says IBM's Flaada.

The original, low-end AS/400 sold for $24,500. It retails today for $10,000.

Now IBM is doing its best not to rest on its laurels.

The AS/400 evolved into the Eserver Iseries in October. And IBM is eager to
show that, though the basics are the same, its a horse of a different color.

"The current Iseries product line is very different from the AS/400," Dallman
said. "We've introduced new technology, but the reasons that customers love
the AS/400 are still there."

Regards,
Tim

Timothy J. Dallman
IBM Server Group Media Relations
3605 Highway 52 North
Rochester, MN 55901
phone: 507.253.8838  tie line: 553
fax: 507.253.0305
tdallman@us.ibm.com
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