RE: What About Price vs. Performance?

Joe,

You HAVE to put that on a web page somewhere (yours?) for posterity. It's
the best AS/400 argument I have seen for a very long time! Copy it across to
the advocacy list!

Alistair (the other one)

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
[mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Joe Pluta
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2001 8:41 PM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: What About Price vs. Performance?


Nathan, I have heard this particular point raised by dozens of people, and
the answer is always the same: TCO vs. initial price.

You keep saying you want answers to counterbalance the PERCEIVED
price/performance benefit of Intel.  So, what do you want?  Do you want
someone to say that the AS/400 is cheaper than the Intel box?  Well, it's
not and won't be.  Ever.  Just like Wintel is more expensive than Linux.  If
I go to Linux, I can throw together a 1GHz, 1GB machine with 80GB of fast
disk for about $1000.  This machine will absolutely scream for web
application serving, by far beating the pants off of anything else you can
get for a grand.  So anyone who says Wintel is the right answer should
REALLY be looking at Linux.

So why don't we move all of our applications to Linux?  Well, because Linux
is harder to maintain and doesn't scale nicely and doesn't have all the
wonderful development tools I'm used to on the AS/400 for building
large-scale business applications.  Try to write a working business
application in C++ that accesses customer data, tracks promotions and deals,
provides picking and ship confirmation from lot numbers, supports government
licensing (such as FDA), projects requirements, manages your warehouse,
prints orders and pick lists with bar coding, accepts payments of all types,
handles dunning, supports RMAs, performs currency translations, provides
online inquiries into historical data going back for years, and integrates
with a multi-company, multi-currency general ledger.

Ain't gonna do it.  You're not going to do it in Visual Basic, either.

So, if you don't, and won't ever, need the trappings of an enterprise
business application, maybe you don't need an AS/400.  Unless you need
things like a single-tape backup, 24/7 operation, easy to use menuing
systems, 99.9% uptime, and integrated web and email serving all on a single
machine.  A machine that has regular OS upgrades that don't break your
existing applications and can usually be done overnight without a whole lot
of technical knowledge.  Oh, and did I mention the fact that the AS/400 has
never had a native virus?  And that it runs COBOL and RPG, two of the best
languages for writing business applications?  With a native database?  And
it supports Java natively?  And SQL?  And can act as your central server,
not just for email, but for printing and file serving as your company grows?

But it costs more than a Wintel box.  Yes indeed.  But you get what you pay
for.  And if you can't sell that, then you need to learn Linux, because
that's how you can hook the bottom feeders.  A nice Linux box for web
serving, a Wintel desktop and Microsoft Office for all those pesky back-end
needs, and a 24/7 pager link to the consultant.

Joe

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Nathan M. Andelin" <nathanma@haaga.com>
Reply-To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 11:40:27 -0600

>In my opinion, the appropriate place for Windows is on the desktop.  The
appropriate place for OS/400 is for hosting database applications, Web and
otherwise.   One of the obsticles, is this issue of price vs. performance.
The true cost of ownership argument makes sense to me, but that kind of
thing is hard to define.  Price and performance are real easy to understand.

Microsoft, and others are doing a good job of spreading the message that PCs
handle large volumes of transactions, cost less, and can be deployed in
farms.  People get the impression that a server is a simple commodity.  If
it fails, just get another one and plug it into the rack.

In raising this thread, I've been looking for answers to counter-balance the
price vs. performance advantage offered by Intel.  Thanks to those who have
answered.  Hopefully, more will respond.

Nathan.


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