RE: What counts as technically slick?

[booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

All we really need is a laptop running OS/400. 

_______________________
Booth Martin
Booth@MartinVT.com
http://www.MartinVT.com
_______________________




"Mark Villa" <markvilla@knology.net>
Sent by: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
04/06/2001 07:30 AM
Please respond to MIDRANGE-L

 
        To:     <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
        cc: 
        Subject:        RE: What counts as technically slick?

Your text :In my opinion "good enough" is the biggest single
Your text :enemy facing the AS/400.

Easy to agree... I think an excellent explanation to "RPG readers" without
your accessibility to global views, but:
1) a myopic view of the reasons.
2) there are no enemies...

As far as RPG goes, we need conversion tools, don't release a version
without a way to automate conversion and testing. Instant gratification is
the marching orders we are conforming to.
Proactive: make all language barriers as smooth as CISC to RISC migration
Reactive: Drop S/36 mode support
=================================================
I think these are the things to recognize and fix:

1) IBM positioning against mainframe and other platforms as red headed
stepchild, since day one! IBM should mail a roadmap to every customer
explaining "what to do" and "when to AS/400 it" when your business needs
change, every quarter. If the AS/400 is out of sight..it is out of mind...
If you are in an "AS/400 only" shop, you can't appreciate this enough.

2) Industry lack of "how to" minimize a companies risk to convert. We 
don't
take unnecessary risks, translated to spend money needlessly. I should not
have to tell my manager that I need a school or 3 weeks time to convert 
RPG
II to the new way without wrecking the company or using all of his
resources. You can forget justifying outside help, where is the ROI? That
language means -zilch- to his business. I should be able to type in 
migrate
LIB(PRODLIB). The testing alone is hard to justify. There are too many 
other
things on the "to do" list. The users are crying for new function not
infrastructure.

3) Lack of media coverage. The "household name" effect. Perception...is
everything... Our state (SC) chief justice laid out her technology plan 
last
month. It describes the AS/400 as an obscure "green screen" computer that
requires hard to find specialists. In other words, holding it's users
captive, where as the proposed central GUI based server is going to
magically free our judicial system. The justification: Public safety. Our
green screens are hampering justice! The big consulting firms never
recommend the AS/400 outside of "ERP for midsize manufactures" do they? 
This
should be a hot sheet item at IBM.

4) IBM has no "killer App" for the AS/400, ERP is it's anchor I would 
think.
-examples SEU - like Xedit, CICS/400 like CICS, IFS like PC & Unix, 
Database
like DB2, 5250 like 3270, S36/mode like S/36. No originals. The fact that
they are all on one box is the brilliance. I can't imagine spending 350K 
on
an iSeries and then a month later going out to buy an email server (fresh
install, not migration) for a different platform, within a constrained
budget? Can you believe this happens?

Big shops
=========
negative acceptance from the mainframe shops of the AS/400 mentality since
day one. System's programmers from the mainframe world generally talk down
any AS/400 solution to management. I think that's why Linux is so popular,
besides the perception of low costs. It's a technical nightmare and a 
techy
thing. (It takes one to know one)

Medium Shops
============
For the last few years, if another platform has a known solution, AS/400
needs a "ideal" solution to win. Usually, there is an array from choices
within NT and 1 reasonable choice for AS/400, other than in-house. Few
managers care for the AS/400, the under appreciated box. NT is usually the
box to beat, even though AS/400 programmers know it is usually a mistake 
for
business this carries no weight. Native GUI has sex appeal that is
impossible to ignore.

Small installs
==============
Did not want to pay to begin with much less convert something that is
working.

============================================================================
=

Mark in Charleston SC

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