NT vs AS/400

["Nathan M. Andelin" <nathanma@xxxxxxxxx>]

> There is nothing inherent in an non-as400 solution that
> forces you to design by crossing hardware tiers.

This statement deserves qualification, John.  Does your company host it's
database on one computer, and it's applications on another (or several
others)?  If so, then your company is in-line with the majority of shops
that deploy NT / W2K applications.  Indeed, a great deal of Microsoft's
server architecture is devoted to the n-tier concept.  Microsoft recommends,
for example, that SQL Server be deployed on a stand alone computer.
Actually Microsoft recommends the same for Exchange and IIS too.  What is
the reason?  Mostly stability.  Complex application environments tend to
destablize Windows.  I still frequently hear my NT counterparts recommending
n-tier hardware as the best way to manage reliability in an Windows server
environment.

Consider this.  If you needed to deploy 50 different application servers in
a Windows environment, speaking of software components.  Would you divide
them across multiple NT servers?  If the answer is yes, then you should be
able to relate to the reliability and simplicity of an iSeries solution.
Especially an ILE based solution.

> As a final thought, I'd like to ask you to consider *why* IBM
> is moving away from the low end of the server market with the
> new iSeries. Perhaps OS/400 isn't nearly as strategic to them
> as it is to you. Here's an interesting article with Dr. Frank that
> I think you'll find quite illuminating:

We're getting mixed signals from IBM.  And I haven't been able to sort this
out.  IBM recently announced a 1070 CPW system with a base price of $10,700.
A new model 270 offers 15 - 20 times the performance of my 15 month old
server for about the same cost.  This tends to confirm IBM's commitment to
the small server market.  On the other hand, many new OS/400 features apply
primarily to mainframe class computers.  It makes people wonder where the
iSeries is headed.

Nathan.


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