TigerTools? Overpriced iSeries?

["Reeve Fritchman" <reeve@xxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
TigerTools may have come up with an interesting sleight-of-hand, but IBM is
an intellectual property company and IBM knows how to protect its assets.  I
doubt there is any iSeries technology (including the functionality of CFINT)
not protected by several clauses and phrases in customer licensing
documents.  What’s the difference between Tiger Tools and tweaking the
Capacity-On-Demand function?  Any IT person installing even the demo version
exposes him and his employer to unpleasant legal consequences, and that IT
person is a fool to take the risk without the blessing of his organization’s
senior management and legal counsel.

Doesn’t anybody find it interesting that the author of Fast400 remains (to
chooses to be) unnamed?

There are a lot of people on this list with a remarkable amount of technical
knowledge, but don’t let your pocket protectors get in the way: this is a
business issue.  IBM’s explicit pricing of interactive features indicates
their intent to sell that capacity; making interactive programs look like
batch programs in an effort to circumvent a known and agreed-to (in the
contracts) restriction is not the same as making interactive programs run
faster in the same (interactive) mode.

IBM has a long history of selling capacity; it goes back to the high-speed
and low-speed switch on System/3 5440 disk drives (and likely before that).
This is no different than software pricing by processor groups except
somebody’s found a way to get around the restriction.

I hope the clowns jumping for joy over Fast400 don’t screw it up for the
rest of us willing to pay for interactive capacity.  If they can’t
cost-justify iSeries because their applications aren’t continuing to provide
increasing value, try the NT and System/36 paths.

IBM’s business practices?  Yes, they suck, and that’s the way it is.  Is
this a surprise to anybody with any experience as an IBM customer?  But we
encounter the same mind-bending frustrations with First Union Bank, or
Charles Schwab, or the IRS, or the City of Tampa meter maid department, or
nearly every other organization.  Vote with your wallet!

The iSeries isn’t overpriced, it’s sub-functional.  Okay, maybe a _little_
overpriced…

Reeve Fritchman
Transportation Technology Group, Inc.
4915 S. Westshore Boulevard
Tampa, Florida 33611
813-831-8574 (voice)
800-NEED-LTL (voice)
813-832-6391 (fax)
reeve@transtechgroup.com <mailto:reeve@transtechgroup.com>  (e-mail)
reeve@ltl400.com <mailto:reeve@ltl400.com>  (e-mail)

--