Re: Lower End AS/400s -- MIDRANGE-L

Might I ask what you guys mean by needing an army of support staff?

I have run upwards of 25-30 linux based servers by myself .   . 99.9% uptime
(extended power outages . .what can i say? . i can't have batts that last
over 10 hours).

The 400 does a phenominal job of taking care of itself . but so does any
system that you setup properly.


I think where the true difference lies is the fact that iseries folks tend
to know their machines better than PC guys .  .a good tech is a good tech. .
.a good sys admin is a good sys admin . .the goals of a good sys admin are
the same regardless of the architecture/OS you work with.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr Syd Nicholson" <sydnic@ccs400.com>
To: <midrange-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 6:05 PM
Subject: Re: Lower End AS/400s


> I have experienced this many times. The up front cost of the iSeries
> seems to be expensive.
>
> On the other hand the iSeries does not need an army of technicians to
> keep it happy, to change its diaper every time it hiccups. In the longer
> term, the iSeries is a much cheaper option. Windows servers possibly the
> most expensive. The cost is not just the hardware, or the software, but
> in the cost of additional support staff, disruption to business when
> things go wrong, etc, etc.
>
> With the increased integration built into OS/400, the iSeries is many
> servers in one allowing a degree of  business and application
> integration that is second to none.
>
> When comparing costs, many people only see the prices of the
> hardware/software and can't see beyond it. A true review should also
> include all the other ancillary costs as well (eg. staffing, training,
> staff turn over, downtime, etc).
>
> Perhaps you could persuade your 'strategists' to look at a second hand
> machine. I use a second hand 270 and a second hand 720, all obtained at
> very respectable prices.
>
> Syd Nicholson
>
>
>
> Dan Rasch wrote:
>
> >Just got back from one of those 'strategic' meetings, and learned why
> >the company is migrating away from the AS/400.  The reason is the
> >price of an entry model has become prohibitive.  We were using the
> >machines as a combination server/processor, and the combination of
> >only supporting the last two releases (with the required hardware
> >upgrades to support these releases) has priced the AS/400 out the back
> >door.
> >
> >Whatever happened to Alan Alda's water pail and supporting customers
> >from the tiniest seedlings to a forest of giant Redwoods?  Why does IBM
> >think the AS/400 has to be the next generation of mainframes?
> >
> >Does anyone have similar experiences, or is this a perception thing?
> >
> >Couseling is in session.  You may approach the bench.......
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing
list
> To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
> visit: http://lists.midrange.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/midrange-l
> or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@midrange.com
> Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
> at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
>