RE: Why is the iSeries so slow

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Ken.Slaugh@xxxxxxxxxx
> 
> Don't get me wrong Joe. I want the iSeries to be fast enough to keep
> customers from porting new applications to a PC based solution because
the
> iSeries does not perform fast enough to compete.

If your customers don't understand the concepts of scalability and data
security, then you aren't educating them properly.  I would think that
any CFO worth their salt would take one look at the security issues with
Windows and decide that mission critical data probably shouldn't go on a
machine that regularly becomes vulnerable to complete control security
exploits.

Fast enough to compete?  Perhaps on small queries.  Not on anything that
actually does work.  And so let's address that.


> I'm a RPG programmer too. But when the customer can get the
application
> running without me on a ODBC to SQL solution without me then I lose
the
> business. To compete, I too have been adjusting my programming skills.
> Advantage or not the ease of creating and ADO connection is very
> attractive
> to the end user who obtains the knowledge to do so. Once they get up
to
> speed they most often attempt to use the iSeries as a back end
database
> server and are not pleased with the throughput. They then turn to a
> porting
> solution and port the data to another platform. From the end user's
point
> of view, the iSeries appears to be too slow.

Once again, this is an issue of perception and education.  End users
don't write applications.  Typically what we see with end user
development is a requirement to quickly develop queries; this is
considered an "application".  It is not, because there are no business
rules in place.  Because once end users are defining business rules on
their desktops, then your database integrity is gone.

So the issue here is whether end users can quickly get data out of the
box for their queries.  If this is truly something you are losing
business on, you might want to consider replication or other data
caching mechanisms.  Or you could use a query tool; there are several
commercially available ones.

But if your customer base is small end users who simply want a
query-capable database with no real requirements as to security, uptime,
or scalability, then yes, I'd definitely suggest becoming really good at
SQL Server.

Joe