RE: Question about UDB on iSeries

> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [SMTP:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] 
> On Behalf Of rick baird
> Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 9:29 AM
> To:   Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> Subject:      Re: Question about UDB on iSeries
> 
> I believe you will find that i5 DB2 has all you will need (and maybe
> more) wrapped tightly into the OS.  There are very few things you need
> to do to maintain your db, for it is virtually maintenance free.
[]  
I'm getting this idea. It's just alien to a person who has been in the 
"mainframe" world since the 370/148 and OS/VS1.

> The larger question might be what types of applications you will be
> using - will you be porting zOS applications to iseries?  If so, in
> what language(s)?  or will you be purchasing new native iseries
> applications or developing your own?
[]  

This will be a conversion of all of our z/OS applications. When finished, z/OS 
and zSeries go away. No OEM applications, just some other software such as 
BRMS, Robot/???, and a couple of others that I cannot remember off-hand. The 
vendor says that they can convert all of our batch and CICS programs (COBOL, 
assembler, EasyTrieve, etc) to something, mainly ILE COBOL, which will run 
natively on the iSeries (not using CICS for iSeries or whatever it's called). 
We mainly do our own development.

> The answers to these questions, IMO, are probably your biggest hurdles
> for moving to the platform.  I've seen some mainframe software that
> was ported to iseries, and it's not pretty.  there are many things
> that you HAVE to do in a mainframe environment to access the database
> (and visual I/O as well) that are very much different and probably
> easier when done on iseries.   your mileage may vary.
> 
> One thing is for sure - you've found arguably the best resource
> (midrange.com) to point you in the right direction for your endeavour,
> and you'll find that everyone here is more than happy to help you in
> your decision making.
> 
> We just love it when other platforms move to ours.  We LOVE the
> iseries, and most of us believe there's no better platform to be
> found.
[]  
Here's hoping that, if we convert, we use the iSeries. We have a proposal to go 
to a **SINGLE**, non-clustered Windows platform as well as to Sun/Solaris. I 
may be able to keep my job if we go to iSeries. If we go to one of the other 
two, I'm outta here. Even on the iSeries, there really doesn't seem to be as 
much of a need for a "heavy techie". Of course, as I recall, that is a big 
selling point.

> Good luck,
> 
> Rick
> 
  

> --
> John McKown
> Senior Systems Programmer
> UICI Insurance Center
> Information Technology
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