RE: Saving the System i: Fight Rather Than Switch

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Jones, John (US)
>
> So for under $25K I'd have 16 cores, 32GB
> RAM, and all the trimmings.  Can the iSeries compete with that?  Because
> like it or not, iSeries iNtegration advantages or not, like the platform
> or not, this is what it boils down to.

Nope.  This is NOT a workload for an iSeries.  You are better served with a
dedicated web appliance.  Personally, though, I'd go with Linux or FreeBSD
running Apache/Tomcat rather than WebSphere on Windows because the licensing
would be much cheaper.

You know I'm one of the biggest iSeries evangelists out there, John, and I'm
saying specifically that this is the WRONG JOB for that box.  Unless, of
course, you're worried about backup and data security.  Which you can get on
the Dell, but it will cost a bit more than the $25K you've mentioned,
especially if you have separate, redundant database which require mirroring.

On the other hand, what is your business logic?  Are you running RPG and
using DB2?  Because if you are you can have the business logic on the
iSeries, along with the database, and then have a very reliable easy to
backup solution which probably wouldn't require data mirroring because of
the added reliability of the box.  You could do this on a very low-cost
iSeries.

Then you could in turn reduce the size of the web appliance and get two, for
failover purposes, and maybe even invest in another Internet connection (and
redundant switches and so on).

The problem is not the iSeries, it's the business requirement.  If you don't
need data security, the web appliance is a great option.  But if you want
both data security and relatively low-cost web serving, a combination
solution might be the best.

Joe