Re: iSeries as a file server was: How Secure is Windows, Really?

[Larry Bolhuis <lbolhuis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

And Linux on i is even faster than x on i. Raw disk price does continue 
to be a factor this much is true. BUT if you consider true cost of 
ownership you still save money with an i. I see customers routinely 
struggle with disk space on other platforms. They end up replacing 
servers because the one they have won't take more disk units. More cost 
more downtime more risk. They also struggle with backups on all those 
separate servers.  They struggle with SANs and such in attempts to get 
past disk limits on their servers. Just this weekend one of my customers 
with a non IBM SAN spend much of the weekend down and as of late last 
night even some i partitions were down because they had some disk in 
ASP(1) on the SAN. No SAN no ASP(1). Big problem.

But the i itself is a very good SAN. IXS, IXA, iSCSI, Linux AIX, i5/OS 
all sharing the same pool of disk. A pool easily expanded to (*some 
really big number) on the fly. We can even add new towers now without 
power down or IPL. Rock Solid Reliability. Hot maintenance by a company 
who actually has spare parts and local service folk.  I for one like 
being able to trust my system with my data.

If Rochester could get disk prices down this argument would be mute as 
there wouldn't be any reason NOT to use your i for everything.

- L

rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >From Joe:
> You say the iSeries is a good file server, but quite honestly it
> is NOT a good file server.  The disk is relatively slow for stream file
> access and is much more expensive.
>
> Joe: 
> I agree that the iSeries is not a good file server.  Disk price is one big 
> factor.  The other is NOT disk speed.  It is the operating system.  Using 
> the same disk hardware, etc, but using an IXS card with Windows loaded on 
> it made a significant difference in speed.
>
> Rob Berendt
>