RE: IBM will announce two new System i models, 515 and 525 on Apr. 10.

Sounds a lot like what IBM proposed!? Yep. We wanted a box that would

"compete" with Windows and, at least at the licensing level, we got
*exactly* what we asked for: Complete parity with Windows Server. Just

replace "Windows CAL" with "User Entitlement" and you have the IBM
licensing recommendation.

Almost... But you can front-end your web applications with as many
windows 2003 WEB EDITION servers as you want and you don't need CALs if
they're just accessing back-end databases. Since this is how you would
setup the environment anyway, 1 (or more) FE web servers, with 1 BE
database server all is dandy. Of course, you would most likely want a
processor license to SQLServer. But the point is, you don't need the
CALs with web edition.

Then there's the interesting question... One FE windows web edition
server with one BE iSeries i 515 and a common connection string. There
is only one box accessing the iSeries and only one user (call it
'WEBUSER') accessing the iSeries, so now what? Is this different than
having a human logged into the iSeries servicing 100s of customers over
the phone?

-Walden