One of the issues that comes up is how you can compete.
On one hand, there are demands to see exactly what the Linux or WINTEL
world has and in some cases it does not make sense. Alternatively, the
need is not as critical in our world. # of cores, blade devices, and
clock speed, SAN, etc. I am not saying those are bad - but there are
core groups of people who look at the System i and expect it to be
exactly what the LINUX and Wintel world is. Sometimes it works and
sometimes it does not. Sometimes it is a real need, sometimes it is a
perception. And sometimes the request does not make any sense. It is
just made because someone else does it.
For example, I am constantly ridiculed for not using external storage.
I would like to but the impact to the .03 of an FTE that we use to
manage our storage, performance, and backup environment would be
severely impacted. Is it good? You bet. Is it a good business
decision for my company? Not even close. Same thing with blade
devices. Do we need blade devices for the System i? In some scenarios,
the answer will be yes. I do not really need them.
On the other hand, I believe that LINUX and WINTEL have a very
compelling pricing strategy. They constantly strive for the cheapest
acquisition point in every sense - hardware, software, etc. IBM and the
System i almost never take that approach. On top of that certain
information is not always readily available in the price list world that
everyone else lives in. The result is that the System i is almost never
the cheapest system to acquire. In most scenarios that is the way it
is. In a decent number of cases you will see the System i solution
mispriced.
For example, I know of a very good traditional System i shop that did a
price comparison between WINTEL for an ERP solution with HA built in.
CBU had been announced and available for a long time. They did not use
it in their price comparison. Amazingly, the System i came in more
expensive. In addition, they pointed their fingers at the cost of the
HA systems. Well duh. I will bet you will read somewhere about how
this company saved money by moving from the System i. Moreover, most
people will not know the true story....
Moreover, while we like to talk the game most businesses and IT
departments would not know Cost of Ownership if it begged them all night
long. Granted, it can be a grey area but in all honesty, it seems to me
that most businesses and IT professionals do not understand it and only
are awarded for making low cost acquisitions.
While it is not perfect and for certain scenarios it may not help at
all, some of the recent pricing actions are steps in the right
direction. Capacity backup, user based pricing, and application server
pricing help. All without making a technical change.
Decoupling certain functions makes no sense to me. Charging me for what
I use and keeping that formula simple and understandable makes more
sense. I just hope they can do both the former and the latter at the
same time...
:-)
Michael Crump
Manager, Computing Services
Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc.
1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
Muncie, IN 47302
765.741.7696
765.741.7012 f
Don't draw fire, it irritates the people around you.
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-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[
mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of albartell
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 10:25 AM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: Hardware (was: System i Innovation Award
--CommunitySupportcategory)
Please re-read what I said Steve. Like others stated it is new sales
AND
existing maint. Obviously IBM is going to get more maint off of an
iSeries
because a lot more is bundled with most installs (i.e. DB2, OS400,
WDS5722,
etc).
Another interesting thing (and I don't know if it was you Steve or
somebody
else that was saying this) is that some on this list think they should
decouple EVERYTHING to do with the System i5 (i.e. take off
DB2/OS400/etc)
so people don't have to pay for that out of the box. On the flip
(linux)
side I see distros wanting to ship their code with the best and most
used
toolsets (i.e. Dell with Unbuntu and OpenOffice/FireFox/Evolution/etc)
to
save the headache of finding/downloading/installing these tools after a
purchase. Why are we fighting to go away from "prepackaged" when others
are
heading towards it?
I think we sometimes put ourselves into the mindset that if System i5
scenarios aren't how Windows or Linux does it then we need to change so
we
can compete in the race when in all reality the System i5 is much
further
along in certain areas compared to other platforms. I would consider
prepackaging the DB and OS as one such case.
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[
mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Steve Richter
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 8:56 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Hardware (was: System i Innovation Award --
CommunitySupportcategory)
On 5/3/07, albartell <albartell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sales are down 6 quarters in a row. 2 more quarters of down sales and
IBM
might pull the plug on the system.
Steve, as you are making your statements please be aware of this
tidbit fact I picked up at COMMON from the mouth of Mark Shearer (and
I paraphrase) "The combination of support and sales of System i5
hardware accounts for 1/2 of IBM's hardware monies". I don't believe
the System i5 is going anywhere soon and making statements saying IBM
is going to pull the plug is simply silly IMO.
you say silly, I say bullsh** ;) How does Shearer come up with that
number?
Based on reports in ITJungle, the z,x and p are each doing $1B sales per
quarter and the i is less than $250M. That puts system i hardware sales
at
less than 10% of the total. How does 10% become 50%??
-Steve
midrange.com
