On 5/10/07, Buck <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Steve Richter wrote:
> George Farr says he and the development tools team now report to the
> IBM Rational division. What about ILE and the compilers? Does this
> mean no more new RPG BIFs?
quoting from the System i Network article
> customers. We expect to have a broad focus on the System i platform,
> and we are quite excited about better serving the needs of System i
> customers.
I'm struggling to find the words in the article that might lead one to
ask whether IBM is stopping development on RPG. In particular, he seems
rather excited. Reading between the lines, it might be argued that not
having to split revenue/time/people between Rational's accountants and
IBM's accountants will make RPG enhancements easier to fund.
I personally think of it as yet another internal IBM alignment. In the
past, RPG got renamed Websphere Development Studio ILE RPG but we still
saw new cool things happen with RPG, despite being under the 'Websphere'
umbrella. I can't see that changing the name to 'Rational' will be much
different.
you make a point Buck, but ...
George Farr:
"...We expect to have a broad focus on the System i platform, and we
are quite excited about better serving the needs of System i customers
..."
"...We are absolutely thrilled to see such a vibrant and interested
community of developers around System i! We appreciate the kind of
direct, well thought out, and constructive feedback that we've seen
over the last several weeks on this topic, and we look forward to
interacting much more with the System i community. I am looking
forward to continuing to work with all of our loyal customers. ..."
Mark Shearer:
"...Speaking to him later, Shearer explained why IBM was focused on
the i5/OS and OS/400 accounts instead of on i5 system sales. ..."
"..."We not going to push people to new technology--they're already
there," Shearer admitted. "And we want to do a better job selling
blade servers, SANs, and other technologies to System i customers. We
still have some work to do to make the selling seamless." ..."
"...When pressed about the potential for getting real growth for the
i5 systems themselves, Shearer did not want to get into any specifics.
"It depends on how you look at the boundaries," he said. "If you
define it in a holistic way, I believe that can grow. I am thinking of
the System i as a marketplace, not as a processor and an operating
system. We need to make it easier to integrate these products and
encourage companies to buy IBM's products." ..."
Timothy Prickett Morgan:
"...That may not be the answer that many people want to hear, but it
is an honest one. ..."
Back to me:
George Farr refers to Rational having a broad focus on the system i.
I interpret that as bringing more Java, PHP, Linux apps to the system.
Farr also says IBM loves the system i customer base. Shearer says he
wants to sell more blade servers, SANS and other technologies to the
system i customer base.
I am not an advocate, just interested in the topic. I think what is
going on is IBM is trying to beat Oracle and MSFT to the punch in
terms of selling system i customers on the "broader" IBM product set.
-Steve
midrange.com
