Re: V6R1

On Feb 12, 2008 2:47 PM, <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I think you're just going to have to accept that hardware in the iSeries
is going to be more expensive than hardware in the xSeries. So, are you

I've accepted that a long time ago, but that doesn't mean that i have
to find it "good" or even "okay". Or are you telling me that System i
disk prices are completely reasonable?

A model 515 with two mirrored 70GB disks and 1 GB RAM is slower than
my laptop. Why? Because i5/OS is very I/O intensive, and would need a
lot more disks and RAM to perform. However, at around 3000 CHF per
70GB Disk Drive (compared to around 500 CHF for the similar System x
drive), our customers just can't afford a decent disk loadout.

Of course, you do not care. Your companies IT budget is extremely
high, and you get all the fancy toys and LPARs you need - 3000 CHF (or
rather, the US$ aequivalent) is chump change to you. But that isn't
true for everyone.

Stop assuming. What makes you think you couldn't send your tapes in? Did
you ask?

I'm not our IBM contact person, but i've learned that IBM is a very
inflexible and slow company when you're not a big customer (e.g., like
you). We're just a Small Business, and so are our customers. IBM
doesn't care about the small fishes, and perhaps rightly so. It is not
up to me to decide this.

It took IBM One and a Half Year to fix a very simple color mismatch in
their AFP Printing Driver. This is a heck a lot of time, and it
probably would have been different if an important customer had the
same probably.

Add other problems, like the HMC i ordered 4 or 5 months ago, and
still isn't here (it's an administrative issue, something about
discounts and prices, not a technical/shipping problem).

If you think you make enough money performing upgrades for people to
justify buying current hardware, or a test machine, then buy one.

I'm not our CEO. These decisions are not up to me.

Otherwise, be honest with the people on the first client that this is the
first one you've done and go from there.

You aren't the one who has to take the flak when something goes awry.
And my boss sure isn't either. It's going to be me. And i need to get
proper testing done WITHOUT spending tons of funds that i don't get.
Microsoft makes that possible. IBM doesn't.

We have such a test machine. Granted, it's a little dated and won't see
V6R1 (270). It's in the budget to be replaced for that reason alone. But
we got enough lpars that we'll start out V6R1 on some of the less
necessary ones.

See, that's just the whole "dimension" difference that i think you're
not seeing. We don't have single LPAR capable machine.

Expensive for most shops? Probably. Then again, so is a HA solution,
tape drives that save in a reasonable amount of time and various other
items.

I won't ever see HA as long as i'm working in this company. Just
different perspectives at work.