Re: Casino switches to AIX

Trevor,

I am a huge proponent of the system. I was just reporting my recent observations in my little corner of the world. The conclusion I have come to, is that even the Midrange Faithful are NO LONGER faithful!

IMHO, that is HUGE! The bread and butter income from this platform is not from new accounts. It's from the already converted. If they feel that they are be abandoned in any way or if it becomes less than cost effective to stay with the platform, inertia will probably not retain them.

Bringing PHP (and any popular PASE apps) to the i is a brilliant way of getting additional applications to the system. But, the biggest obstacles still remain for the many million lines of existing code: How can John Doe software vendor and Jill production shop refactor their system or develop new systems by leveraging their existing software and their in-house talent???

This is the reality that I'm dealing with. I can't just tell the client that he now has to hire a PHP guy to maintain his new system. Screen scraping is a short term solution at best. 3rd party solutions are not cheap and should not be necessary. It's about time that one of the promises of the box (simplicity) be applied to a very basic functionality: The GUI. This is what my clients want to see. I can't deliver that in a cost effective manner now.

-mark


At 11/17/08 03:31 PM, you wrote:

Mark,

I know there are people moving from IBM i. And to add to that, there are a
lot of people consolidating their IBM i footprints, reducing the number of
servers. However, the point is that crying and wailing about it does not
make it come back. Doom, gloom and FUD exacerbate the negativity.

On the other hand, I think IBM ~is~ doing something about the platform.
- They made IBM i run on Power Systems, and the logo says "i for business".
- They brought PHP to the platform, and opened up a world for all your
"younger generation". (Check out the YiPs at www.youngiprofessionals.com).
- They have applied resources to the VIP program, focusing on applications
on i. While it is not the nirvana yet that we would like, I am expecting
more to come from this program.
- Did you notice all the IBM executives at COMMON in Nashville? We got their
attention, and I think IBM i has been noticed. I don't think Ross Mauri
would have said 'strategic' otherwise.

I think there are more IBM i systems to be sold in the future, regardless of
the midrange-L doom and gloom.

Trevor


On 11/17/08 2:15 PM, "M. Lazarus" <mlazarus@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Trevor,
>
> I am seeing more and more companies either moving away or at least
> seriously looking into moving away from the i.
>
> This is partly due to marketing and partly to the notion that it's
> old technology. All the evangelizing by people who have a major
> vested interest in it (e.g. us, the software vendors/developers) will
> not convince the younger generation that it's superior. [Note: This
> is NOT intended to rewaken the old "what's wrong with the system" debate.]
>
> I'm just reporting on what I'm seeing as the general attitude of
> existing (let alone NEW potential) customers. This exists even in
> long-time midrange accounts, across industries.
>
> -mark