No OS upgrade adds anything to a "Stable shop running a package and not much else". Not even a Windows or Linux upgrade. Problem is when you hardware gets so long in the tooth that reliability becomes a problem, you are probably so far behind the times that an upgrade is completely unsupported, and very hard to do. And you may have applications that can't be installed or upgraded on one machine or the other, or a multi-step upgrade is required. That kind of stuff is far harder than going from 5.4 to 6.1. Once you fall off the upgrade path, everything becomes more difficult.
Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: -----
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Evan Harris
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: 02/17/2011 04:43PM
Subject: Re: Is V7R1 catching on?
I don't disagree with your basic premise of going 7.1 instead of 6.1,
but out of curiousity, can you highlight for me what new feature(s)
are in 7.1 vs 5.3 or 5.4 that will save money over a vendor supplied
package or by some productivity gain ?
PDF printing is about the only one I can think of and I wouldn't
regard that by itself as a compelling reason to upgrade (in fact I'd
be embarrassed to lead a "why you should upgrade with this as the best
reason I could think of). Every other feature really was a minor
improvement that adds nothing to a stable shop running a package an
not doing much of anything else.
Offset the cost savings you imply (which I believe to be virtually
non-existent) against the cost of upgrading:
- Object Conversion
- Package updates/upgrades as a result of object conversion
- Potential changes due to Java SDK changes (7.1)
- Potential changes to deal with Anynet withdrawal (7.1)
Don't forget, for those customers still on V5R3 going to V7R1 is not a
supported upgrade (forget the fact that they shouldn't be, they are
out there).
The reality is for those customers that were wavering or uncommitted
6.1/7,1 is a tough sell. There is fair degree of effort required to go
to either release from V5R4
On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 5:53 AM, <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Everyone has influence. Your company expects you to say "I've been
reading the 7.1 highlights and I think that if we take advantage of some
of it's new features we can save money by not buying a vendor package for
something that's already included in the base." Or "..we can really use
feature xyz and increase our productivity". Or "... give department abc
that feature they wanted". Or ...
Not speaking up for a V5R4 to 7.1 upgrade that shouldn't cost any more
than a V5R4 to 6.1 upgrade is wasting the companies money. If they decide
not to, well, at least you did your part.
Rob Berendt
--
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
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