RE: Where can I find a list of current IBM i companies?

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-
bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Raul A. Jager W.
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 9:09 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Where can I find a list of current IBM i companies?

It is very simple to write a program to consume a web service in xml
using HTTPapi

Paul Raulerson wrote:

On Oct 17, 2013, at 4:58 PM, "Stone, Joel" <Joel.Stone@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

No systems are simple to integrate with another system. Period.


Just doesn't happen, there are always glitches and annoying problems.

Guaranteed. Doesn't matter if it is Microsoft, IBM,
Burroughs/Sperry/Loonisys, Linux, or some mix of all of them - you can bet
there >are going to be unexpected difficulties.

The issue is NOT how simple to integrate. Agreed they are ALL

challenging. The issue is that when the city wants to integrate with the water
meter systems, the choices may be "choose Windows, Linux, Unix, or PHP".
If Iseries is not one of the choices, then they have to re-invent the wheel.

Perhaps, but more likely it will be "The Water system transmits it collected

billing data via XML to a web service. Can you write the web service that the
Water system consumes?"

Of course, the answer it that is yes. It isn't that hard. If it is, virtualize a Linux

instance and write a simple little traffic cop there to deal with it. None of that
stuff is high transaction rate high pressure stuff, and not a bit of it is rocket
science either.

Mostly you run into people who don't know what they are talking about but

have a label they once heard and cling to as if it were the only thing in the
world. Hammer, Square Peg, Round Hole type of thing.

WebSphere is nothing if not overkill for 90% of this kind of stuff, but you

often hear people claim they absolutely have to have WebSphere to be able
to write or consume a web service. Those people probably cannot tell you
what WebSphere is mind you, but they KNOW they have to have it.

Another thing, managers, especially managers in the public sector always

respond well to well designed proposals that are well researched and factual,
and save money. Most of the time, it is out jobs to pull that kind of stuff
together. ;)

I am going back to lurking now.... :)

-Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-

bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Paul Raulerson

Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 3:59 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Where can I find a list of current IBM i companies?

I usually just lurk in here these days, but this post really brings up a point

that is interesting to me, and fits well with multiple decades of experience.

No systems are simple to integrate with another system. Period.

Just doesn't happen, there are always glitches and annoying problems.

Guaranteed. Doesn't matter if it is Microsoft, IBM,
Burroughs/Sperry/Loonisys, Linux, or some mix of all of them - you can bet
there are going to be unexpected difficulties.

The iSeries is actually fairly easy to integrate in most cases, and use either

as a server or as a data/processing source. IP connections are easy, as are
everyday garden variety tasks like, for instance, reading in a CSV file. (Pretty
much just an UNSTRING in COBOL, or a series of %SUBST and %SCAN calls in
RPG. Utterly simple stuff.)

People that mistakenly dismiss an iSeries on the terms that it is "simpler"

to integrate Windows/Oracle/Java/Whatever systems are fooling
themselves. Not the the Whatever won't work, but it is never either easy or
simple. Indeed, analysis might show that an iSeries would be indeed be
simpler and more reliable in the first place.

-Paul


On Oct 17, 2013, at 03:11 PM, "Stone, Joel" <Joel.Stone@xxxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

Well I will be the contrarian and throw in my 2 cents.


I think that you are asking the wrong question here.

Mgmt has decided to change platforms. That is probably a good thing. You

are with a city government correct?

No matter how good or bad the iseries may be, the city gov would

probably be best served with a platform that is running many other city
government organizations.

The value of a particular platform is no longer how good is the database

engine or how good is the hardware.

The value is much more determined by: how simple is the platform to

integrate with other entities? For a city, it may be how easy is it to integrate
with the county tax feeds; or how easy to integrate with residential water
meters; or police dispatch software.

With iseries, you are re-inventing the wheel for each of these and it is

enormously expensive. With a platform that is used by thousands of other
cities, it is simply a matter of following a setup procedure from the
vendor/county/state/fed.

And why would they care if 90% of companies are running iseries

anyways? They are a city government. They are and should be concerned
with what other CITIES are running, which is why they want to drop iseries
(as stated by you, other cities apparently have moved off iseries as heard at
city leadership conferences).

So if you want to keep working for the city and NOT be grouped with the

legacy platform, then EMBRACE the search for the new system and be a
cheerleader for it.

Otherwise when the plug is pulled on the old iseries, you may be in

jeopardy of going out the door with it :(

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-

bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike Wills

Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2013 11:12 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Where can I find a list of current IBM i companies?

Yes, another one of these threads... *sigh*

Upper management is saying "The AS/400 has served us well, but it is time
to move on". "It is dying." You have all seen this before. All of IT is
fighting this saying that it is more modern than you think, just that the
old green-screen is showing it's age. And budget and time prevents us

from

"moderizing" more applications. We are trying to determine what is truly
the problem. Is it the applications? Is it the interface? Can we not
do something?

You don't need to preach to the choir here on benefits. We are putting
together just how integrated our entire enterprise is to all of the custom
applications we have written over the years on the system. I thought I
could add in one other factor into our arguments. What companies are

using

the IBM i and what for? I know we can rattle off smaller banks and many
small to medium-sized companies. But I am looking for "wow they use

that?"

Something Upper Management may have heard of. If you can share (on or

off

list), I will pass along to my boss to pass to Upper Management.

And yes, I know the the AS/400 is really dead... it now called... um....
um.... screw it! It's the IBM Server!

--
Mike Wills
http://mikewills.me
Ph: 507-933-0880
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