On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 12:45 PM, DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Splattering the data across the datacenter on desperate systems and
servers and databases is fraught with peril. Just ask anyone who's tried it.
I don't disagree with this, but...
Here is just one real life example of a customer who has trod that
path:
[gory details of train wreck]
As someone who "grew up" outside of the midrange community, and who
tries to keep abreast of all developments in computing, regardless of
platform, I would like to stress that stories like these, while true
and informative, are still just cherry-picked anecdotes. To someone
like me, the takeaway isn't "oh, see how superior the i is". It's
"gosh, they really hired a bunch of amateurs".
Because the folks who came up with that "solution" would most likely
have produced a pile of crap even if they had done the whole thing on
the i.
The sad fact is, most code written on ANY platform is pretty much
crap. But the best code on ANY platform is a thing of beauty. You
see it all the time: The quality of the developer transcends and
trumps the platform. If you put a gun to Scott Klement's head and
tell him he has to use <insert name of whatever language you find
horrible, on whatever operating system you find horrible>, he'll wind
up making something better than most of us could make using all our
favorite tools.
So all the horror stories are what they are. I know there are tons of
them. I've witnessed some firsthand. But all that really *proves* is
that it's hard to move off of what you're currently running. I'm
confident that the migration path in the other direction (to IBM
midrange from something else *that's already working*) is just as
fraught with peril, if not worse.
All of which suggests what would be much more convincing: *success
stories* of businesses which have migrated *to* IBM midrange. That's
what folks promoting the i should be super-eager to share. Because
failures (in any direction) are easy to find, and don't prove much of
anything.
John Y.
midrange.com
