Re: [IBMiOSS] C# decryption port to Power i -- OPENSOURCE

So the new term to actually understand where your code runs, know how it's backed up, know how it works together, know you can maintain it, enhance it, and do so without bloated server and staff budgets is "Cute"??

I don't think you've stood shoulder to shoulder with someone calling the boss to say: "No, planes cannot take off now, we are grounded." An entire airline parked because one server, one which was a 'great idea' and a 'simple solution' when added no longer had a champion, sysop, or even developer to maintain it, and it was down. Without it, that airline was unable to do business. It was a teeny part of the infrastructure. However, another cute phrase is "a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link" and for this chain one link was currently missing.

I am not saying that using services not running on IBM i is always a bad idea. What I am advocating is that any organization MUST HAVE an I.T. strategy. You cannot simply 'toss in yet another windows VM' to run some 'free open source bits' to provide a service and claim that is a great solution. It's NOT, unless your organization has skills and budget and hours to maintain windows VMs, and the open source bits running on them. Same for Linux, just a lower entry fee.

We are currently dealing with a government entity. They run about 80% of everything on IBM i. Their consultants call it an "AS/400" and throw FUD at it claiming "It runs DOS" and "IBM is dropping support for their model next year." Their users love the integration and the reliability BUT their staff has already added 80 more servers which support the other 20% of the workload. This makes the consultants claim: "IBM has only 5% of the server market!" Which is about right given they have one server doing 80% of the work and 80 more to do the rest!!!

And here's the fun part. They claim they need SIX MILLION DOLLARS to upgrade the rest of the stuff. Heck we can build a bionic man for that! OR They could spend a small fraction of that on some modernization with Profound Logic or other tools and not play fruit basket upset with their users and their data.

The point is that once server sprawl begins, this business will get out of control, it will get out of control and you'll be lucky to live through it... Unless you have a solid long term plan for supporting desperate architectures, operating systems, data bases, programming languages, hardware, storage, etc.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.

On 11/19/2017 7:17 PM, Richard Schoen wrote:

Ockhams Razor flashback to Contact........Why build one when you can have two ?

OK back to reality now that the orb fell through and nothing happened.

Vmware does a great job of compartmentalizing Windows and Linux servers alike ala LPAR.

You work with Vmware no ? Or no ? If not you should add to your repertoire.

I only know a few customers who still run email on their IBMi and it's Domino, which continues to decline in usage in favor of Exchange or Office 365. My employees defected from Domino back in 2007. Also 99% of all new customers I work with tend to be moving to Office 365 as a trend.

I guess the summary take away is that the Ockhams Razor quote is cute and Pete liked it, but not really meaningful if you haven't actually worked with Windows or Linux web services combined with the i. Or if you've worked with WebSphere or Tomcat stacks and tried to troubleshoot Java on IBMi. Not always easy to do, so often better to simply move those Java workloads to Windows or Linux where they CAN be easily deployed, debugged and are actually faster.

Not advocating leaving IBMi, just speaking of the reality of keeping everything on IBMi. Not really realistic today unless you have a shop living in the past.

Regards,

Richard Schoen
Director of Document Management
e. richard.schoen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
p. 952.486.6802
w. helpsystems.com

-----Original Message-----
"plurality should not be posited without necessity"

When we work with customers on HA solutions we find those who use mostly or exclusively IBM i are successful VERY frequently. Those with many platforms allegedly 'integrated' rarely are. With many moving parts it's simply much more difficult to track all of the moving parts and assuring each one is appropriately backed up, maintained, replicated it.

Should every company strive to run 100% of everything on IBM i? As awesome as that sounds it's likely just not a workable option. But it's also very shortsighted to willy nilly just throw up another server with some freeware bits and a database connection. In the end that thing needs to be maintained, documented, and dealt with in recovery and HA situations. Likely a little more research to select a solution running on an existing platform pays off in the long run.

Said another way: "Those who do not adhere to Ockham's razor are condemned to be cut by it."