Re: Future of RPG was: Open Access for RPG

I don't want to spoil your party, but do you really think that something like this is going to happen???

Actually, to be perfectly honest I DO NOT believe IBM will be able to
pull it off. But the opportunity is still there for the taking if
they truly wanted it.

This will be only interesting for companies that want to move their existing "i" applications to the cloud. And i don't see that happening very soon.

The "rent a space in the cloud", like www.iDevCloud.com, isn't there
yet, but there are many that are taking their apps natively to the
web. In the past three months KrengelTech (the company I work for)
has picked up 3 or 4 new RPGUI projects (i.e. ONLY RPG on the server -
no Java, no front-end .NET, no Websphere). I am sure CNXCorp and
ProfoundLogic could give you even better numbers as they have fuller
products. It is happening without a doubt.

Like i said, don't want to spoil youor party, but there is no future in "i".

Let me re-phrase that to say the ONLY solutions (hardware+development
tooling+runtime) that will survive are the ones that stay up the
longest, require the least time to market and are the easiest to
maintain in the long term. IBMi, along with many others, has a chance
to die or live in the next 10 years. The interesting thing is that
the playing field is becoming a little more level now that there are
client side tools (i.e. ExtJS) that come complete with designers and
pre-built widgets that DO NOT cater to a specific server side
language. Sure there are things like GWT, but the core of ExtJS
doesn't mind at all that it talks to RPG on IBMi. That means the onus
of the UI is no longer in IBM's camp to ruin but instead we can
utilize the existing (and time tested) infrastructure of RPG+DB2+IBMi
to produce the next generation of applications.

Like I said earlier in this thread. Most everything concerning IBMi
in the cloud is a moot point if people can't get their hands on it for
next to nothing. There is hope here and there of this happening, just
not as much as we *need*. An example of that is this article I wrote
last month titled "Test drive an IBMi for free":
http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/ibmi/virtual_loaner_program/33432p1.aspx

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
http://mowyourlawn.com/blog/



On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 3:29 AM, john e <jacobus1968@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I am hopeful that IBM will recognize the incredible opportunity they have right now to capitalize on "IBM i in the cloud"

I don't want to spoil your party, but do you really think that something like this is going to happen???
First, what is the business proposition of IBM i "in the cloud"? I don't know.I do know (well ok not really) that "cloud" is the future, it makes economic sense and it will make an end to all this "enterprise". Software development should not be done by companies themselves, they are no SD organisations, put production organisation. This is the root of all problems, i.e. the abysmal state of software development. Moving to the cloud means that specialized companies build (custom) software. These companies have professional software developers who know and are interested in, software development. The may reason why RPG'ers are so "lazy" (they aren't i know) is that99% are *not* software developers. They merely entered the field by accident. The "good" developers i know all have a real interest in software development and where already programming in e.g. Basic before they went into the field. MOst RPG'ers dont have this background. They never really choose to go in this field!
 . And you really do have to have this "drive" to be good at it, reading books, magazines etc out of sheer enthousiasm and interest. You don't get to learn software development by doing an RPG/COBOL course, or Scrum or whatever. You don't get to read a book like the Mythical Man-Month e.g. But this is real knowledge, not "tooling".
So, the "business proposition" if the "i" has always been that you simply put it there in a corner and it does it's work, without a lot of maintenance etc. If everthing moves to the cloud and "on-premise" computing is only economically feasible for the biggest companies like banks etc what advantage does the "i" have in the cloud?? I don't know. A "cloud" company like Amazon has lots of trained staff for their infrastructure. There is no place for "i", it's by definition an "on-premise" platform. This will be only interesting for companies that want to move their existing "i" applications to the cloud. And i don't see that happening very soon.
The next ten years "the cloud" (sorry for the marketing hype but i'm certain this is going to be a profound shift) will transfrom IT completely. That means that *all" on-premise platforms, be it IBM "i", Windows, Unix, can *all* be considered legacy.
Like i said, don't want to spoil youor party, but there is no future in "i".