Re: New WAS and WDSC versions - and all else WebSphere

Joe, Jon,

I haven't seen all of the announcement details, including prices, but when 
I first heard about this my take on it was that IBM was simply responding 
to something that a lot of people were asking for.  WDSC is built on top 
of WSSD but there are a number of iSeries shops that need the EJB 
functionality in WSAD.  In 4.0 you had to buy WSAD if you needed that 
functionality.  With the introduction of the Advanced Edition, they have 
now made a convenient, and I expect much more affordable process, for us 
to get a version built on top of WSAD.

I have not heard of any functionality differences between the two 
offerings, other than the differences that exist between WSSD and WSAD. 
But in the long term it would make sense that some iSeries features of 
WDSC might mirror those differences.  Such as wizards to encapsulate 
iSeries resources in EJB's or things like that which expose the extra 
functionality of WSAD.

Last I checked, WSAD was around $4000 per user.  People running WebSphere 
on any platform but the iSeries are paying that to do their development. 
In comparison, we are getting these tools at quite a bargain rate, 
especially assuming you would have needed the RPG Compiler and PDM anyway. 
 In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if a really large development shop 
couldn't save a ton of money by simply buying a low-end iSeries just to 
get these developer tools at this price.

Mark