Re: RDi upgrades, RDi-SOA availability in New Express Machine

Aaron Bartell wrote:

And what I really like is that it includes RDi-SOA,

I like the fact that RDi-SOA is included, but if I have the correct
understanding they won't be able to use the machine to host web applications
unless you also purchase the other "unlimited web" user pricing which runs
$4k I believe. Is that correct?

I haven't run all the numbers, but at the same time, $4K for an unlimited server isn't a bad number. At that point you're using the machine for both a development machine and a production machine.

I agree that IBM needs to make money, but they just put a big ol' roadblock
smack dab in the middle of their entry level solution which then raises the
price to almost $13k. Then people say "heck, I can get one heck of a nice
Lintel/Wintel server for $5k!".

Why is $13K a roadblock for SMBs? Have you configured and priced a fully redundant Wintel server? And are you going to be using the same machine for development, testing and production? You can with an i, but I've found it to be a lot harder with Windows, especially since development machines tend to crash.

My clients who use Windows tend to have fully physically redundant servers with failover. Even if you use one of those machines for testing, that's still $10K. If you don't think i is worth a 30% uptick over Windows, then we disagree on the benefit of the box.

I am still trying to find the huge value-add that application server type
Java apps have on the IBM i vs. other platforms being it runs within its own
JVM and isn't really using the full power of the IBM i operating system or
DB2 (though I am less sure on the DB2 standpoint).

Thoughts?

I don't understand the question. The issue is the business logic, not the web app server. The benefit is RPG and DB2. If you're running a pure Java application, you don't need an i. If you're using RPG, you don't have a choice. So are you planning to use RPG?

Where you run the web app server is a different question. That's your choice, and on older iSeries machines Java wasn't particularly peppy. But my guess is that a 2GB machine running a Power chip at 4.2GHz is going to be plenty for any web application, especially if the business logic is RPG running on the same box.

Joe