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March 20, 2005

R.S. Tipton Article – March iSeries News

I found this article titled 'What's an iSeries Professional To Do' not only an interesting read, but one that struck a chord with me. Why? I have been doing some hard thinking about my career.

I have been in IT for a long time – more than 25 years with over 20 years since I first got my hands on a System/38. I have learnt a lot on the way, done some hard work, at times earned some good money, and – I hope – shared some of my knowledge both with people I have worked with and through the pages of the magazine.

But in the past couple of years finding freelance work got very difficult. So difficult that after over a year of unemployment I took another job – still IT related but miles away from the iSeries. Now I feel that it will be a big hurdle to jump to get back into iSeries. But the question for me is: would it be worth it?

Bob expresses the arguments better than I can reproduce here but, with IBM appearing to homogenize all their server brands, the iSeries appears to be losing its distinctive, and attractive, niche. That means the demand for the type of work that I could do, exploiting the skills I have, will decline.

My current job has been somewhat of an eye opener. The organisation I work for had a seminar which included presentations from Microsoft. From this we learnt, and have subsequently purchased for our office, that we could buy a Microsoft 'Action Pack' for £199 (say $300). When this arrived, it was a box with folders containing a large number of CDs for many (most?) Microsoft products – worth thousands at retail prices. Amazing value. It is no wonder there are so many with the Microsoft skills pushing Microsoft solutions. And it all runs on cheap PC hardware.

How much do I need to spend to get the equivalent iSeries solution? Thousands? Ten Thousand? Twenty Thousand? Totally unaffordable for an independent developer. Therefore there are few independent developers pushing the iSeries.

Alas poor iSeries, I knew him well…

Posted by at March 20, 2005 12:30 PM

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Comments

"it will be a big hurdle to jump to get back into iSeries. But the question for me is: would it be worth it?"

Yes it is. I was first told in the early 80s that PCs are the way to go. I jumped on the PC bandwaggon programming in Basic, C, and dBASE etc ... only to come back to AS/400 a few years later. Then in early 90's I was told that networks are the way to go. I jumped on Novell bandwaggon using Clipper and Foxpro etc ... only to come back to AS/400 via S38. Then in the early 00's I was told that web and Java is the way to go and I did my Diploma in Web Development with honors securing phenomenal 90s in all languages ... only to come back to iSeries.

You may wanna leave the iSeries, but the iSeries wont!

Posted by: Hassan at March 22, 2005 2:28 PM

I don't think this is a fair comparison. The Microsoft Action Pack includes no compilers, no development tools, nothing. You get a bunch of Office tools, including SQL Server, but nothing that would allow you to create, say, an order entry application. Not bad for $350 a year, but still not a development environment.

On the other hand, you can get an iSeries for about $500 a month. A bit more expensive, to be sure, but not prohibitive. Especially since that includes ALL the compilers, and the database, and WDSC, all as part of the deal. And WebSphere Application Server and Java. And SQL. An equivalent subscription to the .NET development tools is also thousands of dollars a year, if I'm not mistaken. Me, I'd rather spend my money on something that runs and doesn't spread every computer virus known to man.

Posted by: Joe Pluta at April 24, 2005 8:17 PM

To get the action pack you need to be an MS registerd partner (at least) and if that's the case you can enroll on the Empower program and receive 5 seat Universal MSDN subscriptoin license for you company for < £300. This is about £10K of development tools and licenses!

Posted by: Graeme at May 26, 2005 7:06 AM

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