System iNetwork

Hi Paul,

I remember you from the Iblog on "Java for the Iseries" a couple of months ago.

I don't know about you in the UK, but here in mainland Europe, Iseries jobs are booming with a big B! As you know, many companies are on the lookout for of replacement of their IT system which they bought in the boom of the late nineties. But are they aiming at the new i5? Or rather at an SAP or ORACLE solution? I already have 2 Iseries consultancy assignments waiting from companies who want to disassemble and migrate the data from their homegrown 5250 RPG based inventory and accounting application to... SAP. Other collegeas of mine have their hands full with similar tasks also for SAP or Oracle.

Well, I know it's kinda sad, but these days, IBM in the midrange space is losing traction soo fast that it makes you wonder how long it will take for their mainframes business to come under attack.

BTW: fancy, hyper sophisticated ad's like you mentioned in your post won't cut it either. People simply don't understand the hyper sophisticated IBM speak. Instead, IBM should point at the beef of the offering, if there is still beef left that is.

"and how many people are Microsoft laying off this month?"

Microsoft is ALWAYS laying people off. In January, it was Longhorn beta testers: http://www.lostcoders.net/index-single-880.htm. And here's a great look at how Microsoft works:

http://romsteady.blogspot.com/2004/09/microsoft-layoffs-and-location.html

Joe

Hi folks,

I've seen IBM "middleware" ads in various computer mags that show a normal scene on a street, for example, people doing *really* everyday things, and with blurps and pointers to various specific ways people are using their "middleware".

- Alan

Lets see... equating 13,000 mass firings with 62 and 150 lay offs at Microsoft because the company decided NOT to build something is the same? Even the guy who was with Microsoft for only 6 months said it was the best time of his life. I bet there are alot of veterans at IBM getting canned and not one of them would make the same comment about their time at IBM... Stop complaining about Microsoft simply to complain already. I am sure you find something better to gripe about where MS is concerned.

This reponse refers to the Iblog from april 28
"It's time to improve our image"
______________

In response to the last poster.

Whatever the cause is of the slow response times, you can tweak and configure all you like, os/400 is simply a dead horse. It will never get away from it's traditional habitat which is "green screen seu, rpg and batch programming" and it will be burried with it.
Look at the reponse times of Websphere or Java on AS/400, for crying out loud, it's a living joke!!! Yes, maybe you can get it up to speed if you buy an I5 with horsepower of 500,000 CPW costing 500,000$, but you can get better response times from an ordinary intel pc server running dual pentium 4's 3GHZ, 2GB main storage serving 1000 simulteanous clients at a purchase cost of 5,000$. Just 100 times less pricy and on top, better performance.

The sounding moto for AS/400 (or as it's name changes each month now, Iseries, I5):

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!! MOVE ON IF YOU CAN !!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well.
We are buying a new i-5.
We almost bought an ERP
(but it's too expensive).
I think that the days of glory
of Microsoft are counted.
Examples?.
The Brazil government decided to leave
Microsoft for Linux in all government
dependencies.
The same idea is for Asia.
So, the Open Source movement each day is
stronger, with more followers.
Java is another example.
The key? all are free.
I think that if IBM keeps the open source movement could it be more easy to sell hardware. But IBM needs
also to have a strong documentation for
the open source software (like Eclipse).

In Response to Posting by ugeerts at June 12, 2005.

Yeah, you can buy a server and run your core business app on it but what is downtime worth to your organization? With an intel server, you will ALWAYS have trouble. If it isn't the operating system, its the hardware. I have been working on the AS/400 since it came out. The model we have installed now was installed May 2003 and it has NEVER crashed or had a hardward problem. I love hearing the network people say "Well, the file got corrupted and we also needed to rebuild the operating system" They never find out why the corruption happened in the first place. On the AS/400, that just doesn't happen. Not to mention, why the heck should an operating system ever need to be rebuilt? Again I say, what is downtime worth to you, if it isn't an issue, then go purchase a server farm consisiting of 30-40 servers, hire a huge staff and now your price of this mess will end up costing you more then the i5.

I must have spent my whole IT career of 25 years at the wrong places. I have been at a number of prestigious profitable companies in a number of different industries that would not trade their iSeries for anything! Windows is a great operating system? Nine out of ten times when you get a problem with Windows, all you have to do is reboot to correct the problem! UNIX is the "open solution": Open up your wallet to make it work. iSeries sales are off because many people are fat, dumb and happy with their AS/400 green screens application (just like those people with those old Volvo cars that seem to go on and on forever). I know of at least a dozen IT horror stories of companies that got off AS/400s and did not know what they were getting into. I am not married to the iSeries, but the iSeries is not just a computer; it is complete solution. IBM does not market the iSeries well and some people are going to stay with green screens forever. If some small company with a small staff owns its own AS/400, uses green screens to run its business and still generates a profit, who are we to say they are wrong? If that same small company with a limited IT budget wants to stay with Windows 2000 a while longer because have a stable desk top, who are we to say they are wrong? The BM in IBM stands for business machine; the computer is still a business machine that costs money. Companies still need to see tangible gains in reducing costs and/or increasing revenues to make major IT hardware/software changes. I think that we may have all been brain washed more than we think by the hardware and software vendors.

Dr. Frank Soltis, the IBM engineer who has been called "the AS/400's Elvis," recently shared a success story during a keynote speech at a user conference in Florida. This particular company was in the software distribution business and at one point had 23 AS/400s located around the world. The company was a very good customer, went from CISC to RISC, and was always one of the first to upgrade to new technology, he said.

Then came the Year 2000 problem, and despite five years of dedicated service during a period of great revenue growth, the company decided that it was time to move off the AS/400. So in June of 1999, the company unplugged its AS/400s and powered up the 1,200 NT servers it needed to replace them. But things didn't quite go as planned. "They found they couldn't make it work," Soltis told the crowd. "Today, one year after unplugging their AS/400s, they're back on the AS/400."

That company is Microsoft.

Back too the 13,000 jobs being lost in Europe. What it seems anyone has failed to mention is the fact that IBM is hiring 14,000 new people in India at the same time, and gaining new contracts for doing so. One large bank company local to me is considering outsourcing its IT department to one of three companies. One being IBM. A factor in their decision is whether or not the company making the pitch can base there operations in India to save them money. IBM can make that pitch. There are many other examples. Whats good for IBM, just may not be good for you.

Coming back to the original topic, the 13000 job losses in Europe and Ibm's panic (yes, panic) reaction to increase advertising for Iseries hardware from a zero budget to a billion+ budget all of a sudden.

I invite you to pick an average job advertizing agency, for example WWW.STEPSTONE.BE .

Search results for jobs are like this:

Select on keyword 'RPG': 10 hits of which 6 are more than 3 months old.

Select on keyword 'SAP': 440 hits

Whatever the cause, be it competition from Microsoft, SAP, Oracle ... blazing guns are shown on the job market.

Therefore, the sounding moto for AS/400 (or as it's name changes each month now, Iseries, I5):

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!! MOVE ON IF YOU CAN !!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey ugeerts,

The magic 13K you keep referring to has been replaced in India, just what is it you don't get.

I doubt if anyone can say anything that you won't want to argue. It's a really big world out there and like it or not well over 200K businesses use(over 700K AS400's) and will continue to use the AS400 and that means green screen many years to come. MS Windows will not be the platform of choice for many of these companies. Excellent business systems running profitable businesses on the IBM platform. Why switch to a platform where the average techie thinks programming means drag and drop.

No one use MS Windows for mainstream server use other than very small companies who consider 10 conncurrent users on any of their apps a lot. I just came off a 3 year project to a sub-agency of HHS and their rack of windows servers go up and down everyday, the email is down everyday, the technical staff numbers 30-40, the number of users a mere 300. The papa agency, yeah they use Sun boxes for mission critical public servers.

I don't know anyone who has ever argued to use a Windows server for any of our gov't contracts and were one of the largest US contractors. Customers prefer big iron.

Get over it. If not IBM then SUN, with Unix or Linux, Windows right. LOL!

How many Windows servers are 64 bit?

NONE. Lousy operating system that needs to be re written whenever hardware is improved.

How many Iseries are 64 bit?

All.

This is an eye-opening and interesting debate. This has been my first exposure to the AS/400 (well, I've heard the name, but that's about it). Here's how poor the marketing is: I didn't realize it was still considered a viable platform. (Not that I'm the sort of person who's in the market for one, so I'm sure that makes a lot of difference).

Ibm blew it big time with Iseries:

1. new I5 hardware sales flopped, price cuts of 30% get only a lackluster reception

2. ISV (independend software vendors) for Iseries are either out of business or flying in droves to the ms .net framework; anybody seen any happy software houses brewing application systems (a/s) with seu and rpg lately?

3. seen any "new" iseries customers lately (those who hadn't one before)?

4. seen any young as/400 programmers, fresh from school, lately?

5. seen any new ad's for as/400 analyst/programmer rpg/cobol jobs lately?

Imho IBM is too late with *any* initiative on this system. Moreover, any accountant will tell you; a sudden change year over year in costing or budgetting is either a sign of fraud or a sign of poor management. Ibm's stepping up iseries marketing budget from years of practically zero (the system had to sell itself, right) to a mega million budget, now giving money almost away to ISV's if they please please please start to write *something* (application systems maybe?) again.... all poor management, too little too late.

Therefore, for those who aren't yet at the retirement age:

grab any chance you've been offered and move on.

BTW:
There is a remarkable resemblance between SAP and AS/400. SAP stands for "system application program".
It resembles the Iseries IBM of 15 years ago. Same serious, focused style, solid software covering almost all sectors and industries, profound documentation, rigid and clear guidelines, but one difference: their habitat for the past 15 years has been a graphical user interface and their software is not thight to a given hardware. SAP clearly has a vision, Ibm babbles about on-demand and lost all isv's for its hardware in the mean time.

Today, on the European job market, the demand for SAP ABAP developers versus RPG developers is about 40 to 1.

I have written Web Applications using CGIDEV2 (that's using RPGILE for those that don't know) and Pocket PC Wireless Applications. They fly. Much faster than any Java equivalent!
The iSeries,i5 (whatever) is long from dead. I would suggest it is just waking up. Once developers and IT decision makers can get past the WebSphere/Java corporate sell and realize that all the tools are already there to do a better job, and enough Corporations have NIGHTMARE conversions to Windows based technologies, the iSeries will still be there to save the day!

10 years ago, people were telling me I better learn Java or be unemployed. (I'm still waiting!)

In reply to 'udontgetit'

I think you agree that about every Iseries shop has a MS windows server of some sort in its computer room. After all, it is unthinkable for a company to not have the tcp/ip services like html, dhcp, dns, email exchange in those booming days of 1995-1999. Most shops started with Windows NT4, switched to Windows 2000 and are now using Windows 2003 server.

Yes, AS/400 provides also these services but came a little late to the party, about 4 years late, so as usual the as/400 was in a lagging position. Most shops have a pretty good idea what AS/400 and MS windows can do and can't do, and I think most would agree that the latest ms windows 2003 enterprise platform gives a much better impression then the infamous NT4, but imho still is not up to the task of providing 24/7 IT services for a group of 250+ users.

MS imho is seen only competitive to the entry AS/400 boxes. Guess what will sell to a <50 users business with an IT staff of 1 to 2 persons: a small AS/400 model 170 equiped with a green screen accounting package or an average intel based server equiped with a gui accounting package and sql server?

99 chances out of 100 it will be INTEL.

In response to 'Mick'.

I fully agree with you. CGIDEV2 apps give you excellent response times, Websphere and Java on the other hand are a joke.

But what kind of development environment is IBM pushing?

Right, another fatal error of judgement!
It just shows mainstream IBM hasn't got a clu what the AS/400 is about. I've worked a lot with I*B*M Oracle and SAP consultants, and every one of them claimed they've never heard of the term 'AS/400'.

Yet another sign on the wall. I think imho that within the next 5 to 10 years, sorry as it is, OS/400 will be dead and gone.

ugeerts you must have a very powerful crystal ball. For whatever reason you keep beating this Windows drum and now were down to less than 50 users with tech staff of 1 or 2. I've never worked for a co that small, do they exist? :) Does any re-seller try to capture an account at that level using SUN, HP, DEC, and/or IBM? Well maybe another 25 years of Windows will see some inroads on the server side. But arguing that as400 shops of less than 50 users switch to Windows doesn't really surprise anyone. Even back in my /36 days the machine ran all functions for a company of about 300. Windows wasn't even a fart yet.

'udontgetit' u dont get it.

I've never beated the Windows drum, for some strange reason you must have misunderstood. On the contrary, with my post I tried, apparently in vain, to explain that every OS has its proper place.
What I DO SOUND IS THE SAP DRUM. After 15 yrs as AS/400 analyst/programmer, I got the chance to develop in SAP ABAP. Probably you've never heard or seen it, but it is truly a system capable of running an entire multinational enterprise. The frontend of this system is a thin client of a mere 10 MB executable that runs on virtual every desktop system ranging from Linux to Windows, yet it integrates seamlessly (1 click away) with MS office apps like Excell and HTML web page developement.
For what it's worth, my experience in Europe is that a lot of dormant AS/400 customers woke up and are moving away from their decade old boxes to SAP or ORACLE.

blog in the year.thx man

SAP Jobs announcement in Europe.

SAP wants to hire 10,000 consultants to fill new positions in Europe, starting asap.