System iNetwork

It's too little, too late. While this effort will please large segments of the already converted, it will do little if anything to turn the heads of new customers.

Any kind of press is good.

I hope they do actually market the iSeries and not just turn it into WebSphere marketing.

I'm very interested to see what they do about CGIDEV2, I think that will signal their intent!

Iseries marketing? Ibm doesn't have a clue what to do anymore. This system and its Power PC processor technology has finally entered an all out - no more sweet talk- competition with the Windows/Unix world and the Intel hardware. But it's no longer IBM's ball game where they control everything from hardware to development methodology, and that makes them very unsure. So in despair they revert to Eclipse, free software, Websphere, Java .... they don't know what to do anymore. Yes, the native as/400 environment with rpg/seu and cgidev2 offers still the best performance, but no customer is willing to invest in that ancient and to the broad public gradually becoming obscure environment anymore.

IBM will loose this competition, I bet 3 to 1.

Opinions anyone?

Let's challenge IBM to report only one (1) story of a NEW Iseries customer. By NEW I mean a long time existing business that didn't run its IT on Iseries before. I wonder if there are any.

Iseries marketing revisited. An interesting article "Roll Up! Roll Up for the Magical Modernization Tour!
" was posted here. I give you the URL (in hopes you can click it) http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/resources/artarchive/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewarticle&CO_ContentID=20197&channel=home
(was my hope justified?).

Some statements made here by Cris Wilson:
o But not long ago, IBM literally pulled the plug on its "get to WebSphere" marketing message and instead decided to reinvigorate its iSeries partner relationships.
o The IBM marketing folks are spending more money on the iSeries now, but it also still seems like they don't fully understand the technical challenges facing their development community. Existing sites are stuck in the mud, and RPG-based commercial applications aren't selling. Those apps need to be reinvented in Java or .NET in order for the long-awaited marketing dollars to have a real impact.

Bold statements I would say. So Ibm is no longer pushing Websphere and decided to listen to the crowd of Iseries partners while they are on the run to Microsoft .NET .
Very sad, but the once mighty IBM lost it completely. If this doesn't smell like shear panic, what else does? Are we now on the road to recovery knowing IBM lost face and convincing power in front of its (former) customers?

I think you are focusing only on one aspect of what Chris Wilson was saying in the article. I think his overall point is that IBM realizes that while WebSphere (the server solutions, not talking about WDSc here) might work for some customers, they realize now that a vision where it fits a larger number of iSeries customers is not feasible.

IBM is focusing on stronger ties to partners that offer a variety of modernization options that include Java, third-party tools, .Net components, etc. IMHO, raising the value and stature of the iSeries to your business might depend on your ability to enable various modernization technologies that use the iSeries as the center-piece to your solutions. WebSphere simply won't work for many because of price, lack of infrastructure to support it, etc.