System iNetwork

In our environment we would(in fact we are planning to) go with the new shared hardware.

I would share.

It seems obvious that IBM wishes to have a unified platform and at some point we will not have a choice (probably now).

To have the new i servers considered as a separate platform will be very tough in today’s market.

So, if I had a choice, I would choose to share (starting with DEV systems) now so we can learn both sides of the power house and learn how to solve the companies issues together and not just the i issues the company faces.

The career path also seems clear - legacy on power until the latest power OS takes over be that i, aix, linux, or something totally new.

I would share and hope to learn the AIX OS.

I agree with Michael ... I don't think we have much of a choice. There are advantages to the merger if you have to run mixed environments but consider this:

I have managed a system i / AIX on a 570 before POWER. The one thing I can tell you is with all the hype about AIX efficiencies it took 6 processors to run and analytical package, Websphere and it management module. The entire Line of Business took 4 and the Financials ran on 2 (including Websphere). Every time I turned around the AIX package need more memory, processor and other resources. We ended up taking resources out of the system i to feed AIX growing needs. Yes, AIX was doing a huge and complex and algorithm for trend analysis but the same data exact data was being processed on the system i every day and being slice and diced a reassembled into user friendly chunks . AIX had to support a handful of users … system i had over 1500!

The point is though the AIX O/S may seem lean and cost effective, it is not when you put it all together and try a run something like an enterprise (the same thing that others have found out trying to convert an enterprise to the word most popular PC O/S). The hidden cost of tuning and other over head ate up more than my 570's resources; it ate up my time, attention and staff.

I would jump at a chance to go to the new power 6 hardware even if I would have to share.

Yes, I have a great concern about the AIX taking over the processors on the machine but with the direction that IBM has set forth we really do not have a choice.

Besides, I might be able to pick up a few tricks as the HMC is really a LINUX appliance and so it all ties together in the end.

IBM i vs Unix oh well if you cannot bet them then join them and IBM has made sure we will never beat them which is really just greed on the part of the american way of life :-)