Re: AS/400 strong points

["Jeffrey M. Carey" <jeffreycarey@xxxxxxx>]

Cobra wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm trying to make a summary on AS/400 strong points for business environment.
> So, can all of you give me some suggestion about that matter ?
> Consider also the UNIX business applications that are growing in number.
> Why should I stay with AS/400 ??

Some big reasons:
Technology Independent Machine Interface - this makes the AS/400 very
scalable - when you upgrade to RISC, for example, all your apps are
immediately running at 64 bit.  In UNIX, the OS and the apps must be
re-engineered to take full advantage of the new hardware.  Also, because
of this you CAN migrate from CISC to RISC without any programming or
recompiling.

Ease of use / Cost of ownership - UNIX is a platform designed by
computer scientists for computer scientists.  So for any large size
implementation, you pretty much need one well-educated computer
scientist on hand.  Conversely, the AS/400 provides you with all kinds
of help and an easy to understand command syntax (no commands named
after the inventor's initials!), so you don't have to hire an expensive
highly educated staff.  You don't need a lot of people with advanced
degrees, since the AS/400 OS handles many functions itself quite well
(like DASD balancing, diagnostics, etc.)

Software compatability - software developed for the AS/400 is
automatically compatible with DB2/400 - no need to have several DBMS
running.  Also, it's pretty likely that everything will work together
because of this environment.

Security - it is a little bit trickier to accidentally bring an AS/400
down or to accidentally delete part of the operating system!

Spooling - thisd may seem trivial, but if you do any sizable printing,
spool control on the AS/400 is pretty unmatched on UNIX.  The ability to
direct and redirect output, to stop and restart printing at a given
page, and even the ability to tell who's generating that 5,000 page
report are things I haven't seen in the UNIX world.  If you do find
them, they are definately a third party product, not integrated in the
OS like in OS/400
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