Re: AS/400 vs PC as a server

[DAsmussen@xxxxxxx]

Jesse,

In a message dated 97-06-28 09:00:59 EDT, you write:

<<BIG snip>>
> Our midrange products were great in the early eighties, but they didn't
>  change much in power or value.  The midrange marketplace was
>  monopolistic.  With the 1988 AS/400 announcement, midrange computers
>  began a fundamental change that allowed this industry to survive.

I disagree here.  Other than switching to UNIX, HP and DEC midranges have
done quite well, thank you, with little architectural enhancement.  The
midrange market in the '80s WAS NOT monopolistic.  We had the S/36, VAX, HP,
Wang VS, NEC, Qantel, Basic 4, Honeywell, TI, and Fujitsu -- among others.
 If anything, the midrange market is more monopolized NOW than then.

The ONLY thing that has hurt the midrange is its outdated application
software.  I see major vendors coming out with (and bragging about)
functionality enhancements that I made to a package on another (now failed)
midrange system back in 1983!  Now the vendors have jumped on GUI and "open
systems".  Rather than providing their customers enhanced functionality, they
give them a better user interface.  Balderdash!  Users want those
enhancements that they've been asking for for the last 10 years, NOT a GUI
interface.

Unfortunately, enhancements don't sell new systems -- bells and whistles do.
 In five years of dealing with BPCS and its associated AS/Set CASE tool, the
only enhancements made have involved things that would either drive overseas
sales or placate the Pharmaceutical User Group.  Nothing to help the people
that already had the package...

>  I think we have met the enemy, and he is us... midrange computers will
>  survive essentially by becoming PCs.  If we can integrate the S/36 and
>  the S/38 on one box, we can visualize a box that also runs OS/2 and
>  Windows.  I say, start with the good O/S fundamentals of the midrange
>  ISAM, database, SQL, etc.), keep level-headed hardware (easy backups and
>  maintenance), and add PC compatibility... and an ideal machine would be
>  the result.  Imagine a PC that doesn't crash... or an AS/400 that can be
>  expanded cheaply... that would be greatness in a black box.

Again, why damage a box that has proven reliability?  The reason that PC's
can be expanded cheaply is that their components can (sometimes) work
together, regardless of manufacturer.  Unfortunately, those components often
DON'T work together.  Getting PC hardware vendors to come up to an AS/400
standard would raise the prices to the point that divergence would be moot.
 "Greatness in a black box" already exists, and many of us already have one
installed.

>  Midrange computers would have bitten the dust 10 years ago if it weren't
>  for their inherent server capability (dividing the processor's attention
>  40 ways, effortlessly, to perform user requests... that's what a server
>  is).  Likewise, midrange computers will bite the dust in 10 years if
>  they stagnate, don't increase price/performance, or ignore the PC world
>  and some important changes in communications that are occurring right
>  now.

Bullhockey.  Midrange systems have survived due to their stability, security,
and ease of programming.  Their ability to act as a server has only emerged
within the last 5 years.  The migration of the AS/400 to RISC has enhanced
its viability beyond its expected life span, but who knows what architectures
will emerge in the future?  Midranges will continue to survive for the same
reason that they have always survived, forward-thinking architects that
continue to enhance them to meet the "next generation" of processing.

>  In closing, an operating system or a PC chip is not who we are or what
>  we are as data processing professionals.  We are out in the business
>  world, and we are kicking ass because we know fundamentally what makes
>  an MIS shop tick.  Look around you... nobody buys a "RISC" T-shirt.
>  If and when the PC/midrange shakeout occurs, we will continue to kick
>  ass, no matter what platform dominates, because we will make the system
>  work for the customer.  That is who we are and what we are.

This statement is in opposition to your others, and I agree with it
completely.  A system is a system.  If you can comprehend the latter
statement (and you'd be AMAZED at the number of programmers that can't),
we'll all be employed for quite some time...

JMHO,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@AOL.COM

"Be like a postage stamp -- stick to one thing until you get there." --
Margaret Carty
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