RE: Scalability

[R Bruce Hoffman <bruce.hoffman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 2005-02-05 at 10:33, Joe Pluta wrote:

> > Many of those same people can also argue that the benefits of
> employing
> > more than one person is good for more reasons than we can cover here.
> 
> Fiefdoms.  Read Steve's post: three staff for 160 machines versus nine
> staff for about a little over a dozen machines.  This is not about
> single point of failure, it's about TCO.

OK. First, I'm not talking about the middle. The middle levels that I
deal with want DESPERATELY to KEEP the iSeries. As I said, it's the
_owners_ that are downplaying the value of the "...only 1 or 2 bodies
required..."

But when they have the functionality (you used the word "solution") that
they want on another platform, it's the difference in TCO that has to be
weighed against the difference or even availability of that
functionality or solution on the iSeries. And if the TCO is higher, but
acceptable, they will still usually move toward the desired
solution/functionality.

All I'm saying is that they don't let head-count or even number of
servers required stand in the way of getting their solution, if the
numbers can be worked out unless the difference represents an 'order of
magnitude'.

> > So, many execs see the limited or reduced need for iSeries Systems'
> > Admin and admins more as a possible liability to business continuity
> and
> > therefore give it a much lower priority than those of us in the
> iSeries
> > community would assign to that same attribute.
> 
> There isn't an CEO in the world who would buy this line.  For the price
> of support of a non-iSeries platform, you can hire TWO iSeries guys,
> completely redundant, and still have a ton of money left over.  Point of
> failure taken care of, more money towards the CEOs dividends.

by the same token, you can hire 3, 4, 5... maybe more (depending on what
part of the country you're from) non-iSeries support personnel for the
same cost of TWO iSeries guys.

> 
> Sorry, but this sounds like somebody trying to make excuses for server
> farms.


Not making excuses. It's just the trend that I hear and see.