Re: Explaining single level store to non i people

["Hans Boldt" <hans@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Tami wrote:
> Don't know if it helps this conversation at all but Steve Will just
> blogged about SLS:
> http://ibmsystemsmag.blogs.com/you_and_i/2009/08/
> the-new-value-of-single-level-store.html

Hmmm, I wonder if he was reading this thread! As "IBM i Chief Architect",
of course Steve Will is going to defend SLS!

Let's look at his two arguments: First, he looks at the ease of managing
disks on the iSeries. I think he's making somewhat of a strawman argument
here. Of course, disk management on IBM's mainframe systems is a real pain
in comparison. But first, the same isn't necessarily true on other
operating systems. And second, if you've spent 7 or 8 figures in your
machine room, you can afford the necessary operators. (Contrary to all the
obits over the years, there's still life in the z/Architecture!)

Second, he discusses how the iSeries automatically balances where things
are stored on disk based on the relative speeds of the storage devices,
looking at solid-state drives in particular. Sure, that's way cool! On the
other hand, on a conventional O/S environment, I think I'd simply put the
swap partition on the SSD device and enjoy the same performance benefit.

Cheers! Hans