***OPINION PIECE*** I'm sure this has been discussed before, but...
I like to disagree on occasion, and certainly cannot paint with a broad
brush on this. So I will concede that SOME folks out there will buy
hardware based upon tooling...today. But look at the facts. What has
sold .Net (IMHO) is the proliferation of Windows servers. Call me
naive, but I can't believe anyone would start down the road of .Net if
they knew nothing about Windows and had no investment in the technology.
Linux and the open source arena would make so much more sense from a
ground zero perspective. And why are there windows servers? Because
there are many windows solutions. Starting in the beginning with the
dreaded NT file sharing and heading on down to SQL Server, Exchange,
MoM, WSUS, DNS, Active Directory, etc. Once a customer heads down that
slippery slope of resolving business needs with Windows solutions, then
M$ solutions become the path of least resistance. It becomes "easier"
to develop M$ solutions when you have 20 servers lying around at 5%
utilization. Rationalities like "Hey, we have to support Windows
anyway" and "Windows is the defacto standard" etc. play very hard into
this line of thinking. I'm not saying the folks at M$ had all this in
mind when they embarked upon the server adventure some 15 years ago as
they were wringing the bugs from NT (or should I say VMS part 2). The
M$ folks do a great job of convincing folks that they have an ALL
ENCOMPASSING solution and that solutions like .Net will allow you to
"capitalize on your Windows investment". Doesn't have to be true.
Heck, it doesn't even have to work! As long as they believe it! The
last two shops I worked in got on the .Net bandwagon because they bought
solutions written in .Net. Call me old fashioned...
Last I checked, RoR was Open Source and no one was paying for that :-)
My point is, I see people are selecting the hardware based upon
solutions today. If you want to run RoR, or better yet, an application
developed in RoR, what hardware solution do you need? A simple Wintel /
Lintel server will do you. Can you perform session clustering with RoR?
Maybe, maybe not. I know we were measuring the uptime of Twitter in
minutes but that may have gotten better. What makes the i5 unique among
Wintel / Lintel server arena? Things like vertical scalability, rock
solid performance, easier to manage, etc. But, if the solutions
available are not attractive, folks will vote with their feet! IBM has
recently refocused on this advantage. They have approached the ISV's
with renewed vigor. Hope it's not too late and that the approach is not
half hearted. We'll see.
I think the XML like savior you anticipate will be Web Services. I
envisioned some years ago, with the help of one of my developers, the
days of the "bound call" will go out the window. In 2005 I was
demanding that our i5 application vendors wrap their code with an SOA
layer so I we could have a more resilient coupling. Applications even
if they are running on the same box will communicate via web services.
Check out the book "Small Pieces Loosely Joined" by David Weinberger.
EDI has been doing this for years and WS is just another way of doing
the same old thing. But the abstraction insulates us from platform or
hardware dependence. David wrote this book in the post-apocalyptic
Internet era of 2001-2002 and I think he got it right. Once you have an
SOA layer around your apps, who cares what it is written in? And I have
seen customers doing it. And being successful! (Stay tuned for a case
study on this one!)
Discipline and development have and always will be the challenge. Many
development managers were developers. If the tools they used as
developers was .Net, then gues were the direction may be headed. I'm
not saying that a development manager from the development ranks is
inflexible. But familiarity doesn't always breed contempt!
Then again, I might be smoking the drapes :-)
Regards,
Mike
Also, check out the i5 content at ZendCon 2008 - Our annual PHP
ConferenceSeptember 15-18:
www.zendcon.com
-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Aaron Bartell
Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 7:41 AM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Getting started with Net.data -
was-I'dbetterdomorethan talk
Remember, it is the solutions that sell hardware, not necessarily the
tools.
What is selling .NET then? How is RoR getting into the market? I
disagree
with you near completely on this point. I would agree that *some*
decisions
are made just because xyz software only runs on Windows, but for the
most
part there is a very interesting dynamic happening in the past 5 years.
That dynamic is the fact that programmers are more and more deciding
which
platform the business will be running on based on development tools.
The
proof in the pudding for me is .NET (the leader) and other technologies
like
RoR, etc. Developers are choosing these tools because there is an
initial
phase where you are incredibly productive and all other thoughts of
long-term-viability are thrown out the window.
My prediction: In about 10 years we will have such an incredible mess of
technologies/languages/databases that there will be dire need for an XML
like savior to come in and make everyone talk on the same level. There
will
most likely be languages translators that aim to bring everything to a
common language so IT depts can focus on one syntax to gain a
competitive
advantage and ease of development/deployment. In the end it comes down
to
sticking with your existing investment and building on that. The only
reason to move is if most all avenues have been tried and in my
experience
that is hardly ever the case.
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 7:06 AM, Mike Pavlak <Mike.Pavlak@xxxxxxxx>
wrote:
There may be such a story, but I have not seen it yet. Right now, we
see
folks who are in the IBMi camp coming to PHP. About the closest we
would come would be a customer that purchased HarrisData because they
wanted to stay on the i5 and they liked the fact that the front end is
getting moved from Net.Data to PHP. For HarrisData, it is beginning
with their customer zone and will move on from there:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20080812/bs_prweb/prweb1201344_3;_ylt=AoC6
XhbU68Dn1.N8PZDvlqS8r70F;_ylu=X3oDMTA4Nm4ycjRuBHNlYwNuZXdz
We are revamping the Zend website with new case studies that should be
up soon. Will keep an eye out. Remember, it is the solutions that
sell
hardware, not necessarily the tools. All those AS/400's in the 80's &
90's went out the door with SSA BPCS and JD Edwards World, etc. on
them.
As we see more ERP opportunities in the IBMi space written in PHP or
with PHP front ends that is when I expect to start selling hardware.
For now, we are simply one damn good reason not to jump off! Momentum
is certainly building...
Regards,
Mike
Also, check out the i5 content at ZendCon 2008 - Our annual PHP
ConferenceSeptember 15-18:
www.zendcon.com
-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Aaron Bartell
Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 6:47 AM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Getting started with Net.data - was
-I'dbetterdomorethan talk
Does Zend have any public PHP "success stories" of PHP on the IBMi? I
know
lots on this forum have had success, but they were already on the
IBMi.
I
am looking for a story where somebody actually made the move and
provided
reasons for WHY they chose the more expensive IBMi over other servers.
It would be great to see IBMSystemsMag.com do such a story!
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
On Sun, Aug 17, 2008 at 9:17 PM, Mike Pavlak <Mike.Pavlak@xxxxxxxx>
wrote:
In my experience, All the PHP developers I have met that have been
asked
to work on and IBMi have little trouble moving to the IBMi. Many
actually enjoy it :-) There is a sect in the PHP community longing
to
support PHP in an enterprise environment.
I think the IBMi is easier to learn and understand than the dark art
of
Linux. IMHO...
And yes, the i5-toolkit in Zend Core is pretty easy to use, but not
necessary for straight SQL calls to the DB.
Regards,
Mike
Also, check out the i5 content at ZendCon 2008 - Our annual PHP
ConferenceSeptember 15-18:
www.zendcon.com
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