Re: iSeries vs IIS web site -- WEB400

Just one word of caution. Do not try and turn a programmer into a marketing website designer. Marketing sites need to be designed by people focused on marketing not applications and databases. Programmers are great for the employee and customer logon sites but not public marketing. It is possible you have an exception to the norm on your staff but I have not found many programmers who know marketing. If your company does not have web designer expertise you could outsource the design and then just have your staff add the links to get any dynamic data needed. Just specify you want a site that runs on apache with only html files as the end product. You should be able to just copy the html pages to the IFS and let Apache serve them.

One other word of warning. If this is a marketing site you are going to want it to be up 24x7x365. Not that the i can't do that but do you shut down your I for daily backups and how long are you down for hardware or OS upgrades? Servers dedicated to one task (like windows and linux servers usually are) can usually get closer to the 24x7x365 up time because there is less to backup, they usually don't need backed up daily and you can build an entire new server when its time for hardware upgrade instead of take the current one down for a weekend. You could run Apache on Windows or linux and standardize on Apache across the organization. Another option is to have the public site hosted off-site and then you are almost assured of 24x7x365 uptime.

-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rich Dotson
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 8:36 AM
To: web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [WEB400] iSeries vs IIS web site

Our current web site is www.wlerwy.com. It runs on an IIS server but I am not looking to port it elsewhere. For obvious reasons it will be a total scrap and rewrite. Marketing wants a web site that will inform potential customers and draw their business to us instead of drive them away like our current site does. I currently use ProfoundUI to develop a browser based interface for all of our in-house applications. There will also be sections of the website that will allow employees and current customers to sign in to current iSeries applications. This is currently being done using Websphere but is being replaced by new programs using the ProfoundUI interface.
So, in short. We need a website to:
1. Promote WLE as a company and the advantages to using our services.2. Allow Employees to sign in to the iSeries perform job functions.3. Allow current customers to sign into the iSeries and enter bill-of-lading information, track train cars assigned to them, produce misc reports, etc...

From: franz400@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To: web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:40:07 -0400
Subject: Re: [WEB400] iSeries vs IIS web site

Well ...
what kind of website (advertise only, static, dynamic, customer
access, the world at your door..?) Small, medium or large enterprise -
and what is your server infrastructure ?

I think what physical server it lives on is the last question, long
after defining where you are at & where you want to go.

If your site currently built with MS tools and using MS proprietary
extensions, you will have an effort to port it elsewhere.
Start with the fact the i runs the Apache webserver, far more
prominent in the web world than IIS.
Here is a breakdown of the "software" running the web:
http://news.netcraft.com/

If we knew more about your company & what you need, it would add to
the discussion.

Jim Franz

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rich Dotson" <rich_dotson@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 8:51 PM
Subject: [WEB400] iSeries vs IIS web site

Because our web site is so bad and we do not have anyone to develop
it I am trying to convenience management to allow me to pursue setting up our
iSeries and developing our web site on our iSeries. The individual in
charge of our network is 'talking down' the iSeries as a web server. Is
there a web site, white paper or any document comparing the advantages and
disadvantages of using an iSeries vs some other web server. I am just
starting my research and need as much information as possible to
make my side of the argument.
Thanks,Rich Dotson
--
This is the Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries (WEB400) mailing list
To post a message email: WEB400@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe,
unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/web400
or email: WEB400-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx Before posting, please take a
moment to review the archives at http://archive.midrange.com/web400.

--
This is the Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries (WEB400) mailing list
To post a message email: WEB400@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/web400
or email: WEB400-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/web400.