The iSeries: The Once and Future King
** This thread discusses the article: The iSeries: The Once and Future King **
Doc, I agree with you on #2. Our programming efforts are based upon products supplied by BCD, a third party vendor. However, this is normal in the computing industry. Intel doesn't supply compilers, third party vendors do. Don't take this as a knock, but I think that sometimes a consultant's view of the iSeries world is a bit warped. Often consultants are called into companies that don't have the commitment to the platform to hire employees to do the work. They hire consultants to "get them over the hump" until they can move onto the projects that they have employees available to do the work. I don't use consultants in the iSeries world and hire only permanent programmer employees. We're not a big shop at only 10 iSeries programmers, but we're typical of a stable iSeries environment where we know what we expect of the iSeries and plan our staff accordingly. It is shops like our that consultants would have no experience with. And, believe me, there are TONS of iSeries shops that are staffed entirely by employee-only programmers. chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer. "E Doc" wrote in message news:6b229b3b.14@WebX.WawyahGHajS... > I'm sorry that my previous post was so long. > > My points were actually pretty small, buried under a ton of rubble. To sum > up, here they are: > > 1. IBM has treated the legacy AS/400 codebases as a waste of time and > money for too long. > 2. Other vendors are supplying solutions that meet immediate needs far > better than IBM. Vendors have learned to exploit the gulf that's come up > between the AS/400's users and IT management. > 3. This isn't a case of EVOLUTIONARY v. REVOLUTIONARY. It's a simple case > abandonment by IBM. > > While my criticisim of IBM's new ideas may be too broad with regard to the > industry, I think the counterarguements are two narrow. For example, Joe's > sold his (most excellent) tool to a shop in Wisconsin. However, just > because one shop in Wisconsin is using your product, does not mean that > you're getting full industry exposure either. You have a tool that you're > marketing to AS/400 shops. In other words, the AS/400 is your market. Your > customers are interested in keeping and modernizing their 400's and their > 400 applications. > > Chuck, I work in integrated shops that use the 400 in a variety of ways. > Without exception, all of these shops have had their 400's for at least 10 > years, and most of their systems were migrated to the 400 from the S/38. > Other systems arrived on the scene after the AS/400 became marginalized by > IBM. > > I have yet to see a non-400 shop embrace the AS/400. By "embrace," I mean > "buy a new AS/400 for core business applications". Even in buyout > situations, I've yet to see the 400 become the main system. > > Also, where is the next generation of AS/400 jockies going to come from? > Just curious. IBM doesn't seem to be too interested in that, either. > > Again, I think it's too little, too late. I hope I'm wrong.
** This thread discusses the article: The iSeries: The Once and Future King **
Doc, I agree with you on #2. Our programming efforts are based upon products supplied by BCD, a third party vendor. However, this is normal in the computing industry. Intel doesn't supply compilers, third party vendors do. Don't take this as a knock, but I think that sometimes a consultant's view of the iSeries world is a bit warped. Often consultants are called into companies that don't have the commitment to the platform to hire employees to do the work. They hire consultants to "get them over the hump" until they can move onto the projects that they have employees available to do the work. I don't use consultants in the iSeries world and hire only permanent programmer employees. We're not a big shop at only 10 iSeries programmers, but we're typical of a stable iSeries environment where we know what we expect of the iSeries and plan our staff accordingly. It is shops like our that consultants would have no experience with. And, believe me, there are TONS of iSeries shops that are staffed entirely by employee-only programmers. chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer. "E Doc"
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