AS/400 Goes The Small And Medium Way

The way computers are used in most

small-and medium-sized organizations is often the result of circumstance more than careful

planning. Years ago, PCs began to creep in one by one. Eventually, they were lashed

together into LANs. A few advanced PC users created special applications around

spreadsheets. In some cases, packaged client/server applications may have been added as

well. Since then PCs have matured into powerful tools. Few organizations can resist using

them. The number and importance of tasks that run on PCs seem to keep increasing. The

price of PC hardware continues to drop, but the real cost of owning PCs keeps increasing

as a result of their huge appetite for technical support. Industry analysts have

documented the hidden costs of PC ownership. They estimate that each PC used in business

costs over $10,000 per year, as a result of all the support needed. Large organizations

can afford PC help-desks, most smaller organizations must limit what they do or live with

associated cost and complexity.

Smaller organizations yearn for

technology that is easier to manage. What they want does not sound unreasonable:



- Lower total cost, especially where PCs are involved.


- Less need for technical expertise.


- Hardware and software that rarely fails.


- Rapid and complete recovery when failures do occur.


- Fewer things to buy, integrate, support and
understand.



- Tight security that is easy to manage.


- Performance that appears instantaneous.


- Use of the internet without excessive cost, risk or
effort.



- Less frequent hardware and software upgrades.


- Ability to avoid conversions from outdated products.

The AS/400e from IBM is positioned

as a server platform to satisfy the needs of small and medium-sized organizations. Server

computers don't have the high visibility of PCs. Small-and medium-sized organizations

usually choose one of three types of servers: PC, Unix, or AS/400e. Each type has

advantages and disadvantages. Making the best choice is important, but not simple. One

type of server may not always be the right answer. The most visible way in which the

AS/400e has become attractive for smaller organizations is the introduction of the new

e-server 170 (also referred to as AS/400e server 170).

Role of AS/400e



The enhanced AS/400e offer some advantages for small-and medium-sized organizations when
compared with PC-or Unix-based servers:



- Less technical expertise is needed.


- The total cost of ownership is usually lower.


- There are more applications from which to select.


- A smaller number of servers is needed-often only one.


- More system management functions are automated.


- Full-function internet capability is now available.


- NT applications can now run on an Intel co-processor
inside AS/400e.



- Leading development environments, like Java, are
supported.

All these advantage are important,

but one outweighs all other and that is AS/400e requires less effort by technicians and

administrators. The need for constant attention is a serious disadvantage that NT and Unix

share as servers for smaller organizations. It is especially difficult today to develop

and keep technical people with NT skills. Rapid growth in demand for NT has created a

severe skills shortage.

Another important advantage of

AS/400e is that 8,000 IBM Business Partners have written over 30,000 software application

packages for AS/400e compared to about 2,000 applications for NT server running on the

Intel platform. Since robust business applications for the Intel platform are hard to come

by, many Intel-based shops hire programmers to write custom applications, involving time

and money. With so many packaged applications to choose from, businesses that use AS/400e

computers can purchase a package and deploy it much faster, with fewer people and less

cost than a business writing its own applications. With the advent of Domino Server on

AS/400e, thousands of additional applications will be available to run on AS/400e.

Ironically, requiring less

technical expertise is not always seen as an advantage. To technology experts, a computer

that needs less of their skill is not always viewed as a good thing.

Lowering Cost: Most

successful organizations are good at controlling costs. Part of being good is being able

to identify the best deal when different options are not priced the same way. Numerous

independent evaluations have shown AS/400 to offer low total cost of ownership in the

past. There are many reasons why this is the case even though the base price of AS/400e

hardware remains higher than Unix or PC servers. The factors that offset the hardware

price difference include:



- Only one AS/400e server is usually needed at each
location. PC or Unix servers are commonly linked together because a different server is

required to run each major application.



- Less effort is needed to operate and administer
AS/400e systems. As the number of locations increases, the savings grow even more since

one operator at a central location can often control a large number of remote AS/400e

servers.



- When programs running on AS/400e servers fail,
recovery is usually automatic and there is rarely a need to reload the system.



- Fewer technical experts are needed.


- AS/400e servers do not require replacement as quickly
as PC or Unix servers.

AS/400e Hardware Advantage: The

new e-server 170 is cost effective for two reasons. First, IBM has taken a gamble by

offering low-end AS/400e hardware-with a very powerful processor-at a low price. Second,

the switch to 64-bit RISC processors is paying off. Applications running on AS/400e are

automatically able to make full use of 64-bit processing. This includes applications

originally written for Unix that are offered on AS/400e. In the 10 years since AS/400 was

introduced, customers have never been required to change their application software. Since

application software is often the most expensive part of the information technology

investment, the fact that AS/400 customers have never been required to change their

software represents a significant savings-especially when hardware upgrades are needed.

In contrast, today's PC servers

offer 32-bit processing technology. Intel is developing a 64-bit processor chip called

Merced, which will not be available until sometime in 1999. When it does become available,

Merced will require NT release 5.0 (which is also under development). Independent software

vendors, writing packaged applications for NT server, as well as customers who have

developed their own in-house application, will need to rewrite them in order to take

advantage of 64-bit processing when Merced does become available. This will be expensive

in terms of resources and time.

By the time Merced and NT 5.0 are

available in servers, a next generation of AS/400e processor, called Northstar, will be

available. Users buying the AS/400e server 170 today will be able to have Northstar

processors installed when they become available. Few PC servers being sold today can make

this offer to customers when Merced becomes available. Customers that desire PC servers

with the new Merced processor will have to purchase new PC servers. Customers that

purchase the e-server 170 will not have to purchase new AS/400 hardware. AS/400e server

170s are likely to retain their value much longer than Intel-based servers. The processor

technology advantage that AS/400e has will continue for some time.

Excerpted from

"The New AS/400e Story



for Small and Medium Business"


by D H Andrews Group.


Courtesy: Tata IBM