Inside IBM's i5/OS Porting Decisions

Published: November 7, 2006

by Alex Woodie

We've all heard the adage that platform choices follow application choices, and for many of you, it was the initial application choice that led you to the AS/400. Now that you have a significant investment in this platform, you're likely looking for more applications you can run on the server, to further your investment. IBM is also actively hunting for more applications it can bring to the iSeries, but increasingly, they're not OS/400 or i5/OS applications.

In a perfect world, we would all have the option of running any application on any operating system that we choose. However, as an AS/400, iSeries, or System i user, you understand that, oftentimes, you don't have the option of running an application on this platform's native operating system, i5/OS (previously called OS/400).

In many cases, your only choice for getting an application onto the iSeries--which offers better manageability and reliability than many other types of servers--is to run it in a logical partition running Linux or AIX, or on an integrated Windows server card that plugs into the System i hardware. In other cases, IBM might push a third-party vendor with applications outside of i5/OS for a full port to i5/OS, but in either case, IBM weighs the costs and benefits of doing a full port versus taking the Linux, Unix, or Windows route to iSeries enablement.

Even IBM struggles with porting its own software to i5/OS and OS/400. In part one of this two-part series, Michael Prochaska, the IBM System i software portfolio manager, explained the progress that IBM has made bringing Domino and WebSphere products, specifically, to the platform. He also talked about how Tivoli products were developed for client-server architectures, and how products like Tivoli Storage Manager recreate functionality that already exists in i5/OS and OS/400--which, it seems, will forever hinder their adoption on the platform.

IBM takes a very tactical approach in iSeries enablement, according to Prochaska. "We've got to do a good job making sure we position the products correctly--what runs native, what doesn't, and why," the IBMer from Rochester, Minnesota, says. "It's perfectly fine to run some of these products in a partition on System i."

For example, the cost of porting a niche product, such as an RFID edge server, to run natively under i5/OS outweighs the benefits of having it native, Prochaska says. There simply will not be enough demand for such a niche product to overcome the costs involved in making it run natively under i5/OS.

Prochaska doesn't try to pretend that running an application in Linux or AIX partitions or on an Integrated xSeries Server (IxS) card is the same as having it run under i5/OS. There are definite benefits to having it run native i5/OS, he says.

"With i5/OS, there are some good integration points with the database. So there's value there, and with storage management as well," Prochaska says. "There are points of interest to running natively with the whole security model. There's value in the integration with software."

Prochaska and his team give special consideration for running natively to what he terms the "core" infrastructure products. "For core products, the WebSphere application server, Portal, Workplace--for the fundamental products--if application providers are building on top of that middleware, we're very aggressive in getting that native," he says. "If it's a niche product like RFID, there's no reason it couldn't run in a partition."

What iSeries and System i customers tell IBM about the types of products they want to have running on native i5/OS on the platform also has an impact. "In all honesty, if there's a groundswell of System i customers saying 'we want this native,' that resonates with the Software Group," Prochaska says.

Software that is most likely to be used by small and mid size businesses (SMBs) is also more likely to get ported to native i5/OS than reside on the IxS outboard or in a Linux or AIX partition, Prochaska says. "You're not going to have customer partitioning their Model 520 into two or three partitions," he says. "SMBs aren't comfortable running in partitions."

Likewise, larger customers running bigger System i and iSeries machines, specifically those using dedicated hardware management consoles (HMC), are more apt to be satisfied with a Linux- or AIX-based application running on their i server, Prochaska says. Larger customers typically "are very comfortable running multi workload and different operating systems," he says.

While smaller companies may have trouble mastering the skills needed to set up and manage a solid LPAR environment, Prochaska denied that introducing non native Linux-, AIX-, or Windows-based iSeries applications complicates the management of the System i servers. "I wouldn't say it complicates the management," he says. "In the end, we're not wondering about what runs native, but leveraging investment in the platform."

The new voice over IP (VoIP) solution that IBM and 3COM developed for the System i as a good example of how a "solution-based" offering (as opposed to a core infrastructure or middleware offering) runs perfectly well in a logical partition, according to Prochaska. The new VoIP solution, which recently became available, is a Linux application that runs in a Linux partition hosted on i5/OS. "It's a great example of bringing a new solution to the platform to solve a business need," he says.

Prochaska also noted that people seem to be getting the wrong idea about what partitioning means on the iSeries, specifically when it comes to AIX. "One of the biggest misconceptions is that AIX running on System i is different that AIX on System p," he says. "The truth of it is, AIX is AIX. It's the exact same binaries and the exact same hardware. It's fully tested and supported."

Evangelizing the benefits of the System i is part of Prochaska's job. As part of its "Initiative for Innovation," IBM counts 1,100 new or enhanced applications for the System i in the 18 months or so prior to August 2006. "One of things we focused on is going out and finding emerging providers focused on applications, focused on [particular] geographies, and getting them to port to i5/OS. So we've spent a lot of time, money, and energy [on that]."

The truth is that many of these products aren't i5/OS, but run in Linux or AIX partitions. People just have to get used to the fact that i5/OS is just one of the operating systems on the box, Prochaska says.

"The days of having solution providers that only support one platform are over," he says. "Most application providers are multiplatform these days. But what we have to do is make sure we're a relevant platform, make sure they have what they need and see value from an integrated offering. It's an ongoing battle. We're going to lose some and we're going to win some. But I'm pretty confident in what we've seen over the last year to year-and-a-half. I'm confident in the future of the platform."

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