| Editor: | Timothy Prickett Morgan | Managing Editor: | Shannon Pastore | |
| Contributing Editors: | Joe Hertvik | |||
| Alex Woodie | ||||
| Shannon O'Donnell |
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Volume 10, Number 16 sponsored by:Symtrax Tango04 SoftLanding Systems RJS Software Systems Net400, An ROI Company Nate Viall & Associates
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IBM Could Sell $6 Billion in PowerPC Servers in 2001 by Timothy Prickett Morgan
It's hard to tell sometimes if enhancements in server hardware, operating
systems, and middleware drive application software and other IT sales, or
if it is the other way around. Either way, one thing is for certain: Server sales
are a bellwether for the health of the IT market. Depending on how you
want to look at it, sales of servers are either a leading or a lagging indicator
for what's going on at companies around the world. That is one of the
reasons why the people at Guild Companies are obsessed with the server
business. (The other is that some of us are motorheads and love hardware.)
While the iSeries and AS/400 business has its ups and downs quarter to
quarter, it looks like IBM could sell well over $6 billion in server
sales for platforms that are based on the PowerPC architecture (this
estimate includes machines using PowerPC and Power4 processors, but
excludes those using the Power3 processors, which are not used in the
AS/400 and iSeries line). Considering how bad the economy is and how
the server business has all but imploded in some sectors of the economy,
this is incredible news and underscores the fact that IBM made the right
choice when it decided to merge the AS/400 and RS/6000 server
hardware platforms in the mid-1990s.
In the most recent quarter ended, according to analysts at brokerage
house Salomon Smith Barney, IBM sold $500 million worth of AS/400
and iSeries servers, up 7.5 percent from last year's dismal third quarter.
SSB reckons that IBM sold another $570 million in RS/6000 and pSeries
servers using PowerPC and Power3 processors (down 8.8 percent from a
year earlier), and that the company sold another $725 million in ES/9000
and zSeries mainframes (up 25 percent) and another $450 million in
Netfinity and xSeries Intel-based servers (down 26.2 percent) in
the third quarter of 2001. That comes to over $2.25 billion in eServer sales
for IBM for Q3 2001, down 2 percent compared to last year's third
quarter (which saw great Unix server sales but very poor mainframe and
OS/400 platform sales) and down 5.5 percent from the $2.38 billion in
overall IBM server sales in Q3 1999. (To see a chart showing the quarter-
by-quarter IBM eServer sales between 1999 and 2001, go to
http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/ssb1999-2001.gif.)
Most Wall Street analysts expect that the new "Regatta" pSeries 690
servers, which employ IBM's 1.1GHz and 1.3GHz Power4 processors,
will be a big boon for IBM in the fourth quarter of this year and will help
bolster IBM's overall eServer sales if mainframe and OS/400 platform
sales lag. IBM had a pretty good fourth quarter with the AS/400 and
iSeries line bringing in about $745 million in hardware sales according to
SSB; I estimate that IBM sold another $350 million in OS/400 and
DB2/400 licenses as well as memory and peripheral upgrades on this
hardware as well, boosting sales to $1.1 billion. It will be tough to beat
these numbers, and no one expects IBM to do that. It's lucky for IBM that
the Regatta sale pipeline is roaring. According to one rumor I heard last
week, the order book for the Regattas, which won't start shipping until
December, is about 2.5 times IBM's plan. If IBM can push Regattas out
the door fast enough, sales of its AIX platforms should easily crest above
$1 billion in Q4 2001. In fact, SSB expects IBM's xSeries, iSeries, and
zSeries lines to see a traditional pickup in Q4 of this year, although sales
will peak at a slightly lower level than last year's Q4. Because IBM did
better in 2001 than in 2000 selling servers, SSB expects that the eServer
line will post overall sales of $11.8 billion for 2001, up about 10 percent.
By my estimates, the PowerPC and Power4 portion of those sales will
come to about $6.1 billion, up 17 percent from last year's $5.2 billion
sales level and up 30 percent from the $4.6 billion in PowerPC platform
sales in both 1998 and 1999. As I have said before, the Power platform
is IBM's strategic, long-term platform and it is healthy and profitable; my
best guess is that the Power platform hardware has gross margins that
range between 45 percent and 50 percent, depending on the quarter. In
addition, the OS/400 software stack is very likely running at an 85 percent
gross margin.
IBM may not seem to love the AS/400 or the iSeries at times, but it
cannot afford to ignore the platform because of the money it generates.
However, if IBM was truly courageous, it would push the iSeries like
crazy and make even more revenues and profits. My contention is and
has always been that IBM should pick up the pace with the iSeries line
and try to sell not 40,000 to 50,000 machines a year, but 200,000 to
250,000 machines, which the midrange could easily absorb if they could be
convinced of the virtues of the iSeries and if IBM would price the iSeries
more like Windows and Unix servers.
Let's have some fun with math on the back on an envelope and see how
this might work. Say that IBM sold $2.9 billion of AS/400 and iSeries
servers in 2001 and $350 million in OS/400 licenses at 45,000 and
20,000 units, respectively. (I'm using a ballpark estimate just to prove a
point.) Assuming a 45 percent gross margin on the hardware and an 85
percent gross margin on the software, IBM would have an overall gross
profit of about $1.6 billion or gross margins of 49 percent on the OS/400
platform. This assumes an average selling price of about $64,000 on an
OS/400 server and about $17,500 on the OS/400 software stack. This is
a good business, and you can see why IBM doesn't want to change.
Now, let's pump up the volume and make a better business. I want to cut
the average selling price of the iSeries to $32,000 from $64,000 because
I think IBM could, with a properly motivated reseller channel, sell 250,000
iSeries boxes a year. Those 250,000 iSeries sales would in the first year of
this marketing campaign push about 200,000 OS/400 licenses, which I
want to sell for a measly $6,000 a pop on average. (Yes, I want to cut
OS/400 costs by a third for an average user because I only want to charge
customers for what they use.) Under this scenario, I am assuming that
gross margins on hardware drop to 30 percent because of the price cuts
(which is mitigated by savings from volume parts purchasing and
manufacturing economics) and that gross margins on the OS/400 stack
increase to 95 percent because burning CDs for those extra 180,000 new
iSeries customers doesn't cost very much and neither does supporting
them. When you do the math, it comes to $8 billion in iSeries hardware
sales and $1.2 billion in OS/400 sales. Overall OS/400 platform gross
margins would drop to 47.5 percent under this scenario, but IBM would
have an iSeries business that was three times the size and arguably the
largest server business in the world in its own right. In addition, it would
have gross profits of over $4 billion a year.
As you can envision, this would attract the attention of the independent
software application vendor (ISV) community and would do much to
promote the use of tools and other software and services in the IBM
midrange.
My envelope is running out of space, so here's only a little more math.
The difficulty in this scenario is figuring out what iSeries machine IBM is
selling at what price and to whom. IBM can't hit that $8 billion hardware
revenue by simply selling 200,000 smaller iSeries machines to new entry-
level customers. To do so would utterly destroy gross profits in the iSeries
line. The best scenario I can come up with after playing with the numbers
for a few minutes is for IBM to sell 100,000 entry iSeries machines at an
average selling price (ASP) of $15,000 (that means the price range will
span from $5,000 to $20,000 for configured machines with base disk and
memory and no interactive features because interactive capacity is sold as
software, not hardware). This would only generate about $1.5 billion in
iSeries hardware sales. IBM could sell another 100,000 machines at an
ASP of about $25,000, generating about $2.5 billion, and another
$4 billion in sales pushing around 50,000 high-end machines at an ASP of
about $80,000. IBM would obviously have to seriously expand the
number of iSeries machines it sells into the core midrange and enterprise
bases. However, with Compaq, Sun Microsystems,
and Hewlett-Packard in turmoil, there may never be a better time
to attack their installed server bases.
The question remains as to whether or not IBM could build this many
iSeries machines and its channel could sell this many machines into these
accounts. It's a pretty tall order, which is probably why we haven't seen
such a dream fulfilled. It would require staunch support of key ISVs, many
of whom have only committed tepid support to the OS/400 platform. If
you want to sell lots of servers you need to sell applications from the key
ISVs like PeopleSoft, SAP, Oracle,
J.D. Edwards, and Baan. PeopleSoft has dropped its
commitment to OS/400. Only a tiny fraction of the SAP base is on
OS/400. Oracle's eponymous database, which is required for its
application suite, does not run on OS/400. JDE and Baan suites are on the
iSeries, but these vendors have been focusing on Unix and Windows
platforms in recent years (to the chagrin of JDE, which is trying to work its
way back into the iSeries fold in recent months). The opportunity is large,
but so are the problems in bagging that opportunity.
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Two More Products Killed by WebSphere Application Server 4.0 by Shannon O'Donnell
As IBM and the iSeries prepare for WebSphere Application
Server 4.0 and its Java 2, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) platform, some IBM
developers are facing big problems. As reported in the October 1 issue of
this newsletter (see "WebSphere Development Studio Being Split In Two"),
certain iSeries development tools are being rewritten to support WebSphere
Application Server 4.0. But what IBM hasn't made a point of shouting
about is that other new tools will also need to be redesigned and rewritten
to work with Version 4.0, or they'll have to be removed from the market
altogether.
iSeries Access for Web (5722-XH1), a cool new tool allowing easy access
to the iSeries via a Web browser, released as a free product to licensed
Client Access Express users in September, is one such product that is not
going to work with WebSphere Application Server 4.0. Sources at IBM
report that iSeries Access for Web, which was written for WebSphere
Application Server 3.5, will simply not work with Version 4.0. Before it
can be used with the latest version of WebSphere, it will need to be
completely rewritten from the ground up to take advantage of WebSphere
4.0's J2EE file structures and other unique features. Sources have told me
this will require a major effort on the part of Rochester developers and, in
fact, may never happen. And this isn't the only IBM product that will be
affected by the company's move to WebSphere Application Server 4.0.
Yet another product to add to the list of IBM products that won't work
with WebSphere 4.0 is the recently repackaged WebSphere Host
Publisher Version 3.5 (5648-E25). This product, which allows an iSeries
shop to easily put an HTML face on its green-screen applications and then
access those apps via a Web browser, absolutely depends on WebSphere
Application Server 3.5. On September 28, IBM began to package
WebSphere Host Publisher 3.5 along with iSeries Access for Web, which
shipped free of charge to users with a valid Client Access Express license.
When I first heard of IBM's plan to give away this product, which had been
priced at $10,000, I was amazed. I wondered why the company would do
such a thing. Of course, we may never know the real reason, but in light of
the fact that WebSphere Host Publisher 3.5 will not work with WebSphere
Application Server 4.0, perhaps the reason for giving it away isn't so hard to
understand after all. Because WebSphere Host Publisher 3.5 will also need
to be completely redesigned and rewritten, it remains to be seen if you'll be
able to use this product after support for WebSphere Application Server
3.5 disappears on December 31, 2002.
Are these the last two IBM products that will be affected by IBM's move
to WebSphere Application Server 4.0? That question is yet to be answered,
but it's likely that additional tools will be affected. And it's not just IBM
tools that will be affected. Many vendors rely on WebSphere Application
Server 3.5 to be able to run their products. What will they do when support
for Version 3.5 ends?
So the real question is, what will IBM do? Is it cost effective to rewrite the
tools, such as iSeries Access for Web or WebSphere Host Publisher 3.5?
Can IBM somehow enable WebSphere Application Server 4.0 to run
these "older" products? The latter seems unlikely because of the extreme
differences between Versions 3.5 and 4.0.
Perhaps products from IBM and other vendors will be able to run under the
new Tomcat Application Server, which was recently released for the iSeries
(see "IBM Releases OS/400 Tomcat Application Server," in the October
29 issue). Or perhaps not. Only time will tell.
It's always a good idea to keep up with technology, such as J2EE, and IBM
should be commended for not resting on its laurels and not letting the iSeries
stagnate, but responding to these changes is going to be a significant
challenge for iSeries shops that have grown to depend on WebSphere
Application Server 3.5.
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Transoft Signs Integration Deal with LANSA by Alex Woodie
Development tool vendor Transoft has inked a deal with LANSA
to include its application integration toolset with LANSA's e-business
application, LANSA Commerce Edition. The deal, which was announced
at the recent fall COMMON conference, looks to benefit both companies,
as well as OS/400 shops that choose to extend their existing applications to
the Web using LANSA Commerce Edition.
LANSA chose to partner with Transoft to provide a better way of
connecting its Commerce Edition product with its customers' ERP systems.
"We found that some of our customers do not have prebuilt integration
points to their legacy systems," said Bill Benjamin, LANSA's vice president
of business development. "This is an important partnership that will help
some of our customers implement their B2B and B2C solutions more
rapidly."
The name of the game here is speed. Last year, when LANSA announced
Commerce Edition--which is a version of its LANSA for the Web
development platform that includes prebuilt functions for the most common
e-commerce capabilities, such as catalog look-up and shopping cart
functionality--LANSA said Commerce Edition customers would have their
Web applications up and running by up to 80 percent faster than if they had
used LANSA for the Web.
Now, by using the Transoft Screen Component Adapters--which basically
take legacy 5250, 3270, or Unix application screens and turn them into
reusable, component-based application interfaces that can be integrated into
new applications as Enterprise JavaBeans, XML data streams, or
Microsoft COM and CORBA objects--the implementation times
for Commerce Edition look to drop even more.
Transoft says it can cut the first phase of integration to less than a week.
To that end, the Atlanta, Georgia, company has created a "Fast Start"
program, which combines software installation, training, and deployment
services for Commerce Edition customers.
In addition to providing Commerce Edition users with a non-intrusive way
of bringing their RPG or COBOL applications into the modern component-
based development paradigm, the Transoft deal puts another feather in
LANSA's cap. The Oak Brook, Illinois, company boasts one of the
strongest partner programs in the mid-market, aside from IBM's,
of course. LANSA's partner program is so widespread that the majority of
the company's license fee revenue doesn't come from the company's sales,
but from software sales and services rendered by the 150+ LANSA
partners in the Americas. It's interesting to note that some of LANSA's
partners have more LANSA certified specialists than LANSA has itself.
Now, by counting Transoft--whose products do some of the same stuff that
LANSA's do--as one of its core technology partners, LANSA strengthens
its position as one of the premiere OS/400 development tools vendors and,
with Commerce Edition, as an application framework provider.
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Information Builders Analyzes SAP Data on eServer Boxes by Joe Hertvik
Business intelligence vendor Information Builders last week
announced a deal with IBM that will see the WebFOCUS i-vision
suite of analytical tools for analyzing SAP data sold within a
bundled package on each of the servers in IBM's eServer product line.
IBM's eServer line includes the iSeries, pSeries, xSeries and zSeries lines
of machines. This bundle, called WebFOCUS i-vision Analytical Suite for
IBM eServer Systems, is intended to provide an out-of-box solution that
analyzes SAP financial, human resources, and sales and distribution data to
provide a snapshot of a company's business.
WebFOCUS i-vision comes with a portfolio of predeveloped reports--
including drill-downs, multi-table joins, and cross-module data access--that
Information Builders says can satisfy the majority of SAP's intelligence
requirements without a lot of custom programming. The Information
Builders software also contains filters, rankings, and pivots that add detail to
these reports, as well as a report distribution module that lets customers
control the method, timing, frequency, format, and report-distribution
method.
While this bundle includes the WebFOCUS analytical tools for SAP and
the IBM iron to run them on, it doesn't include an option to actually
preconfigure and pretune the mySAP.com suite on the machines. Given the
success of the iSeries-based Dedicated Servers for Domino (the so-called
"Bumblebees," named for the yellow stripe that appears on the black iSeries
box that is delivered with the package), as well as the fact that IBM is
announcing iSeries bundles left and right these days (such as eServer iSeries
Powered by WebSphere, eServer for J.D. Edwards, IBM
eServer for IBS), it's interesting that IBM hasn't yet announced a
Bumblebee-like eServer offering that combines IBM hardware with SAP
software. Part of the reason might have something to do with the global
language support that mySAP.com requires and which IBM and SAP are
just delivering on the iSeries. The fact that there is not a Bumblebee for
SAP might also have something to do with the fact that as of a few months
ago, only 1,000 installations out of 44,500 installations worldwide were on
the OS/400 platform after six years of sales. A Bumblebee for SAP server
might make sense, if that was the only way to launch a competitively priced
iSeries platform to run mySAP.com, but SAP is far too interested in pushing
its gear on Unix and Windows platforms to worry much about the iSeries.
At least for now.
And it's also important to understand that Information Builders isn't stopping
with SAP data. WebFOCUS i-vision isn't a SAP-specific product or
brand. Rather, it's the name the company is using for its suite of analytical
tools. And sources say that this cobranded offering between IBM and
Information Builders may be followed in the near future by a similar offering
that provides analytical tools for PeopleSoft data. So, if this server
takes off, expect to see an expanded WebFOCUS i-vision product line that
bundles IBM hardware with analytical tools for other popular applications,
starting with PeopleSoft's apps. Of course, PeopleSoft isn't supported on
the iSeries anymore, so it won’t matter much to the OS/400 platform.
WebFOCUS i-vision Analytical Suite for IBM eServer Systems is now
available on all eServer platforms. Pricing starts at $85,000 for 25 users,
which includes all software and hardware, as well as five days of consulting
services. For more information on WebFOCUS i-vision Analytical Suite for
IBM eServer Systems, go to Information Builders' Web site, at
www.informationbuilders.com.
by Joe Hertvik
With the advent of Microsoft's Windows XP operating
system, host access vendors are starting to announce XP product support
and migration strategies. While XP support may not be critical in the short
run because many organizations won't perform massive XP rollouts
tomorrow, vendors know it's important to announce XP capabilities now,
as customers start deciding if, when, and how to migrate to the new
platform. In 2002, continued access to OS/400 resources will be critical,
and a lack of XP migration capability will either stop corporate Windows
desktop upgrades or force customers to move to a competitive product or
a browser-based solution (see recent issues of The Four Hundred
for examples of companies offering rebates and discounts to lure users of
competitive host access products).
That said, here's a list of some of the more popular midrange host access
vendors that have either pledged or incorporated Windows XP support
into their products:
* IBM's Client Access family--Client Access Express for
Windows V5R1 is the only Client Access product that will be supported
under Windows XP Professional. IBM will not support Express V5R1
running under the Home Edition or beta versions of Windows XP. You
must install Express V5R1 service pack SI01907 or later to receive support.
IBM is also reporting that it is not yet supporting Express V5R1 TCP/IP
over twinax or the Operations Console function under Windows XP (these
features will be supported through APARs or service-pack fixes in the near
future). In addition, the Management Central function of Express V5R1 is
not yet fully functional under Windows XP, even with service pack
SI01907 installed. Big Blue is providing a fix to enable Management
Central on an XP machine. This fix will be included in the next Express
client service pack, but you can download it now at
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/as400/products/clientaccess/
win32/v5r1m0/files/windowsxp/mgmtctrl/.
If you're running Express V4R5, IBM says that this package will probably
work with Windows XP. However, IBM has not tested Express V4R5
with XP, and, in case you run into problems, the V4R5 version is not
supported under XP. All other Client Access packages--including Express
V4R4 and Client Access for Windows 95/NT V3R2--will not be
supported under the Windows XP operating system.
* Better On-line Solutions' BOSaNOVA TCP/IP desktop
emulator now supports Windows XP. (For details, see "BOS Emulation
Products Load on Windows XP," in the October 29 issue of The Four
Hundred.)
* NetManage has announced that forthcoming versions of
several of its products will have logo certification for Windows XP. This
includes the NetManage RUMBA PC-connectivity package and new
versions of the OnWeb solution, for publishing, integration, and
development.
* WRQ announced that its Reflection terminal-emulation and
PC/UNIX-integration products have already earned the Microsoft
"Designed for Windows XP" logo.
If your favorite host access product isn't on this list, check with the vendor
to see when it will provide XP support. I would expect that more host
access products--such as IBM's WebSphere Host Integration and Host
Access Client packages; Ericom Software's PowerTerm terminal
emulators; SEAGULL's BlueZone PC-to-Host emulation
products; Affirmative's YESterm offerings; Synapse's
IPClient connectivity packages; Aviva Solutions' Aviva for
Desktops; and Attachmate's EXTRA! products--will soon follow
suit as their customers move up to XP.
The process of changing desktop platforms is always slow, as witnessed by
the still-prevalent use of Windows 9x and NT in many environments, as well as the
many companies that are just now starting to roll out Windows 2000
computers. However, as old Microsoft desktop platforms are withdrawn and
new platforms appear, the OS/400 host access marketplace is responding to
the needs of customers who are ready to move up--or are forced to move
up--to a new desktop.
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WebSphere Bumblebee Not Ready for Prime Time by Shannon O'Donnell
Last month, IBM unveiled a brand-new offering for midrange
customers: the IBM eServer iSeries Powered by WebSphere server. This
new dedicated iSeries Websphere platform, which we are calling the
WebSphere Bumblebee, is targeted for small and midsize businesses
wanting to quickly get up to speed and create a true iSeries-based Web
presence. While this announcement brought back memories of the arguably
successful announcement of Dedicated Server for Domino, it also left a
few questions.
IBM is touting the ease of configuration and development that comes with
this new server's preloaded WebSphere Application software, its new
configuration wizards, and its preloaded WebSphere Development tools.
However, it is this last item that leaves me wondering if IBM might have
rushed this package out before it was ready for prime time.
The WebSphere Application Server software preloaded on this system is
Version 4.0. It is Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) compliant and, as such,
is completely incompatible with all previous versions of the WebSphere
Web application server software, including Version 3.5. This means that
the applications you are now developing for the iSeries using Version 3.5
will likely not run on the new box (or, for that matter, on any system
running WebSphere Application Server 4.0) without major modifications.
What's more, the WebSphere Studio 3.5 development tools that iSeries
developers are now using are being rewritten for WebSphere Application
Server 4.0 and have been split into two new products: WebSphere Studio
Site Developer and WebSphere Studio Application Developer. Both
products are not scheduled for beta release until the fourth quarter of 2001.
Add to this the fact that VisualAge for Java 3.5 is also at the end of its life
and is being completely rewritten, and you've got a problem. Unlike
WebSphere Application Server 3.5 with it's Affinity/400 add-on
component, and VisualAge for Java's ET/400 component, there are
currently no Websphere development tools which are iSeries-centric, that
are generally available for Version 4.0.
All of this leaves me wondering just who will be buying and using this new
dedicated WebSphere iSeries server. I can't imagine that an iSeries shop,
already in the process of developing apps using WebSphere Studio 3.5
would want to shift its focus to learning and rewriting for J2EE--at least not
until WebSphere Studio Site Developer, WebSphere Studio Application
Developer, and VisualAge for Java are out of beta testing. And that's not
scheduled to happen until sometime in 2002. It's also hard to imagine that
an iSeries shop that has never used WebSphere would want to jump in,
head first, with such a complex and sophisticated Web server as 4.0. The
learning curve of this platform is not insignificant, and it's not for the
casual user.
So, since current and new users of WebSphere Application Server on
iSeries can be ruled out, that must mean that IBM is looking to sell this new
dedicated system to non-iSeries WebSphere Application Server shops. It
makes little sense for a non-iSeries shop--say a shop running WebSphere
Application Server on Windows or Unix and moving to the iSeries
platform--to take advantage of this new offering. As a huge fan and
advocate of the iSeries, I can cite many advantages to moving to the iSeries
platform, especially for a Windows shop. But I'd be hard-pressed to
recommend a migration to the new iSeries WebSphere Dedicated server to
one of these alternative-platform shops simply because the software has
been preloaded and discounted.
While I'm glad to see IBM putting together a package such as this to help
push the WebSphere product to the forefront, I can't help but wish that it
had waited until it had all the pieces in place. It's one thing to offer a 33
percent discount on the WebSphere software with this new package, but
if no one wants to buy it until the development tools are ready--and that
doesn't happen until after the discount expires--then what was the point of
providing the discount in the first place? I think IBM is on the right track
with this new offering, but I also think IBM jumped the gun to try to boost
sales in the fourth quarter to suit its needs.
If you're in the market to put your business on the Web and WebSphere
looks like a good solution, you're better off buying an iSeries server, such
as the Model 270, and running WebSphere Application Server 3.5. With
Version 3.5, you'll have a complete set of development tools that will
continue to be enhanced and supported. Why buy a package that doesn't
contain all the tools you need to use it? After all, would you buy a drill
knowing you'd have to wait six months before you could buy drill bits that
would fit it?
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Salaries Hold Steady at OS/400 Shops by Timothy Prickett Morgan
Nate Viall & Associates is putting the finishing touches on its
Winter 2001 salary survey for iSeries and AS/400 shops, and the long-time
salary watcher in the OS/400 market has given The Four Hundred
a sneak-peek at some of the salary trends it sees at OS/400 shops.
First and foremost, no matter what other recruiters and salary experts are
saying, in general the salaries for experienced IT professionals are not
declining. A few AS/400 and iSeries professionals are seeing salary freezes
or pay cuts because of the softness in the economy, but the vast majority
are not. During the last big recession in the early 1990s, this was not the
case, and many AS/400 programmers and managers had salary freezes or
cuts. However, we are several years on this side of the Internet explosion,
and the pervasiveness of computing within businesses of all kinds is much
higher than it was a decade ago.
This, more than any other reason, is why Viall says why IT and human
resources managers are telling him that they are forecasting pay raises in the
3 percent to 5.5 percent range for 2002. However, there will be some
severe differentiation between new hires and established workers at
OS/400 shops. People who are unemployed and who change to new jobs
are likely to take a pay cut, says Viall, particularly if they are consultants or
independent contractors. However, key personnel are going to be able to
command a premium that is two to three times as big as that average 3
percent to 5.5 percent pay increase for 2002. The reason is that companies
cannot afford to lose their best, key IT people because of salary
discrepancies. There may be a wealth of entry-level IT talent on the market,
but many do not know how their computers specifically fit into their
businesses.
For the Fall 2001 survey, which compares data from October 2001 with
October 2000, Viall says that pay raises for new hires are down quite a bit.
In the fall of this year, the average IT person at OS/400 shops was hired at
a salary of $57,700, while the entire salary pool had an average of $56,200
in compensation. That gives new hires a 2.7 percent premium on average
over the entire pool of employees. A year ago, the average salary for a new
hire was $56,600 in the OS/400 market, which was 9.1 percent higher than
the average salary in the entire OS/400 pool. The dot.com blowout is one
reason why the extremes between top and average IT salaries have shrunk
in recent months. There are simply fewer hot-shot programmers being
offered $85,000 out of college in this economy; the average starting salary
for a great bit-twiddler is more like the average for seasoned programmers,
clustering around $55,000 a year. Moreover, companies are handing out
fewer signing bonuses and some companies (particularly those that are IT
suppliers and software developers) are using the H-1B visa program to hire
cheap programmers and eliminate expensive ones.
Viall will be releasing his Winter 2001 salary survey next week. You can
find out more at http://www.NateViall.com.
Think SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT First!
80% of unplanned downtime is caused by Application Failure or
Operator Error, not hardware failure, according to IBM’s iSeries 400
Availability Team.
Software Management is essential to keeping your applications
available, reliable, and bug-free, no matter how often you update
them. Let SoftLanding show you how. You'll finish software projects
faster, with a higher degree of quality, and keep them online, using
our industry-leading solutions for CHANGE MANAGEMENT, DEBUGGING,
TESTING, DEPLOYMENT, DATABASE REORGS, and PROBLEM DIAGNOSIS &
RESOLUTION.
High Availability through Software Management. For more info and
FREE downloads, visit http://www.softlanding.com/products/400
or email info@softlanding.com.
IBM, SAP Deliver Global Language Support for mySAP.com
by Timothy Prickett Morgan
Late last week, IBM and application software vendor SAP AG
announced that the two companies had worked together to deliver global
language support for the mySAP.com software suite running on the iSeries
and AS/400 platform.
The global language support, which includes support for single-byte
character set (SBCS) languages--such as the romance languages spoke in
the Americas and Europe--as well as for the double-byte character set
(DBCS) languages spoken in Asia, is important for a number of different
reasons.
First and foremost, companies in the Asia/Pacific region of the globe do
not often have established IT infrastructures and preconceived notions and
prejudices when it comes to server platforms, and therefore they are willing
to entertain the idea of buying an iSeries server more than companies that
have three or four decades of computing under their belts. But the
mySAP.com suite (which is SAP's name for the R/3 ERP suite after it has
been Web-enabled and equipped with supply chain management and
customer relationship management extensions) has been missing the global
language support and therefore IBM, SAP and their resellers have not been
able to push the OS/400 platform in the region. To support Japanese,
Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese in OS/400 and its applications requires
the DBCS because these languages do not employ a variation of the
alphabet used in romance languages and embodied in the normal EBCDIC
character set.
Global language support is important for another reason. Files generated
by various operating systems have special tags in them called code pages,
which specifies how to map values and characters between two different
character sets. Global language support from IBM within OS/400 allows
companies to support multiple code pages within a single database. As an
example, IBM sources say that global language support will allow French
and Polish character sets to be supported simultaneously in a single
database. This is important since SAP is a European--and now worldwide--
software supplier and the mySAP.com databases require this global
language support. Having an operating system that can support multiple
languages--but with only one language per database and server or
partition--is not good enough. Global language support allows SBCS and
DBCS to be used on a single machine. One early adopter of the new code
is running German, Russian, Polish, and Chinese on a single iSeries server.
Finally, to run mySAP.com application servers on Windows 2000, either on
the Integrated xSeries Server (IxS) or with externally attached xSeries
servers linked to the iSeries through IBM's High Speed Link, global
language support is required. This is because OS/400 and Windows 2000
have different character sets and code pages, and something has to do the
translating between the two platforms when they are operating as a hybrid
platform.
IBM and SAP say that the global language support is in controlled
availability right now. At press time, it was unclear when this support would
be rolled out to all SAP customers, to other application suites, and to the
OS/400 community at large. Incidentally, I would guess that global language
support is an OS/400 V5R2 enhancement that IBM is talking about a little
early.
Converts spooled reports to PDF and delivers by e-mail.
Compatible with all LAN, Internet, & wireless addresses
through interactive screens, command line interface and programming
API.
Great OV/400 JustMail migration tools.
**Net400 SOCKETS SOFTWARE enables RPG, COBOL, and CL programmers
to communicate over standard TCP/IP sockets with any system. Monitor
and control materials handling systems, conveyors, pick-to-lights,
anything!
No low level programming required.
**Net400 SERIAL SOFTWARE enables the AS/400 to communicate with
any asynch ASCII serial device supporting RS232. Monitor
fixed-position laser bar code scanners, in-line scales, anything!
CALL Net400 at 888-8-NET400 or go to http://www.net400.com/400news/
IBM Offers Disaster Recovery Discounts for iSeries Buyers
by Timothy Prickett Morgan
If you are looking to upgrade your AS/400 or iSeries machine to a Model
830 or Model 840 or to buy a whole new machine in this iSeries power
class, IBM wants to make you a deal on business continuity services.
Under the iSeries Total Business Continuity Offering, customers who buy a
new Model 830 or upgrade to a Model 830 machine from an AS/400
Model 7XX machine or an iSeries Model 820 machine can get a $30,000
rebate or one of a number of free disaster recovery services from IBM.
Customers buying a new Model 840 or upgrading to a Model 840 from a
an AS/400 Model 7XX machine, an iSeries Model 820, or an iSeries
Model 830 machine can get a $50,000 rebate or a free disaster recovery
service.
The trick in this offering is that IBM gets to decide whether you get the
cash back or if you get the free service, because the deal stipulates that
IBM will give customers whichever has the lower cash value. IBM does
not supply list prices for its services, so it is hard to tell if it is a good deal or
not. What you do know is that you'll get $30,000 or $50,000 of value,
either as cash in hand or services from IBM.
The deal gives customers either the first year of services that are charged on
an annual basis or the full amount they would otherwise pay for a service if
it only carries a one-time charge. The disaster recovery services included in
this offering include Multivendor IT Recovery Services, which provides hot
backup for OS/400 platforms at IBM's Business Continuity centers, and
Hotsite Recovery Services, which is a beefed-up version of hot backup.
IBM's Business Recovery Consulting Services, which helps OS/400 shops
put together and test disaster recovery plans, can also be engaged under
this deal.
This rebate offering is available to iSeries and AS/400 shops retroactively
from October 16, 2001, and customers who bought hardware on or after
that date have 120 days from the time they acquire their Model 830 or
Model 840 hardware to acquire and pay for their disaster recovery services
from IBM. This deal is apparently only available in the United States.
From Nate Viall and Associates, the premier source of continuous AS/400
salary reporting and analysis since 1988.
Salaries are NOT in decline for those currently employed. In fact, most
increases for 2002 will still be above 3%. If you are the IT department
head or Human Resource manager, ask yourself:
How many employed IT professionals have taken a pay cut this year?
Our analysis includes:
Be proactive! Now is the time to start your salary planning for 2002.
To receive a one-page fax with details about our salary report services and
the order form, call us at 515/274-1729. You can also email us with your
name, title, phone number, fax number and targeted state to
NateV@CompuServe.com with this subject line:
OS/400 PTF Updates: Lots of Stuff
by Timothy Prickett Morgan
First of all, our apologies to all of you who have been waiting patiently,
week after week, for us to launch PTF News. Bringing a new
newsletter to market is not easy, especially when the key people behind it
catch the flu. We're back on track to get PTF News out the door
soon, and we think you're going to love it. Subscribers to The Four
Hundred will receive PTF News free as soon as it is ready,
and weekly from that point forward.
In the meantime, you need to know what has been going on with IBM's
PTF changes to OS/400 in the past few weeks. That's why the good
people at our partner, DLB Associates, have put together three
up-to-date OS/400 PTF Guides.
* You can read OS/400 PTF Guide, Volume 3 Number 40 at
http://www.itjungle.com/ptf/DLB-PTF_102701_V3N40.htm.
* You can read OS/400 PTF Guide, Volume 3 Number 41 at
http://www.itjungle.com/ptf/DLB-PTF_110301_V3N41.htm.
* You can read OS/400 PTF Guide, Volume 3 Number 42 at
http://www.itjungle.com/ptf/DLB-PTF_111001_V3N42.htm.
As these guide show, IBM has released a substantial number of PTFs for
OS/400 V5R1 and V4R5, and has even put out some PTFs for earlier V4
releases. Most importantly, IBM last week announced a new cumulative
PTF release for OS/400 V5R1.
Advertising Information Please see our advertising opportunities and
pricing at http://www.itjungle.com/advertising.html
Or contact Timothy Prickett Morgan at
Phone: 212 942 5818
Email: tpm@itjungle.com.
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