OS/400 Servers Over Time: iSeries to i5 to System i
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Now that the System i5 machines are just getting into the hands of resellers and then customers, it is an appropriate time to take a hard look at the value that the new machines offer to OS/400 shops. In prior issues of this newsletter and its siblings in the Four Hundred family of publications, we have gone over the feeds and speeds of the new hardware and the features and functions of the new software. Now it is time to assess what kind of deal these new machines offer in a series of articles that will compare the System i5s to prior OS/400 machines and then to other platforms. READ MORE >

OS/400 Shops Increase Spending on Services
by Mary Lou Roberts

Last June, Forrester analyst Andrew Bartels called services spending "the hidden giant of IT spending," noting that the total dollars spent on services are "mostly hidden because it is fragmented into a dozen sub sectors. . . ." He notes that Forrester estimates that professional services represented 22 percent of all U.S. IT spending in 2004 and 2005, and he highlights the optimism that firms offering services feel that the services business will continue to grow. READ MORE >

The Server Market Begins to Cool in Q4
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The latest server market statistics from IDC and Gartner came out last week. IDC gave out stats for the fourth quarter of 2005 and all of last year, while Gartner just talked about 2005. The two companies more or less agree on the shape of the server market, but it was IDC that came out and declared that revenues had actually declined in the fourth quarter, and shipments had begun to slow. Gartner was mum on the subject of the fourth quarter. READ MORE >

As I See It: Future Schlock
by Victor Rozek

Raymond Kurzweil and Bill Joy are the Yin and Yang of technological consequence prediction. Kurzweil, the optimist, is part inventor, part futurist, and part philosopher. He is a best-selling author, recipient of the 1999 National Medal of Technology, and member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, so he knows whereof he speaks. Joy, the pessimist, is the quintessential nerd, turned computer architect, turned dark futurist. He is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems and until 2003, he served as its chief scientist. He was also co-chair of the presidential commission on the future of IT research. So he, too, knows whereof he speaks. READ MORE >