How Big Is the OS/400 Ecosystem?
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

As the editor of The Four Hundred for eight years, then AS/400 Monday Morning Update for three years, and now the second incarnation of The Four Hundred for nearly four years, I get asked a lot of really hard questions about the OS/400 installed base. And I really like them because it is fun to try to figure things out. But, sadly, there is just a lot less information available about the OS/400 installed base and its larger economic ecosystem than there has been in the past. READ MORE >

IBM's BPMAC: A Small Group With Lots of Pull
by Mary Lou Roberts

When more than 50 percent of your server sales come from resellers and distributors (and more than 70 percent of your iSeries server sales), it's a good idea to check the pulses frequently of those who keep the boxes flowing off the assembly line. And that's exactly what IBM has been doing with the Business Partner Marketing Advisory Council (BPMAC). READ MORE >

HP, IBM and Unix, Windows Tied in the Server Market
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The box counters at IDC get their say this week about how the server market did in the first quarter after Gartner jumped the gun on IDC and got its numbers out a little earlier. The story is largely the same either way, but different in some of the details, since the two dominant market analysts in the information technology arena do not and cannot agree on the details (at least until they merge some day). READ MORE >

As I See It: First Timers
by Victor Rozek

Do good work, be cooperative, and one day you may find yourself promoted to management. Although such a promotion is often viewed as a destination, it is actually a point of divergence; a fork in the road less clearly marked than the old familiar path. Moving from a cubicle to an office requires answering the inevitable question: What now? The presumption is that because a person could do his former job capably, he can also excel at management. But the old job came with a clear definition of "what now," and the new job doesn't. READ MORE >

   But Wait, There's More

MIMIX Disaster Recovery Solution Heals Hospital's HIPPA Pain . . . American Software Reports Increasing Sales, Profits . . . HP, IBM Jockey for the Lead in the Tape Market . . . Server Vendors Promote Command Line Standard for Server Management . . . DataMirror Secures $8 Million Credit Line from RBC . . . Loss of Citigroup Tapes Renews Calls for National Security Breach Law for Consumers . . . Big Blue Promises to Open Up Cell Processor Specs . . . READ MORE >

TFH Flashback: Critical Mass

The following story is from the November 1993 issue of The Four Hundred, in which I talked about how IBM's future is in software and services and how the company should consider getting into the application software business, particularly on the AS/400, given this fact. I also talked about how IBM's love affair with the Smalltalk object-oriented programming language would probably not pan out. Java burst onto the scene two years later to obliterate Smalltalk, but the issues they both faced among midrange customers were essentially the same. I hope you enjoy this flashback and find it interesting. READ MORE >

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