The Four Hundred

IBM has changed its official definition of "high availability" in reaction to the emergence of new companies offering OS/400 high availability solutions. Previously, only those vendors that had built support for IBM's clustering technologies into their products could be considered true high availability vendors. But the new definition is not likely to satisfy all players in the OS/400 market, because it still prevents some from using the high availability name, which is a seal of approval from IBM that carries with it discounts on iSeries hardware.

Maximum Availability and iTera have been seeking entrance into IBM's high availability program for years. The two software companies are different from other vendors of high availability software in their reliance on IBM's remote journaling technology as the only method of replicating data from a primary to a backup machine. Both companies consider their OS/400 software products--*noMAX and Echo2 respectively--to be high availability solutions. However, the companies' competitors in the high availability market say that *noMAX and Echo2 are data replication products and do not support the same level of functionality as their own products do. Until now, IBM's definition of high availability has supported that viewpoint.

Simon O'Sullivan, director of sales at the New Zealand company Maximum Availability, says the company's absence from IBM's high availability program has caused confusion among its customers. "Our main problem was, the customers would say, 'Why aren't you a high availability business partner? Is there something wrong with the software?' " he said. "Our software's ServerProven. We've got that stamp. We're a partner in development, a member of the IBM tools network. 'Yes, but why aren't you a high availability business partner?' "

In fact, there is widespread confusion in the marketplace about just what it means to be an IBM high availability business partner. The fact of the matter is that IBM has no such program by that name. The only program that IBM has for vendors of high availability software goes by the ClusterProven name. And therein lies the dig: IBM's definition of high availability software requires the software to support clustered architectures, which iTera and Maximum Availability say their customers mostly do not want or need.

Allan Campbell, Maximum Availability's president and general manager, says there needs to be another type of high availability program that doesn't require vendors to support IBM's complex and sophisticated clustering technologies. "My argument to them has been, 'You've got a road worthiness test for a 40-ton truck. We've come along and created a family car. It's a worthwhile form of transportation, and 10 axels isn't necessary for a family car,' " he said. "What I want IBM to say is, 'Here's the road-worthiness certificate for the family car.' "

There is more at stake than just gaining Big Blue's seal of approval for high availability software, however. There is a lot of money at stake as well. Software vendors that have built support for clustering into their products have also gained the value added enhancement, or VAE, label. The VAE label allows them to participate in periodic programs whereby IBM offers discounts--currently at about 50 percent--off the cost of iSeries hardware purchased in conjunction with a high availability system. In practice, the discount associated with the VAE label effectively covers the cost of the license for high availability software. In this way, it can cost as much to purchase and install the software of vendors with the VAE label as it would be to buy and install *noMAX or Echo2, which normally sell for anywhere from 20 to 50 percent of the cost of traditional high availability software.

Campbell says the lack of the VAE has hindered attempts to build a reseller channel in the United States. "The resellers have all asked for this," he said. "Some resellers have shied away from marketing our products because they haven't gotten the value add. We haven't lost a customer we've been engaged with because we didn't have the value add. It's more the opportunity to get in front of the customer."

Steve Finnes is the IBM brand manager in charge of the ClusterProven program. Finnes has the power to control the definitions that say whether software vendors gain the other benefits of IBM's partnership. The reason he is changing the definition of high availability and the structure of the program is there are a lot more players in the market now, he said. "We're coming out in November with a new definition of high availability that is more rigorous," he said. "My point on this is very clear because this industry is so important to our brand."

While the new definition of high availability wasn't made available to Guild Companies by press time, Finnes provided an overview of the new definition and the accompanying program, as well as his reasons for changing them. "It's such a critical function when [customers] think they're buying high availability, that it has certain criteria, that I have local expertise," he said. "I'm kind of a purist. I want to have strong partners that are robust." Finnes said one of the new requirements for vendors to qualify as high availability providers is that they must have a strong presence internationally. For example, Finnes said, Lakeview Technology, whose product MIMIX is ClusterProven and thus considered a true high-availability solution, has 17 full-time employees stationed in an office in London.

As far as technology goes, the iSeries definition of high availability does not appear to be changing much and will still require the vendors to support IBM's clustering technology. To satisfy new vendors like Maximum Availability and iTera, IBM will create a new category of software that will not be as rigorous as that required to meet the high availability category. Finnes said the new category will be called "data replication." "In my brand, I know which ones are high availability: Lakeview, Vision Solutions, and DataMirror are in the high availability category," he said.

Finnes said he needs to be a stickler and protect the purity of the definition of high availability. "I'm concerned about the word 'quality' with high availability," he said. For example, Lakeview and Vision have been going through the process of trial and error for years and have refined their offerings to a high degree, he said. "The people buying these guys' software, they are standing on the shoulders of a lot of environments that came before, about 5,000 of them. That says a huge amount. . . . The maturing and stability of the design that is currently in the Lakeview product represents approximately a decade of change."

The new data replication category of software isn't likely to sit well with either Maximum Availability or iTera. "That Steve Finnes talks about us like it's data replication software, it makes me almost livid," said Dan Neville, president and founder of iTera, based in Salt Lake City. "We don't do just data replication."

Neville has attempted to gain entry into IBM's ClusterProven program by building a new software product that supports clustering. That software is expected to be completed in December. "We're glad IBM had us do this. At first we thought it was a waste of our lives," he said. "As we got into it, we got excited about it . . . it will really help the user." Neville expressed uncertainty about whether he would be allowed into the high availability program, even with the new clustering product.

Most industry insiders contacted for this story said that IBM Rochester's clustering initiative is producing good technology, but that it's simply too far ahead of its time to be practical for most OS/400 shops to use. Of the estimated 250,000 OS/400 shops worldwide, fewer than 10 clustering implementations have been publicly reported. Traditional OS/400 high availability involving mirroring has been somewhat more successful than clustering. The number of OS/400 shops that have implemented some form of high availability is estimated at between 10,000 and 15,000, or 4 to 6 percent of the worldwide OS/400 shops.

Finnes defends IBM's investment in clustering and his insistence that it remain as the key factor in whether software can be considered a high availability solution. As more customers realize that their businesses require 24/7 uptime, they'll come to realize that clustering is the right route. "It's a chicken and egg thing," Finnes said of clustering. "I want to be out ahead of things. It's definitely not an overnight thing. It's an evolutionary thing."

Maximum Availability sees good technology in clustering, although it is not currently working to build support for clustering into its technology, as iTera is. "I think clustering is a valuable thing. It's dragging the world in the right direction," Campbell said. "But right now, ordinary AS/400 users need to do something to protect their data."

Maximum Availability and iTera have priced their software and structured their businesses to target the small and midsized businesses that cannot afford the six-figure license fees that have typically been associated with OS/400 high availability software. By most accounts, they're doing well. They say their partnerships with IBM are generally good, and they hope to keep them that way.

Maximum Availability has even gained the blessing of IBM's Australian and New Zealand organizations, which have given the VAE status to *noMAX, enabling them to take advantage of hardware promotions. Now the company wants that status in the United States, the biggest single market for high availability software. "Everybody we speak to at IBM has been supportive," Campbell said. "A number of them have gone to bat for us. But all roads lead to Steve Finnes."

Campbell says IBM's requirement that true high availability software must support clustering is shortsighted and should be changed, or adapted. "It's not like you're clustering, or you don't have any value to the market," he said. "There's a whole continuum. At the moment, it seems to be binary: Either you're clustering or your not."

iTera, which counts 200 high availability customers, has taken a similar approach. Neville says his company will continue to try to abide by IBM's rules in an attempt to gain entry into the program and get the VAE label. The company is signing up 10 companies outside of the United States to sell the software, and it has partnerships with ISVs such as MAPICS and Siemens to get their software ClusterProven. "We'll just keep selling systems," Neville said, "and as we become more international, IBM at some point has to recognize the truth."

What's ironic is that iTera and Maximum Availability are indeed standing on the shoulders of giants by capitalizing on a technology (remote journaling) that Lakeview and Vision both helped to develop but haven't pushed their customers hard to adopt. By basing their applications on remote journaling, iTera and Maximum Availability have avoided millions of dollars in development costs, which allows them to sell their software for quite a bit less.

In the end, it seems to iTera and Maximum Availability that the difference in technology is really what's keeping them out of the program. "Our product is good, and in many cases a lot better fit. I can't think of anything we don't support, except MQSeries," Neville says. "We're pretty good, or we wouldn't be replacing them in SAP shops."

"Remote journaling is a fantastic part of the operating system that's making this possible for the small to medium-sized businesses," O'Sullivan said. "We're there for those iSeries users who can't afford the Big Three. IBM should be there for them, too, not just playing the tune for the Big Three."

There is another way out, of course. IBM could offer the same or a comparable VAE to vendors in the new data replication category it creates. This would allow IBM to make the distinctions that it feels are necessary to describe high availability products while giving new vendors some of the benefits that the older, more established companies have. This would obviously apply to the data replication products that DataMirror, Lakeview, and Vision Solutions all sell as well, so they would benefit, too.