| Editor: | Timothy Prickett Morgan | Managing Editor: | Shannon Pastore | |
| Contributing Editors: | Joe Hertvik | |||
| Alex Woodie | ||||
| Shannon O'Donnell |
|
Volume 10, Number 18, sponsored by:Symtrax Business Computer Design Int'l, Inc. E-400 Ltd. Help/Systems Nate Viall & Associates
|
|
BCC Cuts Prices on iSeries Disk Drives iWay Integrates Business Info with MQ Integrator Guild Companies Announces Subscriber Sweepstakes Winners |
|
|
Fast400 Governor-Buster Code Changes Hands by Timothy Prickett Morgan
If you've been trying to find the Fast400 tool from TigerTools,
which we wrote about in the October 29 and November 5 issues of
The Four Hundred, you'll notice Tiger Tools' Web site is no
longer displaying. As far as we know, the TigerTools site is not
down because IBM has applied legal pressure to force TigerTools
off the air and to stop its Fast400 tool from being distributed.
Rather, the TigerTools site is down because another company is
getting ready to market the Fast400 product.
I was contacted early last week by John Wells, chief operating officer
of a London-based company called Storage Solutions Group. This
company, which, according to Wells, has been in the IBM midrange
since the days of the System/38, will begin marketing Fast400--perhaps
under a different name, perhaps not--on December 1. The company does
not yet have a Web site up and running, and it is unclear if it will
follow the same download and pricing practices as TigerTools for the
Fast400 program. We'll know more about what Wells plans to do with
Fast400 in about a week. All that he could say for sure is that his
company was creating an arms-length subsidiary so it could insulate
itself from any potential legal problems with Big Blue.
In case you haven't been following this story, Fast400 tricks OS/400
into thinking that interactive workloads on AS/400 and iSeries servers
are batch jobs, thereby circumventing a special program called
CFINT within OS/400 that acts like a governor of green-screen
application performance. CFINT determines how much interactive
performance within an AS/400 or iSeries machine can be applied to
green-screen workloads. The so-called interactive hardware features
that IBM sells for big bucks in the Northstar, Pulsar, I-Star, and
S-Star generations of AS/400 and iSeries servers are nothing more
than cards that tell CFINT how CPU resources can be applied to the
5250 protocol. After The Four Hundred posted its story on the
Fast400 product in the October 29 issue
(see "TigerTools Says It Can Remove OS/400 Governors,"
as well as the follow-up story in the Nov. 5 issue, "IBM
Issues a Statement on TigerTools' Fast400"), explaining what Fast400
was and how it would impact IBM's iSeries sales, all hell broke loose.
There's been quite an exchange of heated words about the technical and
ethical aspects of the product. In past issues of this newsletter, I
have made abundantly clear my position on why Fast400 is important to
the OS/400 community, and I have been called everything short of an
anarchist because of it. No matter. The fact remains that IBM's own
business and pricing practices left it open to attack by products like
Fast400, and it has no one to blame but itself. Simple, fair, and honest
pricing for iSeries hardware and OS/400 software subsystems is the best
antidote to Fast400.
Another thing I have learned from a number of The Four Hundred
readers, which you won't read anywhere else, is that the Fast400
software appears to work. I am not giving out any specific system
configurations, but the people who sent me emails after trying it out
said that the software did what TigerTools said it would.
The issue now is what IBM will do to try to undermine Fast400.
Fast400 is aimed at Apache and Northstar SXX generation AS/400
machines, as well as the Northstar 7XX and Pulsar/I-Star/S-Star
8XX machines. It also works on Apache and Northstar Model 150
and Model 170 servers, Northstar Model 250 servers, and Pulsar/I-Star/S-Star
Model 270 servers. With hundreds of thousands of machines out there
that have interactive hardware features and therefore might be able to
use Fast400 to boost their green-screen throughput or lower their average
green-screen response time (or both), IBM could hide all kinds of things
in OS/400 V4R5, V5R1, or V5R2, and it wouldn't immediately affect these
customers, many of whom have no intention of upgrading their operating
systems. I fully expect IBM to hide patches to disable Fast400 within
HIPER PTFs, for dormant as well as current OS/400 releases, in order to
try to inoculate itself against Fast400. If that doesn't work, IBM will
probably call in the lawyers. Fast400 is probably best viewed as a
short-term solution until IBM changes its pricing practices or stops
trying to kill Fast400. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for either of
these things to happen, though. It seems unlikely given the amount of
money at stake and the number of Business Partners whose fortunes
will be adversely affected by a drop in interactive feature sales if
Fast400 takes off.
Access Your Data. Anytime. Anywhere.
BCC Cuts Prices on iSeries Disk Drives by Alex Woodie
In direct response to IBM price cuts last month, BCC
Technologies last week dropped its list prices for some AS/400
and iSeries disk drives by up to 25 percent. While IBM cut prices
on certain drives by up to 46 percent, BCC, the only provider of
internal disk drives for AS/400 and iSeries servers besides IBM,
is still the low-price leader in this market.
The disk drives involved in the price cuts include BCC's 4.2 GB,
8.5 GB, and 17.5 GB Extended Disk Drives (EDD) spinning at either
10K or 15K RPM. BCC uses disk drives manufactured by IBM,
Seagate, and Fujitsu, to which it adds its own
controllers and short-stroking microcode called Fast Access Storage
Technology. The FAST algorithms allow BCC to shorten disk access
time and increase throughput in exchange for cutting the disk's
storage capacity roughly in half (it can later be reformatted
for the full size of the disk if additional storage is needed).
Here's a rundown of price reductions for BCC's 10K EDD disk drives.
BCC cut the price for 8.5 GB, 10K RPM drives with FAST technology
by 11 percent, from $1,400 to $1,250. BCC also dropped the price of
its 17.5 GB, 10K RPM drive (without FAST technology) by 11 percent,
bringing the cost of one of these units down to $1,250. If you want
a 17.5 GB, 10K RPM BCC drive loaded with the FAST microcode, it'll
cost you $1,500, which is $500 less than what it would have cost you
before the price cut.
For the 4.2 GB, 15K RPM disk drive loaded with FAST microcode, BCC
is now asking $1,500, a 25 percent reduction. This is the same list
price and discount BCC is providing for two other 15K RPM drives,
including the 8.5 GB model with the FAST additive and the 17.5 GB
disk without FAST. For the 17.5 GB, 15K RPM drive with FAST
microcode, BCC's new list price is $2,000, a 20 percent reduction.
See a complete list of BCC's list prices. Prices for BCC's FAST 4.2 GB disks spinning at
10K RPM were not reduced, and neither were the prices for BCC's
straight 8.5 GB 10K RPM disks without the FAST additive.
OS/400 shops can now buy disks for as low as 7 cents per MB when
they purchase a 17.5 GB, 10K RPM disk drive. It's the first time
the single unit per-megabyte price for any OS/400 server disk
drive has ever been this low, BCC says. BCC also dropped the
pricing for its 17.5 GB, 15K RPM disk drives down to 9 cents
per MB.
BCC said it dropped its prices in direct response to IBM's price
cuts. One month ago, IBM dropped the price on most 17.5 GB, 10K RPM
drives from $2,520 to $2,010, a 20-percent reduction. For complete
listings of the disk drives affected by IBM's Oct. 16 price cuts,
see the Oct. 22 issue of The Four Hundred (see "IBM To Jack Up Prices On 7XX-to-8XX
Upgrades"). BCC still holds the price edge over IBM for this
popular size and speed of AS/400 disk drive, although the discount
you get when buying this drive from BCC, compared with IBM's price,
has dropped from 44 percent to 38 percent. Before BCC's November 19
price cut, BCC's 17.5 GB, 10K RPM disks were only 30 percent less
expensive than IBM's 17.5 GB, 10K RPM drives.
Needless to say, the Irvine, California, company is keen on
continuing to put pricing pressure on its only other competitors in
the AS/400 and iSeries disk drive market, IBM and EMC, which
sells external disk arrays for the AS/400 and iSeries. "The price of
BCC's line of EDD disks is significantly lower than the options
available from IBM and EMC," stated John Gimpl III, BCC's vice
president of sales. "The paradox with BCC is that you get more in a
disk from BCC, even while investing less."
For more information, go to www.bcctech.com.
See why WebSmart beat out 26 other vendors
and was Voted the BEST iSeries e-Business / e-Commerce tool in the
marketplace.
New Version. Build your own, or use/customize the 70+ Free templates
and e-Commerce applications. Develop professional apps in a couple of
days not months.
Quickly deploy elegant, robust and secure B2B & B2C apps. Including:
Inquiries, reporting, maintenance, wireless (WML, XML, HDML),
ordering, product catalogs, shopping carts, EIS & more.
Automatically produces dynamic HTML CGI programs written in ILE/RPG.
128-bit AES encryption. Utilizes iSeries400 database and security features
for scalability and reliability. Complete, portable PC-based design tool.
Unlimited developers and end-users.
Easy-to-use, requires little or no Web or iSeries400 programming and best
of all it's affordably priced.
Ask for BCD's 15-point opinion e-mail on why WebSmart is better than
WebSphere:
1. Ability to run on smaller iSeries 400s without having to upgrade hardware.
2. Significantly faster applications...
WebSmart users include: Affinity Ins., Airways Freight, Arrow
Environmental, Behr Process, Broward County Schools, Calvin Klein,
D.J. Powers, Formica Corp., Goodyear, Hightech Health, Hoshizaki
America, Kauai Electric, Legacy Partners, Midwest Trophy, MSU,
Oregon Dept., of Veterans Affairs, State of California, Testor Corp.,
Weigh-Tronix...
Also try CATAPULT, voted best e-mail / Automated Report Distribution
Tool.
Download WebSmart - and - CATAPULT now for FREE.
Call 630-986-0800, e-mail sales@bcdsoftware.com or
visit http://www.BCDsoftware.com
BCD, Winner of 18 Industry Awards.
iWay Integrates Business Info with MQ Integrator by Joe Hertvik
Following on the heels of IBM's recent announcement of
WebSphere MQ Integrator V2.1, business integration vendor iWay
Software has announced expanded support for information access
within MQ messaging by delivering a new iWay Plug-in Suite for
WebSphere MQ Integrator. The V5.1 Plug-in Suite allows MQ
Integrator to integrate display screen, application, and database
information from several different platforms--including iSeries
and AS/400--into MQSeries message flows.
iWay sells this product in two implementations. The iWay Accessor
Suite provides tools for including information when designing
MQSeries message flows in the MQ Integrator Control Center. The iWay
Developer Suite includes all the functionality of the Accessor Suite,
as well as access to additional information--such as electronic data
interchange (EDI) and e-business exchanges--that isn't available with
Accessor. The Developer Suite also includes more sophisticated message
formatting and transformation capabilities, including a server
component for XML transformation. Both products access information
through separate iWay Intelligent Adapters, built for specific
information sources, including the following:
* EDI systems
For iSeries and AS/400 customers, iWay offers Intelligent Adapters
for 5250 terminal emulation, RPG programs, J.D. Edwards software,
DB2/400, JDBC, and several customized adapters. To incorporate
OS/400 information into an MQSeries message, WebSphere MQ Integrator
contacts the appropriate Intelligent Adapter running on an iSeries
or an AS/400. The Adapter manages the interaction with the target
OS/400 object, transforms the information into a format MQ
Integrator can accept, and passes the information back to MQ
Integrator.
The main virtue in offering these products for MQSeries-to-legacy
integration is that the Plug-in Suite changes the process of
integrating IBM applications into MQSeries messaging. Without
iWay's software, access to other systems within the MQ Integrator
is accomplished by writing custom code that must be inserted into
the target object. With the Plug-in Suite and corresponding iWay
adapters, integration becomes a process of installing and
configuring access to information sources that iWay says can
reduce--but not eliminate--custom coding by as much as 90 percent.
The iWay V5.1 Plug-in Developer Suite for WebSphere MQ Integrator
is available on Windows NT/2000, AIX, Solaris, and HP-UX. The
Accessor Suite package runs inside the MQ Integrator Control Center,
which is available only on Windows NT/2000.
For the iSeries, IBM is specifying that the WebSphere MQ Integrator
will run on the Integrated xSeries Server (IxS), but it is unclear
whether the iWay Plug-in Suite will also be supported in that
environment. My guess is that it will be supported on the IxS if
there is real market demand for deployment on that platform. This
means that while IBM may be deploying new applications on the IxS
to leverage its existing code base and to roll products out faster
to iSeries customers, such a strategy still has to be embraced by
third parties with add-on products in order for it to succeed in
the marketplace. In this situation, it's not clear that this is
happening. It will be interesting to see whether there is a large
enough marketplace for IBM to continue deploying products to the
IxS that are as well supported as those on other Intel-
based platforms.
For more information and pricing on the iWay V5.1 Plug-in Suite for
WebSphere MQ Integrator, go to www.iwaysoftware.com.
NOW MANAGE LOTUS DOMINO FROM YOUR ISERIES!
New Robot/DOMINO streamlines tasks such as executing agents; archiving, deleting, and
compacting databases; & deleting attachments from database docs. Pair
with Robot/SCHEDULE, the job scheduling package, to automate Domino
management!
For FREE info visit: http://www.helpsystems.com/ad_in.cgi?ad_id=50
Guild Companies Announces Subscriber Sweepstakes Winners by Timothy Prickett Morgan
As part of our subscription drive for our new company, Guild Companies announced that it would be giving
away a top-of-the-line Palm m505, a wireless handheld computer with color support, to one lucky new
subscriber who signed up for our newsletters during the COMMON midrange trade show in Minneapolis
last month. We also announced that we would be giving away an identical PalmPilot m505 to one of our
existing subscribers who signed up for our newsletters before the COMMON show, just to be fair.
Our lucky winner from the COMMON show, according to my dice rolling, is Debra Montgomery of the IT
department for Conseco Finance.
The lucky winner among our subscriber base before the COMMON show is Steve Hansen of the IT
department for Shawano County, Wisconsin.
One of these Palm handhelds has been sitting on my desk since I ordered it before the COMMON show,
and I must tell you, it took a lot of willpower not to open it and play with it. Enjoy! We'll be offering
similar giveaways on a regular basis to you, our subscribers, as a way of saying thanks for your support.
|  |
|
The Bumblebee Buzz Continues with Intentia by Timothy Prickett Morgan
Intentia International and IBM last week announced
yet another specialized server for the iSeries line, this one
targeted at supporting small and midsize businesses looking to
acquire the Java-based Movex NextGen ERP and e-business application
suite from Intentia. The new IBM eServer iSeries for Intentia, which
we are calling the Intentia Bumblebee for the sake of brevity,
follows fast on the heels of a similar preconfigured low-end iSeries
server announced earlier this month by IBM and International
Business Systems (see "IBS, IBM Launch Dedicated iSeries ASW Server," in the Nov. 5 issue).
Both Intentia and IBS are based in Stockholm, Sweden, and are
among the strongest advocates of the OS/400 platform in Europe
and, indeed, around the world.
Intentia is perhaps best known for having ported its Movex suite
of RPG applications to Java over the past several years. The new
Intentia Bumblebee is being used explicitly as a means of making
Movex NextGen, as this Java suite is known, more attractive to
potential customers. Intentia has approximately 3,400 customers
worldwide on various OS/400 platforms running various generations
of the Movex suite, which is popular among manufacturers,
distributors, and maintenance service providers.
The Intentia Bumblebee server comes in two flavors, just like the
Bumblebees for J.D. Edwards and IBS software suites do.
The first Intentia Bumblebee configuration is based on the
iSeries Model 270-2432 server, which has a single 540 MHz S-Star
processor with 2 MB of L2 cache memory. This machine, which has
an IBM list price of $10,700, is rated at 1070 on IBM's CPW rating
scale for server workloads, and the base machine has no interactive
green-screen performance activated. (An option feature 1519
interactive card can be used to activate 50 CPWs' worth of 5250
green-screen performance on the box for $56,300 at IBM list price.)
Although the regular Model 270-2432 comes with only 256 MB of main
memory in a base configuration, the base Intentia Bumblebee server
comes with 3 GB of main memory; the server is also equipped with
70 GB of disk capacity. With this configuration, Intentia reckons
it can support around 200 users. Main memory can be expanded to
8 GB and disk capacity to 420 GB on this Intentia Bumblebee server,
the same upper limits as on a regular Model 270-2432.
The second Intentia Bumblebee configuration is comprised of a Model
270-2434 server with 4 GB of main memory and 105 GB of disk capacity.
This machine is a two-way iSeries server equipped with 600 MHz
S-Star processors, each with 4 MB of L2 cache memory. The 270-2434
is rated at 2350 CPWs on server workloads and has an IBM list price
of $26,500 with no interactive software features activated. Adding 70
CPWs of interactive performance on this base server brings the IBM
list price to $139,000. The main memory on this server can be expanded
to 16 GB, and the disk capacity can be expanded to 421 GB.
As was the case with the IBS Bumblebee servers, neither IBM nor Intentia
is providing list prices for these new Bumblebee configurations. The
reason for this, according to IBM, is that these Bumblebees--unlike
IBM's Bumblebee Domino, JDE, and WebSphere servers--are not sold to users
directly by IBM or by application providers, but are rather distributed
through various reseller channels, where the prices are actually set.
IBM is not requiring Intentia or IBS to offer a manufacturer's suggested
retail price, because these vendors want to be able to wiggle around
prices on hardware and software in order to meet a total solution cost
that suits particular customers. There's a certain logic in this, of
course, but this practice of not giving out prices makes customers
uncomfortable. List prices set ceilings from which customers can gauge
costs, and are therefore necessary. Based on other Bumblebees, customers
shopping for configured Intentia Bumblebees (meaning they have tape
drives, systems software, and other necessary peripherals) can expect
an 8 to 10 percent discount off IBM list for that machine.
Goodbye paper, hello savings! Automatically convert iSeries and
AS/400 reports to popular PC formats, like Excel, Word, Access, HTML
and more, with COMPLEO.
Totally reformat reports to get them just the way you want.
Distribute reports via email or the web. Compleo is an easy to use,
award-winning product that is used by over 4000 companies around the
world.
SYMTRAX REFORM, another Symtrax product, works
hand-in-hand with Compleo to reduce your need for pre-printed forms.
Implement secure check printing, complete with MICR fonts. Design
all form types from your PC, or just use a REFORM template for
checks, purchase orders, invoices and more.
For automatic printing, faxing and emailing of your forms,
COMPLEO and REFORM work together in order to give you a secure,
powerful solution for all your report needs.
DOWNLOAD TRIAL COPIES NOW AT http://www.symtrax.com/fhn
Call 1-800-627-6013 or 310-216-9536 with questions, or send them
to sales@symtrax.com.
Tango/04 Updates Visual Message Center with Windows Agent by Timothy Prickett Morgan
Tango/04, a specialist in application and systems
management programs for the iSeries and AS/400 platform, has
announced a Windows agent for its VISUAL Message Center. The
announcement of the Windows agent means that VISUAL Message
Center can now be used to monitor and manage operating systems
and applications residing on both OS/400 and Windows platforms
simultaneously from a single graphical console.
Version 1 of VISUAL Message Center was announced approximately
18 months ago for the OS/400 platform. This initial release was
dedicated to monitoring application errors for system administrators.
The software was specifically designed to watch for and catch the
kinds of interactive error messages that users often receive or
generate through mistakes in their data entry, which they typically
respond to incorrectly or ignore completely, to the detriment of an
OS/400 server. About a year ago, with Version 2, Tango/04 added
monitoring and management of message queues on OS/400 servers. This
extended VISUAL Message Center release could actively monitor jobs,
devices, and other things in OS/400 that system administrators had
previously attended to manually. Version 3, announced in the spring
of 2001, was able to gather console and job-related information on
OS/400 servers and pull it into the VISUAL Message Center graphical
console. Version 3.2, the latest release, is the first release of
VISUAL Message Center to include the capabilities of monitoring
Windows operating systems.
By adding support for Windows operating systems, Tango/04 is able
to make its products more appealing not only to OS/400 shops, which
generally want to rein in their Windows infrastructure and application
servers, but also to Windows customers who do not have an iSeries or
AS/400 server in their shop. Tango/04 is inclined to market its tools
to hybrid OS/400-Windows shops--which comprise about 65 percent of the
250,000 unique OS/400 server customers on the planet. But, clearly, by
supporting Windows servers, Tango/04 has expanded its marketing
options.
The VISUAL Message Center Windows Agent can be supported on IBM's
Integrated xSeries Server (IxS) PC coprocessor card for AS/400 and
iSeries servers. It works with externally attached xSeries servers
that use IBM's High Speed Link and Integrated xSeries Adapter (IxA)
cards. And it also works with any Windows NT or Windows 2000 server
attached to the management console through a standard networking link,
such as TCP/IP running over a LAN. Sources at Tango/04 say further
that the Windows agent for VISUAL Message Center can be used to
monitor workstations running Windows NT, Windows 2000, or the new
Windows XP release.
VISUAL Message Center agents for OS/400 servers cost $2,000, while
agents for Windows servers cost $300 per server. The VISUAL Message
Center console is sold separately. For the typical OS/400 shop, a
minimum install of VISUAL Message Center costs around $3,000. A
fairly complex hybrid OS/400-Windows setup with a big central iSeries
server and 10 to 20 Windows servers costs around $15,000. Tango/04 is
offering a trial version of its software at its Web site at www.tango04.com/homepages/download.htm.
* deliver fast web applications on secure iSeries or AS/400
YOU DON'T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH
* yet more interactive resource and hardware upgrades
FIND OUT HOW....
Talk to our professional partners or us on how you could leverage
existing skills and resources to develop e-business projects.
UK/Europe - E-400 Ltd. at +44 (0)1757 248000
Alternatively visit www.freestyle-400.com/tfh
for a demo or further information.
BCD's Catapult 2.5 Adds New Formatting, Performance,
Administration Capabilities
by Joe Hertvik
Business Computer Design Int'l recently released a brand
new version of its email and report distribution software,
Catapult 2.5. Designed as a client/server product that can
automatically select and download or email OS/400 spool files,
Version 2.5 adds several new capabilities to Catapult, including
the following:
* Form overlays that allow customers to format OS/400 spool file
data with the same graphical look as a corporate document (such as
an invoice) and then email the formatted document as either an HTML,
a PDF, or an RTF file
Licensing for Catapult 2.5 client/server components ranges in
price from $2,500 to $4,500, depending on your AS/400 or iSeries
model and processor. BCD has added the new features to Catapult
without increasing the price from the previous version. This is
a selling point because BCD says its competitors charge separately
for some of this functionality. In addition, current Catapult
customers can receive Version 2.5 as a no-charge upgrade, provided
they have active support. See BCD's Web site at, www.bcdsoftware.com, for more details.
Finally, be aware that Catapult 2.5 isn't the only new product BCD
will be releasing. The company is also beta-testing a new offering
called the WebSmart Site Management System (see "BCD Releases Betas for Email and
WebSmart," in the Nov. 5 issue), which is a WebSmart-based tool
for WebSmart site administration. This product is expected to be
released in early 2002. If you're interested in participating in
the Site Management System beta, you can get more information at
the BCD Web site or by calling the company at 630-986-0800.
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:
Get Your Updated OS/400 PTF Guide by Timothy Prickett Morgan
IBM has updated the PTFs for its WebSphere software for OS/400 V5R1 and V4R5 this week,
and has also released new HIPER PTFs for these two operating systems. You can read the latest OS/400 PTF
Guide on the Guild Companies Web site.
The PTF Guide is put together by our partner company, DLB Associates, which will also be
composing the in-depth weekly newsletter PTF News for the OS/400 community. Subscribers to
The Four Hundred will receive PTF News automatically when that newsletter is soon
launched. Stay tuned.
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.
Subscription Information When you sign up for one of our
e-newsletters, you can be assured that your e-mail address will
NEVER be sold to an outside company.
Do you have a gripe? Vendors, please email Press Releases and other announcement
material to editors@itjungle.com |
