• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Rumors Say Farm Bureau to Dump AS/400s for Windows Boxes

    March 12, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    Two months ago, I told you that the Farm Services Agency, which is within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, had put out a request for proposal out to get some help upgrading its 2,384 vintage AS/400 Model 170 class servers and their S/36-style applications to better serve the 8,000 agricultural counties in the United States serve the farmers in those counties. The machines, which provide the farm subsidy checks, credit, and other financial services stipulated by Congress, have been showing their age. But according to a report last week in Computerworld, the situation may be more dire than anyone guessed from the request for information (RFI) document the FSA put out late last year.

    According to the report, the RPG, COBOL, and assembler applications that the FSA uses have been unstable since late last year, and Mike Johanns, secretary of the USDA, has asked for the process to be speeded up and for a proposal to be on his desk by March 19. If the Computerworld report is true, the FSA has as many problems with network bandwidth as it did with server throughput.

    One rumor I have heard from an ISV located in the Washington, D.C., area has it that the FSA has all but decided to boot out the AS/400s and consolidate onto Windows servers. How this would be accomplished quickly considering the fact that RPG, COBOL, and assembler for the System/36 Virtual Machine (not the S/36 Emulation Environment) have not been supported since OS/400 V4R4, and most certainly are not part of the .NET environment, moving the FSA to a Web-enabled application set from where it is today is not going to be an easy or quick task. Still, it is clearly easier for the FSA to work with IBM and some intrepid tool providers in the i5/OS space to modernize those applications on a consolidated set of System i5 servers.

    IBM and the ISVs should be bending over backwards to fix this problem for the FSA, using it as a showcase to prove that Big Blue is serious about keeping its installed base and moving it up to modern i5 boxes and i5/OS software. Losing this account to Windows servers, as the rumor suggests is likely to happen, would be very embarrassing.

    It is hard to say if this is a good omen or bad one, but the FSA has removed the RFI from its Web site. But the GovCG.com site still has it archived here if you want to see the details. The setup the FSA has is pretty tricky, and the file formats it uses in its applications for each of those county offices make it difficult to consolidate.

    RELATED STORIES

    U.S. official orders review of USDA payment system, Computerworld

    USDA Farm Service Agency Wants to Consolidation 2,384 AS/400s



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 16, Number 10 -- March 12, 2007

    Sponsored by
    ARCAD Software

    Embrace VS Code for IBM i Development

    The IBM i development landscape is evolving with modern tools that enhance efficiency and collaboration. Ready to make the move to VS Code for IBM i?

    Join us for this webinar where we’ll showcase how VS Code can serve as a powerful editor for native IBM i code and explore the essential extensions that make it possible.

    In this session, you’ll discover:

    • How ARCAD’s integration with VS Code provides deep metadata insights, allowing developers to assess the impact of their changes upfront.
    • The role of Git in enabling seamless collaboration between developers using tools like SEU, RDi, and VS Code.
    • Powerful extensions for code quality, security, impact analysis, smart build, and automated RPG conversion to Free Form.
    • How non-IBM i developers can now contribute to IBM i projects without prior knowledge of its specifics, while ensuring full control over their changes.

    The future of IBM i development is here. Let ARCAD be your guide!

    Watch Now

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Vision Taps SteelEye for Linux HA on iSeries Asigra Debuts Remote, Agent-Less Backup for iSeries

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 16 Issue: 10

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • IBM Tops HP in Latest Gartner Disk Array Ranking, Both Trail EMC
    • Gates Says Infinite H1-B Visas, Scholarships Needed to Boost Tech Competitiveness
    • DataMirror Grows Revenues in Q4, Boosts Bottom Line Even More
    • Rumors Say Farm Bureau to Dump AS/400s for Windows Boxes
    • Zend and IBM Sponsor Wiki for System i PHP Redbook Development
    • IBM Tops HP in Latest Gartner Disk Array Ranking, Both Trail EMC
    • So Where Is PureXML for DB2/400?
    • As I See It: The Digital Life
    • Is Upgrading a Silly Waste of Time and Money?
    • WDSc Version 7.0 Standard Edition Is Missing Two Key Features

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • Liam Allan Shares What’s Coming Next With Code For IBM i
    • From Stable To Scalable: Visual LANSA 16 Powers IBM i Growth – Launching July 8
    • VS Code Will Be The Heart Of The Modern IBM i Platform
    • The AS/400: A 37-Year-Old Dog That Loves To Learn New Tricks
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 25
    • Meet The Next Gen Of IBMers Helping To Build IBM i
    • Looks Like IBM Is Building A Linux-Like PASE For IBM i After All
    • Will Independent IBM i Clouds Survive PowerVS?
    • Now, IBM Is Jacking Up Hardware Maintenance Prices
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 24

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle