Unitek’s ERP Gets a Web Interface, Thanks to Profound’s RPGsp

March 25, 2008 Alex Woodie

For over a year, Portuguese ERP software developer Unitek searched for a way to create a Web-based front-end to go along with its RPG-based ERP system, called e-XXX. The software company had been burned when it went down the .NET road, and it wasn’t looking to relive that experience. Caution turned to cheers, however, following the success Unitek had with Profound Logic‘s Web development tool, called RPG Smart Pages (RPGsp).

After running into stability and performance limitations with the .NET experience, Unitek decided to take a native System i approach to Web development. “We wanted a solution that would allow us to capitalize on our RPG background and experience,” said Vasco Mauricio, Unitek general manager.

The company heard of Profound’s RPGsp development environment, and decided to evaluate it. The native database access of the RPGsp approach provided faster performance, and the company was even able to obtain sub-second response time against databases with millions of records, a Unitek manager said.

The decision was made to go with RPGsp, and the next step was flying to Profound Logic headquarters in Dayton, Ohio, for training. Going forward, Unitek plans to eventually replace its Visual Basic front-end with an HTML interface developed with RPGsp.

While in Ohio, Unitek became so impressed with Profound’s tools, including RPGsp, RPG-Alive, iData, and Genie, that the company decided to become a Profound reseller. “I believe this is the beginning of a strong relationship between us, and expect to see great results as Unitek continues to grow in their market,” says Alex Roytman, CEO of Profound.

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Do the Math When Looking at IBM i Hosting for Cost Savings

COVID-19 has accelerated certain business trends that were already gaining strength prior to the start of the pandemic. E-commerce, telehealth, and video conferencing are some of the most obvious examples. One example that may not be as obvious to the general public but has a profound impact on business is the shift in strategy of IBM i infrastructure from traditional, on-premises environments to some form of remote configuration. These remote configurations and all of their variations are broadly referred to in the community as IBM i hosting.

“Hosting” in this context can mean different things to different people, and in general, hosting refers to one of two scenarios. In the first scenario, hosting can refer to a client owned machine that is housed in a co-location facility (commonly called a co-lo for short) where the data center provides traditional system administrator services, relieving the client of administrative and operational responsibilities. In the second scenario, hosting can refer to an MSP owned machine in which partition resources are provided to the client in an on-demand capacity. This scenario allows the client to completely outsource all aspects of Power Systems hardware and the IBM i operating system and database.

The scenario that is best for each business depends on a number of factors and is largely up for debate. In most cases, pursuing hosting purely as a cost saving strategy is a dead end. Furthermore, when you consider all of the costs associated with maintaining and IBM i environment, it is typically not a cost-effective option for the small to midsize market. The most cost-effective approach for these organizations is often a combination of a client owned and maintained system (either on-prem or in a co-lo) with cloud backup and disaster-recovery-as-a-service. Only in some cases of larger enterprise companies can a hosting strategy start to become a potentially cost-effective option.

However, cost savings is just one part of the story. As IBM i expertise becomes scarce and IT resources run tight, the only option for some firms may be to pursue hosting in some capacity. Whatever the driving force for pursing hosting may be, the key point is that it is not just simply an option for running your workload in a different location. There are many details to consider and it is to the best interest of the client to work with an experienced MSP in weighing the benefits and drawbacks of each option. As COVID-19 rolls on, time will tell if IBM i hosting strategies will follow the other strong business trends of the pandemic.

When we say do the math in the title above, it literally means that you need to do the math for your particular scenario. It is not about us doing the math for you, making a case for either staying on premises or for moving to the cloud. There is not one answer, but just different levels of cost to be reckoned which yield different answers. Most IBM i shops have fairly static workloads, at least measured against the larger mix of stuff on the public clouds of the world. How do you measure the value of controlling your own IT fate? That will only be fully recognized at the moment when it is sorely missed the most.

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