php on System i

Zend for System i now only free for the first year?

The IBM i development blog has heard from a user who has been told that Zend Core for System i is only free for the first year. Whether this is true for all customers or not is unclear, but here’s a snippet of what the end user has heard from Zend:

“We can install Zend Core for i5 and all nine developers can use Zend Studio for i5 and we can continue to utilize these products free of charge for one year and one year only. When the first, free year concludes, in order to continue using the Zend products, we will need to purchase…”

The IBM i development blog says that they’ve been using Zend on i for three years now with no demand for payments.

Update: It seems as though support for Zend Core is free only for the first year, but the software itself remains free past one year and beyond.

IBM i runs PHP, but is it enough?

Mike Pavlak ponders an interesting question: While IBM may continue to develop technology on the System i and Power Systems, such as PHP, is it enough to overcome the CIO who, in an attempt to impress his bosses, wants quick changes that show quick savings?

Pavlak is a former IT director and System i consultant who is now a solution consultant for Zend Technologies, which is the PHP company. So he has a dog in the fight. Still, Pavlak is honest in his post about whether PHP and other technologies are enough to prevent migration off the System i platform.

Can you hang on to your IBM i through the tenure of the 3-year CIO? I would guess that you wouldn’t. Primarily because the 3-year CIO is cost justifying all the new systems based upon the upgrade costs and maintenance fees of the IBM i. (TCA vs. TCO) And how many CIO’s are reporting to the CFO? And what CFO wouldn’t be attracted to the smell of fresh cut costs? It’s like catnip to the tabby crawling around my feet as I write this.

Pavlak presents some hope there, though. He feels that if IT managers and staff sell the CIO hard enough on the platform, it can work. They just need to justify the higher initial cost that usually comes with buying System i over Intel.