1. Does not understand IBMs offering from both the IBM Systems side and the Lotus side?
2. Is biased towards another major technology company for no other reason or with out any logic or facts.

Bias is defined as; a particular tendency or inclination, esp. one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question; prejudice.

Now that we have established what bias is we can move on with the problem.

So there you are a loyal and hard working IBM i Admin, you and the Lotus Admin work hard to keep the company running. The companies main application for work is housed on the IBM i and everyone uses mail that comes out of Lotus Notes, plus Lotus has a feature no other application server has out there, rapid visual development, and there is always the one Lotus Developer, building applications for end users so they they can store information, access different types of data and make use of the Lotus and IBM i applications, and extend them to the company.

Everything is humming along, working well. Cost are in check, and with even more consolidation to the IBM i you could save more money.

The one summers day, or any season for that matter, a new CIO or IT Manager is hired into your company. Right after he says hello to everyone, his next comment is “We are going to replace all that IBM technology with Microsoft (or SUN).”

You as long time IBM i Admin, know this is the beginning of what will end up being a bad place to work for many reasons. First and foremost, you are now being managed by a moron, who does not deal with facts, figures or logic, rather they deal in bias, bigotry, and stupidity.

See your new CIO just made his first mistake, he made a decision in a room filled with people who deal in LOGIC, they don’t see things as GRAY or SHADED, everything to IT people is very black and white, on or off, and YES and NO. Your new CIO just used bias and emotion to make a company impacting decision, and in the end should be regarded as a cautionary moment buy the owners of the company, the Board of Directors and anyone who looks at the books. To make it even worse this CIO starts making these changes while the economy is floundering, costing the company millions to convert their systems to Window based systems, and mail to exchange, then moving all the easy to build and manage Lotus Databases to Microsoft Sharepoint (which is the most expensive part (equipment & resources)) and eventually trying to abandon the IBM i and all IBM products. The company has spend millions of dollars getting to this point only to allow one person to show up and decide to spend millions to take you 180 degrees the opposite direction.

This conversion away from IBMs hardware and software is going to cost millions, cost the company turnover in the IT department and will require the CIO to have some positions filled twice, once on the IBM side and once or maybe twice on the Microsoft/NEW side. So in order to save money the CIO must in fact rip and replace all of the current infrastructure? How is that possible? How does that save you money and how does that one move make your employees fell about working at your once stable, very enjoyable company, in a word scared!

I once saw a company move from Lotus Domino/Notes using one Domino Admin doing some of the admin work about 50% of his day for over 3000 users, then move to Exchange and needed two Exchange Admins, just to manage mail and two new employees to handle the Microsoft AD and other Microsoft related issues, backups are a huge pain with Windows. So they went from having one person to having three people do the same task. Not to mention the fact that Domino is not just mail and in order to replace it they needed to add 4 new server to replace that one server Domino was using.

Sadly this is part IBMs fault and part Microsoft’s fault. CIOs are not in some cases the brightest people around. You may think that sounds harsh, but the fact of the matter is there are plenty of decent, hard working, smart CIOs that started out in DP or MIS some years ago and understand IT needs and how to save money. This post is not for those CIOs.

Rather there are a handful of other, less intelligent, self centered, and just plain dumb CIOs. his post is for you Admins who don’t know how to combat this problem and your CEOs who just entrusted your IT department to a biased spend thrift who likes his Microsoft sport tickets and perks over what he an do to help the company.

You all may know what I am talking about, but I pray you never do. Dealing with the “bad” CIO is painstaking for a logic based person, and as I have been known to be, outspoken and sometimes LOUD IT person. I have been with the CIO I am referring too many times and I assure you, they don’t deal well with the likes of me, or LOGIC. In most cases they ignore you, and in other cases LOUD logic IT people spur on more change because in the end the stupid CIO have very little self-esteem and is doing this to create a legacy so that they keep him with the systems he put in. This is faulty logic on his part.

If I were faced with the “bad” CIO again, I would not even so much as deal with them or their biased logic, I would act as if I wanted to be their best friend, get all the information they would share with me, compile it in a folder, analysis it to no end, then create a presentation that shots holes in every idea they have, and points out all the potential fraud, waste, and abuse of power they are about to be apart of.

I would present it to any “C” level contact I would have listen to me, and make sure I present it in a meeting, they are in attendance. These stupid CIOs are not decent people, and in the end they ruin IT shops and destroy companies.

So if you are reading this and wondering why I am crazy then let me explain using an example. You are a company, you have an average IT department of say 10-12 people, and you as an IT department have 3000 users. You are a transportation company that is the only company in the US that transports badger statues.

You have a “mixed” environment like most IT shops. IT at your company has not grown in the right direction and you have put in systems as you have a need, when you should have found applications that capitalized on your current talent and resources.

You have a Domain Server, it’s a Windows Active Directory (AD) and has many large Windows server with SAN or large storage and provide you a FILE stores. There is also another Windows Server the might provide you Print Server services. There is that large expensive IBM i or System i server that houses your main business application. Be it ERP or something else. It’s there and it’s considered a big drain, but you are looking at this all wrong. If you think the IBM i is a drain on your IT budget then you might be biased and not a bright as you thought you were.

The beauty of the IBM i is it does more than waste your IT budget, and cost you an Admin, if that is how you see then we need to start blowing that out of the water now. CIOs who do no know the value of IBMs offering are not unbiased IT people. I can assure you and I will point out later. I have been on all sides of IT. I can be biased, but my bias is based on fact, not emotion.

Each one of those Windows/Intel Servers on average cost you about $30K. Can you get them for cheaper, yes, should you go cheap when it comes to servers, NO! The File store is going to cost you the most because of the very large disk attached.

Say you have over 2 TB of data on it, and of course you need to back that up. First Windows has trouble managing large volumes of data, so you have already placed you company in a situation your CEO probably does not know he is in yet. You have provided them with a place to backup or share documents and files, yet you have placed it on a server and OS that does not handle and an become unstable managing large volumes of data. It’s not your fault, Microsoft does not go round telling you  how much they stink at doing large IT.

SIDE NOTE: Microsoft is not meant for large scale implementations. They just don’t work well that way. I know this is a hard pill to swallow, but most CEOs and CIOs think that Windows Servers are all fine and do a great job and I would have to disagree with you on some levels. Windows Servers don’t do big IT well. They are able to handle small IT, and even in some cases medium sized IT, but for large scale solutions they just don’t work well unless they are well planned, well managed affairs. System like the IBM i, AiX, BSD, and Linux can do these things for IT.

So, where were we? Oh yes the File Server. Lets make a list of what you might have in this company.

1. Windows File Server – Quad CPU – Large Disk Space – $30-$50K
2. Windows Print Server – Quad CPU – Low Disk – High RAM – $7K
3. Windows AD Server (PDC) – Quad CPU – Built for Growth – $10K-$15
4. Windows AD Backup Server (BDC) Quad CPU – $10K
5. Windows Server for Lotus Domino Mail – Quad CPU – Large RAM – Large Disk – $30-$50K
6. Windows Server for Lotus Applications – Quad CPU – Large RAM – Large Disk – $30-$50K
7. Windows Server for GPS and Truck Routing App. – Quad CPU – $50K
8. Windows Server for WWW – Quad CPU – 12GB RAM – $10
9. Windows Server on WEB for FTP – Dual CPU – $5K
10. IBM i POWER System – 6 Way CPU – Built for Growth – 3TB DASD – $250K
11. IBM i POWER System CBU – Fail Over – 6 Way CPU – 3TB DASD – $Fraction of Cost*
12. Anti Virus for Windows Servers – ($2K Each) X 8 = $16K
13. Backup Software for Each Windows Server ($1K) X 8 = $8K
14. Backup Tape Unit for Windows Servers ($30K) X 2 = $60K
15. Microsoft Support – 30 Incidents – (not 24X7)1 YR – $60K
16. IBM Power Systems Support (24X7) 3YR – $70K
17. Lotus Support (24X7) 3YR – $50K

The servers I have listed here are not from any specific company, but just the one I have made up that transports Badger Statues.

On average taking the low number IT cost just for systems would be around $900K – $1M for Servers and other bits. This does not include the IT salary costs. On average Microsoft solutions are going to require more employees since their solutions are more complex and harder to manage then  single IBM i POWER System. This does not seem that bad, but in a bad economic time, how do you reduce cost? The IBM i is the master at doing this.

The IBM i can house 80% to 90% of those Server. That’s right you could in fact put all those extra Windows servers that are costing you thousands of dollars inside the IBM i for little to no added cost. It will also depend on your current IBM i capacity, so lets assume you purchased the proper IBM i for you business and you are running at 30-50% capacity and you just installed it yesterday. That is perfect. You have room to grow. Now lets assume your a smart CIO and want to consolidate you budget.

Lets look at the servers and expenses we can consolidate.

1. Windows File Server – Quad CPU – Large Disk Space – $30-$50K
2. Windows Print Server – Quad CPU – Low Disk – High RAM – $7K
3. Windows AD Server (PDC) – Quad CPU – Built for Growth – $10K-$15
4. Windows AD Backup Server (BDC) Quad CPU – $10K
5. Windows Server for Lotus Domino Mail – Quad CPU – Large RAM – Large Disk – $30-$50K
6. Windows Server for Lotus Applications – Quad CPU – Large RAM – Large Disk – $30-$50K
7. Windows Server for WWW – Quad CPU – 12GB RAM – $10
8. Windows Server on WEB for FTP – Dual CPU – $5K
9. Windows Server for DNS and DHCP – Dual CPU – $10K
10. Anti Virus for Windows Servers – ($2K Each) X 8 = $16K
11. Backup Software for Each Windows Server ($1K) X 8 = $8K
12. Backup Tape Unit for Windows Servers ($30K) X 2 = $60K
13. Microsoft Support – 35 Incidents – (not 24X7)1 YR – $60K

Holy Cow Batman. You could in fact if you were a smart CIO get rid of over 50% of your budget. Here is how:

1. Since we will now be using the IBM i as the center of our IT universe and not Windows, you can use Single-Signon or SSO because that comes installed and ready to use, over 90% of the IT shops that use the IBM i don’t use the software tools that are built into the server. SSO is built in and can be turned on for free.
2. OSes – Microsoft is going to charge you every time you build a new server, they are out to make money and while I am not saying IBM is not, they realize you need to be practical. When you own an IBM i you pay for the OS once, you can use it as many times as you like on that single foot print of hardware, so if you wanted to build 50 IBM i partition servers, you pay for the OS once. If you wanted to build 50 Windows Virtual Machines, you would pay for that OS 50 times? How is that a savings? You want Linux on your POWER system you pay for it once. Not every time you install it.**
3. Windows File Server -The IBM i has an IFS, which is just like a file server only better. It’s built in, so not only can you take the current install of your IBM i and create file stores, when you need to upgrade the DASD, all you do is add some more to the system. With Windows in some cases you have to rebuild the all the volumes of the OS to add more disk, what a pain in the Admin! This means down time, and employee over-time. That is no way to cut cost. So you are also saying, I don’t want my user files on my main IBM i System with my ERP application. Fair enough, IBM has been doing vitalization longer than most of us have known about computers, in fact your current IBM i is a virtual machine, only not like the crappy VMWare VM’s they build which are, in my opinion, not really VMs like IBM does VMs. You could build a new IBM i partition and install IBM i OS or Linux for file sharing.
4. Windows Print Server – The IBM i already in most IT shops has every printer configured by the IBM i Admin. Most CIOs don’t know this, but in order for the IBM i to print, all the printers on the network have to be configured in order for them to work. At the same time the Windows Admin is also setting them up on a print server, so by just using the print server on the IBM i you are cutting your IT staffs’ work load in half.
5. Window AD Servers - Get rid of them, they are a headache and make life impossible at times. Sure they have their advantages but when you are cost cutting trying to do more with less you don’t need them. Just set up the same IBM i partition you are using for file-sharing  and SSO with some Domain information and get rid of them.
6. Window Server for Lotus – This is a big no brainier. The IBM  runs Domino like it’s not funny. Just build  new partition and put your Domino Servers on it. You may have to increase the amount of Main Storage (RAM) in your IBM i, but the cost savings are significant. Plus the IBM i Lotus team are the smartest people I know. Support on this product is by far the best around.
7. Windows for WWW and FTP -Since both of these services are included in the OS you can add them to a current partition or create a new one. Neither of these servers are going to impact the performance greatly and now you can more efficiently do ODBC look ups over the back-plane of the hardware and not over the network. FTP can also be secured and made encrypted, which is also included with the OS, with Windows you have to purchase a few more options of third party software.
8. Windows DNS & DHCP – The IBM i does this naively as well. Why would you build a new server to handle this as well? Either add it to your file server partition or build a new one. You would not need to add to much to that partition to make it run so the cost over head would be small compared to an entire Windows licensees and hardware.
9. Anti Virus for Windows – Since the IBM i can’t really get infected with a virus (we can cover that later) you don’t really need it anymore. There is Anti-Virus for IBM i file shares and I would recommend it. It’s not that the IBM i or the POWER systems needs it, but in most cases your desktops are all Windows and they can be infected. You will want to put a scanner on the IBM i IFS to watch for problems. The biggest win here is you now stand a chance in stopping an outbreak better since the system you are placing the virus on is not prone to viruses and can just stomp them without the fear of being infected.
10. One Backup Solution – You won’t need an expensive blown out backup solution. Since you are already backing up your IBM i all you need to do is keep backing it up. There may be some hardware you might need to add depending on you configuration, but it’s far cheaper than adding a new tape device to a Windows system. Oh and you can use that same tape device to backup your IBM i partitions, and your Linux partitions. You could even go the extra mile and purchase BRMS from IBM and really manage the backups. It’s not that much more expensive.
11. Where is my Database Server – The IBM i’s file system is a Database Server. See before everyone knew about MySQL or Oracle, IBM made the IBM i’s OS a native DB. It’s now called DB2 so that CIOs have something fancy to call it, but it’s already built in. You don’t need ORACLE servers and you don’t need Microsoft SQL servers, The DB2 Server in the IBM i is self managed and the performance is adjusted and you also don’t need to hire a DB Admin like with SQL and Oracle. The IBM i Admin you have now can manage it as well. You want to run MySQL on your IBM i, then go ahead it’s supported by IBM.
12. Windows in my IBM i – You can in fact put a Intel based card in your IBM i and run Windows on your POWER system. The cards are cheap compared to a server and as far as you know it’s Windows. The upside to running Windows on the POWER system is it’s more stable and uses the DASD you already have. So that GPS/Truck routing Windows application we can’t live without….we just moved it inside the IBM i Server, it’s still running on Windows, yet it’s not eating more power and a space in what is now a pretty empty rack which used to have some 10 – 12 server in it.
13. Microsoft Support - Pathetic is the first word that comes to mind and overpriced. IBMs support in based in the US, while Microsoft s moving most of it over seas, which means people who don’t understand what you are talking about some of the time and really tragic phone lines to someplace unknown. What most people don’t know about me is I have been on both sides of this coin. I was once an IBM i Admin while also being a Microsoft Windows/Exchange Admin. I supported IBMs products and Microsoft’s products and had to call both companies for support. Microsoft is expensive and limited. If you want the same class of service with Microsoft you are going to have to pay nearly three times what you pay for IBM support.
14. Oh and OS upgrades, this is where it gets good, while Microsoft is building the next great application or OS so that they can milk you for more of your IT money and charge you when you need to upgrade the OS or say Exchange Server or the latest Windows Server, IBM does not. Say you are paying for support from IBM and version 7 comes out for the IBM i, they just send it to you. No added cost and the upgrade process is as smooth as a babies bottom. The same can’t be said for Microsoft. Lotus works the same way. You just get the next version. It’s included in the cost and with each upgrade comes greater stability and a better product. Microsoft can’t say that with it’s latest set of products, in fact they have decreased performance, made some products more unstable, not done anything to the Windows architecture to make it less resistant to viruses and attacks and made it more expensive. Where is the cost savings there? And does your CIO understand that much less you CEO? Microsoft is inherently bad for your business.

With all this said, moving away from IBM consolidated server is probably the most expensive move you can make, and while I looked at a move away or towards Microsoft, the same can be said for SUN. Right now that has to be the most unstable company in the Enterprise IT space. They are falling apart, giving away products and making wrong moves all over the place. Placing your IT department in Sun’s hands right now is like buying an AMG car the month before they collapse and fell apart. SUN is a bad bet and should be avoided at all cost. I am sure there are many of you out there who would disagree with me, but I am looking at the indicators of a company that is struggling and in it last desperate throws to stay out of bankruptcy.

* CBU Pricing is based on what IBM will work out with you the customer. Usually it is based on a fraction or percentage of what your production system cost and the OS is not charged on the CBU system since US law states you only have to pay for what you “use”.

** Linux OS licensing could change by IBM, Redhat or Novell. Please check with them before purchase, all the information on these products are true when the post was written.

LINK:: System i Network ::  Server Consolidation: It’s Not Just for Data Centers Anymore

FROM THE EDITOR
Open source for i
[Leah Rosin, Associate Editor]

Last month I attended OSCON in Portland, Ore., and learned from Bernard Golden that open source utilization in the enterprise is on the rise. At the conference, IBM featured its free DB2 Express-C version of DB2 9. When I asked Rav Ahuja, the strategy manager of information management at IBM, whether this would work on i, he explained that it would if you run a Linux partition. All of this was a great primer on the implementation of open source and, specifically, Linux on i. And now the first of a three-part series of Linux on i is here.

Let us know what you think. And if you run or develop open source apps on a Linux partition on i, consider writing a tip or submitting a guest column.

RELATED INFORMATION:
> System i Blogger: Linux Foundation launches killer development tool
> System i Blogger: Getting started with Zend PHP

Firs I am humbled that they linked to my blog on ITKE, thank you Leah!, and second lets talk about this for a bit.

It’s all about the money is it not? I am pro open sourced dude, but let’s face it if your not making money or able to support your code writing habit then it’s all a wash? While the Linux community is best known for their OPEN projects, the IBM i has not seen this kind of energetic code writing.

There have been attempts at OPEN SOURCED projects for the IBM i over the years but it’s been scarce, and nothing out there that could change the face of a buisness. I would love to see an open sourced web site for all IBM i projects with many many active projects.

There should be CRM and ERP projects for the IBM i, and there just aren’t.Projects like this would do two things, drive people to contribute and wake up CRM and ERP software offerings to kick them in the tend bits so that they know they need to step up the code they are working on because there is a FREE open sourced equivilant that is coming and could replace them. It does create competition, even if it is frustrating.

I don’t see this being something that is going to happen anytime soon. The community does not lend itself to lots of after hours late night coding. For one the IBM i is not a platform you can just get at your local Best Buy and write some code for at home with your newly open i/OS. If that were the case I think we would see more OPEN projects.

I would still like to see IBM really rethink how they sell the smaller IBM i systems. I would love to be able to put down less that $2,000 USD and get and IBM i that I could work on, or maybe IBM takes a really large IBM i and places it in Rochester and lets you have a partition to write code on and stuff. That would cost them little to nothing but would foster community growth. They should offer it for FREE and more over allow any student in college a larger chunk of the machine than you would let me have, and IT professional. I can’t afford to have a new 520 at home, but I could afford to log into a partition that was FREE, then I could create a project, open source it on SorceForge and let the world help me build it and make it better. Sadly I don’t think IBM is that “hip” yet and they never will be.

If you are looking for IBM i Open Source Projects check these links:

Link :: Open Source for i

Link :: The iSeries-Toolkit

If you have a good project idea then let it be known! If you think IBM should build a sandbox for us all, say it. They are reading this blog and they do wonder what we are thinking. I would love to build a CRM package for the IBM i that is open sourced and free.  I am sure some of you out there have done it a thousand times but never like you wanted. Now is your chance.

The two solutions I know the best are IBM i and Linux. I do know something about AIX but not as much as I would like.

I can tell you that I am working ona site like IBM to pull POWER and experts together in one place. I do think the future of the POWER community is in unification and COMMON and the AIX Convention (If there is one?) should merge and come together.

The IBM i is a great platform. Not many of you out there will argue that point. It’s solid, robust and very powerful. Part of that power is just that power or the hardware that we now call Power. The operating system (OS) is nothing unless it has rock-solid hardware to run on. So part of the IBM i’s stability is the hardware. Another fine example of a powerful OS that runs on Power is AIX. The problem is that not everything needs an IBM i or an AIX partition. Sometimes, you just need a file and print server or maybe a DNS or mail router. Of course you could do this all on Windows, but that gets really expensive and it does not run on Power. So, what do you do? Linux on Power: It’s easy, cheap and very powerful, much like its AIX cousin.

Forum Thread on System i Network – Zend PHP Getting Started

I was a Sales Engineer and don’t think I ever lost a deal to HATS when I was selling software…..any whoooooo!

Evidently HATS is still being pushed by IBM and the Four Hundred weekly email just reinforces that IBM is still lost. They should be pushing PHP on HTTP on the IBM i, yet they are still pushing a product that was pathetic 10 years ago, and can’t be much better now. I would love to see it and pick it apart compared to a PHP based web application.

Let the comments begin.

Here is the note I was sent:

This is to remind you that the Call For Presentations for new and existing sessions and workshops is closing on August 31, 2008 for the COMMON 2009 Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Annual Meeting – April 26-30, 2009 in Reno, Nevada
Deadline: Sunday, August 31, 2008

Get those presentations in, you never know what they will accept, heck they are letting me present you so you they will let your stuff in. I will be in Reno with all of my Linux Stuff for you all to enjoy. This year should be better for me as I have now had the full “off season” to get it all fixed up, work out the kinks and practice it a few times since then. My seven year old is getting tired of the Linux for Beginners session trust me….I think he could give it.

So with that said, I am going to need people to provide content for the site. I need really dedicated insane people to help build the community from all parts of this equation. IBM i, AIX, Linux on Power, and POWER hardware. We need to come together in a big way and share. I am also going to cover Lotus, Ubuntu, OpenSolaris, OpenSuSE, FreeBSD and other things that interest me that I think are changing the way IT does IT.

Please send me an email and I will get you in on the fun, and if you know Joomla that would be great too…I am no expert on that CMS kit.

Now being someone who likes new and shiny things I would say yes. I think the i attaching itself to PHP and MySQL is a step in the right direction and of course IBM have no idea how to foster that growth, and when I say that I mean no disrespect to IBM but, IBM sucks at build new communities. They don’t make things open source, and they don’t see FREE as a way to help. The recent Lotus movement where after OpenNTF being open for god knows how long now gets some attention from IBM is truly sad.

IBM should of course support the older languages, but should really place more emphasis on the new technology that is going to drive the system into a new era. Are we as i people destined for the same ill reputation as Microsoft and Vista because we are not “done right” and are not “hip” and a bit “free”. It’s time for IBM to really take a long hard look at the POWER platform and the OSes it runs and figure out how to tackle the next 20 years of growth. I can say PHP, C, MySQL, Python, AJAX, JAVA and other fancy words but how to get get them inside the i before it to late?