System i

SunGard Looks for Growth with New Reseller Program

I like what SunGard brings to the table. I like the idea that they are doing well right now too.

“SunGard’s Availability Services business unit last week launched a new reseller partner program to augment its direct-sales approach and expand its offerings to small and mid size businesses. The new program covers all of the company’s offerings–everything from traditional tape-based backup to hot site recovery and full high availability (HA) replication–and is aimed at generating referrals from resellers and “white box” versions of SunGard’s services that partners can resell themselves.

SunGard has always sold its disaster recovery (DR) and HA services using a direct-sales model. Considering that a good percentage of SunGard’s customers are big, Fortune 500-size companies, it’s always made a lot of sense to develop and maintain a close relationship with this upscale clientele, instead of relying on partners to do it.”

LINK :: ITJungle - SunGard Looks for Growth with New Reseller Program

LINK :: SunGard

Open Ended Question - What are you going to do?

The owners of this site hate it when I put up open ended questions hoping for some feedback. And to make them happy I am going to keep doing it. It’s just that I hope to get some answers and I do from time to time.

1. How large an IBM i do you have now?
2. Does your company or customer seem happy with the IBM i System?
3. How many IBM i Systems do you have now?
4. How many partitions?
5. Do you run LInux on the POWER Platform?
6. Do you run AiX on the POWER Platform?
7. Do you run Windows on your POWER Platform?
8. Are there plans to move away from the IBM i?
9. If you are moving away from the IBM i what platform are you moving too?
10. When your current lease is up do you plan on getting a new IBM i?

I know these are the kinds of questions IBM is looking at, but in order to keep the blog freash along with my writting it essential to know where the IBM i is going and what you use it for. You don’t have to tell anyone where you work or what you use it for.

I spoke to soon, IBM is discounting…

I just posted that IBM is not doing anything, and I have to take some of that back now. According to THE FOUR HUNDRED they are offering iLoyalty Blitz for all current IBM i owners.

LINK :: IT Jungle - THE FOUR HUNDRED - IBM and Resellers Do the iLoyalty Blitz

“The basic idea, according to the internal documents that I have been able to get my hands on concerning the iLoyalty Blitz, is to get customers interested in new Power Systems i machinery with “as few touches as possible” and the hopes of closing a sale in only two phone calls. The first call to the customer is a value call, to discuss the benefits of moving to the new technology and sharing some examples of how moving to a new Power Systems i box can cost no more or even less than supporting a vintage OS/400 machine. That first call is to get some detailed information so the salesperson can do a tailored pitch in the second call and then toss in these two deals mentioned above and any other applicable discounts, rebates, and promotions, as well as low-rate or deferred-payment financing for the system from IBM Global Finance.” - Timothy Prickett Morgan

Biased CIOs spend more money and don’t solve problems, they create them

What happens when an IBM AS/400, iSeries, System i, i5/OS, POWER System, Lotus Domino/Notes) IT shop doing fine, keeping the company running and is stable, has happy employees, happy users and then out of no where a new CIO or IT Manager is hired who:

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).”

Continued »

Running Domino on the IBM i - Please update

Dear IBM,

Please update this page for 2009. (LINK TO PAGE:: IBM i Benchmarks) If you plan on making sales of hardware and software you need to keep your stats current. This web page you provide was relevant in 2003, but is not some 5 years later now that we are on Domino version 8.0.2, and 8.5 is right around the corner.

That is all,
David Vasta

IT Jungle - IBM Cuts Deals on CPU and i5/OS for 550, 570, and 595 Boxes

Link :: IBM Cuts Deals on CPU and i5/OS for 550, 570, and 595 Boxes

“We’re almost into the fourth quarter and just finishing up the last couple of business days in the third quarter, and that means IBM is looking to cut some deals on CPU cores and i5/OS licenses to make some dough out of the System i installed base.”

IT Jungle - IBM Starts Cutting Deals on Power Systems i for Q4

Link :: IBM Starts Cutting Deals on Power Systems i for Q4

“Last week, I was talking to a downstream Power Systems reseller, one of the guys with a few hundred customers that he tends to with new systems, upgrades, software configuration, application tuning, and so on, to make his daily bread. By the sweat of his browser, as it were. And guess what he told me? He had no System i or Power Systems i deals at all in the pipeline for the remainder of the fourth quarter. None. Nadda. Zilch. Zip.

By the way, it has been a long time since this has happened to this particular reseller. We’re talking as bad as post-9/11, and maybe worse. Neither he nor I know for sure, because no one knows how bad the economy really is yet. But what this reseller does know is that his customers, some of which are fairly large midrange shops, have absolutely slammed the brakes on any new systems spending.”

Redbook - Hardware Management Console V7 Handbook

The IBM Hardware Management Console provides systems administrators a tool for planning, deploying, and managing IBM System p and IBM System i servers. This IBM Redbooks publication is designed for system administrators to use as a desk-side reference when managing partition-capable System i and System p servers using the HMC.

LINK ::  Redbook - Hardware Management Console V7 Handbook

The Little Extras in IBM Director - System i Network - Greg Hintermeister

Greg Hintermeister over at the System i Network points out all the littel extra fun stuff in what s going to be a great product for managing your POWER platform. IBM Director Site.

LINK  :: The Little Extras in IBM Director - System i Network - Greg Hintermeister

20 Years of the “AS/400″ Road Map from IBM

So it’s been 20 years of the old AS/400, iSeries, System i, and now the IBM i. Over the last 20 years lots has changed along with the name.

LINK :: IBM PDF about the last 20 Years of AS/400