AS/400 rides out yet again, now with services

IBM’s mid-market manufacturing workhorse iSeries packaged server (formerly the AS/400) has been re-invented yet again, with new on-the-fly additional capacity services, bundled Windows 2000 and Linux support and mostly lower costs and simplified pricing to encourage take-up. In what’s described as “the broadest transformation in more than a decade”, it also gets additional mainframe-class functionality, with IBM’s latest Power hardware and software technology, and is the first to include IBM’s middleware (WebSphere Application Server - Express) built-in for faster out-of-the-box e-business integration. Due out on 21 February, its new models will also allow SMEs to consolidate and manage Windows applications and data, so reducing cost and complexity. In fact, Big Blue reckons manufacturers will now be able to run, for example, up to 10 partitioned Linux ‘virtualisations’ on a single iSeries processor, and install IBM’s full line-up of e-business software for the price of a Unix system with none of the above. Yet again, the AS/400 is proving that reports of its demise are grossly exaggerated! This is both a power/functionality boost and a re-packaging and re-pricing exercise, and IBM makes no bones about the fact that it’s not only aimed at keeping existing users, but specifically at tempting new users away from the Windows and Unix alternatives. In brief detail, at launch the range will now amount to just five models, four of which are new, with Standard and Enterprise editions only. Gone will be the complexity of multiple processor options, green screen interactivity options and so on, except at the lowest level. High level units get the extra Linux processor and Windows 2000 support and the on-demand extra capacity service. According to Nigel Adams, eServer iSeries product manger, the immediate result is greatly simplified but also mostly reduced pricing. He says that although “a few may pay a little more, the vast majority can expect a real terms price cut of typically 15%, but up to 80%, especially those running interactive applications.” The new models are the 800, 810 at the low end, and 825 and 870 at the top, joining the 890 launched last year with up to 32 processors. Enterprise Edition systems include IBM Lotus QuickPlace and Sametime, WebSphere - Express, Tivoli, and DB2 database software, and the on-demand capacity service, allowing users to pay for extra server resources by the day, without taking the server down. Existing systems back to the 7xx range can be upgraded to the appropriate Enterprise Edition version until October this year at no charge; thereafter, it’s a box swap. And on the older software, there’s already extended support to May 2004 or September 2005, depending on version. The standard edition starts at $12,000; enterprise edition starts at $78,000.