Len, It was really a 2-part decision. First, management decided that it would be easier for clients to take advantage of new features and functions if they were delivered as maintenance instead of "saving" them for the next release. And that has been true, clients have been able to get and apply specific new features or functions that they want without having to upgrade the entire product.
But we also realized from experience that when a new feature or function is distributed as maintenance, many clients (probably most) do not realize it. They only look at the features and functions when the "release" changes. So if we supplied new features and functions strictly with maintenance it might be many years before some clients even noticed these features and functions were added. So it was decided that on a periodic basis a level-set would be done and it would be called a new release. Sometimes, new features and functions are packaged only with this new release (support for tracking tapes from distributed mid-range platforms for example), especially when they added dozens of new modules. But most new features (the ability to dynamically extend or reformat the TMC without stopping tape processing for example) would be distributed as maintenance. The biggest gain is in letting the client base know about the new features and functions that had already been distributed as maintenance to the previous release; just packaged up pretty in a new release. When a product is as old as CA-1 is, it tends to fall into the "if it ain't broke, don't touch it" category. I am sometimes amazed at the number of clients that still don't know that CA-1 has options to allow the external security system to protect who can use 98000 to bypass CA-1; or insure you are authorized to stack a dataset behind a production dataset (a feature that IBM is finally adding with z/OS 1.8). Yet these security options have been in existence for 15 years through 5 different releases now. So communication is one of the biggest issues for a "mature" product. And it was thought that new releases was one of the best ways to still communicate the new features and functions being added. Russell Witt CA-1 Level-2 Support manager -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Len Rugen Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 10:36 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Question re: CA-1 and SMP/E Dare I ask what was really gained in calling it R11.0 & R11.5 vs just different gen levels? It's not written anywhere, but I'd say most think if the FMID is the same, it's the same release. Was the R11 just a marketing mandate? It seems to be a common issue in a lot of CA products. But then someone made millions knocking the "Ford" off a car and putting Mercury in it's place, so let's hoist one to those Edsel marketers! ...<snip>... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
