I got this from the FlexES group. I don't know anything else, but it
sounds a bit ominous to me. But, then again, I don't know.
I just thought it might be of interest to some here as well.
--
John McKown
Senior Systems Programmer
HealthMarkets
Keeping the Promise of Affordable Coverage
Administrative Services Group
Information Technology
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-----Original Message-----
From: FLEX-ES S/390 Emulator [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of Steven Friedman
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 2:30 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: A Letter To The FLEX-ES Community
A Letter to the FLEX-ES User Community:
An unfortunate set of circumstances has recently arisen that,
unless addressed by IBM immediately, will result in the abrupt
termination of the very successful 6 year-old Partnerworld for
Developers FLEX-ES delivery program.
To provide some history for background purposes, T3
Technologies, Inc. is a long time IBM Premier Business Partner,
specializing in FLEX-ES technology. In 2000, shortly after the IBM P/390
product program ended, members of the IBM PWD community had no
affordable hardware options for development platforms. I personally
approached Jeff Magdahl, then manager of the S/390 PWD program, with an
idea to again offer PWD members a very low cost mainframe development
platform, this time based on FLEX-ES technology. The concept I brought
to Jeff was fully in synch with his mission for PWD-to incent developers
to continue developing mainframe applications, thereby maintaining a
healthy environment for IBM mainframe sales.
The result was a family of products offered by T3, ranging from
a "Mainframe on a Thinkpad" to our more robust 100 MIPS+ x-Series based
servers. To date, T3 has delivered over 600 tServer units in 28
countries, a majority to the approximately 1,400-member worldwide
mainframe PWD community.
Unfortunately, a S/390 licensing dispute between IBM and
Fundamental Software (FSI) is now underway and the collateral damage
will likely mean the end to this PWD delivery program. It seems FSI has
a patent license with IBM for certain S/390 rights that expire on
October 31, 2006. Without renewal of that licensing program, FSI can no
longer provide FLEX-ES licenses to this PWD program. And, incredibly, it
seems IBM is not currently entertaining a renegotiation of that license
agreement with FSI. It is entirely likely that the IBM'ers responsible
for this (lack of) negotiation are not even aware of the impact this may
have, and the potential ripple effect through the mainframe developer's
community. With no similar low cost options available, many developers
will have no choice but to cease their mainframe development and support
of literally hundreds if not thousands of mainframe software
applications.
Strategically, this does not make much business sense for IBM,
obviously has an impact to T3's business, and likely has significant
ramifications to ALL PWD businesses. I am therefore asking all of our
customers, indeed all PWD members to join me in a letter/emailing
campaign to the relevant IBM managers in zSeries and in the Partnerworld
for Developers Program. My hope is to shed some light on the situation
to the decision makers and force a restoration of this very important
mainframe developer's incentive program.
Without your collective help, this very beneficial PWD program
will end in just 26 days!!! Please be specific and direct in your
emails. Pull no punches, and let IBM know how you feel about this, and
how it impacts your plans to continue delivering zArchitecture products.
Existing PWD FLEX licenses are valid through the end dates of
your current IBM agreements. No action can be taken to prematurely
cancel those agreements. T3 and FSI will continue to provide the highest
levels of support to all FLEX users through those expiration dates. New
orders can be filled through October 31.
.
This situation has no effect on current production users of
tServers or other FLEX-based systems. FLEX-ES production licenses are,
essentially, lifetime licenses. T3 and FSI will continue to provide
support to our production customers for as long as you request it.
Let us not sit back and hope that saner minds prevail. Join me
in taking some action to protect our collective business futures.
Sincerely
Steven Friedman
President, T3 Technologies Inc.
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