May I posit this theory? In the market today are 3 kinds of computers: Intel-based, Unix-based, and the MF. Each of these is designed to do certain kinds of task and have certain strengths. To use a sports analogy,
the Intel-based computers win the 100-yard dash. They are built for speed. The Unix-based computers win weightlifting. They are designed for the heavy-lifting of one thing at a time. The MF wins the decathalon. It is built for simultaneous, mixed workload. No one, I don't think, is suggesting that the MF should be the only server in every company, small or large. There are many companies who have no good reason to use a MF. It's all about right fit and balanced workload within an IT environment. What's the tipping point? When should a company move from Unix to MF? Or from Intel to Unix? What's the right mix of computers and TCO? Really hard question but this is what data center managers should be thinking about. With summer approaching, a nice vacation read on this subject is Greg Pfister's "In Search of Clusters: the ongoing battle in lowly parallel computing" Getting back to Steve's point that IBM MF is running from low-end customers, I don't think that is the case but IBM does understand that the MF is not for every company, and usually the smaller the company, the less true need there is for the MF. Besides, IBM has many other products to offer to these guys. For the low-end user of MIPS, who does not want to migrate off the platform, and is perfectly happy running one critical app on the MF, there may indeed be some cost issues. The MF shows max value when it is running at capacity. The more workload on MF, the lower the cost per transaction. It is more cost-efficient (as with most things) to be current on technology and software. But some low-end users may not be able to spend the money to get current, just to lower the day-to-day expenses. This situation is indeed a challenge for the vendor and the customer. Marcia Harelik IBM Market Management/zSeries and Linux Software US, Canada, Latin America Austin, Texas 512-380-9680 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
