I mange a data center where we provide both 'out-sourcing' and DR
facilities. Several years ago, we tried to put some sort of co-op
together for developers or hobbyist, but nobody seemed interested.
I have extra processors on hand and I also have other processors that
are used only at specific parts of the year for DR testing. I also have
a non-IBM business partner that has small dasd and vtl units that has
indicated that he might support so sort of co-op setup. (He monitors
this list and has read this thread.) http://visara.com/
I would be willing to take this back to my management for
reconsideration, but before I did this, someone would need to take the
lead and look at how it could be set up.
My initial thoughts are that some 'entity' needs to own the licenses and
someone needs to control who has access. This may or may not be the
same. How IBM defines a 'developer' is important here. I think you would
need to set up a development only entity so that you can get free
software licenses.This same entity can pay for stuff like networking,
power and other non-software related items and charge those back to the
people in the co-op as dues.
I thank this can work legally with IBM rules for developers. If not,
then there would also be software costs to be allocated by the co-op.
From my side, being responsible for a data center, there would be some
VPN requirements and some restrictions as to who can do IOCPs and such.
And, I think VM would be a requirement. Again, just some initial thoughts.
Tony Thigpen
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