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Selling Linux to AS/400 Shops?
cgh4be asks: "I work for an IBM business partner and each year we host a technology seminar for our customers, most of which have AS/400 backgrounds. I am the 'Linux guy' at work and have been chosen to give a 1 hour presentation to these IBMers about linux. So, my question to the Slashdot community is, what points and information should I touch on in this presentation to make it effective? I'd like to give some history about it of course, but the goal is to get them to start using it in their businesses."
My question is: why?
AS/400 are decent machines with a good operating system. It has the virtue to "just work". I'm not really sure you would want to replace an AS/400 with a Linux box. The AS/400 is -after all- a proven and stable platform.
I'm all for Linux, but not in this category of hardware.
You must believe that Linux is a better choice for some reason. You're going to tell them that this young, haphazardly developed, upstart OS is a better choice than a mature, thoroughly architected, industry standard OS.
I think you'd better tell us, rather than the other way around.
I have been pwned because my
AS/400 units are database servers. Sure, you can get an web server, and a firewall on the unit, but they all run out of a database anyway. The neat feature of AS/400 units that I like is I can ftp to a directory, and upload files, and they are added to the database.
Linux is much better in the other services that AS/400 units don't cover very well, but that they can cover. Such as firewalls, mail servers, file servers, and they could be used as a way to interoperate with winblows... oh, don't forget... if you get db2 for linux, you can run your database on linux and do an offsite remote sync up.
Why? Try tested, reliabile 24/7 uptime for mission critical applications. We use as/400 at my hospital for storing patient admission data, among other things. The command system is archaic, but it works, and it is extremely reliable.
Actually, there is this area... iSeries Information Center Entry Page
-Pete "Beauty within, forever bright; illuminating, the darkest night."
Who's talking about replacing the AS/400 with Linux? You can run Linux right on an AS/400 now. You can run a Linux webserver right inside the box, directly connected to your DB2 database or whatever legacy application or data you want to serve. You can run an additional Linux firewall to protect access to both your webserver and your AS/400. These Linux servers can also be backed up right along with your AS/400 and if necessary restored completely with a single command. You can develop your Linux applications on an Intel desktop and drag and drop them right onto the AS/400, ready to use.
/ linux /
The base operating system of the AS/400 is case insensitive, the commands are printed in all caps in the documentation so that they can be easily recognized. However the AS/400 recognizes multiple file systems including case-sensitive ones. You can even design your own if you like.
If you're hooked on Unix commands try typing QSH on an AS/400 command line and you will find yourself in a Unix environment.
AS/400 are rock solid machines. Our three systems (consolidated from 6) have not been down in the four years I've been here, through three disk failures(hot swap replaced) and a complete power outage of the data center.
You can purchase a bare-bones AS/400 (iSeries) for about $7K. That said, a system like that won't get you much further than your average Intel box, but they scale up rapidly. For the $20K mentioned you can get a fairly good performing system. If money is no object you can spend $1M+ on a 32-way system capable of running 128(or more) virtual linux servers.
For iSeries (AS/400) info try:
http://www.as400.ibm.com/
or better yet:
http://www.as400service.ibm.com/
For Linux on iSeries go to:
http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries
Scott Ingvaldson
In addition to many of the good recommendations you are getting below I'd recommend:
Unix for the Mainframer
While this is more directed at MVS and not OS/400 the first chapter could end essentially being your 1 hour talk. A great example is the difference in Unix speak between: command, script and application. The underlying philosophy here is one of an interactive environment where small non-job specific programs (commands) are put together for job specific tasks (scripts) and that these are distinguished from customizing large systems (applications). Just explaining the pros and cons of this model will be insightful and will take up a good deal of time.
Incidentally in terms of the cons as a Unix guy you may not have thought about these. Here is a pretty good anti-Unix pro mainframe article which will help you see the other side S390 vs. Unix servers.
Anyway hope this helps