Comments on: Microsoft aims at Big Blue bull's-eye

Team with server hardware and services partners plans to win over IBM's midrange customers, News.com has learned.

Microsoft MAP program

While it is flattering that Microsoft wants IBM's Midrange customers to cross over to Windows...only one phrase comes to mind.

"When they pry it from our cold dead hands!"

Best of Luck, Bill.

[rshimizu12]

Different market

The AS/400 is it's own distinct high performance, high-uptime and high reliability platform. These are all areas where Windows is lacking.

That said IBM's marketing for the I-Series has not been focused as it could have be.

[drudixon1]

Trust Microsoft?

OK, so submit a PO to 9 different companies and hope it gets integrated correctly? Doesn't seem like there's much fun in calling 9 help desks for support or rebooting every other day to install any one of 5,000 yearly updates to keep MS running. No thanks.

Buzz vs. engineering

This is a typical Microsoft move. Announce some new initiative before the end of fourth quarter to try and foil a few deal closures.

With enough buzz, they can even get some people putting Windows on par with AS/400 or event OS/390, which is a major tribute to its marketing clout. Seriously, a mission critical system from a company who can't event meet fixpack deadlines?

Not Again

I was opened minded once and desired to learn something else and I got burned. 5 years of almost continous AS400 reliability, to 2 years of continous headaches, glitches, bad drivers and don't forget the viruses, until I said you can have it. They might(and will) sell your management this, just don't believe it. The difference was at 5 o'clock I went home most nights, my counterparts running these great alternative systems which they loved to brag about(Wintel, Linux, HP, Sun, Novell, Oracle...) had many a late night to enjoy their systems. Forget Microsoft get an ISeries.

[rdean]

Marketing does not equal capability

IBM keeps its mainframe and iSeries customers for a reason. It's stuff works, and in the cases that it doesn't, they support the hell out of it.

Microsoft likes to talk about moving everyone to Windows on commodity hardware, but there have been rumors about Microsoft wanting to bring Windows to Power5 (iSeries and pSeries). Commodity boxes don't mean much when you need 10x as many of these 1/10th the cost boxes to match scalability and availability requirements that one or two iSeries can provide. Honestly, that would be a better play for Microsoft because Power5 already has NX protection through instructions that support OS400/i5OS.

[rdean]

One other thing...

Microsoft likes to tout their developer productivity, but in my experience, the reliability of software written using their tools isn't much better than Microsoft's own products. Traditional iSeries "green screen" software is easy to develop and it doesn't fail because of technology. Websphere applications based on Java are more complicated, but still more reliable than alternative technologies.

ASNA, Lansa, and other traditional iSeries vendors are making this alliance in order to raise their profile, in light of IBM's decision to base its technology roadmap solely on IBM technology. They are hitching their wagon to this alliance to try to raise their prospects for viability in the future. However, the main value proposition Microsoft sells for .Net is that it is a complete solution from Microsoft. These iSeries vendors will find that Microsoft is no more helpful than IBM when it comes to eating their lunch.