In August, we visited our family on Long Island and went to the Renaissance Fair in Sterling Forest New York. Sterling Forest is a community that is west of New York City and is known to IT folks as one of IBM’s largest Business Continuity Centers in the East. It was a very hot day with temperatures reaching into the mid 90’s. We went back in history to see life as it was (or as the artisan’s envisioned) during the Renaissance period. The children had a chance to ride on a human powered carousel and all were entertained by jugglers and acrobats.Renaissance was a period in time that defined the “bridge” period between the middle ages and modern times. This reminds me of the IBM Midrange Systems that I have been working with for over 15 years. IBM in the late 70’s developed a system that was designed for the small to mid sized business and named it the System 34. Since then, it has undergone its own renaissance, growing and expanding its hardware and software capabilities as the System 34, 38, 36, AS400, I Series, and today it is known as the IBM i.
Unlike mainframes, UNIX and WINTEL architectures, the midrange IBM i was designed with several inherent capabilities and features not found in most other systems including:
- Operating System that employs easy to use menus (or a great GUI with Navigator)
- Includes its own database DB2/400 as part of the basic system
- Crash resistant hardware and OS architecture ensuring extremely high level availability
- Programming in virtually all major programming languages from RPG/RPGLE, COBOL through JAVA and PHP
- Ability to consolidate servers and centralize storage
- Capable of virtual processing, running multiple i5/OS, Linux and AIX session
- Ability to run virtual platforms including multiple i5/OS, LINUX, and AIX
- Availability of hundreds of business applications
- Ability to be upgraded as the business grow (the configurations can be upgraded many times without additional hardware)
The architecture is designed for business applications and the throughput typically outperforms its competition. It can be integrated with WINTEL and LINUX/UNIX. I have installed and integrated several ERP, WMS, CRM, MES, Forecasting, E-business and custom WINTEL applications with midrange systems.
In order to effectively select the best midrange (IBM i) solution, implement it into production, customize it to best support the business and ultimately interface it with the business systems, an experienced mid range consultant is required. Mark Shurr, Vice President and Principal Consultant at Ada Business Technology, has over 15 years of experience in the implementation and integration of midrange systems. Please contact Mark at (616) 805-7402 or on his mobile phone at (631) 742.5178. Email Mark at mshurr@AdaBusTech.com and visit his web site at http://www.adabustech.com/.
