Special Report: AS/400 Users Split On Server Strategies
If there ever was a time when AS/400 customers agreed over what servers they should deploy, that era is over. This is one of the key findings of a study being released by D.H. Andrews Group, a market research and IT services firm located in Cheshire, Connecticut. The study, which gathered extensive data from 347 AS/400 customers, represents the most comprehensive independent analysis of AS/400 sites ever conducted.
According to Lee Kroon, a senior industry analyst at D.H. Andrews Group, AS/400 owners are deeply divided over the servers they plan to use in the future and the role that the AS/400 will play in their plans. “While many people think of the AS/400 community as a homogenous group, it’s far from it. It’s really a loose coalition of companies with very different server strategies. Some are sticking with the AS/400 as their only host system. Others are deploying multiple servers, with AS/400s running next to Windows NT/2000 and Unix boxes. Some companies are putting more of their overall computing workload on the AS/400. Others are reducing their dependence on the AS/400, and a small minority is leaving the server altogether.”
To gather this information, the research firm asked study participants to report what servers they use, what percentage of their enterprise computing workload runs on each server, and how those percentages will change over the next three years.
For full coverage of this report, see our front-page story in the June 12, 2000 issue of MIDRANGE Systems.