[ILUG] FW: Amazing story - Microsoft replaced IBM AS/400's w/ NT systems AND then had to reverse the decision...

[Noel Carroll]

This is _VERY_ good indeed :-)

Noel

This was passed on from our friends in the IBM AS/400 group and thought
that if you have not seen it before, then you would surely be very
interested in it.  It is a nice supporting story to our multi-platform
capability.  (and I don't know about you, but I thoroughly enjoy any dirt
on Microsoft)

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Folks, this is a Great story that our partners should be telling their
customers.  This was on the SAP400 newsgroup in the Midrange Technology
Showcase November issue. There is an article on the  front page entitled
"IBM's Frank Soltis, Uncensored."  Here's an  excerpt:

Dr. Frank Soltis, the IBM engineer who has been called "the  AS/400's
Elvis," recently shared a success story during a keynote speech at  a user
conference in Florida.  This particular company was in the software
distribution business and at one point had 23 AS/400s located around the
world. The company was a very good customer, went from CISC to RISC, and
was  always one of the first to upgrade to new technology, he said. Then
came the  Year 2000 problem, and
despite five years of dedicated service during a  period of great revenue
growth, the company decided that it was time to move  off the AS/400. So in
June of 1999, the company unplugged its AS/400s and  powered up 1200 NT
servers it needed to replace them.

But things didn't  quite go as planned. "They found they couldn't make it
work," Soltis told the crowd. "Today, one year after unplugging their
AS/400s, they're back on the AS/400." That company is Microsoft. "They
viewed that as a point of  embarrassment," Soltis said. "We thought it was
kind of fun....Can you think  of a company with greater incentive to move
to NT, and they couldn't do  it?"

So it takes 1200 NT servers  and you still can't run a business!   That is
a damm shame. Its that integration thing again.. and again...

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