iSeries makes headway as 3000 alternative

IBM announces migration sites on eve of HP’s end of sales

HP’s exit from the sales field for HP 3000s is providing prospects for conversion to IBM’s iSeries business servers. The largest computer company in the world fired off its most recent 3000 migration announcement about two sites on Oct. 31, the day when HP’s sales of the system ended.

While IBM has been pushing its iSeries as a 3000 alternative since 2002, customer testimony about making the switch has been hard to come by. IBM had pointed to a few 3000 firms who made a change to the iSeries, but the stories indicated the switch was already underway when HP stepped away from the 3000. In one other case, an oil exploration firm moved its in-house applications to an iSeries, but left its HP 3000 running.

IBM has constantly improved the bottom line issues for customers who want to join the iSeries community, a group the vendor says is more than 500,000 systems strong. It just announced a “Zero Plus” new global finance offering that combines deferred payments and low rates for a wide range of its servers. IBM estimates about 70 percent of its installed iSeries base is using IBM financing. A Green Streak II program includes up to a $40,000 rebate for customers who purchase an iSeries Model 810 and a qualifying ISV business continuity offering.

But like any system except those running Intel hardware and Windows, the iSeries has seen declines in the past four years. Industry analyst Tom Bittman estimated at the latest iSeries COMMON conference that the server’s shipments peaked in 1999, and now total about 30,000 units a year. That’s a number far in excess of what the HP 3000 was ever able to manage in a single year, but HP has tried to cast doubts on moving to an IBM platform whose numbers are in decline.

In response, IBM points to an unprofitable stretch of server business at HP that was only recently broken by the first earnings to come from HP Enterprise Servers in more than two years. “HP hasn’t made a profit on servers since the Clinton administration,” said one PR rep working for IBM.

While the offers and doubts swirl from the vendors, IBM’s success with the small and medium-sized businesses has begun to surface. An iSeries shop is moving an HP 3000 application to the servers at Strauss Discount Auto. But IBM’s Oct. 31 announcement also highlighted Lady Remington Jewelry, a Chicago-area distribution and sales firm that is moving from its Series 9x8 HP 3000 to an i270 iSeries. Al Karman, IT Director at Lady Remington, said the company was ready to adopt application software with flexibility.

“When I came in here two years ago, the groundwork had already been laid to replace the applications top to bottom,” he said.

The Green Streak promotions made the switch more attractive. “How do you fight with buying a system at 50 percent of retail?” Karman asked.

The company had been using in-house COBOL 68 programs that began service as MCBA accounting software on the HP 3000. But the company’s relationship with HP had ended before it made the decision to switch to the iSeries. Karman, who’s used the 3000 for 20 years, said the company went to third party support for the HP 3000 several years ago, a sign that HP’s service distinction had evaporated along with its support for the 3000 market.

“It’s a shame,” Karman said. “They claim the 3000’s ecosystem has dried up, but what they won’t admit is that HP is the force that dried up that ecosystem in the first place. They made their bones on service, and it started to stink more than 10 years ago.”

The in-house application at Lady Remington is being replaced with a package from HarrisData written in RPG. Lady Remington’s staff had no RPG experience, a fact that Karman said didn’t scare him away from the iSeries. The company hired the RPG expertise that it needed, since the firm has enjoyed double-digit growth for the past two years. He describes his iSeries choice as the best for a company that wants to focus on its core business, not IT.

“We’re running a business — we’re not a computer company,” he said.

Although an iSeries system will drive that business soon — the switchover isn’t complete yet — another IBM solution might do the job at Lady Remington in the future. Karman said he’s noticed the iSeries community seems concerned that IBM is pushing the xSeries Intel servers harder than the iSeries.

He added that it doesn’t matter to him. “If it executes my code at a reasonable cost per instruction, who cares if the label on the box says IBM iSeries, or IBM xSeries?”

HP-UX and its brethren don’t appear any more open to Karman than the iSeries. “Those are closed systems. Truly open doesn’t care what box it’s run on.”

Karman sees HP’s exit from the 3000 market as providing ample opportunity to IBM. “It’s been public knowledge for a lot of years, and IBM said ‘As HP gives away the store, we’ll be right there to take it.’