Recently, IBM has been taking significant steps to bring popular technologies to its iSeries and System i servers. For instance, the company used last week's COMMON conference to announce that it is working with 3Com to create Internet Protocol (IP) telephony solutions for the System i. Today, IBM will join Zend Technologies at LinuxWorld to announce support for PHP Hypertext Processor (PHP) applications on the i5/OS operating system. I'll examine these announcements and other noteworthy events in this week's news roundup.
System i Meets IP Telephony
In an effort to tap the exploding market for IP telephony, IBM and 3Com are developing an integrated voice/data solution for System i users. The solution will feature 3Com's handsets, switches, connectors, and software to integrate voice/data applications with public switched networks. IBM, for its part, will add support for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to the next release of WebSphere Application Server Express and build IP telephony into its collaboration products for System i, including Lotus Sametime and Workplace. SIP is an industry-standard protocol for managing voice and video content on IP networks.
The IBM-3Com announcement comes at an opportune time for the System i. Today, many companies want to consolidate their voice and data systems on IP networks to reduce telecommunications costs and create solutions that integrate the two content streams. However, many IP telephony products require multiple servers and involve proprietary protocols. By contrast, IBM and 3Com will deliver an open solution that runs on a single System i and integrates easily with IBM's middleware, collaboration, and call center products. IBM is also talking with iSeries software vendors about voice enabling their applications with the solution.
While the solution looks promising, it will take further work on IBM and 3Com's part to develop it. The two companies plan to have a beta version up and running in about three months and then formally ship the solution during the third quarter of this year. Once that happens, it will probably take several months before collaboration and call center products from IBM and other vendors begin to leverage the solution's capabilities. However, for companies that are finding existing IP telephony options to be less than what they hoped for, the new solution could be worth the wait.
A New Home for PHP
While PHP has become the scripting language of choice for over two million developers who work on millions of Web sites, it has never received native support from i5/OS. That just changed, as Zend Technologies has posted Zend Core for i5/OS on its Web site. The product enables iSeries developers to host Web sites that use PHP applications on the operating system. It also enables such developers to take advantage of thousands of PHP scripts that are available on the Web through sites such as Hotscripts.com.
The new offering could be attractive to organizations that want to give their Web sites the added security of living in an i5/OS partition but have not moved them to the operating system because of its lack of PHP support. However, such companies will likely face extra work to get their PHP scripts working with DB2/400 data, as most scripts are written for open-source databases such as MySQL. Fortunately, several companies offer helpful advice for retooling PHP scripts on DB2. Among them is an informative article from IBM that includes links to useful drivers and sample code. IBM also intends to launch outreach programs to PHP developers to encourage them to support DB2 in their scripts. Sources inside IBM are also telling me that the company is considering whether it should support MySQL on i5/OS, though the jury is still out on that decision.
In the meantime, the new Zend Technologies product is definitely worth a try. By the way, the company also offers a Zend Core for IBM toolkit that runs on iSeries Linux partitions and supports MySQL as well as DB2 and Cloudscape. You may want to consider the package as an alternative to the i5/OS version.
IBM and EMC Deepen Interoperability Ties
After years of fierce competition for the disk storage budgets of large iSeries users, IBM and EMC have developed a grudgingly cooperative relationship with each other. That relationship became a little more cordial earlier this month when the two vendors announced a five-year licensing agreement. The agreement will help EMC ensure that its Symmetrix family of storage systems and software is compatible with new System i models and operating system releases.
Under the agreement, IBM will provide System i technical specifications and software releases to EMC. Big Blue will also work with the vendor's engineering teams to support new specifications and features. While EMC already has access to iSeries code and specifications under prior contracts, the new agreement should ensure that the vendor gets access sooner and supports i5/OS releases in a timelier manner. That should be a relief to iSeries users who have often had to wait months before their Symmetrix arrays could support new releases.
Maintenance Costs Creep Up
Now that I've reviewed the latest good news about the System i, I must mention some news that many of you will not welcome. On July 1 of this year, IBM will increase its annual maintenance charges by 9% for many older AS/400 models and selected feature codes. The affected models are in the AS/400 Model 6xx, 7xx, and Sxx series. Maintenance increases will also hit selected feature codes of the Models 170 and 270 as well as some older expansion units that IBM has withdrawn from marketing. If you own these products, check with your IBM representative or Business Partner to learn how the price increases could affect you.
While none of us likes to pay higher prices to maintain our hardware, owners of such equipment can take some comfort from the fact that they have probably gotten a much longer economic life out of their AS/400s than almost anything else in their data centers. That is due in part to IBM's ongoing work to make the AS/400 and iSeries support new technologies and solutions. With that in mind, let's hope that the new technologies IBM is adding to today's System i models help them grow to an equally old age.
Lee Kroon is a Senior Industry Analyst for Andrews Consulting Group, a firm that helps mid-sized companies manage business transformation through technology. You can reach him at
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