Some of you may remember back to last year when IBM first announced WAS Version 4. I was pretty vocal about it because IBM discontinued the free Standard Edition of WAS (WAS 3.5 SE), instead offering only the rather pricey Advanced Edition (currently selling for about $8,000 to $12,000 per CPU). I even used the term "bait-and-switch" because IBM had specifically directed us--both developers and end users--to use WebSphere as a development platform. Those of us who listened got a rather rude awakening when we found that we would have to add a significant premium to our software costs in order to continue to use something that IBM had originally given us for free, and we made our position known.
In response, IBM announced the support of Tomcat, the open-source Web application server. And while that's been an interesting option, we were never sure whether it was an interim solution, a strategic direction, or something in between. And the fact that IBM doesn't ship the latest version of Tomcat (IBM ships the older Version 3 instead of the much faster and more feature-rich Version 4) doesn't help clarify the issue.
The release of V5R2 of OS/400 muddies the waters even further. This release no longer supports WAS 3.5 SE. In fact, this release breaks it. That's right: If you are using WAS 3.5 SE and you upgrade to V5R2, you are dead in the water. You will be forced to move to a different application server, either Tomcat or WAS Advanced Edition. No matter how IBM chooses to spin it, this is particularly foul treatment of both developers and users.
However, some good news is in the offing. At COMMON, you'll hear about WebSphere Express, the "low-cost" alternative to WAS Advanced Edition. Sources tell me that you'll hear an official announcement in Q4, and the product will probably be released in Q1 of 2003. But WebSphere Express isn't for everyone. IBM has firmed up its policy: If you have a machine with under about 500 CPW, you should run Tomcat. Tomcat will continue to be shipped with OS/400 and is the Web server of choice for "smaller footprint" machines.
As to pricing for WebSphere Express, how low is low? Good question. Even at half the price of the Advanced Edition, you're still talking thousands of dollars--in effect, a "WebSphere tax"--just to move to V5R2. Note that this added cost also applies to the "free" WebFacing product, since WebFacing requires WebSphere. The justification is that the iSeries is the only platform that has a free version of WebSphere. That may be, but it seems to me that the iSeries also has a much higher hardware markup per CPU cycle than most of the other boxes, and those costs have traditionally gone to offset the price of the software. This is the concept of an integrated machine.
On its surface, this strategic position seems to make some sense. In effect, IBM is saying that it no longer supports WebSphere for low-end iSeries machines. There is an implied corollary that IBM won't be making small machines, that the smallest iSeries machines will soon have enough power to run WebSphere Express. It's too early to tell what this means as far as pricing for the low-end user.
But what's the reality of the situation?
If you're running WAS 3.5 SE today, you must switch your software to either Tomcat or WebSphere Express prior to the move to V5R2. The move to WebSphere Express will cost you money, probably thousands of dollars.
If you write iSeries software and you want to both support low-end users and stay strategic with WebSphere, you will now have to double your development effort and support both Tomcat and WebSphere.
So what does all this mean to me as a developer? Well, it means that I have to either support Tomcat or cut out my low-end users. Personally, I refuse to do the latter. The low-end customers, the ones who can't easily justify the continuous upgrades to "bigger and better" machines, especially in these economic times, are the ones who most need the newer technologies in order to compete. And even if they can justify an upgrade to a larger machine, why must they also come up with the added cost of WebSphere Express, just to stay in line with IBM's strategic direction? And what's to say IBM won't turn around and discontinue WebSphere Express in the next release of OS/400?
Since Tomcat is supported on all iSeries platforms, it seems that it may make sense to save the money and go with Tomcat. And once you've made that decision, you may decide that running Tomcat on the iSeries is a waste of cycles. You can buy a dedicated Unix machine running something like FreeBSD for under $700 and move your entire Web application serving workload off the iSeries. Then, you can use a product like PSC/400 to convert your interactive programs to batch, begin the move to true client/server computing, and avoid an upgrade altogether.
IBM could have avoided this. IBM could have made WebSphere Express a lean, mean Tomcat-killing entry point into the WebSphere family: a free, limited-functionality replacement for WAS 3.5 SE. Instead, IBM has fragmented the user community for what looks to me to be purely short-term revenue. Why short-term? Because this sort of corporate policy is what makes developers rethink their positions. When I had to choose between Tomcat and WebSphere, I chose WebSphere, touting its capabilities to everyone who would listen. IBM is rewarding that loyalty by now making me choose between supporting both Tomcat and WebSphere, or supporting Tomcat only. Not only that, I get to spend extra money if I choose to support WebSphere.
It's becoming an easier decision.
Joe Pluta writes the "Weaving WebSphere" column for MCMagOnline and is the founder and chief architect of Pluta Brothers Design, Inc. He has been working in the field since the late 1970s and has made a career of extending the IBM midrange, starting back in the days of the IBM System/3. Joe has used WebSphere extensively, especially as the base for PSC/400, the only product that can move your legacy systems to the Web using simple green-screen commands. He is also the author of the popular MC Press book E-deployment: The Fastest Path to the Web. You can reach Joe at
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