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To: Mary Cluney who wrote (88163)	9/11/1999 10:37:00 PM
From: Dan3	Respond to of 186894

Re:Isn't this an IBM threat to IBM... I'll take a shot at an answer, others should be able to elaborate and / or correct. The S390 is more stable and secure (and more expensive) than anything else. It can also very reliably handle enormous transaction loads. The AS400 is an out of the box accounting / inventory control solution. Very few decisions to make, just buy the thing and get on with your business. Neither one has a lot of overlap with the SUNs which are more flexible but require more sophisticated procurement and administration. Solaris clusters can provide great performance, but you'll have to make some correct decisions to get there. The RS/6000s compete with the SUNs, with the same benefits in terms of flexibility and drawbacks in terms of opportunity for error. The multiprocessor Intel boxes are trying to get into the SUN / RS6000 arena, and will have some success - how much, depends partly on how good W2K turns out. Why get a mainframe? The advantages of the S390s are that they are bulletproof - more in terms of software than hardware. There are levels of auditing built into these systems that prevent - as an example - system administrators at banks from giving themselves bonuses. Everything in them is hot-swappable; disks, CPUs, channel controllers, power supplies, memory, etc. and they don't "blue screen". They are harder to develop for, and much more expensive to buy, but if you're running an airline reservation system, a bank, inventory and payroll for a large company, that kind of application, they are the best solution. I've had nothing to do with mainframes for several years now, so I'd welcome corrections to these thoughts. Dan