On May 14, 2:46 pm, "David Liebtag" <DavidLieb...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> > How feasible would it be for an entrepreneur to rent a virtual
> > mainframe (with APL2 and perhaps DB2 installed) on one of your big
> > boxes that uses few resourses at modest cost in the beginning, but
> > could scale seamlessly to large volume should business demand it?
> > With the right cost structure, this might be attractive to both IBM
> > and new startups.
>
> Steve,
>
> I talked to someone who is knowledgeable in this area (actually my
brother
> who also works for IBM) and got an answer for you.
>
> The short answer is,,, Yes. That is definitely possible.
>
> IBM, and many IBM business partners, offer time on mainframes. However,
> although IBM and our partners do sell raw machine time, what IBM really
> offers is the expertise to help manage businesses and their information
> systems. By leveraging IBM's and IBM's business partner's expertise,
> companies can make more effective IT investments than just buying raw
> machine time. We offer a wide range of business management "solutions".
> These range from raw machine time, to hosted application software, to
> complete outsourcing of the development, operation and management of
> software and hardware systems. The correct solution depends on many
things
> including the client, the industry, and the business model. Finding the
> correct solution is part of what IBM can help you do.
>
> In answer to your specific question though, if you're just talking about
> buying raw machine time, it's probably not a very good business
proposition
> either for you or for IBM. Machines are cheap. If you just want to run
a
> single application or two, like APL2 and DB2, you're probably better off
> just buying a machine with the correct size to fit your current needs.
(Of
> course, we can sell you machines too. :-)
>
> Having said all that, if you want to pursue it, I would be pleased to
help.
> You can write me and I will have someone in your area contact you
directly.
>
> David Liebtag
> IBM APL Products and Services
Thanks, David.
That tells me that IBM isn't offering what I had in mind, which is
neither purchase of raw machine time, nor IBM services expertise as
currently packaged. I'm thnking of an APL version of Google AppEgine
(http://code.google.com/appengine/)
targeted at APL developers who
have an idea for a web application, but don't have the skills, time,
or inclination to set up a web front end, storage, backup, 24x7 uptime
sup****t for the application they know they can write in APL.
This may not make business sense for IBM/APL2, and it remains to be
seen if Google's venture will be successful, though I suspect it
will. It provides a very low barrier to entry for development and
initial deployment (essentially zero cash), making it easy to try out
business ideas that may be wacky, or might be a gold mine. There are
a lot more Python programmers than there are APL programmers and it
should contribute to their ad revenue based business model. Of course
there are a lot more Java programmers than Python programmers, but
Java is far less suited to rapid application development by a small
team (maybe of one) than Python or APL.
I do think this is a potential op****tunity for an enterprising APL
vendor.
Regards,
Steve
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