Despite the growing popularity of IBM i (iSeries/AS400) cloud hosting, I still encounter many misconceptions people have about moving their IBM i applications to the cloud.
The purpose of this article is to highlight 7 common misconceptions and explain why these misbeliefs are not true.
Disclaimer: IBM i is the current operating system brand name for the POWER server. iSeries and AS400 are brand names for older IBM servers. I use them interchangeably for convenient SEO user research.
1. My Data Is Not Secure.If anything, hosting your system at a data center may be far more secure than your office. A SSAE-18 certified data center has redundant security, power, air-conditioning, internet access, intrusion detection and backup/recovery that greatly exceed what most business offices have in place.
2. I Will Not Have The Same Control Of My System. This is not an issue, depending on the IBM i hosting provider. If you have the QSECOFR console, you control the resources in your virtualized server (allocated Logical Partition, aka LPAR). You can even lock out access from outsiders….including the hosting company.
If you do need to change your LPAR resources, you can either request the provider to make the needed changes, or if you have HMC expertise, the provider can make the HMC available to you for the changes you want to make.
3. Internet Speed Will Be Slow. You may often find your hosted performance to be better than your current on premise server for two reasons.
First, the IBM i traffic between the server and the workstations is very small and efficient – in a common range of 50-250 bytes per mouse click or entry. That’s because you only transmit changed fields in a data entry screen.
Second, your hosted system resides on a new, more powerful virtualized server. This means the new technology processes your request much faster than your legacy on premise server.
4. The Hosting Provider Does Not Understand IBM i (iSeries/AS400). Clearly, most hosting providers and data centers do not have in-house IBM i expertise. This is particularly true of the larger hosting providers, like AWS (Amazon) and Azure (Microsoft).
If you look specifically for IBM i hosting companies, you will find providers with IBM i expertise. However, the depth and breadth of IBM i skill varies among the IBM i hosting providers, so you will want to understand the providers’ staff size, length of experience, technical certifications and customer references.
A few IBM i hosting providers even offer client case studies on their web site so you can get a sense of their expertise.
5. IBM i Hosting Is More Expensive Than An On Premise Server.That was certainly true years ago….but not today. Several factors contribute to make IBM i cloud hosting very cost-effective.
First, the new servers offer way more capacity than most IBM i users can ever use. A hosting provider, on the other hand, can virtualize the server to allocate resources tailored to a client at a fraction of the cost of the server (system backup, UPS, firewall, generator, redundant security, power, etc.).
Second, IBM i hosting providers can share their IBM i experts among a large client install base, so your technical support is far less expensive as well as superior to what may be available to you. In fact, more clients move to IBM i hosting to outsource the expertise they need because it is harder to find and more expensive to recruit from a shrinking talent pool.
Third, the IBM i hosting provider handles the IBM software and related support expenses as part of the monthly fee. This means you don’t have to pay for server core activation, user count, or hardware and software maintenance. These fees can range from $8,000 – $70,000 or more when you buy a new server. These costs are shared by the other hosted tenants, so you pay only a small portion of this as part of your hosting fee.
6. It Is Hard To Change Hosting Providers. Changing hosting providers can actually be easy, depending on which provider you select. Pay close attention in your hosting agreement to assess how easily you can leave your provider, how easily you can cancel your hosting before your term expires, and how cooperative they will be to provide you a complete backup of your system so you can transition to another direction. Ask for references that have made a switch so you have no surprises.
7. Integrating Windows Subsystems To Hosted IBM i Is Very Difficult And Expensive. Integrating other servers with your IBM i can be straight-forward and cost-effective with proper planning and implementation. Your IBM i hosting provider needs to understand the nature of the server integration (i.e. ODBC, simple transmission, data propagation, etc.) to determine the best approach. Cover this topic with the various hosting providers you interview and ask to speak to references.
If You Enjoyed Reading This, You May Also Like Reading:
4 Reasons Why IBM iSeries/AS400 Users Move To Cloud Hosting in 2018
7 Myths About IBM iSeries/AS400 Cloud Hosting
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