From: "Pommier, Rex R." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I am seeing the exact phenomenon here. We're looking at "upgrading" from a 7060-H50 to a z890-140 which are basically the same horsepower. I have one ISV - not Computer Associates - who is charging me a $30000+ upgrade fee and increasing my annual maintenance by about 15% for a horizontal upgrade. Their excuse is that since my old box is a Multiprise box, they gave me a discount on the software and they're just now charging what the software is actually worth. Unfortunately it is a 3rd party IDMS tool that doesn't have much competition so they have us over the proverbial barrel.
Exactly my point. I believe it is these "We've got you over a barrel" ISV's that are doing most of the damage to the reputation and long-term sustainability of the mainframe. IBM keeps getting the blame (e.g. "They're not promoting it", "They're not giving it to Universities" etc), but to me the blame lies much more with ISV's than it does with IBM. In fact, I think IBM is responding well to ISV gouging by bringing out their own competing products and offering them at much lower prices than what the ISV's are charging.
Having said that, not all ISV's should be painted with the same brush. There are some excellent ISV's out there who provide high quality tools at a very low price. I feel obliged to point this out as I work for one of them! :-)
Dave Salt SimpList(tm) - The easiest, most powerful way to surf a mainframe! http://www.mackinney.com/products/SIM/simplist.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
