> The fact that other > customers with large IBM machines are paying much less for version 5 would > not > matter. When and if a company grows its flex box to where it approaches > the size > of a small IBM box, then having VM cheaper on the IBM box will make a > difference. It will encourage users of large flex boxes to go to an IBM > box.
It's also interesting to note that the PID/PWD licenses for the 64-bit Flex code are required to be run only on genuine IBM-brand hardware. IMHO, that's a reasonable requirement -- produce a real IBM system, give them the serial #, get it approved, rock and roll. Imagine using some of the new quad Opteron64 blades. At 70+ Z MIPS per Opteron, you could put one heck of a lot of zSeries apps into 7RU. Imagine zSeries computing that has the same hardware price point as distributed systems -- not close, but the *same*, without requirements for special disk or tape hardware, or special console controller connections. Yes, there's a lot to be said for the real zSeries hardware in terms of RAS, etc -- but there's a lot of people who don't need that level of reliability right off the bat. Get them hooked first, and *then* do the upsell to real Z hardware -- at that point, the business value case is really, really simple. Would sure make a convincing case for considering zSeries to most of the CxOs *I* deal with. Right after SCSI tape support, that is. 8-) -- db
