Welcome to "The AS/400 Observatory." In this biweekly column, I'll bring you news and commentary about what's going on in the AS/400 community and how it may affect your business and your career. Your suggestions and comments are always welcome. Please send them to me at shoffman@as400network.com.

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In a break from recent tradition and an encouraging return to past openness, IBM took advantage of the fall COMMON conference to share many of its enhancements to OS/400 planned for 2001. It’s an impressive crop that includes major enhancements to DB2 Universal Database for AS/400 (UDB/400), clustering, Operations Navigator (OpsNav), and even RPG. ""V5R1 to Be Rochester’s Biggest Release Yet," provides a whirlwind tour of some of the new software IBM plans to release next year. You’ll find many of the details in current and upcoming issues of NEWS/400, as well. To learn about RPG IV enhancements, see "RPG IV: Free Format and More" (November 2000), and look for Kent Milligan’s coverage of database enhancements in the January issue.

What I’ve seen thus far of IBM’s plans for 2001 strikes a fine balance between the e-business dream of the future and the realities of existing AS/400 applications — many of the enhancements to OS/400 are focused on core functions such as database and systems management. We can hope these new tools and functions will encourage AS/400 developers to adopt new application development techniques. For example, in 2001 IBM will add important new functions for triggers — the first major enhancements since V3R1. However, the new trigger functions are available only through SQL, signaling once again that IBM is moving away from support for DDS and toward industry standard interfaces to UDB/400. Despite the strengths of DDS, it’s becoming increasingly important for AS/400 developers to adopt SQL (See "Changing of the Guard" for more of my thoughts on this transition.)

Clustering and LPAR Enhancements

Clustering and Logical Partitioning (LPAR) are two other areas where IBM is making important investments in OS/400. Initially, both of these technologies were targeted at the largest AS/400 shops, but enhancements planned for 2001 will offer clustering and LPAR benefits to almost all AS/400 customers. On the clustering front, the initial release was designed to support high-availability environments, but new enhancements will let customers use clustering to switch external disks between systems. Although there are significant limitations to switchable disks in the initial implementation, they signal IBM’s plans to extend clustering technologies to smaller shops.

LPAR will also be extended to much smaller systems with the capability to share a single processor between multiple partitions. The ability to reallocate LPAR resources dynamically also enhances LPAR’s appeal; using this capability, customers can use LPAR to manage varying workloads for different partitions throughout the workday or workweek. For example, a partition allocated for East coast locations would have more resources early in the morning (before business hours on the West coast), while a partition used by West coast locations would be given additional resources later in the day.

OpsNav support is key to making these new OS/400 enhancements accessible to customers. For example, switchable disks are managed through OpsNav, and new OpsNav support for LPAR will make it easier to configure LPAR and to move resources between partitions. Finally, IBM unveiled the initial implementation of a database mapping function for OpsNav that will give developers a graphical view of the relationships between files. In addition to physical and logical files, the OpsNav view will include other file characteristics such as referential constraints. Due to the changes in trigger support for V5R1, triggers will not be included in the initial release of the OpsNav graphical database display, but support for viewing triggers will be added in a subsequent release.

A Spotlight on WebSphere

The fall COMMON conference was also an opportunity for IBM to showcase WebSphere Development Tools for AS/400 (WDT). Today, WDT simply repackages four existing development tools: CODE/400, Visual Age for RPG, WebSphere Studio for AS/400, and a special version of Visual Age for Java (VAJ) that includes AS/400-specific support, which was previously available only in the Enterprise Edition of VAJ. WDT became generally available on October 20, 2000, at a price of $300 per seat — considerably less than the cost of the individual tools in the past but still a significant investment for a large development shop. With future releases of WDT, IBM intends to add additional functionality and to bundle the new tools as upgrades to the host-based Application Development Toolset for AS/400. In 2001, WDT will also include a Web-facing tool, currently available only via a business partner pilot program. The Web-facing tool automates the process of building a Web front end for a green-screen application. (For more information about IBM’s plans for WDT, see "AS/400 AD Tools Strategy Brings e-Business Mountain to Mohammed.")

No amount of crystal ball gazing can predict the future, but I’m encouraged by the focus of IBM’s current initiatives. It’s one thing for IBM to announce new technology, and quite a different matter for that technology to be embraced by the AS/400 community. The V5R1 enhancements IBM is sharing thus far are focused on making new technologies such as SQL, clustering, and LPAR easier to implement and more useful to a broader range of customers. WDT still leaves a lot to be desired — most obviously, a truly integrated application development toolset — but at least it makes the tools that are available much more affordable. Finally, the sheer volume of enhancements is impressive. If, as some people are fond of saying, the AS/400 is a system in its death throes, it’s certainly going out with a bang!

Sharon Hoffman began working with IBM midrange systems in 1981. She is a senior technical editor for NEWS/400 and writes NEWS/400's "AS/400 Strategist" column. Her background includes extensive application development, as well as creating and delivering technical education. Sharon is a regular speaker at COMMON and other industry events.