IBM AS/400e, User Handbook Manual, Page: 93 / 834

AS/400e Advanced Technology
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AS/400e Advanced Technology
The latest AS/400e hardware enhancements and the newest version of the AS/400e
operating system is OS/400 V4R5. OS/400 is engineered to provide the performance and
tools needed to help to obtain a quicker return on a business’ investment in such critical
areas as e-business, enterprise resource planning, Business Intelligence, and server
consolidation.
e-businesses require hardware and software solutions with cost-effective computing power.
However, more importantly, they need solutions that scale well as workloads grow larger and
more complex. To scale well means the computer system grows in capacity to accommodate
business growth without changing the customer's applications, hardware, or system software
investment. The AS/400e has always been known for its scalability and meeting the needs of
a dozen to several thousand users with the same architecture and operating system. The
recent outstanding performance of AS/400e as a Domino server in an independent
NotesBench audit (10,400 concurrent light mail users on a single AS/400e system)
demonstrates that the AS/400e scales just as well with new, advanced e-business
applications as it does with a core line-of-business applications.
Characteristics of a Successful e-business
IBM has effectively branded and marketed the term
e-business
. The market is beginning to
have a general sense of what e-business means. But an expanded explanation with better
examples is necessary. The topics that follow describe the
defining actions of tomorrow's
successful e-business:
• Fully exploiting the latest IT tools and techniques
• Delivering a broad spectrum of applications
• Reaching a broad spectrum of users
These defining actions sound familiar to anyone who knows the fundamentals of using
information technology (IT) to achieve competitive advantage. e-business does not change
the fundamental rules, but represents a dramatic shift in a typical company’s ability to
cost-effectively exploit IT on a broad scale. Simply stated, a wide range of affordable tools is
now available to enable even the smallest organization to conduct business electronically on
a world-wide scale. This allows them to achieve competitive advantage in a cost effective
manner.
Fully Exploiting the Latest IT Tools and Techniques
One of the most exciting aspects of the e-business dream is the broad range of applications
that businesses can deliver. Keep in mind that this range of applications builds on and
extends the existing line-of-business (LOB) applications of an organization. Sometimes,
these LOB applications are treated with less respect than they deserve and are described
with somewhat negative terms (such as
legacy applications ) simply because they are not
flashy and glamorous. This is particularly true for customers that have the AS/400 system