Deja vu all over again, sort of....

I remember back in the late 70s prospecting for the environment I needed to
deliver the initial IT services to my employer, prior to that time
operating as a 3780 remote site.  I needed communications, multiple
compilers, a DBMS, both interactive and batch processing, and the ability
for one person to do it all.

IBM came in (actually, three different groups from IBM), touting 3
DIFFERENT solutions, none of which delivered all the requirements.  Series
1, 8700 (???  think that was the designation...), and 4331 folks tripped
over themselves and each other, each promising to do what the others
couldn't, and if their environment couldn't do something, I didn't need to
do it.

I wasn't about to re-write some applications I borrowed from the owner/host
from COBOL to RPG...  and I needed Fortran in addition to COBOL...

Round about and round about we went - and I already knew what I wanted.  A
box that supported 16 users and initially held a half meg of memory, 2 256
drives, Cobol, Fortran, Basic, and a few other goodies.  Tech support that
viewed customers as partners, that bent over backwards to assure that you
were successful, because it made both vendor and customer look good.
Mutual loyalty, as it were.

Oh yes... and IMAGE.

The 4331 came in priced almost competitively with my 'favorite' - but with
only 2 spindles.  To load the additional software I had to have, I needed 5
MORE spindles.  And that didn't leave any wiggle room.

I ended up having to put my job on the line - you brought me here to do a
job, and this vendor gives me what I need.  If you aren't interested in
honoring my choice, and letting me prove that this works, I might as well
leave right now.

So began my adventure with the 3k, 25 years ago and counting.

Funny, I mentioned deja vu....  I look at the current situation, and the
roles appear to have swapped.  IBM is coming in with some pretty
appropriate equipment and environments, and it's HP that is contending with
itself (9000, Non-Stop, Blades, etc) and turning up its collective nose at
the incredible partnership that used to exist between vendor and customer,
back in the good old days.

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