Infrastructure
This part of the infrastructure discussion
focuses on the processes you will want to pay attention to for your new xSeries
server. In particular, the build process and available tools, the Quality
Assurance for your solution, and your support for it are highlighted here.
System Resources
For system resources for your development,
testing and support teams to use, you will probably want your own xSeries
server(s). There are several sources from which you can acquire servers. One
great thing about more recent xSeries servers is that the costs of servers have declined
so that even the smallest of shops can afford one. Client testing and
control can be made easier too by using VMWare on your development xSeries server. If you are a Business Partner, PartnerWorld for
Developers can help you address any server questions. IBM’s SuccessLease
can also be a very inexpensive method of acquiring a server.
Acquiring Skills (Training)
Part of your infrastructure in supporting
any platform involves maintaining skills for that platform. Your developers
will need skills, and your support people will too. When one of your xSeries
customers has a question, he or she is likely to talk about a process
on the server as shown by Task Manager in Windows, for example, and you will
want your support person to be able to speak the operations language familiar
to the customer.
There are several xSeries
education sites where you can browse education offerings and opportunities.
- The xSeries University
offers a variety of materials and formats, including computer-based
training and traditional classroom education.
- PartnerWorld also offers educational
materials
- IBM offers many Windows and Linux classes, both
for support personnel and developers. IBM Learning
Services can help you with all of your training needs.
Tools and Procedures
This part
of the infrastructure discussion focuses on the processes you will want to pay
attention to for your new xSeries server. As we noted in the general xSeries
infrastructure page, robust processes can help you deliver robust products and
support that will help you meet xSeries customer expectations.
Build
Your
solution Build process for a ported application will depend a lot on what you
are currently using to build the application. Like the porting discussion, there
is an aspect of "where are you coming from?" Often, the better a new
platform can be accommodated in the current build process, the faster the new solution will go to market and the easier it will be to keep the new
platform version of the application current with your other platforms. This is
especially true where the build process is complicated. Often this kind of
thinking applies to UNIX and Java solutions coming to xSeries.
Some of the target porting environments on xSeries
servers, like Linux, even facilitate using the same binaries that are created to run
in other environments in some cases. For these, you probably do not need to
worry much about new build environments. Some basic tuning or a new environment
variable may be sufficient additions to tweak your current process to
target xSeries servers.
For other types of solutions that benefit
from integration with the more “traditional” Windows technologies, you may want
to rehost the whole solution build on an xSeries server. For this case, there are both
traditional and new build platforms that are available for IBM and third
parties. There is also a tool set Eclipse, that is based on open source, that tool providers can snap in to provide a richer environment. Helpful references follow:
Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance is a high priority item
in xSeries solutions. Most of them rely on their business solutions to work and
to keep their businesses going consistently. Customers' high expectations are
set by xSeries itself. While IBM writes neither Windows or Linux, both releases go through extended periods of
development and system testing to ensure that each release is fully supported
on xSeries servers.
Note: there is an xSeries testing
advantage for solutions that use several pieces of middleware. Because IBM has
tested many solution parts (database, print spooling, directory services, work
scheduling, user management, etc.) together already, the end-to-end testing for
your solution may be shorter on an xSeries server than on other platforms where you may
have to add the different parts separately and test their interactions with
each other.
For more information on solutions supported
on xSeries servers, please see the ServerProven
Web site.
Support
xSeries servers have a history of outstanding
support for our customers. Our customers expect this level of support, and our
Business Partners are accustomed to delivering it as well. In addition to
providing adequate support staffing, you will also want to ensure that your
support team has the xSeries skills to work with xSeries customers using terms
familiar to them.
IBM also has an outstanding history of
working with our Business Partners on joint questions or problems. We have
service teams worldwide that are usually fairly local to the customers to work
directly with them in their own time zones. Backing up these capable teams
across the world are support centers in the various geographic regions and the
Raleigh support team that can go as deeply into a question or
problem as is needed to get it resolved. More general information on xSeries
support contacts worldwide can be found in our xSeries Support
Guide. In addition, our Business Partners can help their new xSeries
customers by coordinating their fix delivery and support with IBM xSeries server problem management
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