The purpose of this blog is to prepare you to streamline your process to determine if cloud hosting makes sense for you. My sense is that you don’t do this every day, so this checklist will help you gather the key information you will need to quickly figure out if cloud hosting can work for you.
Getting A Quote
When you think about the possibility of cloud hosting, you want to get an idea how much it will cost. After all, hosting has to be economically feasible if it is going to make sense. All Cloud providers will need to know about your environment and required resources to give you an accurate price
First Step – What Do You Need To Host Your IBM i/iSeries/AS400 Applications?
Before you start looking for provider, prepare some basic information so you can quickly get solid answers.
Prospective hosting providers want to be helpful. You can make this process easier and faster if you think about what you need.
Hosting providers need to understand key element that want to give you a quote. When it comes to hosting resources, what will be required for:
- RAM memory
- Storage
- Processor Performance
- Core(s)
It also helps the provider to understand
- What is your business software?
- Does your software have active support?
- Have you asked your software provider what is involved with you move your software to a new serial number? (Actually, this may be the most important to know as a software transfer fee may be prohibitive for your organization and kill the deal.)
Can you provide:
- User count
- Location count
- Bandwidth needs
- Current workload performance
- Server-to-server-integration
- Do you use ODBC or retrieve documents (graphical images) – these can affect response time?
Why are you considering IBM i/iSeries/AS400 cloud hosting at this time? For example,
- Need IBM I expertise
- Need access to new technology
- Your current server is end-of-life
- It is time to upgrade
- Need flexible hosting for end-of-life software
Second Step – Search For Hosting Providers
While there are lots of cloud hosting providers, there are in fact very few with IBM i expertise.
One simple way to find qualified IBM i/iSeries/AS400 cloud hosting providers is to search Google: You will get relevant searches from expression like “iSeries hosting”, “iSeries cloud hosting”, “AS400 hosting” or “AS400 cloud hosting.”
Third Step – Who Is Right For Me?
It all depends what you are looking for.
So ask yourself, do I want
Lowest cost?
Best IBM i expertise?
Easiest to work with?
Industry expertise?
Expertise with my application software?
Someone with a clear understanding of what I need?
Most knowledgeable?
Longevity?
Do I have really old technology and it is hard to find someone who may know it?
As you think about these factors, you will probably think of questions you will want to ask each provider to get a sense of their ability to support you.
Fourth Step – How Good Is The Hosting Provider? Really?
To help discern who is right for you, it helps to understand how to assess a provider’s technical depth.
You will want to understand:
- How many dedicated senior IBM i engineers they have on staff?
- How long have these engineers been with the hosting provider?
- What technical certifications do the IBM i engineers have to verify their skill set?
- Do you have a 60-day free trial? (I don’t want to sound self-serving because we offer a 60-day free trial. In our experience 30 days in insufficient to adequately test your applications.)
- How many IBM I references are like you that you can contact to learn about their real-life experiences? (2-3 is insufficient. Can you select from 10 or more references?)
Fifth Step – Plan To Go Live
Long holiday weekend and month ends are very popular go live dates. If this is your preference plan early. Give you hosting provider a 45-90 advance notices as these popular time slots get booked fast.
There you have it. I think if you adapt some to all of these points in your search, you can determine if IBM i application is right for you. If so, you can quickly determine your short list of qualified providers to vet.
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