On the latest count, there will only be 250,000 AS/400s out there worldwide, but the extent of IBM Corp’s failure to capitalise fully on the AS/400 is the fact that there are still a phenomenal 250,000 System 36s out there, and it begins to look as if there is a real business opportunity out there for somebody to integrate new disk drives for that vast 36 base: word from the field is that at one disaster recovery shop, 12 out of 47 machines have failed, and in almost all cases it was a disk dying – and it’s getting harder to find good used equipment for replacements.
