The noticeable quiet coming from Microsoft's Midrange Alliance may be misleading. The two-year-old program, designed to help midrange software vendors and customers find their way to the Windows platform, is working the front line of modernization.
The Microsoft program connects System i software vendors and customers with a company that can assist them in modernizing green-screen environments by integrating Windows and System i applications, extending System i applications to Windows, and eventually migrating workloads from the System i platform to a Windows platform.
It seems to be making inroads into the System i installed base.
One of the more recent software moves occurred last October when Pathix announced the migration of Navixa, its aviation-management software system, from IBM's System i platform to Microsoft's .NET framework using ASNA technology. Pathix is rebranding the software NavixaMRO.
Anne Ferguson, the CEO of ASNA, explained that Pathix is porting Navixa to the .NET platform to increase business sales. Pathix says it will continue to support Navixa on the System i platform -- for now.
"Previously, Pathix experienced numerous situations whereby it would respond to an RFP and meet 90-plus percent of the requirements but would get disqualified because Navixa ran only on the System i," Ferguson says. "Now with the migration of Navixa to .NET, the company can expand its sales into a whole new market that wasn't open to it before."
Both Microsoft and IBM are unwilling to comment on the Midrange Alliance topic although Microsoft did make reference to the program's website.
Analysts suggest that measuring the activity of Microsoft's Midrange Alliance program is somewhat difficult. "Apart from some marketing dollars and courting System i ISVs, it is hard to say," [what the status of the program is] notes Dennis Szubert, a principal analyst with Quocirca Ltd.
In response to Microsoft's program, IBM developed its own ISV support network -- called the System i Initiative for Innovation -- so that IBM could strengthen its own relationships with ISVs.
"This includes e-support services for ISVs, such as free support in architecture, education, and conversions; a portfolio of tools designed to enable partners to enhance their current applications; and an advisory council to help influence the long-term strategy of the products being developed under the Initiative for Innovation", Szubert says.
Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group, sees Microsoft's Midrange Alliance program as a strategic one. However, the success of the program will depend on how much focus Microsoft puts on it.
He believes that Microsoft is resourcing the program this year. "Like plenty of other firms, Microsoft sees this market as a largely untapped one, and the company is increasing focus because enterprise sales are so soft," Enderle says. "It has had its ups and downs -- large companies seem to have a hard time keeping focused on this segment, and Microsoft, historically, has been no exception."
Further, Enderle believes that although Microsoft's actions will have a significant impact on the System i, the Midrange Alliance program's success at making inroads into the System i installed base depends more on IBM's own support of and resources it allocates to the System i.
"I just see the broader impact being IBM's own hardware plans and how aggressively it supplies the cost-effective hardware, software, and service solutions this segment is demanding," Enderle says. "IBM has pulled a lot out of marketing in this segment, and I expect that will have a bigger impact over the next year than anything Microsoft does competitively."