Cost of upgrading from Xe to 8.12

We are currently on Xe, AS400 platform using Citrix servers for user access. I have been asked to come up with a broad estimate of what it would cost to move to 8.12. Does anyone have any numbers they could share for hardware and software? I don't need anything exact.

Thanks,

Laurie

Hardware: $1 to $10,000,000.00
Software: $1 to $10,000,000.00
Services: $1 to $10,000,000.00

Really, what did you expect with such a vague question?

How about the current AS400 model, number of users, breakdown by JDE module, planned enhancments or implementation of new modules?

I've done 12 x 812 Upgrades/Migrations now with 1/2 on the AS400 for companies of all different sizes and the range is huge. really depends on what you have and where you want to go.

Colin

Wow, what a bitter response, not at all helpful. I hesitated posting anything here because sometimes people can be so nasty on this site.

Indeed, I could have been a little more specific. We are using Xe, only the Financial mofdules, and have 50 users who perform daily functions within JD Edwards, and maybe another 50 inquiry users they may access the system once a week. We use 3 Citrix servers, so I assume we will want multiple JAS servers to handle user access load. As for the AS400, we are on V5R3.

If anyone else has some information to share, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

[ QUOTE ]
Wow, what a bitter response, not at all helpful. I hesitated posting anything here because sometimes people can be so nasty on this site.

Indeed, I could have been a little more specific. We are using Xe, only the Financial mofdules, and have 50 users who perform daily functions within JD Edwards, and maybe another 50 inquiry users they may access the system once a week. We use 3 Citrix servers, so I assume we will want multiple JAS servers to handle user access load. As for the AS400, we are on V5R3.

If anyone else has some information to share, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Laurie,

You'll probably need to work with some consultants and business partners to get a good quote. Get the quote from a bunch, since there are a lot of vendors to pick and choose from.

Since you have a small number of users and a small amount of modules, your upgrade cost should be pretty reasonable. We're going an upgrade from XE to 8.12 that will take years and millions of dollars, but we're a global company with thousands of users.

When we do an upgrade, we start fresh with the hardware. new enterprise server, new deployment, fat clients, webservers and such. This gives us time to get it all set up, use the new servers for the testing, conversion and training. then the last step is the final conversin of buisness data. Business data gets converted several times. We'll do it upfront at the beginning of the project. We'll do it again towards the end to get the timing and practice the process. This may be an iterative process depending on how the conversion goes. Then we will finally do the conversion live. Hence the need for the new hardware. When done, we either scrap the old hardware, or use it for our sandbox for the next project. For us, there's always a next project.

Can't give you specifics, but I would guess that you'll need a new 400, a new deployment server, and two webservers. The bigger cost is the consulting time to do the test conversion, modifications, training, and final conversion.

Gregg "no bitter response" Larkin
North American JDE Systems Engineer
Praxair, Inc.

It doesn't necessarily mean multiple JAS servers, one can certainly be enough.

You didn't mention your mods, this would affect the consulting costs.

And you didn't mention your hardware specs and whether you wish to stick with the black box from the blue company, or move to some nicer-colored platforms. This will likely be a major cost in any case - I'll try to be slightly more precise than Colin and say 100,000 - 5,000,000, depending on your needs and choices ;-)

[ QUOTE ]
It doesn't necessarily mean multiple JAS servers, one can certainly be enough.

[/ QUOTE ]

One could be enough, but I'm a fan of no single point of failure, so I would advise at least two.

[ QUOTE ]
...wish to stick with the black box from the blue company, or move to some nicer-colored platforms.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oracle still supports the little black box, websphere and DB2. Long term, that may not be the case. As I've stated in other posts, I think that Websphere support is going to disappear in future releases. They are spending a lot of money on the middleware and application server tier. Why would they want to support the competition? Ditto to the database layer. If you've taken any training classes from Oracle, especially on OAS, you'll see that Oracle is no fan of Microsoft either. The OAS classes were all on red hat.

Gregg "I took this thread a different direction" Larkin

....not bitter just accurate given the available information!

So given the more up-to-date information herw's what I would ball park if you stay on the iSeries:

1. New iSeries M15 or M25 (transfer all LICPGM) - $125,000.00
-you didn't indicate the current iSeries model so I assume net new
-the M15 has 4300 CPW and up to 16 GB RAM
-the M25 has 4300 - 8000 CPW and up to 32 GB RAM
- the big variable is the disk this can increase the price by 100%

2. New Intel Deployment Server $10,000.00
-simple 2 way dual/quad core and 4 GB RAM

*3*. New Web Server $0 to $10,000.00
-since you have very few users you can run Web on the iSeries and save $10,000 either the M15 or M25 models with 16GB will do more than fine
-if you want to go Intel then here's the price:
-one web server will handle 200+ users
-simple 2 way quad core and 8 GB RAM

4. Tech Foundation Upgrade - $25,000 - $75,000(guess)
-anyone who purchased JDE 8.0 or after got the Web Software for free
-you purchased Xe so you're not entitled to WAS or OAS
-you have the option to buy WAS or OAS direct from IBM or Oracle but I'd get the OEM version from JDE

5. Tech Services - $100,000
-large variabilty here depending on how much you want to do and how much you outsource but for you config (of what I know) you'd be hard pressed to spend more than this number.
-if you get any higher quotes gimme a call

6. Application Services - $75,000
-what @*#^@? apps?
-yep again lost of variablity here
-how much of the original implementation team is left?
-do you still have you test scripts?
-what about training?

When all is said and done you should be well under $400,000 for hardware, software and ALL services. I'd consider this the maximum ceiling for a basic technical upgrade (not implementing or purchasing any new modules).

Of course even with new hardware (latest and greatest) you could do this for less than 1/2 the price. Really depends on what you have

Colin


P.S. If you send me a personal email with your coordinates I can send you a planning presentation that I use and present a conferences.

Mostly, your investment on the hardware side will likely be with hard disk space. I completely recommend performing a "sandbox" installation - ie, instead of using your existing hardware, you implement a seperate system for migration - that way, if anything does go wrong, your upgrade won't directly affect your current production system.

You can convert your terminal servers into JAS servers - a lot of iSeries customers like to use Intel JAS servers on the front since they're a lot less expensive and easier to manage, and provide more redundancy. You will probably be looking for a new deployment server - but realistically, you need to perform a technical audit initially prior to your planned upgrade (as a consultant, I usually fix-bid both technical audits and upgrades - and that includes architecture and hardware design through to go-live).

Depending on your complexity, the amount of development, and your experience internally with the functional side, it does sound as if you're a relatively small and somewhat "vanilla" implementation - I've just completed an upgrade for a customer from Xe to 8.12 and handled everything from start to finish, only drawing on minimal outside consulting help whenever needed. By agreeing on a fixed-fee, it ensures that the project doesn't "run away" and take forever to implement - and is therefore totally manageable.

You'll hear from a lot of consultants like myself of course - and a lot of larger firms, best to pick names and numbers and have a chat with people. However, I do agree it IS difficult coming up with a "total" cost including your hardware and software costs - as Colin stated.

For my company I've just completed - their entire upgrade, start to finish, including a brand new database server, new software, and brand new hardware - including consulting time, was less than $400,000

Lastly, don't be totally put off by posting on JDEList - of course, there ARE flamers out there, but the majority of us don't mind answering questions !

Laurie,

you've received a lot of nice, helpful, responses. Colin's response was helpful too - it should have helped you to think.
Many times people post a question without stopping to think "what information from me will someone need in order to answer my question?".

Really, people aren't nasty here. I've visited some forums where flame wars are a daily occurrence. We do get impatient here though

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I've got some good food for thought, and a better I idea of all the things to account for when asked to throw out a dollar estimate... which is much further than I was this morning. This is exactly what I needed.

Thanks again,

Laurie

Re: Cost of upgrading from Xe to 8.12 *DELETED*

Post deleted by gregglarkin