Why IBM sucks and DataStage will never be the leading tool

[ray.wurlod]

I have been given to understand that "Microsoft sucks" has been elevated to the status of "axiom".

[asorrell]

Having taken three IBM courses in the past year (on my own nickel too!) I have to say that they have improved their existing courses and the instructors were all extremely competent. That's a huge change from several years ago... In fact, the only thing that really was unpleasant was having to take the courses on VMWare (DS = resource hog, DS + VMWare = resource hog on steroids). However, I understand why they use VMWare, and can't say that the detractions outweigh the positive reasons for using it.

I do agree that IBM's selection of courses and courseware for DataStage still has room for improvement, as does their support for developers and their product documentation.

But on the flip side, I make my living as an independent consultant because I'm able to overcome all those obstacles to learning and provide services to customers to help them overcome the same problems. If everyone had easy access to great training and great documentation it would cut back on demand for my skills!

So IBM - please don't change a thing! Keep me in business!