"Look!  On the left, the ancient ruins.  The Fort of FTP Fanatics.  Piles of fried PC motherboards, rotting disposable hard disks, vast expanses of wasted resources poured into layer upon layer of decaying, batch-fed PCs. In ancient times, it was taboo to connect to the AS/400 unless the devices talked the obsolete language of "FTP-BATCH". Batch data transfer limitations are rarely tolerable.  The LIVE data is on the AS/400...  Why sacrifice goats, chickens, redundancy, responsiveness, cost, complexity, and performance in our enlightened age? And to the right, in those Batched Huts!  A Witch Doctor with a bonfire and cauldron, chanting invocations in a primitive ritual.  "Access control, aargghh, bar code label printers, yeeeee, laser scanners, quaaaag, conveyor belts, yowee..." I'm always asked, "What do his chants mean?" He's saying that all these devices have RS232 serial ports and can never speak to the AS/400 - not in REAL TIME - because they are from different Kingdoms. "Why would he chant outdated, inaccurate information?" "What is his motive?" The truth is, there will ALWAYS be a Witch Doctor stuck in the OLD WAYS, unwilling to change. ...Never trust a Witch Doctor...