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September 2007 - Posts
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Moby Mainframe
Call me an enthusiastic mainframe nerd. It’s time for me to admit it. After all, I’ve been working on mainframes for 20 years, and for the number one mainframe ISV for ten of those years.
And, I expect the mainframe to be a significant part of the rest of my career – which, by the way, I plan to last several more decades (if it’s up to me).
Why? Because I love quality, and being part of something very significant, and making a difference. The mainframe gives me all of these.
Not only that, but we’re living in a time when the IBM-360-descended mainframe environment – ecosystem, even – is at the leading edge of a renaissance, and I’m really excited to be part of it!
Now, if you’re a mainframer like I am, I suspect you already know exactly what I’m talking about. But just in case you’re not – or maybe you’d like to hear a voice other than your own expressing it, here are some examples:
- Virtualization, introduced on the mainframe 35 years ago, is better than ever, enabling multiple different levels of multiple different operating systems to run concurrently on a single box – with hundreds or even thousands of images at the same time.
- Mainframes are green! Their physical footprint, barely larger than a fridge, only hints at how small their energy and heat footprint is compared to “equivalent” computing power on other servers – especially considering that mainframes regularly run up to 100% busy for extended periods of time with no degradation in performance.
- Mainframes are secure. Not only are they virus-free, but they are secured with advanced and comprehensive business-focused external security that meets the regulatory and security needs of the largest organizations on earth.
- Mainframes are more affordable than ever, not to mention more affordable on a per user basis than other platforms when all relevant costs are accurately accounted for. Not only are all of the costs of mainframes straight-forward and measurable, but new innovations such as IBM’s zIIP and zAAP engines are making them even more cost-effective. I plan to write more about these specialty engines in future blogs.
- Mainframes are running Linux. Not just one or two copies: I’m talking hundreds and even thousands of concurrent copies, with performance and reliability that outstrips other platforms.
And that’s just the beginning!
Which is good, because it’s also just the beginning of this mainframe blog.
So, help me out here: what do you think of the above assertions? Do you have any to add – or suggest corrections to? Have you ever thought about a career on the mainframe – or maybe even with a mainframe ISV?
These are exciting times, and as we enter a new age for the mainframe, I’m very interested in your perspectives on this important platform.
Catch you soon!
- Reg Harbeck
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