Published:
April 22 2009, 01:06 PM
by
Marcel Hartog
Mainframers,
Imagine you have 5 cars (I know... Just imagine..). The family car does 50+% of the work. Holidays, kids to school (or worse, pick them up after a party at 2 o'clock at night), shopping, garbage to the local pitt, things like that. They fit you and the spouse and the kids and the dog(s) easy, and there is even room for a portable BBQ. The other 4 cars are used for "other"...
At the end of the month, you compare the cost and find that the BIG car (the one that does 50+% of the work) eats away 30% of the car-budget. Does this mean that your BIG car is too expensive and that you should sell it? No!!! Funny enough, this is exactly what we have seen happening in the past years with our beloved Mainframe.
And now we have even more proof.... A recent CA survey in EMEA uncovered that, on average, 50% of all Mission Critical Applications reside on the Mainframe. For obvious reasons. The AVERAGE % of IT budget spent on Mainframe (according to this survey) is 19%!! But it gets better.... Of the companies who consider their mainframe "fully connected" with the rest of the IT Infrastructure, 64% of the Mission Critical Applications runs on the Mainframe.. And they spend a humble 24% of their IT budget on that same Mainframe...
Please do me a favor and read the previous paragraph again. Now read it backwards... I hope that the following conclusion is also sinking in: These companies spend 76% of their budget on an infrastructure that runs 36% of their Mission Critical Applications?!?!?
So what do we do with this data? Do we look at the Mainframer next to us and say:"Hmmm I knew that already... It's probably a bit less here, but not much..." and continue with that stupid CICS program that simply refuses to perform? Or do we DO something with it???
Chris O'Malley, CA's EVP for the Mainframe Business Unit told me not too long ago;"Never let a good recession go to waste..". And he is right.. Every customer I talk to these days is trying to save money. And suddenly, the arguments we heard in the past years for NOT using the mainframe are disappearing. People are open for new ideas again. This is the right time to arm yourself with data like the above and come up with new ideas... Make people aware of the REAL costs of the Mainframe. Use analogies like the one I used above. Maybe it's not the best one, but I have found that it works... Try to come up with short term savings, but also remind people that the reason that the (cheap) Mainframe is still there is because of thinking beyond the next 12 months. Something we all need to learn again....
I have picked only one item from the survey we did. It has more surprises... So if you can't wait, look for the survey on CA.COM/Mainframe. Or keep following this blog... I promise you that it's more fun....
Keep your eye on the money. You are the one saving it.......