Mainframers,

In the past months I witnessed a phenomenon. Cloud is hot, and the hype-cycle is running at full speed.

And some of our fellow mainframers see the opportunities: "The Mainframe In The Cloud", "The Cloud & The Mainframe", "10 Reasons Why a Mainframe Is A Perfect Cloud". And all the articles state the obvious: The current IBM z10 Mainframe is a perfect candidate for what is called "Cloud Computing".

Good!! Fantastic!! But who exactly is it we are explaining this to? I get the impression that we are mainly talking to each other about the virtues of the mainframe. We are talking to believers. Which is easy, because WE all agree.

So let us first agree that we all agree. The Mainframe is the best platform to host one or more clouds!

Take some time to recognize the momentum. Everybody wants "cloud". And at the time we are telling other mainframers how good the mainframe is, the "Blade people" are building clouds. They are demonstrating to Architects and IT Management how easy it is to run 12 images on 2 or 3 physical boxes and they demonstrate it as a mini-cloud. More a puff of smoke, but the architects and your IT Management sees "Cloud" in action. And they like what they see. So the architects start making plans to build the next generation IT Infrastructure. And in these plans, I do not see the "Z" word... Believe me, I see it happen around me..........

I have learned an important lesson in the past: If you want to convince people about something, you start by talking about it, but you very quickly switch to actually DEMONSTRATING the point you are trying to get across. So let's stop talking. Fire up some Linux and demonstrate that you can run the same stuff as "they" can. More flexible, more efficient, more powerful and better managed. Demonstrate that you CAN get 20 year old virtualization techniques to work for your company. Demonstrate value... The tools to manage the virtualized environment are available, so that should not stop you (http://www.ca.com/us/mainframe-linux.aspx).

I know that this is not easy. I realize that we are doing more with 8 people than the "others" do with 200. I know your bandwidth is limited and there is a machine that needs to keep running in order to keep your company going. But if we now fail to demonstrate (in a pragmatic way) what we CAN do, this opportunity might pass and who knows when the next one will come around. IF it ever comes around. ...