Published: February 18 2010, 06:19 PM | no comments
by Reg Harbeck

Wow, how time flies. We were just in Denver, it seems. Now, it's already time to put the finishing touches on the presentations, make sure the trip's booked and the registration's taken care of, and get ready for SHARE in Seattle.

Over the past few months, I've gained new insights into SHARE, and a new level of appreciation for how the SHARE organization works.

After all, SHARE is much more than just a pair of conferences every year. It's where some of the most important ideas and requirements for business computing have come from since 1955. It's also where a new generation of mainframers is taking shape (especially with the zNextGen project, which has over 550 members now). And, it's a growing, changing nexus for practitioners of responsible computing.

All of which is very relevant to me in my role as SHARE's Deputy Director for Large Enterprise Computing Community Development (though this blog is written from the perspective of my CA role, of course).

As I look around the world of business computing, I see some interesting things happening that will be reflected in SHARE's activities and conferences. I see things that we mainframers often respond to with, "been there, done that," like virtualization. I see things that we could say, "that's easy - use a mainframe," about like cloud computing. And I see an ever increasing need to do scrupulous, quality, secure, available, reliable business computing for which the mainframe is ideally suited.

Most of all, though, I see people. Business is about people. Responsibility is about people. Looking to the future while building on the past is about people. And going to SHARE conferences to meet in person with some of the highest-quality individuals I've met in my career: that's definitely about people.

It's a taste of the future mixed with the past in a very important present. And it's also a whole lot of fun, as I network and learn and have a chance to contribute as I meet with many of my favorite colleagues.

All of which could probably be summarized by saying, "I'm sure looking forward to SHARE in Seattle!"

I hope to see you there too!

Share this post:  Email

Share

Published: February 11 2010, 09:27 AM | no comments
by Marcel den Hartog

I recently ran a number of seminars in EMEA. This gave me an opportunity to talk to many large mainframe users. And as always, it gives me a pretty good idea about the current state of IT. Even more than previous years, two issues are mentioned almost every time: Cost & Complexity.

And it's especially the latter that keeps coming back. Funny isn't it? We live in an economy where individualism is seen as a right and a way of life. "Yes, we want to standardize the desktop. We recognize 35-51-63 different roles in our company, and each of them has some special things, but we also do not want to limit our users too much. They need to be able to customize up to a certain extend."  We even go so far as giving departmental managers a large voice in the applications and platforms they "need" for their business.

Now, I am the last person to build a wall around IT and go back 20 years. But if you ask the question: "Yes, but how about managing/integrating/securing/ this application that solves a business issue?" the same people who complain about the complexity of IT will often tell us that our main task in life is to "serve the business"...

So IT is tasked with the impossible mission to "serve the business, reduce complexity and save cost". And the CIO's I meet are concerned. They feel like they are forced to chase each new hype which add to the already existing complexity and will cost money in order to bring promised savings later.

Is there a solution to this vicious circle? I think there is, but it requires strong leadership. Focusing on cost alone is damaging and short sighted, but a focus on reduction of the complexity will result in long lasting cost reductions.  Virtualization (on whatever platform, so including Mainframe) is one of the technologies that can help us to achieve this. But keeping stuff on the mainframe is another. Two different CIO's told me in the past months: "If I had known how complex my new application would eventually become, I would have kept it on my mainframe and modernized it."  And both were from a post-Mainframe generation....

They both found that moving stuff BACK to the mainframe actually helped them to reduce the complexity of their environment dramatically and ultimately saved them a lot of money. Many architects have not yet realized how much the zSeries IBM Mainframes have changed, but once they fully understand (takes some strong leadership...) the company will soon see the benefits. The technology has changed and the requirements have changed as well. Maybe it's time to revisit some of your companies IT strategies.

Share this post:  Email

Share