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Maximizing the Mainframe
eWeek and CIO Insight had a nice article on the resurgence of the mainframe. In the article the author, Darryl Taft likens that the mainframe continues to go on and on like the Energizer bunny.
The fun doesn't end there, though. Ben Worthen takes that article and posts to his blog at the Wall Street Journal: The Dinosaurs won't die! There's a lot of truth to that. We recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of the mainframe. I can remember when Carl Conti was the leader of the Data Processing Division back when the mainframe was 25 years old. At the time, he stated that the Dinosaurs lived for over 25 million years. As such, this dinosaur of a computer, at a mere 25 years then, had a long and storied life ahead of us. Still in its infancy then, this venerable mainframe has a long way to go.
In response to the WSJ blog, I posted the following:
Great post. You’re hitting on a really important trend: corporate data centers around the world are stuffed with too many computers that consume way too much energy, take up too much real estate and cost too much to administer. That’s a big reason for the renaissance of the IBM mainframe — one of the most technically advanced and secure computing systems in the world.
Reflecting over a billion dollars of investment over the past decade, the mainframe’s automated virtual environment sets the standard for consolidating large numbers of smaller servers to save space, labor and energy. And this is not just about the mainframe. The mainframe is open and plays nice with other hardware and software — including kiosks, desktops, ATMs, PDAs or web browsers as the new human computer interfaces (instead of those “old school” punch cards). This openness along with secure, reliable operations… makes it a great hub for global collaboration at companies running around the clock.
One excellent source of
information on the mainframe’s strengths is Gartner’s
recently-completed in-depth study of how one customer, Nationwide
Insurance, consolidated hundreds of smaller servers onto the system.
Nationwide projects its savings of $15 million over three years,
including a 50 percent decrease in hardware and operating system
support costs and an 80 percent reduction in floor space and energy
usage. You can read the full report here:
http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/gc/reprints/ibm/external/volume2/article13/pdf/article13.pdf
We've got plenty of history behind us and more to create with this constantly evolving Dinosaur and it will just keep on running.
| by JimPorell | July 24, 2007 in History Permalink |
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Tracked on Jul 24, 2007 9:49:33 PM
