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Monday, May 28, 2012

3 types of Mainframers...

My current role is means that on a day-to-day basis I get up close and personal with the best and the worst of the world of the mainframe, and it isn't just me, as the article will testify:

http://www.mainframezone.com/article/cio-perspective-todays-mainframe-is-so-much-more-than-where-we-started

When I look at the spectrum of clients I engage with, I see all the opinions of the mainframe, so let me classify 3 for you:

The Deserter
This type of client has only still got a mainframe because the one application it still runs is too hard or expensive to migrate.  They pay MLC reluctantly and whine repeatedly to anyone within earshot about the cost of the platform...

My comment to these guys, take a step back and review your IT costs Vs Value of the application to the business.  I recently worked with a client who had 93% of their business logic on 4 servers that cost less than 10% of their IT budget to run and still thought these 4 servers were expensive!

The Status Quo fan
My Mum is a big Status Quo fan so I will be careful not to offend those who like their rock tunes to be singalong classics...  Seriously the status quo mainframer has a mainframe that they neither like nor hate that is typically run by a dedicated but under funded team that don't get to do many 'sexy' projects but are occasionally allowed to buy a new box to play with...

My comment to these guys, let us work with you to show you what this beast can do.  You successfully run an enterprise server that can run 7 operating systems and is the perfect platform for a Private Cloud.  The mainframe can run rings round other servers when it comes to Linux as well as being the quickest platform for real time analytics...let us show you the art of the possible.

The Visionary
Whilst I will admit the mainframers in this category might not be up to Mr Jobs' standard, but they do understand that the server with the worlds fastest commercial chip, that has the best stats for availability, scalability, throughput, IO etc is part of IT's future rather than it past.  These guys are actively looking to deploy workloads such as the web and middleware onto System z and are seeing this box as the Enterprise Server of choice as UNIX wanes.

My comment to these guys - you rock! Shout loud shout proud!

If you read this and are in the 1st two categories and want to talk @stevendickens3 is where you can find me...and for those in category 3 you are fine without me...