On 2/19/2012 4:20 PM, Terry Stewart wrote:
I don't know much about mainframes. However, last
night I watched an
IBM presentation about mainframes on Youtube. Part 1 (of 5) is here:
http://youtu.be/mPCvlr9QRII
After watching all five parts, it seems that (contrary to what I
thought) the mainframe is very much alive and in fact growing in
market-share and use due to cloud computing etc. Of course there
could be a bit of IBM spin in this.
But, it then begs the question. What is a mainframe anyway, and can a
clear distinction be made between the 'mainframe" and other server
technologies nowadays?
Terry (Tezza)
At least in contemporary IT environments, a mainframe is defined as a
machine that will natively execute 370 assembler. Thus, Hitachi and IBM
manufacture mainframes. I know that's not a good definition, but it's
pretty common.
And, I would say the market is still very much alive. With IFL, zIIP,
and zAAP, one can run Linux and Java on the platform, while there are
still mountains of COBOL out there.
My firm just upgraded their z Platform, and the last company I was at
just upgraded theirs in 2009.
Jim
--
Jim Brain
brain at
jbrain.com
www.jbrain.com