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Sendmail On IBM Mainframes Running GNU/Linux

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sends-mail dept.

raffe writes: "Cnet reports that Sendmail has released a version of its e-mail server software that can run on Linux-powered IBM mainframe computers. In one benchmark test, IBM found that it was possible to house 2 million e-mail accounts on a single server, with 10 percent of the users accessing their mail at any given moment" For some reason though, IBM zSeries machines aren't listed at pricewatch ;)

1 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. You have been trolled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The Troll is not bothered by facts or the truth. Facts can be used to support any argument. The Troll argues without facts, using misattributions and out of context - or completely invented (though rarely inventive) quotes.

    This sort of thing makes sense for mid to large shops, and well funded small ones.

    A million dollars for a mainframe IS a lot of money. You could buy a thousand commodity PCs and get ten times the power. It would also use 100 as much energy for each of their power supplies and the AC to cool off the 200,000 watts an hour of heat they produced. They'd also take up 50 times as much space.

    Small form factor or rackmount cased would cut that problem in half. It would also triple the price. So now you left with 300 odd rackmount systems. But you need standby/fail over reliability. So you use load balancing software, and, statistically speaking, you have 1 server failure per day that you need to swap a hard drive or other out - reboot.

    Acceptable? Sure, but why bother with the PCs when you can just get 1 mainframe, which has a dozen redundant CPUs and power supplies of its own? Server support is provided with the mainframe, even consulting service and configuration. Not so (without paying even more for the equipment vs. commodity PCs) with the thousand headed hydra solution.

    It also lets you give everyone their "own" virtual server to manage themselves, root and all, without them thrashing the rest of your customers raqs.
    The real question is, can your spring the $100k entry price for a mainframe? If so, it is a VALUE, without being cheap, whereas the add another server