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The Mainframe Is Dead! Long Live the Mainframe!
HughPickens.com writes The death of the mainframe has been predicted many times over the years but it has prevailed because it has been overhauled time and again. Now Steve Lohr reports that IBM has just released the z13, a new mainframe engineered to cope with the huge volume of data and transactions generated by people using smartphones and tablets. "This is a mainframe for the mobile digital economy," says Tom Rosamilia. "It's a computer for the bow wave of mobile transactions coming our way." IBM claims the z13 mainframe is the first system able to process 2.5 billion transactions a day and has a host of technical improvements over its predecessor, including three times the memory, faster processing and greater data-handling capability. IBM spent $1 billion to develop the z13, and that research generated 500 new patents, including some for encryption intended to improve the security of mobile computing. Much of the new technology is designed for real-time analysis in business. For example, the mainframe system can allow automated fraud prevention while a purchase is being made on a smartphone. Another example would be providing shoppers with personalized offers while they are in a store, by tracking their locations and tapping data on their preferences, mainly from their previous buying patterns at that retailer.
IBM brings out a new mainframe about every three years, and the success of this one is critical to the company's business. Mainframes alone account for only about 3 percent of IBM's sales. But when mainframe-related software, services and storage are included, the business as a whole contributes 25 percent of IBM's revenue and 35 percent of its operating profit. Ronald J. Peri, chief executive of Radixx International was an early advocate in the 1980s of moving off mainframes and onto networks of personal computers. Today Peri is shifting the back-end computing engine in the Radixx data center from a cluster of industry-standard servers to a new IBM mainframe and estimates the total cost of ownership including hardware, software and labor will be 50 percent less with a mainframe. "We kind of rediscovered the mainframe," says Peri.
IBM brings out a new mainframe about every three years, and the success of this one is critical to the company's business. Mainframes alone account for only about 3 percent of IBM's sales. But when mainframe-related software, services and storage are included, the business as a whole contributes 25 percent of IBM's revenue and 35 percent of its operating profit. Ronald J. Peri, chief executive of Radixx International was an early advocate in the 1980s of moving off mainframes and onto networks of personal computers. Today Peri is shifting the back-end computing engine in the Radixx data center from a cluster of industry-standard servers to a new IBM mainframe and estimates the total cost of ownership including hardware, software and labor will be 50 percent less with a mainframe. "We kind of rediscovered the mainframe," says Peri.
The tl;dr version:
PC programmer : "My job is super easy!"
Mainframe programmer : "Yes. Yes it is."
IBM dude: It might look like a mainframe, but it's a high-capacity, legacy-compatible, fault-tolerant application server.
Me: What's the difference?
IBM dude: About 200 grand.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I found this in the Overview of the Announcement Letter
... the role of the mainframe in the new digital era of IT."
"The name change serves to signal
Us old farts are envious of the new digital mainframes - we were seriously handicapped back then, working on all those old analog mainframes.
It isn't that mainframes are eternal, it's that marketing wonks who write this sort of stuff are allowed to breed...
"Cock Up Your Beaver" does not mean what you think. This sig is intended to clog filters and annoy do-gooders
- and another one, somewhat abridged:
A Windows admin, a UNIX admin and a Mainfram admin went to the toilet at the same time;
- the Windows guy finished first, washed his hands and wiped the fingers on a huge wad of paper towels and threw them on the floor, mostly unused
- The Linux guy washed his hands and carefully dried his hands with 1 paper towel, which he then deposited in the bin
- The mainframe guy just headed for the door, remarking "I learned long ago not to piss on my fingers".
Joke is not realistic due to excessive social interaction.
Mac admins don't require toilets any more, they removed the port a few generations back.
- The mainframe guy just headed for the door, remarking "I learned long ago not to piss on my fingers".
But sadly, he could not escape the doorway, having somehow grown in size while trying to take a crap, and he remained there for all eternity, fixed in place by his massive bulk.
Most of the jobs formerly done by mainframes are now done by clusters of PCs, like a team of small employees swarming around getting stuff done while that guy is still stuck in the bathroom
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Mac Admins shoved their heads up that port so that everything ugly about them was not exposed to the rest of the world.
Place something witty here
Hush, facts upset the PC fanboi paradigm.