Clearly the availability of open source (often free or very low cost) systems and applications software such as Linux provided as a standard facility has given the mainframe a major boost, with such options proving popular across all sectors including public.
‘Eighteen months ago, it was not unusual to meet clients that viewed the stories of the increased exploitation of the platform as interesting, but not relevant to them', comments Mark Anzani, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for System z.
‘Now we are seeing these clients engaging in evaluations to assess how the mainframe platform can drive down their operational costs and then moving these projects into production. Considering the typical presence in most companies of 100s of servers running various databases, such as Oracle, DB2, MySql and middle-ware, such as Websphere, Weblogic, I would encourage a CIO reading this article to consider how the centralised functionality and consolidation value of the mainframe for these workloads, can deliver reduced infrastructure cost with mainframe qualities of service to their companies.'
One recent convert to the latest IBM mainframe technology is Dundee City Council. In a case study now freely available online, the Council's IT Support Manager, Tim Simpson, says: ‘It is a very cost-effective platform for Dundee City Council.
With each new generation, the mainframe becomes significantly more powerful and flexible. Aside from the extremely high reliability and security, the main advantage is its ability to run multiple systems side-by-side.'
Peter Norris | Published: 15:57 GMT, 30 September 2009
Why is there a picture of a Sun box on this Mainframe article. Especially one day after the TPC fined Oracle/Sun for bad business practices.