Re: State of the Mainframe - News Article

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 13:23:15 +0100, Phil Payne
<phil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
> It doesn't even come close to solving the problem. In fact, after two
> and a half decades of attrition, it has almost no effect at all except
> partially helping to contain increases due to extra MIPS capacity with
> succeeding generations.

Phil, please help me understand what part of the equation you believe is
still a problem. I suspect you already know this, but the cost of ownership
of server systems in general is very much skewed towards administrative
(people) cost. HW & SW is a relatively small part of the equation, and
getting smaller as server proliferation continues unchecked. In fact, we've
seen a number of studies *directly from customers* that show that software
costs are frequently higher on distributed servers than on the mainframe.
Customers tend to forget that they must buy many copies of software to
accomplish the same thing that one copy does on the mainframe. Not only
must they buy more software copies, but they must also dedicate more bodies
to administering that infrastructure.

But I'm preaching to the choir here, right?

I won't go into detail about where IBM sees issues in software pricing, as
it would undoubtedly cause consternation from some who frequent this list.
Suffice it to say that IBM knows about the problem and is working to address
it. That's precisely why you see the various flavors of workload-based
software pricing and the "specialty engines" that do not count towards
increased MSUs on the mainframe.

---
Bill Seubert
zSeries Software I/T Architect
IBM Corporation
wfseube@xxxxxxxxxx

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