If you believe the stories, IBM’s mainframe has in the last 10 years been knocked down and gotten back up more times than most of the characters in all the Terminator, Die Hard and Rocky movies combined. And while there are some out there who’d like to see its demise, a true threat to the Big Iron has never really amounted to much. Even today, the proponents of commodity boxes offering less expensive x86/x64 or RISC technologies say the mainframe is doomed. But the facts say otherwise. In fact it seems like a pretty good time to be pushing mainframe technology.For example here are a few positive facts:
* IBM recently said the mainframe has achieved three consecutive quarters of growth, marked by new customers choosing the platform for the first time and existing customers adding new workloads, such as Linux and Java applications.
* Mainframe MIPS growth is averaging around 20% per year and large mainframe-centric enterprises have been consistently averaging 35%-plus MIPS growth, says the Ovum consultancy.
* The realities of large investments in core application deployments on the platform and its long-heralded reliability, availability, serviceability, security, backwards software compatibility, efficient environmentals and virtualization capability, have rendered negative mainframe prognostication moot.
* IBM said will spend $100 million over the next five years to make the mainframe easier to use.
* IBM took the path of providing a control structure and very attractive pricing for using System z mainframe processors for new workloads. For example, when purchasing, or upgrading a System z, a customer can request one or more processors for exclusive use by workloads running under Linux. These Linux-only processors are priced approximately 90% lower than a processor utilized for a traditional mainframe workload. The result is that using System z virtualization, a customer can configure a System z at a very attractive price with the capacity to run workloads from literally hundreds of discrete i86 servers. IBM also offers similar special pricing for processors in the System z for data base workloads and for new types of workloads such as gaming, says Saugatuck Technology researchers.
* Saugatuck says IBM and Unisys mainframe platforms have succeeded in a key area where non-mainframes have failed. Both companies enable non-mainframe workloads to benefit from many of the capabilities which had been exclusively experienced by traditional mainframe workloads. Specifically, both approaches provide levels of security, integrity, availability, etc. which each vendor has engineered for the past four decades into their respective platforms. * IBM said its hardware mainframe revenue grew 12% in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous quarter, and 25% year-over-year. The strong growth is partly due to increased mainframe deployments overseas. IBM’s mainframe revenue grew in Latin America and Russia, and it doubled in India and China over the past year. A company can run its entire business from a single mainframe, IBM says.
* IBM has confirmed that approximately 25% of its System z capacity currently being shipped to customers is designated for Linux workloads. Further, IBM says the System z has been gaining high-end servers and that System z capacity shipped in 4Q06 was greater than the total capacity of the then current installed IBM mainframe worldwide inventory.
* IBM touts a successful education program in its ZNextGen offering. zNextGen, a community that IBM and it’s large user group Share worked together to launch late last year for new IT professionals focused on mainframe computing. IBM says 42,000 students at 328 colleges and universities have been educated about mainframes. Additionally, IBM created an online meeting place, dubbed Destination z, where customers, system integrators, software vendors, and academic institutions can connect with experts, access development tools, and the latest mainframe software. BMC Software and CA also have spearheaded programs to strengthen mainframe-related training.
* IBM developed the Cell Broadband Engine chip in conjunction with Sony and Toshiba for use in industries ranging from aerospace and defense to gaming, including Sony’s PlayStation 3 video-game console. IBM intends to create a hybrid machine through the integration of the Cell processor with its System z9 Business Class (z9BC) mainframe server. The z9BC is the vendor’s entry-point product for businesses that need less capacity than the System z9 Enterprise Class mainframe.
