[Nottingham] OT - developing skills on the mainframe

[Martin]

BUNTER MATTHEW wrote:

> --- Reçu de       VITEUR.BUNTERMA 04 72 96 57 77             04/03/03 11.23
[...]
> 
> I didn't want to get into 'Mainframe evangelist mode' but it might help Lee's
> 'Make it cool' problem as well as addressing other questions.
> 
> What are mainframes *NOT* good at :
[...]
> What are mainframes good at:
[...]
> Downsides:
[...]
> Upsides:
[...]


> I only took the decision recently to try and get very
> technical on the mainframe. I reckon if I work for another 25 years then I can
> my skills will be in demand.


That's a loooonnng lock-in. There must be some theory to describe how 
long lived systems or civilisations finally collapse under the weight of 
their history-induced complexity excesses. The term "Byzantine" comes to 
mind.

 
> *Just as an aside, our mainframe is 600MIPS, has six LPARs (logical partitions
> - basically six machines in one), 3 Tera of data, does nearly 2 million
> transactions per day. ...
> 
> Sorry about the length of this mail, hope it helps to persuade people about
> the viability of the mainframe.


Thanks for a rather interesting aside, and a very good reminder that IBM 
and mainframes are still there quietly making money while Microsoft 
attracts all the bad press of the computer world.

In summary, "horses for courses"!

Regards,
Martin

-- 
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Martin Lomas
martin@ml1.co.uk
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