>Of itself, we are not concerned about running on an unsupported level of OS >for 6-9 months.
I'm curious...why not? What government functions is that Sysplex supporting? Personally, I would be "concerned." What I would then do about that concern is a separate issue. >We are concerned about having to either >(1) conform, upgrade to z/architecture, and potentially move to a Group 80 >license on a z890 from our current Amdahl Group 70 license, or >(2) suffer expulsion from the sysplex by no longer being part of PSLC >pricing. >Our desire is to stay in the sysplex on an unsupported version of zOS, >continue to benefit from PSLC, and then exit in Dec-2007. >Sounds as though our preferred approach is something up with which others >will not put. What's "Plan B"? For example, I don't think IBM has officially announced an end-of-service date for z/OS V1R5 yet, although the "projected" date is listed as March 31, 2007. The dates are listed at: http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/support/zos_eos_dates.html That *might* be a viable "Plan B" if the goal is more hardware life and if (big if) IBM moves that date. But then you'd have to weigh the labour costs of a V1R5 upgrade. So a "Plan C" would be in order. One suggestion for a Plan C would be to get out the spreadsheets and run some "what ifs?" On the software front, look at the list of products you're running now and determine which you don't need, which you can switch to lower-cost options (and at what effort, costed), etc. If you're not combining mainframe and non-mainframe software into one contract, check into that to see if it does anything. If there's any z/OS.e potential workload -- DB2 workload can fit into that category -- see if a z/OS.e LPAR helps. Do you get anything from workload-based licensing options (via SCRT)? The "technology dividend" might help. (More MIPS, lower MSUs on each new model.) Are you going to save some money moving workload to Linux on zSeries, where appropriate? (If you can eliminate 100 Windows file servers and associated labour, for example, that can help the financials.) Do you have any Java workload yet (or which is available for consolidation)? (Look at a zAAP.) Do you have any crypto processing now or in your future? (A z890 offloads that work better than prior hardware. That's hitting us hard in the U.S. because of privacy concerns.) Everything should be on the table. Hope that helps. - - - - - Timothy F. Sipples Consulting Software Architect, Enterprise Transformation IBM Americas zSeries Software Phone: (312) 245-4003 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (PGP key available.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
