Bill Seubert wrote:
On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 08:31:56 -0700, Edward E. Jaffe
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I must be missing something. Why do you consider it good news that an
installation runs obsolete mainframe hardware and software? Wouldn't it
be better if they upgraded to z/OS??
I struggled with this a little also, Ed. But I think that Hal's comments
are probably pretty accurate. It's quite possible that they just can't
afford anything else at this point. Hopefully they won't stay backlevel for
so long that it becomes utterly impossible to get an upgrade done in the
future. The IBM partisan in me likes the fact that they're still buying
software on the platfrom. The mainframe evangelist in me likes that they're
still on the right computing platform. But the pragmatist (cynic?) in me
says "shoot, they'll probably let this languish so long that they'll
eventually just make an uninformed decision and move off-platform because of
a lack of an accurate TCO analysis", which is what we often see with
installations that are way, way behind on zSeries (z9) technology.
I've seen that too, *far* too many times. When a customer stops
upgrading, it's usually the "kiss of death" for their mainframe. I've
seen many IT organizations with "stabilized" mainframes comparing their
10-years-old mainframe technology against lower-cost, modern competing
platform technology. It's a "stacked deck" and the mainframe *always*
loses. (Likewise, the competing platform would probably lose a
comparison between a modern mainframe and their offering from a decade
ago. But -- because of the double standard that's usually applied-- that
comparison is deemed "unfair" and is never made.)
This explains, at least partially, why I was so surprised at Eg's
comments. I always consider the existence of "stragglers" to be bad news
... not good!
--
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| Edward E. Jaffe | |
| Mgr, Research & Development | [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
| Phoenix Software International | Tel: (310) 338-0400 x318 |
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| Los Angeles, CA 90045 | http://www.phoenixsoftware.com |
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