Everybody in my group is __old__. All the mainframers are older. My manger is the youngest of us (sysprogs) at 56. The oldest of us four is 64. I'm the only truly techno-geek who really loves computer technology (Linux geek - recently joined the FSF). I learn new stuff just because I enjoy learning it. Others learn it because it is necessary. I set up the UNIX and TCPIP environments. I'm the only one who brings up TSO OMVS or, even better, a UNIX shell via telnet or SSH (yes, I have SSH running - with Dovetailed Technologies' sftp enhancements). If I had a C compiler, I'd be even more dangerous.
The company is de-emphasizing z/OS because "Windows is better, cheaper, faster!" (nothing about reliability in there, notice?). We don't do much of anything new on it. We are 100% pure VSAM for all "databases". We use only CICS (no WAS) and COBOL. Development is using ISPF editing and much the same as we did it in the 1990s. The "open" people use some Java (but mainly .NET), but we won't consider it on z/OS because (on our z9BC with no zAAP), "it is a CPU hog". We use "Group Capacity" and are constantly throttling the machine down to decrease software costs. The company is in the midst of a major business overhaul. Perhaps things will get better in a couple of years. But it depends on the economy because our products are considered by many to be "optional" since they can go to the county supported hospitals for emergency health care instead of buying a health care policy. If it is "eat or buy a policy", most people prefer to eat. My thanks right now to VMWare and MS for starting to license their software on "value units". Because by doing so, they make the mainframe more competitive due to their increasing license fees. We did a lot of x86 virtual consolidation to decrease fees, which are now going back UP due to running "n" virtual machines on a single physical box is now almost as expensive as running them on "n" physical boxes (difference is mainly the hardware and environmental costs). And even an "enterprise class" x86 machine has a worse failure rate than a z. The open people are amazed (and some refuse to believe) that I can literally lose a CPU on the z with ZERO impact on operations. That the hardware itself will switch the instruction stream to an alternate CPU with no software involvement for recovery. Same with channels and the OSAs. -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * [email protected] * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.) > Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 9:26 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: restricting how I do things so that others understand? > > In <[email protected]>, on 07/19/2011 > at 08:35 AM, John McKown <[email protected]> said: > > >But nobody else in my group really "digs" UNIX stuff > > IBM is shifting more functionality to the Unix side every release. Is > your group in a little niche, or are they responsible for general MVS > support? If the latter, how can they do their jobs without at least a > minimal understanding of Unix facilities? > > -- > Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT > ISO position; see <http://patriot.net/~shmuel/resume/brief.html> > We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress. > (S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003) > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
