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http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=69069
Mainframe replacement faster than before -- IBM
First posted 00:25am (Mla time) Mar 12, 2006
By Alexander Villafania
INQ7.net
Mainframes, once touted as the last IT equipment to be hauled out of
a company for replacement, is seeing a faster turnover as companies
today start replacing their hardware for new models within three
years, according to an executive from IBM.
IBM eServer Team Leader David Anderson told reporters that in recent
years, many of their existing mainframes clients, particularly for
the zSeries, have replaced or upgraded their current mainframe
infrastructure within an average of three years only.
About a decade ago, mainframes were considered obsolete although many
continued to be in operation for about 10 years.
Anderson noted that some companies often recover their initial
investments from mainframes and are able to acquire new models that
have better functionalities.
“Some of our clients even have shorter replacement cycles for their
mainframes simply because the total cost of ownership is lower. With
that, companies are able to add more capacity to their infrastructure
and improving their business processes,” Anderson said.
IBM was among the original developers and resellers of mainframes in
the 1950s.
Mainframes were usually the single largest and most expensive IT
equipment in a company and were used mainly for mission-critical
calculations, statistics, financial transactions and enterprise
resource management.
However, the 1980s saw the entry of new enterprise equipment that
were introduced in the late 80s thereby almost rendering the
mainframe obsolete. But many large corporations retained their legacy
mainframes for their stability and reliability to work better on
single processes.
In the Philippines, the banking sector is the largest user of
mainframes and the same trend in mainframe use is also happening.
IBM Philippines Sales Technical Support for zSeries John Dennis
Poyatos III said that despite the current political situation, banks
are still operationally sound and are even expanding their networks.
“The banks aren’t worried about politics as much as their internal
operations. So far, we’ve had a good 2005 in the Philippines for
mainframes in the coming years,” Poyatos said.
IBM recently introduced its latest mainframe, the System z9, which
followed the previous z90 server model.
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