On Fri, 6 Oct 2006 13:55:43 +0900, Timothy Sipples <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>If you run 10-30 MIPS, chances are you're running z/VSE. That operating >>system runs on the vast majority of "production" FLEX-ES systems. There >>are other z/Architecture emulators coming into the picture and real >>mainframe hardware now starts as small as 28 MIPS, so the landscape has >>changed considerably since FLEX-ES was first introduced. IBM may be >>taking a wait and see approach. > >I have no particular insider knowledge on this, but a few more points on >small mainframes: > >1. IBM dropped the minimum purchase level for mainframe software products >down to 3 MSUs ... Big deal > This now means the mainframe is the cheapest >place to put, say, WebSphere Message Broker. Oh, really? How useful is Websphere Message Broker on a 3 MSU z/OS system? > >2. IBM dropped the price almost in half on the 26 MIPS System z9 BC A01 >from the previous entry model, the z890 Model 110. Big deal. *All* computing hardware has been dropping at that rate for the last 40 years. The original HP 4-function calculator cost $700. A lot of people have almost as much compute power in their wrist watch as a 168. > >3. The U.S. price of a brand new BC A01 is now about the same as one full >time (fully burdened) employee's annual compensation, for perspective. And the software costs for real customers continues to rise. Customers have been abandoning the mainframe because of software costs. The hardware costs have not been driving people away. The point of this thread is really about the software costs. > >4. The 26 MIPS model is 4 MSUs. You can set subcapacity limits below that >if your needs are even more modest, and special software pricing is >available. And IBM continues to cling tightly to the (almost) linear pricing structure for software. Double the power of your hardware and pay almost double the price for your software. With the power of computers doubling every couple of years, it doesn't take any genius to realize that it can't continue, but IBM can't seem to figure it out. Pay me a penny today, two cents tomorrow. Double it every day, and I'll retire wealthy in a month. > >5. Genuine z/OS (in the form of z/OS.e) is available for a small fraction >of the price for any new workloads, including DB2. But still with the same almost linear price curve, and only on small processors. Tom Marchant ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
