Tim, All valid points, but as I see it, rather moot to the discussion.
You talk about the new z9 boxes being able to drop down to 26 MIPS. The thing is still over 6 feet tall and weighs over half a ton! If I were a software vendor, it would be rather difficult to take that on a plane to a customer site to demo some software. And that doesn't include the required external disk/tape/hardware console. Also kind of hard for a small vendor to maintain a "real" mainframe if they are doing development out of their home! You mention the hardware costs of the used boxes as being cheap. I agree, they are. However In our case, the software incentives for going to the z9-BC made the new box cheaper over 3 years than a $10K Z800. I think item 5 is the one that most troubles IBM's customer base. "New workloads" can get the cheap z/OS.e. My management is concerned about the high cost of the current workloads. As long as they are paying this and seeing the seemingly cheaper cost structure of switching to another platform, they are surely not going to look at putting new workloads on "z". We're running a "real mainframe". We just swapped out a 7060 for a z9-BC, again for the software savings and being able to remain on a supported level of z/OS. However, at least one of our software vendors is a small (2 man) shop who does their development on a FLEX-ES machine. If they lose their capability to do development on this small (cost and size) platform will they go out of business and leave us in the lurch? I think IBM either needs to come clean with their customer base and tell us if they're going to abandon the z/OS market or make some real effort to let the little guy remain (or return to being) competitive. If that means IBM doesn't want to mess with the little guys, for heaven's sake, get out of the way and let the partners like FLEX do it. In the long run, IBM is killing their "z" market by eliminating their "coopetition". Just my $.02. Rex 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 because smaller customers needed this (and small projects within larger companies). This now means the mainframe is the cheapest place to put, say, WebSphere Message Broker. 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. I didn't do a totally scientific study, but I believe today's mainframe is the same dollar price as any of the previously lowest price entry models, including the "baby mainframes" of yesteryear that people remember fondly. In inflation-adjusted terms it's much lower of course. The z9 is a much better machine than any predecessor and every bit a real mainframe, even at 26 MIPS, for true mainframe qualities of service. 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. 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. 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. 6. There's more competition than ever in the tools and utilities business, driving down costs. There are even 5 operating systems available to choose, including one IBM doesn't make (Linux) that's just a little popular. :-) 7. IBM announced there will be changes to z/VSE pricing terms with Version 4 related to subcapacity. (This is good.) 8. The z800 (minimum 40 MIPS, subcapacity eligible) is a real 64-bit mainframe and is available on the secondary market for less than the price of popular automobiles. A "small" z900 (also subcapacity eligible) is probably less than that. (Well, if a one person personal data center now has a z900....) All that said, small mainframe customers (and developers) should keep letting IBM know what they need. IBM generally does respond if it can, as in the examples above. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
