-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of David Day
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 12:46 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: IBM to the PCM market(the sky is falling!!!the sky is
falling!!)
<SNIP>
It is surely true that IBM has been asleep at the throttle on a =
number of issues. We can all put or .02 into what they could do better.
=
But to state that IBM is deliberately trying to kill the mainframe =
market indicates to me that the individual making that statement may =
have his head stuck in a dark spot on his body.
<SNIP>
Many years ago IBM said that it would not get into computers because
they could only see a need for 7 computers (or some such comment). Well,
at the rate IBM is going, this may become a self-fulfilling prophecy
when it comes to the System/3xx architecture (now called
z/Architecture).
Many years ago, I said at Amdahl that we should buy back our systems
(hey, we were already doing trade-ins) and then sell them to VSE based
shops. At that time VSE used 12 instructions less than MVS. And since VM
did have to support that environment, it would not have been hard to
cert those machines for VSE. The argument was that the VSE shops were
not big enough to use the systems and so not worth it.
Well, a foot print is worth its weight in gold. Maint contracts at that
point are just plain gravy. Amdahl eventually died (for various reasons,
the lack of VSE was not what killed it).
Meanwhile, IBM is RUNNING from the low end customers. They aren't out
there marketing to the bottom end companies. Each system that comes out,
the CPUs are how much faster than before? So if you need a multi-CPU
machine for entry level operations, you will get what 240MIPs? And what
will your software charges be?
So let me put this all into perspective. If you do not make systems for
the bottom end, or do not provide a very cost effective and attractive
means to get into this architecture, the number of licenses for software
will drop. Costs for entry will go up rapidly, and the number of shops
running your equipment will diminish.
And in the end, there will be 7 "mainframe" shops in the US.
IBM is being as short sighted as the management was at Amdahl and are
NOT taking advantage of the strength of this architecture for the entry
level users.
My .05 Euros.
Regards,
Steve Thompson
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