-----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Marcia Harelik Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 1:46 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: IBM to the PCM market(the sky is falling!!!the sky is falling!!)
<SNIP> Getting back to Steve's point that IBM MF is running from low-end customers, I don't think that is the case but IBM does understand that the MF is not for every company, and usually the smaller the company, the less true need there is for the MF. Besides, IBM has many other products to offer to these guys. For the low-end user of MIPS, who does not want to migrate off the platform, and is perfectly happy running one critical app on the MF, there may indeed be some cost issues. The MF shows max value when it is running at capacity. The more workload on MF, the lower the cost per transaction. It is more cost-efficient (as with most things) to be current on technology and software. But some low-end users may not be able to spend the money to get current, just to lower the day-to-day expenses. This situation is indeed a challenge for the vendor and the customer. <SNIP> Ahem. RAS. Security. Recovery. All the companies that I gave speeches to, the CxOs were ASTONISHED at what their legal requirements were for recovery/backup just for tax authorities. Forget Sarb/OX, etc. Most of them didn't know how to recover, or what to do for recovery, where or how to keep their data. And most of them were manufacturers who ran MULTIPLE servers to get things done. A SINGLE FLEX-ES box would have solved 99% of their problems, with the rest being handled by the personal O/S of their choice (at that time it was Windows, because IBM couldn't figure out how to market OS/2 to these small businesses). And that single CPU machine would have cost them about what two of their dual CPU NT servers cost. But the software costs meant that they would have to be up at the 30 server range to break even. Many years ago it was a royal pain to migrate from one box to the next, even if made by the same company. IBM came up with a revolutionary idea, the System 360. The equivalent of the S/360-20 needs to be made, and made available to small companies. Why? Because once you get entrenched in a platform, you tend to stay with those methodologies associated, that is, unless you have US $100+ Million to throw at changing. VSE targeted to these small companies would do IBM some good. And migrating them to z/OS later won't be that expensive as they will already have the needed hardware. Sometimes I think IBM couldn't market ice-cubes to dwellers of the Sahara desert. Regards, Steve Thompson ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
