David wrote: >> Keeping the old iron going on -say- a 10 year commitment while rolling >> out new iron every two years means that you're supporting six >> generations of mainframes, four or five of which use parts no longer >> manufactured. So you warehouse parts, and you don't just store them in >> a Public Storage warehouse, 'cause you're IBM -- you have to have >> distributed depots, trained FE personnel, test gear, documentation, >> guaranteed response time. That costs money (and is one of the big >> reasons that mainframes are uncompetitive in many situations).
David, I fully agree with this, it would be impossible to keep it up if they had to keep HW for 10 generations knocking around in a warehouse somewhere. IMHO the time has probably come for IBM to beat the rest of the pack with a new marketing strategy. Background... This coming week, we will be donating 25 Dell PC's to a school( 2nd generation), yes, 3 years ago we gave this school 25 PC's, and now because our maintenance/lease has run out on the next generation, we have convinced them to take another 25 off us, what a cost to the company, which is part of a large US bank that has the policy that once the maintenance/lease contract is over the PC's needs to be replaced. If IBM starts to sell the service instead of the Hardware, the whole thing will change, and they will not have to keep unnecessary HW in warehouses all over the world. A company contacts IBM, buys 230 MIPS for 10 years with the relevant software that goes with it. This will include HW that is current and maintainable, but... the customers must allow for at least 2 major maintenance slots during the 10 years during which 3390-3392, ESS810-ESS???, and Z890-Z9 upgrades can take place... Regards Herbie ********************************************************************************************* This email and any attachments are confidential and intended for the sole use of the intended recipient(s).If you receive this email in error please notify [EMAIL PROTECTED] and delete it from your system. Any unauthorized dissemination, retransmission, or copying of this email and any attachments is prohibited. Euroconex does not accept any responsibility for any breach of confidence, which may arise from the use of email. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Company. This message has been scanned for known computer viruses. ********************************************************************************************* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
