Lizette Koehler wrote:
Mainframe specialty processors: Do they really save money?
http://serverspecs.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/05/20/mainframe-specialty-processors-do-they-really-save-money/?track=NL-576&ad=641476&asrc=EM_NLN_3694452&uid=1706837
Very strange. From where I sit, it seems like specialty engines are
going "supernova". The tenor of the article seems to suggest otherwise.
For example, Mr Fontecchio says, "Selling rhe zAAP for Java and the zIIP
for data applications hasn't been easy." In fact, IBM says specialty
engine sales are up 85% year-over-year. I honestly don't know how "easy"
the sales effort was, but that's pretty impressive growth -- no matter
what business you're in!
A quote from Trevor Eddolls seems to suggest that there isn't much
software exploitation. It seems to me that zAAP exploitation by Java and
XML, and zIIP exploitation by DB2 and IPSEC, is dependent on what
applications the customer deploys on z. I'm certainly no expert on what
other software companies are doing. But, I *do* know what my friend Tom
Harper has been up to at Neon Enterprise Software. Rather than just "...
looking to offer customers the opportunity of running their software on
zIIP ...", as indicated by the article, they are actually doing it.
SyncSort wasn't mentioned. But, I know it has been supporting zIIP since
January, a number of CA utilities have been supporting zIIP since
mid-2007, and all of the internally-developed products here at Phoenix
Software -- including (E)JES -- have been redirecting *significant*
portions of their work to zIIP since October 2007. (We're trying to do
our part.)
There are likely numerous other ISVs doing this [I don't mean to
purposely leave anyone out -- please post a follow-up to list additional
examples] and, considering the zIIP-redirect interface was only made
available to ISVs around year-end 2006, I would call this fairly
significant exploitation -- with much more on the way...
The article is correct in its assertion that specialty engine "savings"
take time to accumulate. No question about that. You need to first buy
the zIIP or zAAP and then incrementally save over time on software
charges. It's kinda' like buying a new, more fuel-efficient, car to save
money on gas. It will take you quite a while to break even.
--
Edward E Jaffe
Phoenix Software International, Inc
5200 W Century Blvd, Suite 800
Los Angeles, CA 90045
310-338-0400 x318
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.phoenixsoftware.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
