>John's reason #7 reminds me of when management was sugar coating the decision >to outsource our entire shop, how it would 'bolster your personal portfolio'! > win-win!
Well, to each his own. You can either resist change, or you can embrace it. I chose to embrace it. I think it has extended my career. I got the chop back in 2008 from my employer of nearly 30 years. Four years later I am still working independently and earning pretty much the same as before. I can't say the same for many of my former colleagues. Of one thing I am certain - at the CxO level very few are truly committed to the mainframe platform. Some of course are resigned to the great difficulty of ever getting off the mainframe, but most would if they could. Those in technical support positions that show themselves to be closed minded about anything non-mainframe will find themselves at odds with IT management. Who will prevail in the end? My advice to those that make a living on mainframe technologies is to always make your arguments for retaining the "big iron" on facts, not emotion. By all means ask questions like: (1) Our CICS availability last year was 99.999%. Mr. Oracle Man, can your system match that? (but be prepared for the counter argument that your app doesn't really need five nines reliability). (2) Mr CIO, you complain about the cost of the mainframe System Programmers. But doesn't a good Oracle 11g DBA cost $150K? (3) Isn't Ruby on Rails just another fad? After all, look what happened to Borland Delphi. Or ADA. Or Dbase IV? Shouldn't we stick with proven technologies from companies that are firmly established, like Big Blue? And when your CIO insists that the company must get off the mainframe, since all you guys are north of 50 years and will soon be gone, counter this argument by suggesting that you and your colleagues could undertake a training and mentoring program to develop a new generation of people, much as was done to address the skills shortages that occurred in the 70's and 80's. My 2 cents worth. John ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
