Greg, thank you for acknowledging that IBM apparently neatly addressed your
concern with Option #1: IBM Program Number 5655-TRY. ("Operators are
standing by....") However, I think you misunderstood or didn't appreciate
the "So what!" point I made. I'll spend a few more words elaborating on
what I think is an irrational "fear of the SVC.""So what!" if your monthly charge for your COBOL compiler (only) increases (*) when the highly likely outcome is.... ....Your monthly z/OS charge decreases; ....Your monthly CICS TS charge decreases; ....Your monthly DB2 charge decreases; ....Your monthly MQ charge decreases; ....Your monthly IMS charge decreases; ....Your monthly (whatever else) charge decreases; ....You defer the charges associated with your next capacity upgrade; ....And you enjoy the new compiler's new functions. Factors in computing or in economics should not be considered in isolation, or otherwise you've completely lost the plot.(**) (*) There's yet another option if you somehow get past the three reasonable, viable options I outlined previously. Let's suppose you're getting near the end of your SVC period, you've recompiled some of your COBOL programs but not all of them, and you've picked up some nice performance benefits with the new compiler across the programs you've recompiled, hopefully including at least the "heavy hitters" that most greatly influence your peak utilization. You could then decide to cancel your Enterprise COBOL Version 5 license (and delete the product), switching back solely to your Enterprise COBOL Version 4 license. I'm NOT recommending that, but that's one choice. The programs you already recompiled with Enterprise COBOL Version 5 continue to yield their performance benefits indefinitely unless and until you recompile them again with the older compiler. You are certainly not required to recompile them unless and until there is a code change. (**) It is bureaucratically possible for "Department A" to have responsibility for your COBOL compiler's licensing budget and "Department Z" to have responsibility for, say, your z/OS licensing budget. (And maybe "Department C" for CICS, "Department D" for DB2....) But if your organization can't figure out how to exploit this sort of compiler value when it arrives on your doorstep.... Well, I'm hard pressed to think of anything *IBM* can do to fix your employer's dysfunction that IBM hasn't done already. You'll simply have to fix yourselves if I've just described your organization's (mis)behavior. Or perish. Or outsource, a common corporate reaction when this sort of bureaucratic insanity festers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy Sipples IT Architect Executive, Industry Solutions, IBM z Systems, AP/GCG/MEA E-Mail: [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
