On Thu, Apr 6, 2017 at 2:25 AM, Elardus Engelbrecht < [email protected]> wrote:
> John McKown wrote: > > >The company today told us that our outsourcing contract has been > terminated. > > Excellent! I am very very glad for your part! Good luck! > > > >The main reason given is the drastic change in the business environment > and needs. > > This is where z/OS coming in. It can handle different workloads over the > years (with the support and development of vendors and programmers and DBAs > of course) > Well, I'm not sure z/OS is really making a comeback at the company. It is more like "retreat to a known position". I.T. management, I'm sure, still wants to be Windows only, everywhere. > > > >Basically, a lot of companies who jumped into the health market have > abandoned it due to their failure to make money under the ACA. > > What is ACA? > ACA == "Affordable Care Act" aka "Obamacare". The law which basically tries to socialize medicine like it is in Canada, the U.K., and Europe. It basically destroyed profitability for health insurers. > > > >So, it looks like my job is secure for at least another 18 months. We > will be repatriating work back from the outsource to both our internal > distributed environment and z/OS. > > Since 1989 when I started, I read constantly that 'mainframe is > dead/pre-historic/etc.' ... > > ... but the fact is - technology to *fully* replace mainframe ( MVS / > OS/390 / z/OS ) are not there (so far yet). > > I am still waiting, waiting and zzzzzzzzz waiting for the funeral of > 'mainframe'. ;-) > IBM is certainly not doing that much to "push" the z. I see a _lot_ of noise from them about the IBM Power systems - BlueMix in particular. But I don't see much of anything being "splashed around" about the power of the z. > > > >But 1.5 years will get me to full retirement age > > Full retirement age is a good thing, you don't forfeit some retirement > rewards. If you retire early, then you are penalized. > > Standard retirement age in South Africa is 60. You can retire at 55 (with > little penalty) or at 65, but then your health is down at that time > preventing you to enjoy your golden age. > > > >(assuming some damn pickup doesn't kill me on the road). > > Or taxis don't crash into you or your car. > They stop and start at any place in or on the road for loading/offloading > passengers. > > No, absolutely no any road rules/laws/regulations apply to them... and the > traffic cops just collect bribes from them all the way... > > > (Taxis - small buses like the Volkswagen Kombi. Minibus taxis (16 seater > commuter buses).) > Not many taxis on the roads I use. Lots of crazies in Ford F-150 pickups. Texans love their cars. And love to drive in the "demolition derby" (officially know as state highway 360) > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_taxi (and scroll down to South > Africa) > > > Groete / Greetings > Elardus Engelbrecht > > -- "Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called 'rain'." -- Michael McClary, in alt.fusion Maranatha! <>< John McKown ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
