>>Domino's OK for mail on the 390 platform, but it's no gem for
>>applications. If you get a chance, try running the app from the
>>dedicated Windows client against the 390 server and compare results.
>>Some of the performance difference should go away for the things that
>>can be offloaded to the client processor. May not help in your
>>situation, but it tends to point up where Lotus needs to do some work on
>>Domino on platforms where CPU isn't infinite or free.
CPU processing speed is looking more and more like an unfortunate
liability for those of us who've already proposed zLinux running under
IBM's zVM to play a large role in our futures. All we really want is the
ability to migrate or 1,500 hourly CICS/Adabas users into a new format for
transaction processing.
I'm sure we'll give the dedicated Windows client a shot, but only as an
exercise since the apps are already widely deployed as browser only
dependent web apps. A three to four second response time increase in web
apps is a killer to try to explain to our customers... ("...but, but you
see, we're saving all this money from decreased power consumption and
floor space and hardware reliability, and, and...")
A couple of us in the mainframe side of the office always chuckle about
managers who steer at the helm based on the latest full color glossy ad in
this month's IT mag --- that shoe is starting to feel like a pretty good
fit for us chucklers. This is not a good thing and it really is too bad,
zOS is not going to be around these parts forever, if this zLinux thing
doesn't improve, the zMachine may be on its way out as well.
I will however keep the faith with zLinux for a while longer. Perhaps
someone can fill me in on how grid computing could help to offload CPU
intense processes to a processor where cycles aren't as expensive. Or,
maybe someone has heard of IBM R&D-ing a processor that can be bundled
with an IFL that doesn't have all of the cache and redundancy checking of
a normal mainframe processor to slow it down. If you can have a "network
in a box" why not a "grid in the box" with it -- a processor dedicated to
a zLinux image that handles CPU intense processes offloaded by other
guests where networking issues shouldn't be a huge hurdle with virtual
hipersockets...
Something that works in a manner similar to that of a crypto processor. If
storage resources can be virtualized, the idea of virtualizing processor
resources can't be that far behind.
Anything would be helpful to those of us who've boarded this ship only to
end up feeling like CPU processing speed may be our iceberg. Fifty SAMBA
servers? Thirty mail servers? Twenty Apache servers serving mostly
static content (for fear that a guy with an 800Mhz Pentium in his basement
could embarrass you in the response time arena). What, with the onslaught
of racks full of blades that are becoming highly reliable and redundant
and easily networked and virtualized (and energy efficient and slim and
trim), who will need a z800?
- Matt
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