Hi, I have been working with mainframes for about 12 years (I'm 32)... I started as an application programmer and the moved to system programming about 8 years ago... What I'm seeing is something similar to what Ruddy described. In my company we are running all the core systems on the mainframe but a decision has been already taken and now everything is going to be migrated to a .NET MS environment. What runs on a singe z890 will require at least 50 Intel servers and counting... For the last three years I have working directly with zVM and zLinux and we have been able to show management some of the benefits of an environment like this, but as Ruddy said, MS has a great marketing team... we even tried to start using Open Office on the desktop but as soon as MS saw the move they "convince" management to continue using MS Office. Part of the problem is that people still think the mainframe is a BIG machine with green terminals... we have done an "experiment" here in the data center in which we ask people to identify the mainframe in the server room, almost nobody is able to identify the z890 and some people believe the mainframe is the air conditioner unit...
Let's hope that IBM can "revive" the mainframe so that it can continue to be the best server in the data center... -Jose -----Original Message----- From: Melancon, Ruddy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 11:18 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Article for z/Journal I am a graying mainframer. I worked for IBM for 28 years as a hardware servicer, marketing system engineer, and a mainframe contract employee. I am concerned that three universities in my area were deeply involved in mainframe systems education in the past but now focus only on Microsoft products. There is no effort in this area to educate students on mainframes and their potential. I currently work for a state agency that provides data processing services to other state agencies (similar to a service bureau). Although the core applications (finance, welfare, labor) are still housed on the mainframe, there is a concerted effort by the CIO to move all applications to a client/server/web environment. To him this means everything will run on an Intel platform with a Microsoft operating system. Everyone in my work section is 40 years old and up. We recently had five employees leave. One passed away, three retired and one reassign to another area (help desk). Only two people have been recruited to replace these employees. The replacements have been mainframers from other agencies. These agencies have been moving to Intel servers for all new applications. Microsoft has done a great job in marketing their products as the future of data processing. They did this by capturing the education of future programmers and data processing employees in the universities. The personal computer has helped by enabling everyone to think he is a computer expert if he can load and run software on his own machine. The bulk of the people in the data processing industry have little or no contact or exposure to the mainframe. They have no concept of the potential of a single mainframe processor. Their concept is to run each application on a separate server regardless of the interactions of the numerous applications in each and every organization. Whatever happened to having a single source of data so that the data is in sync, up to date and accurate? Some of this has been caused by the cost of mainframe software and the time required developing applications. In today world this is no longer the case. We have desktop development tools for mainframe applications. We can even develop web applications that are more reliable and faster than their Microsoft counterparts. CICS, IMS, and DB2 are still great application environments. Today's application developer just is unaware of their potential and versatility. Thanks for the opportunity to vent my frustrations. Ruddy A. Melancon IT System Specialist - ISD State of Alabama Suite 102 64 North Union Street Montgomery, AL 36130 Office 334.353.7275 Fax 334.240.3177 When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. -----Original Message----- From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gabe Goldberg Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 9:22 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Article for z/Journal I'm doing an article for Bob Thomas' z/Journal <http://www.zjournal.com/> about next-generation mainframers, industry and educational outreach initiatives for students and young professionals, opportunities and obstacles for people exploring this career area, etc. <www.ibm.com/university/systemz> is interesting if you've not seen it. A long-time and common topic on these lists (and I've cross-posted this note to several) is the graying of mainframers and how there is or will be a shortage of people to use/support/enhance big iron. I'm interested in what you're seeing -- in industry, schools, user groups, etc. -- regarding new generations of mainframers. Does your employer court/train young professionals for mainframe careers? Do you work with younger colleagues? Is there a generation gap or is there "solidarity within mainframes"? Do you have younger relatives working on mainframes? If so, did you influence their career choices? Do user groups adequately educate new folks in this technology and culture? Are your mainframe areas of interest reflected in industry/educational initiatives? If YOU are a non-graying mainframer -- what led to this career path? How do you like it so far? What future options do you see for yourself? Anything else? This will be a relatively short article so I likely won't be able to use everything contributed, but it's an interesting topic so I might explore it more later. I'll appreciate all comments/feedback -- and please reply directly to me as well as to the lists where you see this; since I get list digests it's a pain extracting nuggets from the daily mailings. Thanks for helping... -- Gabriel Goldberg, Computers and Publishing, Inc. (703) 204-0433 3401 Silver Maple Place, Falls Church, VA 22042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 Scanned by McAfee SCM2 Scanned by Triple-S SCM1 ----------------------------------------- *************************Attention************************* This electronic message, including any attachments, contains information that may be legally confidential and/or privileged. The information is intended solely for the individual or entity named above and access by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of the contents of this information is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this electronic transmission in error, please reply immediately to the sender that you have received the message in error and delete it from your system.
