Is There a Mainframe in Your Future
August 13, 2008
Brian Womack’s article “Big Iron Anything But Rusty For Mainframe Pioneer IBM” brought a tear to my eye. Writing in Investor’s Business Daily here, Mr. Womak says:
IBM says revenue for its mainframe business rose 32% in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, easily outpacing overall sales growth of 13%. A big driver was February’s launch of IBM’s next-generation mainframe line, the z10, its first big upgrade since 2004. IBM spent about $1.5 billion on the new line.
The core of the article is an interview with David Gelardi, a 52-year-old mainframer. I don’t want to spoil your fun. I love mainframers who explain why big iron is as trendy as Heidi Klum’s catchphrase, “One day you’re in. And one day you’re out.” For example, consider this comment by Mr. Gelardi:
If I take (1,500 Intel) servers . . . and put them on a single mainframe, I’ll have no performance problems whatsoever. But I’m taking all of that workload that was on 1,500 separate servers and consolidating them on one mainframe. While it may be a million-dollar machine and up, it’s actually cheaper than those 1,500 servers.
This is pretty compelling data. I wonder if Google is aware of what it might gain if it were to abandon its decade of effort with commodity servers? Google and IBM are best buddies now. Maybe IBM will convince the GOOG to change its ways? Is there a mainframe in your future?
Stephen Arnold, August 13, 2008
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[…] ScottGu Brian Womack’s article “Big Iron Anything But Rusty For Mainframe Pioneer IBM” brought a tear to my eye. Writing in Investor’s Business Daily here, Mr. Womak says: IBM says revenue for its mainframe business rose 32% in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, easily outpacing overall sales growth of … […]
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