IBM Mainframe PR at Odds with Reality

January 23, 2010

I am on record as loving mainframes. However, smart outfits find other ways to crunch petabytes of data quickly without the costs, hassles, and peculiarities of mainframes. Even today, when I hear or read the word “mainframe” I think of disc crashes that could send chunks of metal into cabinet sides, JCL, and moving wires to achieve performance boosts. I know that IBM’s PR group wants me to think Series z, Linux, and more fun than a day at Frye’s in Palo Alto. Won’t happen.

I read “IBM Mainframe Woes Continue with Big Q4 Drop” and said to myself, “The addled goose is not flying blind with regard to mainframes.” The story said:

System z mainframe revenue dropped 27% in the fourth quarter compared to the same period in the prior year. The Q4 results followed declines of 26% in the third quarter, 39% in the second quarter and 19% in the first quarter. IBM doesn’t provide revenue dollar amounts for individual server product lines, but the mainframe suffered the biggest decline within the company’s systems and technology group, which reported fourth quarter revenue of $5.2 billion, 4% lower than the previous year. The systems and technology group also includes storage, x86 servers and Power servers.

Google and even Facebook seem to be happy with their approach to petascale computing, and I don’t think mainframes figure in either company’s plans. Here are the reasons:

Architecture. Still anchored in the late 1960s.
Configuration. Really tedious.
Performance. Expensive when compared to commodity set ups.

And search? You can still buy a STAIRS variant. Wow. IBM is mostly a consulting and services outfit. My hunch is that SAP and Microsoft will be following in IBM’s footsteps. Times are indeed shifting gears.

Stephen E Arnold, January 23, 2010

A freebie. No one has paid me a single penny to write about my affection for mainframes. I will report this to the House of Representatives who may not share my feelings for these gizmos from another era.

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Enterprise, Financial, News, Online (general)

Comments

2 Responses to “IBM Mainframe PR at Odds with Reality”

IBM Mainframe PR at Odds with Reality : Beyond Search | Mainframe COBOL on January 23rd, 2010 6:48 pm

[…] MORE […]
John on February 8th, 2010 8:42 am

Thanks for the post.

Please visit this link below for Mainframe Interview Questions Answers

http://www.aired.in/2010/01/mainframe-interview-question-answers.html

Thanks
John

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.