Mainframes: Money and Memories
August 10, 2010
When I took my first “computer” class in 1963, there was one type of computer—An IBM mainframe. The university had just upgraded the system. No moving of wires. I could interact with the box via a punched card deck. Those were the days. I would wait in line for keypunch time. I would hand over my card deck to a computer center staffer. I remember looking up the word spindle on my first visit to the shrine of advanced technology in the basement of the engineering building. I would return in 48 hours to get my output. Fortunately I got data not an error statement in line two. Ah, what fun.
Push your digital recorder’s fast forward button three times and we are at 2010, fresh from reading “Big Tech Problem as Mainframes Outlast Workforce.” The write up points out that guys like me who were trained on mainframes are getting old. Yep, my first class was 47 years ago. Almost a half a century. How much fun would it be to have me join an outfit to fix up a mainframe to interact with an iMac? You are right if you think, “Not much. Old guys are cranky, and they don’t own iPads and tweet.”
There were some gems in the referenced Business Week article. Bloomberg has not gutted the former McGraw Hill crown jewel. Examples of the wealth in the story:
- The average age of mainframe workers is 55 to 60
- IBM commands 85 percent of the mainframe market
- There are 10,000 mainframes used by 4,000 to 5,000 customers around the world, down from 30,000 mainframes
- the 3270 terminal emulator is not graphically rich
- IBM’s new mainframe is 60 percent faster than the previous model mainframe
- IBM sells $3.4 billion worth of mainframe stuff each year
- Mainframes are a high margin business, about 70 percent.
Seems to me that those lucky folks with mainframes may have to do recruiting at the local retirement facility. With IBM’s mainframe revenue, why not set up a retirement home for former mainframe professionals? JCL, PL/1, and green bar, anyone? I miss the sound of those line printers too. Chad? Did I mention the keypunch machine jittering as it aligned the card so that it could be punched? Don’t fold, spindle, or mutilate!
Stephen E Arnold, August 10, 2010
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