It’s no secret that the dreaded “skills gap” is affecting the mainframe market. It’s getting harder and harder to find people who know COBOL or Assembler, and organizations that rely on these systems often have open job postings because there’s no perfect match for...
Hopefully all System z users are aware of the Monthly Licence Charge (MLC) pricing mechanisms, where a recurring charge applies each month. This charge includes product usage rights and IBM product support. If only it was that simple! We then encounter the...
Today, customers drive business and battle lines have been drawn. Organizations are now obsessed with their customers and are competing as never before to win, serve, and retain them. According to Forrester, by 2020 every business will be either a digital predator or...
It’s been a while since my last overly alarmist IT security rant, and with the holiday season just past—when millions of IoT devices flooded our homes and offices—I figure what better time to scare the crap out of the general public. But, in this instance, it’s not...
Having worked ‘on The Mainframe’ for almost 20 years at a variety of clients and sites I’ve come about a number of taboos within the Mainframe ‘ecosystem’ that are sometimes just doing my head in and just need to be broken. These taboos can be seen across the playing...
Wow, what an experience! I recently had the opportunity to attend the GSE UK conference, which is a part of Guide Share Europe and represents the UK Region. It was titled "Where Technology and Talent Meet Tomorrow." The event was a four-day extravaganza, and believe...
When I heard about the HuffPost article highlighting a video debunking the myths that Hollywood has been repeating about the mainframe, I was cautiously optimistic. Unfortunately, the writer chose to use only one reference book, and focused on the negative points....
In this series, Janet Sun explores and dispels numerous myths around the mainframe. Continued from Part 1. Mainframes are Expensive? Think that mainframes are expensive? That depends on what you’re looking at. If you are looking at acquisition hardware costs,...
In this series, Janet Sun explores and dispels numerous myths around the mainframe. Continued from Part 1 and Part 2. What Do You Lose by Moving Off the Mainframe? Efficiency Typically, distributed servers support a single application workload. How many business...
Have you seen the recent headlines? Wanted urgently: People who know a half century-old computer language so states can process unemployment claims (CNN 04/08/2020) and An Ancient Computer Language Is Slowing America’s Giant Stimulus (Bloomberg 04/13/2020). These...
