A Guide to Debunking Mainframe Myths, Criticisms, and More Why is defending the mainframe so difficult? One reason is that many people do not fully understand what is meant by the term “mainframe.” Ubiquitous computing leads many to believe that the mainframe is an...
In July 2017, IBM unveiled the z14, latest in its family of z-System mainframes. Capable of running over 12 billion encrypted transactions per day, the fastest commercial mainframe in the world opens up new horizons in every field of computer processing. This...
Without revealing my age, I got my first mainframe job back when terminal emulators were a new idea. They were rudimentary with only basic features like copy and paste available, but the number of licensed seats we had for those PC-based emulators was limited, so we...
Retinal scans. Face recognition. Fingerprint scanners. Spoken phrases. Randomized pins. Those cool full-body laser scanners from the movies. Science fiction has correctly predicted many aspects of how we live in the digital age, including the rise of security...
Working on a political campaign back in the day, I consistently found myself assigned to the phone banks. I would manually dial constituents who had voted in a specific way in the past, identify myself as a volunteer for the candidate that matched their preferences,...
In the world of enterprise software, acquisitions often follow a familiar pattern: buy, cut, flip. It’s a process driven by short-term gains that often loses the heart of a company – its people, culture, and long-term value. Izzi Software is flipping the script and...
Hello, My name is Colton Quillicy. I'm 25, and I'm a mainframer. Yes... I know. A rare breed. I don't know how I got here... a love of technology I guess? I personally blame my upbringing. My father, Scott Quillicy, got a degree in computer science in the early '80s,...
Outsourced mainframe customers often lack a clear understanding of how well their outsourcer is managing the mainframe capacity and performance relative to what is optimal for the customer. The customer seldom has access to the data needed to really understand their...
There are many reasons why companies choose to outsource their mainframe. One of the major reasons is economies of scale—cost per unit (e.g. per MIPS or MSU) for hardware and software falls dramatically as the mainframe gets larger. Similarly, the cost of having the...
Part 2: Understanding MIPS and MSU This is the second in a series of blogs about how to follow up on your mainframe outsourcer. The first blog was about why it is important to follow up, and some of the pitfalls of not doing so. This article focuses on explaining the...
