Part 3: The pitfalls of MIPS This is the third 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. The second blog introduced the two metrics that are generally used as the basis for...
Part 4: The outsourcer’s cost structure This is the fourth in a series of blogs about how to follow up on your mainframe outsourcer. Previously I’ve discussed why it is important to follow up on your outsourcer, understanding MIPS and MSU, and the pitfalls of MIPS. In...
How well is your mainframe outsourcer managing capacity and performance? Part 5: CPU based pricing models This is the fifth in a series of blogs about how to follow up on your mainframe outsourcer. Previously I’ve discuss why it is important to follow up on your...
IBM Doc Buddy enables you to search error messages of IBM Z software products in both the online or offline environment on your mobile device – it can be a perfect replacement for LookAt, a z/OS message tool for which support is no longer available. Doc Buddy is...
With the mainframe’s star in the ascendancy yet again, we need to seize the opportunities presented while recognizing the risks, writes Mark Wilson, RSM Partners I was just sixteen when I started working with mainframes. That was in May 1980, a month that also saw the...
In today’s world, it's almost impossible for any mainframe operations to work solo: going it alone in terms of the expertise, skills and resources required to succeed, writes Mark Wilson, RSM Partners. A bit like Han Solo piloting the Millennium Falcon, running...
Or: We need to talk about mainframe hacking There’s an elephant in the room says Mark Wilson. It’s mainframe-sized, at serious risk of being hacked, and its name is Z. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” That was US president Franklin D. Roosevelt at his...
In today’s connected world and with security high on the agenda, IT people across the enterprise have to understand each other. Mainframers need to be able to talk to non-mainframers with clarity, and vice-versa. Managers in the enterprise need to understand both...
This has been a fine summer. And I’m not talking about the weather: I mean the whopping fines proposed for infringements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by Marriott Hotels and British Airways, followed by an even bigger fine in the US for Equifax –...
It’s an ill wind that blows no good, and profits nobody. That old nautical phrase popped into my head when I first heard about the SolarWinds supply chain compromise. We’ll return to that later, and its implications. But first I wanted to take a look at a few of the...
