Latest Articles
Does it take a super-hero CIO to stay on the mainframe?
Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent Can’t Get The Job Done Because They Don’t Go To Work Wearing Their Cape I am really starting to get sick of the conventional wisdom that exists out there that maintains that companies should abandon the mainframe and do all their computing...
CIOs: Save The Data
Have you seen the prediction that the CMO will have a bigger IT budget than the CIO in a few years? Sounded like a horrible idea to me. If a firm allows its C-Suite to establish and fund "Rogue IT" operations rather than give those resources to the CIO, that's...
The Mainframe is a Witch!
The Mainframe Witch-Hunt The Salem witch trials were an ugly moment in US history. A combination of groupthink, bad religion and confirmation bias led an entire community to act irrationally. And the results were not pretty. Twenty people—most of them women—were...
Raising the ante on Virtualization in the Data Center
In 2016, the least expensive city in the U.S. for annual data center operating costs is Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at $9,684,282 in annual operating costs[1]. In Canada, where the lowest risk associated with data centers is second only to the U.S., the costs of energy...
The Nexus of Forces Impacts the Mainframe, Too
In 2012, analysts at Gartner described the changing dynamics of digital business as being driven by what they call The Nexus of Forces. This important concept is crucial to understand and adapt to because it is impacting all of our businesses and the computing...
Mainframes Are Hidden Engine of Next Wave of Innovation
The Wright Flyer looks light and insubstantial in images, but on September 17, 1908, the world-changing machine nearly killed its inventor. A propeller snapped as Orville was demonstrating an improved version of the Flyer, causing a crash that broke four of his ribs....
Intensity in hockey playoffs… and in IT finance planning?
It’s NHL hockey playoff season. I love this time of year: the days are longer and brighter, the geese are back in town, the weather is warming up and, more importantly, the smell of playoff hockey intensity is back. Well, in Canada this year it’s not as normal since...
Will Mainframers adopt DevOps?
Mainframes are under siege. You might like to picture the mainframe department as some medieval castle surrounded by invading troops. There’s no actual fighting going on, but gradually the forces of distributed computing are waiting for the survivors inside the...
DB2 to the Rescue!
DB2 for z/OS applications continue to be a workhorse for large IT shops. Of course the DB2 applications have Service Level Agreements for availability and performance. These are largely based on requirements that drive customer satisfaction and transaction throughput....
A Mainframe Migration Disaster Story
A few years ago, I was speaking at a conference on the west coast—attending were mostly IT executives from startup companies, and it was a lively group. Also, some IT folks were in attendance from some more established companies. Afterwards I sat beside one such chap...
