Latest Articles
Settling for less
I was reading the news on CNN recently about a power outage in California, which reminded me of some serious black outs in Costa Rica a while back. A friend was there on business, and it ruined an important business meeting that he had spent months setting up. It also...
Business Intelligence – you either have it or you don’t…
Definition of Business: …the practice of making one’s living by engaging in commerce… Definition of Intelligence: …the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills… Without both – you will have neither! I’m an avid reader of pretty much all things “Technical” –...
Mainframe optimization on the high seas
Being in the mainframe business for about 10 years now, I hear interesting anecdotes from time to time, often from the most unlikely sources. I may have taken some liberty with the title, but it’s a true story, and it relates well to what I see in the mainframe...
Banking Trends and IT Issues
Digital transformation is impacting businesses far and wide, but you could argue that none are being impacted more dramatically than banking. Over the course of the past few decades the manner in which banks interact with their customers has changed significantly, and...
Cost vs Performance: an endless battle?
Several techniques to move the needle For some reason, technology experts are regularly claiming the end of the mainframe. When IBM announced the opportunity to run Linux on hardware mostly dedicated to z/OS, some thought that it was the sign that the platform will...
Mainframes are used increasingly by major banks and financial institutions
Do you think the mainframe is dead? A dinosaur, an ancient piece of technology that has outlived its usefulness like cathode ray tubes, rotary dial telephones, and dial-up modems? I have some news for you. The mainframe has adapted: it is alive and well with major...
Data Centers, Mainframes and the rest!
When compared to an x86/distributed server environment, the operational costs of the power consumption versus IBM’s Mainframe z Systems are half, while the performance is 30 percent greater (using z Systems as an example.) So let’s think about that for a minute!...
Bringing DevOps to your mainframe
The days of waterfall software development on a mainframe are coming to an end. It’s no longer tolerable for end users to have to wait two years for a new application to be written and delivered to a spec that, by then, is two years out of date. The inflexibility of...
The Third Platform and the Mainframe
The Third Platform is defined as the interdependencies between mobile computing, social media, cloud computing, and information/analytics (big data), and possibly the Internet of Things (IoT). Here is a nice rendering of the Third Platform model from Forbes.com. It...
Is user experience one of the mainframe’s biggest challenges?
IBM has done a great job of continually re-inventing the mainframe over the years to help it stay abreast of the evolving technology landscape. The z13 mainframe, for example, is the product of over $1m in R&D spend, including a host of enhancements to elevate its...
