Lately concepts like SOA, consolidation, green computing and cloud computing has been the buzzwords in every CIO’s dream and every technicians nightmares, except mine. In my dreams I see datacenters filled with mainframes and I’m pretty sure that’s not what the CIO’s are dreaming about, then it would be called a nightmare. Before we continue on this subject I have to state that I’m a Linux/UNIX consultant, female and not 60+ years old, just to avoid future confusion…

In the dark, behind the headlines of death sentance after death sentance for the mainframe, companies like IBM, HP and Unisys has been working on bringing the mainframe back on the market. We all know that mainframes are huge, power hungry, complex and most of all OLD, but that’s not true. Mainframes are 1500 virtual servers in the same space where you can fit three racks with 126 1U servers, unless you get heat problems. Reduced heat means less cooling for the same amount of servers in the datacenter and together with a focus on power saving mainframes becomes the ultimate choice when it comes to green computing.

Some of the features IBM has been focusing on is new technologies for partitioning, virtualization and smart solutions for load balancing inside the mainframe. Most companies that are already using mainframe invest in more mainframes and are consolidating their linux systems inside the mainframe. IBM mainframes seems to get their way back to the market with a growth of mainframes world wide with 30.7%, and the lastest model IBM System Z10, released in the begining of this year, has led to a growth of mainframes in Europe with  58%.

With all due respect, mainframes are stable and just as made for cloud computing, but who’s going to operate them? The amount of System Administrators that are familiar with mainframes and applications running on them is barely enough for what’s needed at this point. Same story goes for System Developers that are familiar with languages like Cobol and RPG. My hope is that this lack of competence won’t impede use of mainframes and that more people will see their possibilities for virtualization and cloud computing.

Does your company have an old IBM iSeries or zSeries with the POWER processor architecture that’s not in use anymore? I’m looking for an IBM iSeries or zSeries to have at home to learn about how to virtualize Linux or IBM hardware. If you have one you don’t need anymore or if you know someone who does, would you concider giving it away to someone who wants to learn about it’s hardware and systems? .

I already have one IBM AS/400 with the 48-bits CISC-processor from 1993 running OS/400 V3R5 that was given to me in 2004 from a company where my dad was working at the time, my most greatful thanks to them. Now I look forward to combine the knowledge I’ve gathered from working with both Linux and IBM hardware to take the next step and learn how to virtualize Linux on IBM midrange and/or mainframe with the POWER processor architecture.

In the end of last year Sun was in the end of a one and a half year long project together with IBM. The challenge was to get OpenSolaris certified for IBM System z hardware. This solution will be interesting for customers that seek the enterprise environment from Solaris and the stability from IBM’s mainframe computers.

There are a lot of old Sun machines out there in the server parks that need to be switched out in the near future. According to Boyle CTO at the consulting company Sine Nomine Associate in Ashburn many companies are looking into IBM’s mainframe computers, but they don’t want to retrain all of their IT personnel to administrate an all new environment. Boyle also says he knows about 30-40 companies that are awaiting this solution to be finished and certified.

For IBM this is a great opportunity to save and rebuild the market for mainframe computers. Sun has been going strong on marketing Solaris on other platforms than their own lately. Sun’s last business settlement in favor of Solaris on other platforms was with Dell that now provides Dell PowerEdge servers with Solaris.

Source: http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.133639 (swedish)