This is the second article in the Forward to the Mainframe? series
Part 1: Revisiting the Mainframe Utility Computing Model
Part 3: A Virtualization Machine - the X86 Mainframe

The history of the Luddites is a interesting study, particularly for practitioners in the computer industry. In the early 1800's, Ned Ludd's textile culture defended hand looms over the new large knitting frames. This was despite the fact that the larger looms produced much more cloth with far less skilled labor.

Instead of looms, today's Information Technology workers repeatedly choose servers without the virtualization or processing redundancy needed to keep critical applications running. And they choose these servers over commercially available mainframes and other highly available systems with proven track records.

Let's look at the factors that led and continue to lead an intelligent and informed business computing market to chose lesser technologies.
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Tags: X86 Mainframe, Efficiency

Spoke in Atlanta as a keynote along with Dan O'Connell of Gartner on Voice over IP. Good session with good questions.

HOSTED VoIP EDUCATIONAL LUNCHEON
LEARN HOW A PRESTIGIOUS GLOBAL LAW FIRM—VOTED BY FORTUNE MAGAZINE READERS AS A TOP "GO-TO LAW FIRM” EVALUATED AND IMPLEMENTED A HOSTED VOIP SOLUTION

The presentation in flash format is here.
The event notice is here.
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Tags: Law Technology, Information Infrastructure, Efficiency, VoIP

The Minimum Computational Requirement or MCR is an analytical method for helping an organization determine the least amount of technology required for a function or organization.
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Tags: Green, Efficiency, Information Infrastructure, Minimum Computational Requirement

In the next few articles, we will take a deep dive into how data centers can be made more reliable and less expensive. Since mainframe design is an important part of this discussion, there will be frequent mention of the mainframe in future articles. In this article, we attempt to grok the term "mainframe".

Let's start of by pointing out that while I will often cite IBM and it's products when describing the historical development of the mainframe, the mainframe is not proprietary to IBM. Quite to the contrary, I believe the mainframe design, inclusive of IBM's innovation, represents the most effective effort to "get technology right" for general business and scientific computing purposes.

As I have stated in a prior article on the mainframe computing model, the transition from mainframe technology to networked PC Server technology, was typically not a quest for better technology. Instead, companies that purchased networked PC Servers were generally seeking a better computing buying model. Companies found that servers enabled them to grow rapidly without pain because of opportunities to add capacity and new features at lower cost. In contrast, those same companies felt increasing apprehension about their mainframe investments, as changing business requirements and increases in business output always led to higher mainframe costs. More...

Tags: X86 Mainframe, Virtualization

Ever notice that your fastest computer is the little one in your pocket?

Consider some of the daily tasks you need technology to accomplish, read e-mail, check your calendar, answer the phone, listen to a song. You can browse any e-mail in seconds, as long as you use your Blackberry. Similarly you can find and play any song or video in seconds, as long as you use your iPod.

Unfortunately, it typically takes longer to perform these "simple" tasks on your office desktop or laptop.
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Tags: Efficiency, Green, Information Infrastructure, Minimum Computational Requirement

What's the best way to create a more efficient IT organization?

• Implement ITIL?
• Outsource?
• Better align IT goals with business strategy?
• Integrate enterprise processes using web services?
• Focus on growing the skills of your resource pool.

What if there was a better way to provide more services per dollar, one that had nothing to do with your ability to execute as an organization? I am talking about business growth, and the impact running an IT organization at a belt tightening Gap (Limited Brands) vs, heading a similar organization at a rapidly growing Nordstrom.

My analysis provides a surprising and very disheartening result if you are CIO at a company with weak or negative growth. IT departments in growth companies have a significant cost advantage.

Thus if you are right now heads down figuring out how to give your low growth company a cost advantage so it can ... "catch-up" with the industry leaders, you might want to read this article, ... because your job just got a bit tougher. More...

Tags: Finance, Efficiency

This is the third article in the Forward to the Mainframe? series
Part 1: Revisiting the Mainframe Utility Computing Model
Part 2: WinTel, the Luddite Revolution

Forget everything you think you know about mainframe technology. Everything that follows
X86 Mainframe Home Page More...

Tags: X86 Mainframe, Efficiency, Green, Virtualization

Mainframe Utility Model vs. the Server Ecosystem

A mid-size firm might run more than two hundred (200+) production Wintel servers, each with hard drives, memory chips, power supplies and fans expected to fail within four (4) years which equates to about two hundred (200) weeks. If you stagger equipment purchases, then statistically, one of the two hundred servers will either fail or need service each and every week.

A midsize manufacturer or bank might invest in a single IBM zSeries mainframe. Managed properly, the company should experience no more than one outage over the four to seven year life of the system. More...

Tags: X86 Mainframe

This is the first article in the Forward to the Mainframe? series
Part 2: WinTel, the Luddite Revolution
Part 3: A Virtualization Machine - the X86 Mainframe

IBM's Mainframe Business Model

As the original utility computing device, the mainframe business model enables a company to invest in a system that it can grow with.

With a mainframe purchase, you buy a machine that typically can do more than you need. This "utility" computing model enables you to buy only what you need. Thus, instead of paying a price of two million dollars for unlimited use of a mainframe, you might pay one million dollars to obtain the computing power you need today. More...

Tags: X86 Mainframe, Efficiency, Green, Virtualization