Writing a feature: want to talk to mainframe engineers, programmers and users

[AlexC]

I've been asked to write a feature about mainframes. The basic brief is this:

"A number of companies are looking at ways to shift information off them with varying levels of success. Most media on the subject appears to consist of security fear research from these companies along with consternation that so many still run. There have also been various stories about how the people with the skills to run them are retiring off. But what do IT people really need to know?"

The target is enterprise-level readers but I have plenty of leeway to wander down interesting paths. So... any engineers, maintainers, devs, users, migrators, etc. - please get in touch with me either by replying here or via PM.

I'll include as many interesting comments as I can in the feature, quoting where possible, and will send the link to the published article to everyone who helps.

 

[Al Kossow]

"But what do IT people really need to know?"

Whatever you replace it with will be obsolete in 10 years, and won't be supported as well because that's the way the economy works now.

Vendors want to push you into 'cloud' (remember timesharing?) subscriptions because that helps with vendor lock-in. Companies like it because
they can outsource their hardware and eliminate support people. They also then have people twiddling their thumbs (or lose business)
when the network goes down.

The two biggest problems with migration and retirement is that companies counted on a few people to know their business process and how that
was implemented by computer, and feature creep/requirements change in the system design and replacement processes.

 

[g4ugm]

I don't think any one techy involved in Mainframes can see any point in moving off them, and believe that the Wintel platform is a pile of sh!t. Managers think they can save money my getting rid of mainframes because PC's are cheap. In reality delivering scalable enterprise software on any platform is challenging and expensive as it needs design, capacity planning etc. Couple this with the fact that probably only a few people , i.e. those who think PC's are rubbish, understand enough about the systems on the Mainframe to move them safely and securely to a different platform. Now as a manager do a simple risk analysis as to how likely it is you can get enough code moved to get your bonus and get out before it falls down in a nasty heap, because the Mainframe guys have shafted you, and/or you didn't put enough resource in to build the scalable platform.

Then do a google of failed mainframe migrations, and re-calculate the risk....

... I also suggest rather than asking here you look at the IBM Main list archives....

https://listserv.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html

 

[AlexC]

Thanks guys. For some reason I didn't get notification of replies to this thread (perhaps I failed to tick the relevant box) or I'd have responded sooner. I appreciate your responses and may also contact you via PM if that's OK.

Alex