Mainframes

I have read a fair bit recently about companies decomissioning/migrating their mainframe, in an attempt to make their workplaces more "technological".

I would like to hear others opinions about what they think that future of Mainframes is. Personally, I am of the opinion that if it aint broken, dont try and fix it. But then again, some companies Mainframes are 20+ y.o and may need an overhaul, which when you perform a cost/benefit analysis (not that I have, or know how) the decommissioning/migration option may prove to be the more financially viable option.

What do others think about the future of Mainframes?

Personally, for certain applications, I think that mainframes are still extremely useful. Nowadays, however, most businesses seem to be replacing their old mainframes with servers set up to act as mainframes. IBM, however, has released a new series of mainframes which will hopefully bring them back into the mainstream. For more info, check out the following link:

http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/

AJ

Personally, I think that some mainframes are going to stay around for quite a while yet, just because of the cost of migration.

Just like COBOL is still very much around, so are mainframes. For an organisation to switch to a new platform can be very expensive depending on the complexity of the application being run on the mainframe.

When you see the trouble you can already have going from HP-UX 9 to HP-UX 10 because of different directory structures and the like, imagine totally changing platform.

That's why there are companies specializing in the resale of obsolete parts and the repair of computers no longer supported by their manufacturer.

Cheers,

BrainStop