TECHNOLOGY Mainframes

MAINFRAMES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

By David Stephens

76 | Information Age October/November/December 2010 TECHNOLOGY Mainframes

TALES OF THEIR DEMISE WERE EXAGGERATED, IT SEEMS. THERE'S LIFE IN MAINFRAMES YET.

n the middle of this year, Bull released Revenue and development enjoy mainframe-related income. Independent soft- a major new version of its legacy GCOS You may be surprised that there even is a main- ware company BMC last year recorded mainframe 8 mainframe. At the same time, Unisys frame market. However, manufacturers such as revenue of $860 million, and outsourcing giants announced a third consecutive quarter of IBM, Unisys, Fujitsu, Bull and HP earn big dollars such as CSC and EDS have earned billions from Clearpath mainframe sales growth, and IBM from their mainframe platforms. IBM's System z hosting and managing government mainframe Iwas still celebrating the decision by Korea's dominates with a global market share estimated systems. With such profits on the line, mainframe largest credit card company to move its payment to be as high as 85 to 90 per cent. All four major manufacturers continue to invest strongly in their system from UNIX to an IBM mainframe. Australian banks, insurance giants such as AMP, legacy systems. TCP/IP networking, Java and C/ Not bad for obsolete systems that should be government departments, Telstra, and even C++ language support, virtualisation, and even long gone. Qantas are IBM mainframe users. Mainframes environments for ported UNIX applications are The 1980s and 1990s saw the decline of from smaller manufacturers Bull and Fujitsu now standard for most mainframes. Mainframe mainframes as companies lined up to adopt rarely appear outside Europe and the US, although applications and data are today accessible from emerging UNIX and Microsoft Windows solutions. Unisys and HP have mainframe customers other computer systems, and legacy applications Proprietary mainframes were expensive, difficult to worldwide. can be web-enabled with little or no code changes. use, and did not work with other systems. UNIX Unisys claims 200 Clearpath customers in New mainframe models are regularly released, and Windows promised cost savings, GUI screens, Japan alone, and HP estimates that its NonStop using the latest technology to improve capacity, and the Internet. By the 1990s most had written systems can be found in 81 per cent of Global performance and reliability while reducing elec- mainframes off as extinct. 100 companies. Although dwarfed by IBM, trical, cooling and space requirements. Large But mainframes are yet to leave the building. smaller manufacturers enjoy healthy mainframe computer rooms designed for mainframe hardware IBM estimates that 71 per cent of global Fortune revenue: quarterly sales of Fujitsu BS2000/OSD are now more likely to be filled with Windows and 500 companies still use their mainframes, and mainframes are around $75 million. These profits UNIX servers. GUI tools to simplify application pro- over a third of air passengers and cargo are proc- are greatly enhanced by lucrative services and gramming, systems administration and database essed on Unisys mainframes. software income. It's not just manufacturers that management are also key mainframe features. 

Information Age October/November/December 2010 | 77 TECHNOLOGY Mainframes

Bank's huge four-year, $580 million core banking provides on-demand online training and webinar Few ICT modernisation project. A 2010 Aracti survey options, as do independent training suppliers found the overwhelming reason for migrating such as Datatask. students away from the mainframe is cost. This is despite evidence that mainframe Reasons to keep a mainframe graduate running costs have fallen for many years – and So why hold on to a mainframe? Mainframe continue to do so. Respondents to a CA Euro- manufacturers claim that their proprietary plat- with any pean survey in 2008 spent an average 19 per forms are better suited to larger workloads: cent of their total ICT budget on mainframes that more stable, efficient, reliable and secure. These hosted 50 per cent of critical applications and claims have merit: z/OS on the IBM System z is mainframe data. In the same survey, 44 per cent declined the only platform with an EAL5+ security rating. to throw their mainframe away because of migra- Martin Kenny, manager of Business Critical knowledge or tion costs. Systems for HP South Pacific, says that, “HP IBM and Unisys have both attempted to NonStop hardware and software fault-tolerant skills attack the ongoing cost of software licensing architecture delivers unprecedented reliability with usage-based options. Final price tags can and availability that is unsurpassed in the Another tactic to protect sales is to run be based on actual processor usage, rather than market”. mainframe operating systems on cheaper Intel- the size of the mainframe. However, Microsoft and other vendors based hardware. Bull, Fujitsu and Unisys all offer Cost is also a major catalyst for outsourcing disagree. HP in particular has attacked the IBM low-end Intel-based mainframe servers, retaining some or all mainframe infrastructure, develop- mainframe, claiming in 2008 that 250 main- their traditional systems for larger customers. ment and support. frame customers worldwide saved 70 per cent by HP has gone one step further, phasing out its migrating to HP Integrity systems in the previous legacy S-series NonStop servers for Intel Itanium Skills shortages two years. Microsoft isn't far behind, launching machines. The availability of mainframe skills is a major the Mainframe Migration Alliance: a group of IBM has resisted this temptation, though issue for mainframe users. Few ICT students vendors offering tools and solutions to migrate it does release a smaller Business Class main- graduate with any mainframe knowledge or from mainframes to Microsoft platforms. frame. Other organisations have looked to fill this skills, and invariably move towards 'sexier' The global warming debate has become gap with System z emulation software. However, technologies. A 2008 BMC survey found 63 per a white knight for mainframe manufacturers, IBM controversially won't license its proprietary cent of mainframe sites in the Asia Pacific region producing an increased awareness in environ- operating systems on anything other than a ranked skills shortages as a major concern. ment costs – both dollars and carbon credits. genuine System z mainframe. This concern extends to the average age of main- Mainframes are being positioned as the green Intel-based machines, together with “spe- frame staff, estimated by some to exceed 55. Of alternative: reducing cooling and electricity by ciality processors”, open up mainframes to respondents to a 2008 CA survey, 72 per cent centralising many servers onto one mainframe. other operating systems such as Windows and had mainframe staff eligible for retirement. In May 2009 Allianz Australia agreed, moving 60 UNIX. IBM is winning new mainframe customers However, it's not all bad news for mainframe Windows servers onto one IBM mainframe: an running Linux, and has announced the new z196 employers. New languages like Java, together expected saving of $1 million. model with an optional extension to host its with GUI tools for application development Mainframes are also marketed as a cen- POWER7 and System x systems. and system administration, ease a graduate's tralised solution to problems from an increasing But are these technological improvements mainframe learning curve. Any consolidation, sprawl of smaller servers and vendors. enough to save the mainframe? migration or outsourcing of mainframe applica- tions also adds available mainframe experts to The mainframe future Mainframe costs and migration the market. Mainframes continue to perform more processing Mainframes often host critical core systems IBM also argues that its IBM Academic Ini- than many would believe possible. Manufacturers developed over decades that have high trans- tiative has been successful in producing more are successfully protecting their customer base action rates and availability needs. Moving to computing graduates with mainframe skills. In and revenues with technological innovations and other platforms without impacting functionality, Australia, only one tertiary institution offers a smarter solutions. Many customers are happy security or performance is rarely easy or cheap. mainframe curriculum: Canberra University in with their mainframes, and are hesitant to make David Ireland, Unisys director for Clearpath Sales partnership with Global Online Learning. Unisys the investment needed to move away. Asia Pacific, believes many customers are more reports that no customers are feeling any imme- However, the signs are not all good. HP's interested in better using existing mainframe diate mainframe skills shortages. Business Critical Systems, which includes the assets, rather than spending on migration. “It's For those companies willing to train up OpenVMS and NonStop systems, suffered an surprising to see how many people are turning graduates, the road may be long and expensive. 18 per cent decrease in revenue over the nine back to the mainframe,» he says. Ireland hasn't Mainframe classroom course prices hover months to June. IBM was hit even harder, with lost any Asia Pacific Clearpath customers over around $800 per student per day, and are infre- System z sales plummeting more than 20 per the past couple of years. quently scheduled. HP's website shows no HP cent over the same period. They will both hope However, mainframe applications continue NonStop courses scheduled in Australia or New that these figures are a result of the global finan- to be migrated, including the Commonwealth Zealand for the second half of 2010. Unisys cial crisis, and not a sign of things to come. 

78 | Information Age October/November/December 2010