On Jun 25, 10:21 pm, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> IBM defends cost of buying and maintaining a mainframe
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | IBM defended the mainframe as a box that doesn't take up much space and is an
> | ideal consolidation platform, especially for Linux. By running virtualized
> | Linux instances on top of z/VM, the mainframe's virtualization operating
> | system, Stallings argued that a mainframe's TCO is better with as few as 100
> | distributed servers.
IBM had almost killed the mainframe. The Kingston NY facility was
closed in 1994. Many were predicting the total end of the mainframe.
IBM then decided to put Unix and MVS on the same machine, and make it
possible to run both at the same time. VM/CMS had been around for a
long time, but IBM decided to streamline the VM, which made OS/390
even easier to manage in both Unix and MVS mode. With Z/OS, the
further streamlined VM into ZVM. A skunkworks project to emulate OS/
370 on a Linux PC was followed by a port of Linux to the emulator.
This Linux ran pretty well on the new system, and then IBM officially
endorsed the Linux ZVM module. It was actually a
good fit. Many corporations had offloaded much of the User Interface
to other systems. Linux applications were designed to be
distributed. The Beowulf cluster had shown the advantages of
clusters.
> | And, he said that Linux on the mainframe is gaining steam. About 25% of the
> | MIPS IBM ships on the mainframe run Linux, he said.
> `----
These days it's not unusual for large corporations to order a
Mainframe and plan in advance to have Linux VMs connected to Mainframe
VMs, usually using WMQ (aka MQ Series). This is a great solution for
providing a web interface to CICS applications. There is also the
HATS interface for WebSphere, which can also interconnect MVS, IMS,
and TSO applications to Linux.
> http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid80...
>
|
|
