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Mainframe technology is here to stay. Just add innovation.

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Mainframe != server (Score: 1)

by spacebar@pipedot.org on 2014-06-24 13:05 (#28S)

Do these people not know what a server is? Mainframes serve terminals, not web pages (though occasional these terminals run web-like interfaces a la intranet). The article seems to argue for main frames by saying that they are presently in use and therefor should be used... Yes, they are in use, but with personal computer prices so low now, why do we need terminals? Why not just use a server, which, so far as I can tell from the description of uses for mainframes in the articles, would serve the same purpose. IBMs is still trying to push their mainframes in the name of RAS but frankly given the state of IT, is that really an issue?

I see owning a mainframe as a Catch 22 to not stop owning a mainframe. Once you're in (especially if you've been in long enough that you would have at one point needed to have bought a mainframe), the price of switching your business to modern architecture goes up up and away.

But hell, I could be off base on all of this is the price is right. I don't have to time to look up numbers right now, so if someone wants to slam me into the ground with prices, that'd be cool.

Re: Mainframe != server (Score: 1)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-06-24 13:26 (#28V)

CICS can serve web pages. Many mainframes with web front ends have COBOL programs at the back end served via CICS. Didn't take the time to google? http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247206.html?Open

Mainframes can run java. No googling first? Try http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware2/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=38317 for a start.

It is like everything else in Life and IT. Everything has a place and purpose. If your need is to process millions of transactions per day the mainframe option starts looking very good. Need a web server and an app built in a hurry then Intel server bubbles to the top of the list.

Your reference to 'terminals' is quaint. You will find that few programmers have a 'terminal'. Mainframe is accessed via a 3270 emulator which is generally a program running on a PC, or more likely an app in a web browser.
Programming? These days an IDE running on the user's PC can interface with the mainframe, pull the code up locally, compile locally, and push the code to the mainframe for compile and promote. Code promotion? Package and promote code from your IDE.

The mainframe has a TCP/IP stack. What can't be built? If you have one, then you may as well use it as much as you can.

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Time Reason Points Voter
2014-06-25 22:00 Underrated +1 koen@pipedot.org

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Marked as [Not Junk] by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-01-04 00:02