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• How to make a killing in the mainframe market 2 weeks, 4 days ago
  
  Suppose you are the CEO of a computer manufacturer who has decided to present an exciting new business idea to your board of directors. You propose nothing less than to turn your company around by entering the lucrative multi-billion dollar market for high-end machines that run IBM’s 64 bit operating system z/OS. Some of your advisors may object that mainframes are a dying breed. But you will remind them that these mainframes are still home to an eye-popping $5 trillion worth of applications and 80% of the world’s corporate data. There is only one obstacle that could prevent this scenario from coming to pass, you concede, and that is the legal barrier IBM has managed to erect around z/OS, which remains the indispensable platform for the world’s trillions of dollars worth of legacy mainframe applications.
• The mainframe isn't dead after all 1 month, 3 weeks ago
  
  Last week I had the occasion to visit SHARE, the premier mainframe conference, which was held in San Jose just down the road from where I live. Based on what I saw, there is one thing I can tell you for sure, and that is that Cobol is not dead. And neither is the mainframe.
• IBM says 99.8% of mainframe market not enough, we want it all 2 months ago
  
  Here’s an interesting story about a guy who has had several horses shot out from under him by IBM, and has finally decided to fight back. Steven Friedman is the President of Tampa-based T3 Technologies, which has been in the business of selling IBM-compatible mainframe systems to low-end users for 16 years. For the first 14 of those years T3 worked hand-in-hand with IBM to build out a segment of the market that was too small for IBM’s own royally compensated sales force to bother with. But in the fall of 2006 IBM abruptly terminated its long-standing partnership with T3. The trigger seems to have been T3’s plan to resell another line of mainframe-compatible systems from a hot new VC-funded Silicon Valley startup, the now defunct Platform Solutions. Overnight T3 went from a booming business with over 600 installed customers worldwide to a company that literally had nothing to sell. Since the Department of Justice had decided in 2001 to dissolve the famous Consent Decree which had for more than fifty years compelled IBM to play nice with competitors, there was apparently nothing to prevent Big Blue from getting away with this egregious instance of squashing the little guy.
• Governator stubs toe on antique computer 2 months ago
  
  The New York Times and the Sacramento Bee are reporting an amusing story out of California about how Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attempt to knock some sense into the state’s free spending legislators is being stymied by an antiquated mainframe computer system. You see, California is having its annual summer shouting match between angry pols who can’t agree on next year’s budget. Democrats want to raise taxes and spend more, while Republicans – guess what? – want to put the kibosh on new taxes and cut spending instead. Schwarzenegger – known in these parts as the “Governator” – is standing between the two warring camps, with the rock steady firmness of a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 Terminator.
• The Mainframe is No Dodo Bird 1 year, 3 months ago
  
  Thanks to their consolidation capabilities, IBM mainframes are working their way back into the public's fancy.