From: "D'jinnie" <jinn@inetnebr.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 02:59:42 +0800
To: Cypherpunks Mailing List <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net>
Subject: Mainframe solution (fwd)
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.95.980219124520.15835A-100000@falcon>
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I do not know where this was published but it seems interesting...

---
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

jinn@inetnebr.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 13:13:20 -0500
From: "Labry, Phillip" <Phillip.Labry@CWI.CABLEW.COM>
To: intp@jubjub.wizard.com
Subject: Mainframe solution,Lengthy but interesting...
Resent-Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 10:14:27 -0800 (PST)
Resent-From: intp@jubjub.wizard.com


> Got this interesting article from an old friend of mine.........the
> best approach seems to be to build GUI-based applications on the
> front-end and use mainframes as big servers.
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> By Martin J. Garvey
> 
>         The mainframe, once the IT backbone for many enterprises, is
> regaining that stature. Next month, several large companies will lead
> the charge back to big iron in an attempt to rescue unwieldy or
> stalled client-server projects. Mainframes, these companies say,
> provide better price/performance and return on investment than their
> sleeker Unix and Windows NT systems, while delivering proven security,
> scalability, and reliable centralized management.
> 
>         GTE Data Services, Motorola Semiconductor, University Health
> System, and others are at the cusp of a trend toward leveraging the
> mainframe to back out of costly or unmanageable Unix and Windows NT
> client-server implementations. Brian Jeffery, an analyst with
> International Technology Group, an IT consulting firm in Los Altos,
> Calif., says about 70 sites worldwide are porting Unix or NT
> applications back to IBM OS/390-based mainframes. By fall, he
> estimates, as many as 300 sites will convert Oracle, SAP, and
> PeopleSoft projects to OS/390. "By 1998, there will be thousands of
> these accounts," predicts Jeffery.
> 
>     "It's a brand new life for the mainframe," says Cal Braunstein, a
> consultant with Robert Frances Group, an IT market research firm in
> Westport, Conn. "It's far less expensive to tie Unix and client-server
> information into mainframes than it is to spread it out across much
> smaller systems."
> 
>     University Health System, a 450-bed hospital in San Antonio, hopes
> to begin in August to move data-intensive applications, such as
> patient accounting and discharge, to the IBM Parallel Sysplex
> mainframe.  The project is expected to be completed by year's end. "We
> can't go in a direction of more and more resources for a nonending
> distributed environment," says Tim Geryk, director of technical
> services for University Health. "We need to turn it back the other way
> for a better scale of economy."
> 
>         Currently, University Health's enterprise has 2,500 desktops
> attached to LANs, 100 RS/6000 Unix servers, about 600 other Unix
> machines, 2,000 dumb terminals, an IBM ES/ 9000 bipolar mainframe, and
> an IBM 9672 CMOS mainframe. "It's time-intensive to keep so many
> workstations and servers up and running when so many different things
> can go wrong," says Geryk. "We can't put our hands around it anymore."
> 
>     The company is installing an IBM Parallel Sysplex architecture
> that supports Unix applications to provide a single-platform image
> across its enterprise. Bill Tudor, director of systems product
> management for mainframe maker Hitachi Data Systems in Santa Clara,
> Calif., says it's not uncommon to see multiple racks with 200 Unix
> servers in the data center. "It's just cheaper to run that same
> information on the mainframe," he says.
> 
>         According to Jeffery of ITG, it's cheaper and easier to
> increase network bandwidth for integration between Unix servers and
> the mainframe than it is to add more Unix servers. Also, customers are
> demanding that systems management, as well as enterprise data itself,
> be centralized.
> 
>         And according to the Clipper Group, a consultancy in
> Wellesley, Mass., Unix's security hasn't caught up to the mainframe's.
> Some intrepid IT users aren't just migrating some applications to
> mainframes. They're also consolidating client-server architectures
> onto big iron. One financial services company reportedly is
> consolidating as many as 600 Unix servers onto one mainframe, sources
> say.
> 
>         The hidden costs of Unix servers may be the final incentive to
> push many customers back to the mainframe. For example, CMOS
> mainframes may cost three times more than Unix servers, but management
> costs for distributed Unix servers are 20 times greater than those for
> supporting a mainframe, according to Giga Information Group in
> Cambridge, Mass.
> 
>         IT managers can port Unix applications to the OS/390 mainframe
> operating system for acceptable performance in a production
> environment. Moreover, enterprise applications, including those from
> Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP, are available on OS/390. And the CMOS
> processor architecture, the heart of IBM's Parallel Sysplex mainframe
> cluster that scales to 32 processors, is for the first time as
> powerful as older bipolar mainframes.
> 
>         Motorola's $7.9 billion semiconductor business unit in Phoenix
> will begin moving all of its SAP R/3 data to the mainframe in the next
> four months.
> 
>         Its architecture will then include PC clients, Unix servers as
> application servers, and an IBM OS/390-based Parallel Sysplex
> mainframe as host for about 500 Gbytes of data. The company says it is
> one of five pilot sites for SAP's R/3 on the mainframe. Before taking
> on the pilot, the semiconductor manufacturer evaluated multiple Unix
> servers and databases. The Unix systems lost to the mainframe because
> they lacked the power and manageability Motorola was looking for. "It
> was the best way to keep the database in one place," says Patrick
> Horrigan, corporate VP and IS director for Motorola's SPS division.
> "And it's 40% cheaper than the Unix solutions."
> 
>     'Tons Of Unix'
>         At GTE Data Services in Temple Terrace, Fla., shifting its
> distributed applications to the mainframe conforms to the division's
> motto of "right data, right device." The group is consolidating six
> systems into three or four. "With our so-called distributed systems,we
> have tons of Unix out there, but it's really not even distributed,"
> says operations director Pat Remick. "We're just piling a lot of Unix
> boxes on raised floors next to the mainframes, so we decided to look
> at the better reliability and scalability of the mainframe."
> 
>         Analysts point out that server consolidation isn't relegated
> solely to mainframes. HP and Sun Microsystems recently both announced
> enterprise-class servers that many say will suffice as Unix
> consolidation servers. "There is increasing value in consolidating
> Unix servers and PC servers separate from mainframes," says John
> Young, VP of enterprise systems planning for the Clipper Group.
> "People are realizing the savings behind the re-emergence of the data
> center. It's the place for consolidating processing, management,
> accountability, and data storage."
> 
>         The pioneers in the migration back to mainframes say they
> aren't ready to dismiss Unix. "Our client and application server tiers
> of R/3 will remain distributed with Unix," says Motorola SPS's
> Horrigan.  However, distributed computing could benefit from greater
> reliability, availability, and scalability. "Downtime from distributed
> systems costs too much in management, and I know a lot of processing
> is on Unix," says GTE's Remick. "But some transition must happen.
> Something has to be done."
> 
> 
> 
>     SIDEBAR:Reasons For Returning
> *   Mainframe security is at least two years ahead of Unix or Windows
> NT
> *   OS/390 can run Unix, NT, and enterprise applications such as SAP
> R/3
> *   Mainframes have the capacity to store a database of 500 Gbytes or
> more without splitting it up
> *   Parallel Sysplex configurations have no single point of failure
> and are easy to update and maintain while the system is running
> 
> 						    Data:
> InformationWeek
> 
> 
> 
> --
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