In a message dated 5/29/2005 8:45:55 P.M. Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Probably the biggest customer of this type is the US Government... Unfortunately, it's difficult, say for a particular Army base running a personnel system and maybe a few other local applications, to go back in a few years to the Pentagon/Congress to get additional funding to upgrade their hardware (even if it makes better sense in terms of the cost of the hardware maintenance). So, they may have to run for 15 or 20 years with the hardware they got as part of the initial procurement. Another part of government's problem is the length of the procurement process. Much time has to be spent preparing a politically correct Request for Proposal (RFP), then waiting for vendors to respond, then someone must read and evaluate them, then the contract is awarded, then at least one losing vendor brings suit in Federal Court to stop or delay the award. Finally some lucky vendor gets to start doing the real work. After X number more years, the system is installed. But by then, of course, the equipment is way obsolete. Twenty more years must elapse before the government can even think about an upgrade, which means go back to the first step - prepare an RFP. I saw an FAA Air Route Traffic Control Center, where they keep airpanes from bumping into each other when up in the air, in 1978. All ancient S/360 processors and 2314 DASDs. Their radar systems were equally old. Very scary if you fly a lot. I saw a Defense Information Agency (DIA) data center that had a S/360 model 40 running MFT. All in 1978. And NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Beltsville, Maryland was still using a S/360 model 195 that was re-IPLed at least four times a day due to hardware malfunctions. All in 1978. No MVS, no S/370s, no 3330 DASD. Bill Fairchild ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
