Steve, I understand your dilemma, but I think you may be seeing just a part of the picture. I think most companies developed their z/OS infrastructure applications during the seventies and early eighties, and their cadre of application developers is not large and shrinking, and that is what you are seeing.
However, systems software development is strong and getting stronger, and although I'm certain that there are applications out there that should be moved off the mainframe platform, there are just as many or more that are correctly hosted on z/OS. As you have correctly pointed out, perception is the key. A survey of ten of the top largest University Computer Science program chair people last year showed the surprising (maybe not so surprising) revelation that all of them thought mainframes had gone away in the 1990's. In reality, most of their financial transactions are done by mainframes, even if they are blissfully unaware of it. Meanwhile, they churn out graduates for which there are few or no jobs. Go figure. IBM is working to turn this perception around, but it is a difficult job. They have made progress, but they have a long ways to go. Tom Harper Exactly. My experiences are that most of the prosepects we call on tell us they are getting off the mainframe; even some of the long-time big processing shops are either trying to position to move off, or they are outsourcing their mainframe work. Sure there will be some work on z/OS in the future, but it will be done by a shrinking core of companies that are kinda' locked in. But as I've written before, IBM is not winning the hearts and minds of the people who make the purchase / lease decisions for IT systems. The mainframe is perceived as obsolete and stodgy, even if that is not a fair assesment. As far as "I do not see non z/OS platforms doing what z/OS is doing in the future", management seems to agree only in the sense they intend to do their work differently, so there will be no need for z/OS style work. I consider myself an optimist; but the z/OS future looks bleak to me; and you may have seen my earlier post that I am now looking for other work because I can no longer support myself doing z/OS appication programmer training. [If that changes soon, I'll be happy to get back into it; but I need to make a living!] Kind regards, -Steve Comstock ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
