Howard Rifkind wrote:
So where is this all going.
If there aren't any new mainframe shops coming online where are all of these new trainees going to find employment?
When there are openings in most mainframe shops it looks to me that the positions is being filled from current employees who show interest in getting into either the operations area or the systems programming area.
Wouldn't it best serve IBM to make it much more attractive for smaller shops to get on board with, lets say, a z/890.
The bottom line is COST. Lower the entry cost of the hardware/software and then you would have something.
Sorry to be negative about all of this...but show me the beef?
Well, as most of you know I'm looking for work in this
field if I can find it. So I'm following up the IBM
Academic Initiative list of participating universities.
(After all, there are only 20 listed, compared to
250 for the iSeries programs.) [Actually, there are over
50, I find, including international institutions.]
Most of these schools are 2nd or 3rd tier schools,
including a number of community colleges. [Not that there
is anything wrong with community colleges, but my point
is there are no top-of-the-line US universities on the
list.]
Follow the links to the schools sites and do a Search
on "mainframe" and you either turn up no hits (is there
really a program here, or is the university just slow
to put it on their website), or you get Linux on zSeries,
or you find an instructor bio that says he has seen the
"rise and fall of mainframes", or you get some actual
courses (e.g., Columbus State University) that are "OS/390"
or even "MVS" or "the Hitachi AS/EX 80 mainframe" [which,
we are assured, runs "MVS/XA"]; I haven't found a z/OS hit yet.
So, let's train them on out of date technology and
count our good deeds for the day. This doesn't help
IBM's image of commitment to the z/OS platform, nor
does it help the students attending.
One more sign that perhaps IBM doesn't really consider
z/OS "strategic".
Kind regards,
-Steve Comstock
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