I have been reading IBM-Main off and on for awhile and one of the
reoccurring concerns
is, of course, the phasing out of the mainframe at various shops. There
is one aspect of
this that, I think, has not been emphasized. This aspect was pointed out
in recent Wall
Street Journal column titled, 'Apple's 30 Years of Selling Cool Stuff
With Uncool Message'
by Lee Gomes (Apri 5, 2006). I think that the emphasis of the article
also pertains to
the issue of the IBM mainframe vs Windows/UNIX servers. To quote the
article:
"The idea is that moral values can be attached to technological
objects; that
certain kinds of technology are inherently more ethical than other
kinds; and that,
by extension, the simple act of owning or using one particular kind
of technology
makes you a better person than you'd be if you didn't".
I think that there are a set of managers who developed during the era of
the raise of
PC's who see things in these terms. Interestingly enough, the
semi-technical managers
are the biggest problem. Purely bottom-line accounting types are less of
a problem.
I wonder if we are pointing to the wrong thing. Instead of pointing to
"ROI" or "cost
effectiveness" maybe we should ask questions like, "If we were to
exorcise the demons
from the IBM mainframe should we look for demons mostly in the CPU or in
the I/O
subsystem or on the disk packs?"
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