I have read many discussions here on the topic of management is not exploiting the z/OS to it utmost. It maybe has been relegated to doing its 1990 work and the web is passing it by. I have quite a few theories why that is true but I also have some strategies for showing its worth. These have been applied here and did show results. I do believe it when management does not want new projects pointed the way of the mainframe which do Web Serving, Web Application Servers, JAVA, etc. But one can do some things which are entirely proper.
I understand I am my own best customer so I started exploiting the zFS file system to store by z/OS documentation. One can argue it is on the Web but my focus is Disaster Recovery; what happens if the Internet is not available yet. OK, I could use CDROMs or DVDs. But then I have internal documents. So I have created a Web Site of our internal documentation; PDFs, WORD, XCel, Visio Diagrams, Text files, ZIP Files, etc. We get the HTTP server for free, so use it. Putting up just static links to documents and showing it around will amaze non-IT folks. I have heard, “Gee, you can store ASCII files, WORD, spreadsheets, etc, on the mainframe – amazing…..”. To us techies, this might not seem a great feat. One customer of mine created her own documentation website called SPIDERWEB with the idea that is a disaster happens, their documentation gets recovered too by the mainframe DR Plan; and it does. What comes free with z/OS is the IBM tools called IBM Ported Tools for z/OS: PHP for z/OS feature (PHP for z/OS) http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/php/index.html Once we had this all available, then when I would visit a customer area and got asked a question, would borrow their PC or have type in our URL and up would pop a list of documentation. Then I would make the point that the mainframe “Server” was hosting all this and besides it was recovered in the event of disaster; just as all their applications are or could be. So in the end, there is some things which can be done or maybe only for you to do. Even if it does not impress the bosses, it will give you good experience on how to do it and keep your skills current. So in the end, did I tell management of my plans; no. This was just me managing my own system for my own use. Was it meant to impress others? Never. But if it did impress poeple, then I was amazed. Jim p.s. later we got to implement “SMB” for a number of Windows applications to put an application’s data on the z9BC. The data gets replicated as part of the z/OS DR Plan and they get to host the application software on Windows. Now I will be following how long it takes them to recover the Windows application software in a DR when their data comes up and is available in our mandated 12 hours or usually much, much less on the z9BC to be back online. jim ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
