Laugh back at them - how much do you pay per month in z/OS licensing? :)
z/VM is a OTC (One Time Charge in this case) product, listing at something
like $40K per IFL.
Linux from SuSE has a $5K per year support/subscription cost, and if you
don't pay the sub,you can still use the product.
HLASM from Dave Rivers is *amazingly* affordable.
We could probably be coerced into licensing some software. :)
All in all, the reason we went this route in the first place was simply the
licensing costs for z/OS and CICS. The only significant costs we have are
hardware maintenance, and those are roughly equivalent to the same costs on
PCs or RS6000, or even iSeries machines.
On the other hand, we have had exactly 20 minutes of downtime in over three
years, and that was caused by a service element.
Go figure...
We needed an interactive environment that would allow us to port green
screen apps, do web apps, client server, and so on. The development
environment we use is incredibly productive for Assembler too - easily
comparable with a COBOL or Java shop.
Seriously. If you are anywhere near Austin, come visit.
-Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: "McKown, John" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 7:46 AM
Subject: Re: Another long slow decline.
-----Original Message-----
From: The IBM z/VM Operating System
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of P. Raulerson
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 8:12 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Re: Another long slow decline.
Yep, I mean Linux Assembler application code driving 3270
client screens
really really fast.
Yes, not just assembler, but HLASM (the GOOD stuff!) running
in a Linux
guest. Doing all sorts of neat
things, like printing, talking over the network, process
control, and a
whole bunch more.
With an Assembler Debugger that is hands down the best
Assembler development
tool anyone could imagine.
:)
VSAM? Well- we call it GSAM because the guy who wrote it in
a couple weeks
is named George. Why not? It is very very fast, and does not have the
overhead of a DBRMS. It handles things like variable length
records and so
forth, and embeds the indexes in the same physical file as
the data. (Makes
it very easy to move things around.) We had to write file sharing and
locking, but that was not overly onerous.
And did I mention this stuff runs FAST? REAL FAST?
-Paul
<grin>
Man, that is a dream-come-true. But we are on the "Commercial,
Off-the-Shelf Software" bandwagon now. Management here would likely die
laughing if we suggested such an environment. Too expensive! (their
mantra) Takes too long to implement! And so on as to why it is
impossible. Well, the HLASM part is definately "impossible" around here.
I have enough problems helping the programmers with COBOL questions. Oh,
and the problems are not on my end. And the answers are in the COBOL
manuals. They just don't have time to read it.
--
John McKown
Senior Systems Programmer
HealthMarkets
Keeping the Promise of Affordable Coverage
Administrative Services Group
Information Technology
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