> -----Original Message----- > From: The IBM z/VM Operating System > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of P. Raulerson > Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 8:01 AM > To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU > Subject: Re: Another long slow decline. > > > Laugh back at them - how much do you pay per month in z/OS > licensing? :)
They know. That is why they wanted to convert to Windows. They truly believed that they could replace the z890 (capacity 250) running z/OS and CICS mainly with two Unisys servers, one running MS SQL server, the other running all the applications. This would be "significantly more cost effective". Around here zSeries is identically equal to "too expensive". Period. Trying to convince them otherwise is just impossible. They refuse to listen. > > z/VM is a OTC (One Time Charge in this case) product, listing > at something > like $40K per IFL. We had z/VM on our IFL at one time. It was cancelled. Management had ideas that they could consolidate Windows servers onto an IFL running Linux. And didn't even bother to ask those of us who knew better. "A computer is a computer is a computer!" > 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. Again, I had SUSE Linux under that z/VM. Unfortunately, since it was a "UNIX" system, we z/OS people were told "hands off, it's not your area!" It then died because the "open" systems people couldn't figure out anything to do with it. So they just ignored it and it died. Despite my requests to allow me to support it. "No, that's not your area, be quiet." I now have SUSE SLES 10 running under Hercules/390 on an Athlon64 at home. Just to keep my hand in. > HLASM from Dave Rivers is *amazingly* affordable. > We could probably be coerced into licensing some software. :) I had System/ASM on my Linux system at home for a while. Unfortunately, my finances collapsed later that year due to illness in the family, which did not allow me to relicense it. The same with System/C. I agree that they are great products. I was attempting (perhaps foolishly) to see if I could cross-compile GNU software on my Intel/Linux system to run under z/OS. > > 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. Nice. You seem to have a much more open minded management than what I am used to. Here such a project would die before it could even be presented due to political factors. If we convert from z/OS (which is still the position of current management) to another platform, it __will__ be Windows. Period. End of discussion. Well, the plan is to allow z/OS to die a natural death as applications which run on it are replaced with COTS Windows software which "does the same function" without really doing a conversion, per se. > > 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 -- John McKown Senior Systems Programmer HealthMarkets Keeping the Promise of Affordable Coverage Administrative Services Group Information Technology This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose, and its content is protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this transmission, or taking any action based on it, is strictly prohibited.
