I have been working on computer systems for over 40 years now. Anything from mainframe software development to mini-computers to PCs to embedded software development. It seems to me that although people think that the mainframe is going away...it's not obvious to me that the statement is totally true.
Certainly, the main system that I work on here is mainframe based. There are other systems that we "talk" to that are distributed. Several of those were migrated over the last few years from a variety of platforms to HP Superdomes. The last one that was migrated HP had to build a superdome specifically for this installation (as they are not made anymore). This type of thing does not happen in the IBM mainframe world. IBM has had a migration path for many years to allow upgrades. If you look around the CICS Listserver, it becomes obvious just how many different corporations are using mainframes in significant ways. We have recently installed z/VM here (a z/OS shop only up till now) to enable some XML front end work to go on running under Linux. z/OS will still not go away here. The inbound XML transactions will still be processed by the existing mainframe applications. We process almost 7M transactions per day through the IBM mainframes with significant database processing at the back end. Kevin -----Original Message----- From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gabe Goldberg Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 10:22 AM To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: Article for z/Journal I'm doing an article for Bob Thomas' z/Journal <http://www.zjournal.com/> about next-generation mainframers, industry and educational outreach initiatives for students and young professionals, opportunities and obstacles for people exploring this career area, etc. <www.ibm.com/university/systemz> is interesting if you've not seen it. A long-time and common topic on these lists (and I've cross-posted this note to several) is the graying of mainframers and how there is or will be a shortage of people to use/support/enhance big iron. I'm interested in what you're seeing -- in industry, schools, user groups, etc. -- regarding new generations of mainframers. Does your employer court/train young professionals for mainframe careers? Do you work with younger colleagues? Is there a generation gap or is there "solidarity within mainframes"? Do you have younger relatives working on mainframes? If so, did you influence their career choices? Do user groups adequately educate new folks in this technology and culture? Are your mainframe areas of interest reflected in industry/educational initiatives? If YOU are a non-graying mainframer -- what led to this career path? How do you like it so far? What future options do you see for yourself? Anything else? This will be a relatively short article so I likely won't be able to use everything contributed, but it's an interesting topic so I might explore it more later. I'll appreciate all comments/feedback -- and please reply directly to me as well as to the lists where you see this; since I get list digests it's a pain extracting nuggets from the daily mailings. Thanks for helping... -- Gabriel Goldberg, Computers and Publishing, Inc. (703) 204-0433 3401 Silver Maple Place, Falls Church, VA 22042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
