Monday
01Feb2010
The Arcati Mainframe Yearbook 2010
February 1, 2010 (www.arcati.com) Published by Mark Lillycrop
The independent annual guide for users of IBM mainframe systems.
RESEARCH & RESOURCES
For a list of Research & Resources, click here.
February 1, 2010 Thursday
03Dec2009
Why Choice Matters for Mainframe Customers
December 3, 2009 OpenMainframe.org Position Paper
The recent news that the US Department of Justice is investigating the IBM mainframe market has resulted in numerous stories and blog posts both for and against the investigation. However, many of the arguments have not addressed the most important question: what do mainframe customers want?
This paper addresses the key issues that impact the users of mainframe technology and why the resolution of these issues is critically important to mainframe customers.
Download the position paper PDF (147K)
Tuesday
01Sep2009
NEON zPrime Business and Legal Answer Book
September 1, 2009
NEON Enterprise Software zPrime Business and Legal Answer Book Flash demonstration
Click here to view the demo
Monday
30Mar2009
Mainframe Monopoly
March 30, 2009 (CCIA Issue Report)
IBM’s record of run-ins with antitrust authorities predates even the electronic computer itself, stretching as far back as the days of its dominant mechanical punch card systems.
Consent decrees and other legal actions in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were important chapters in the evolution of high-tech markets. In fact, it was only when IBM was prevented from tying its hardware to its software that independent software makers flourished and the modern computer industry as we know it was born.
Click to read CCIA's "Understanding IBM's Mainframe Monopoly"
Wednesday
25Mar2009
Understanding IBM's Mainframe Monopoly
March 25, 2009 OpenMainframe.org Research Report (Revised March 25, 2009)
Initially open systems were established around technology based on the UNIX operating system from AT&T. Instead of having a proprietary operating system for one manufacturer’s platform, UNIX was ported to multiple platforms and quickly emerged as a standard operating system that offered portability of application code and IT skills across systems from multiple manufacturers such as Sun, IBM, NCR, AT&T, DEC, Hewlett-Packard and others.
As personal computer technology became powerful enough to run server-based, multi-user applications, operating systems emerged to allow the execution of business applications – although on a smaller scale than what was possible on a mainframe or UNIX mini-computer. UNIX was ported to the Intel platform and other network-oriented server operating systems from Novell and Microsoft came to market in the 1990s. The popular Open Source Linux operating system came to life and also gradually emerged as a viable option for certain classes of server computing.
It appeared that healthy market forces were in play and customers were benefiting – however not all vendors in the business server market were playing by the rules.
IBM saw the potential for volume business server computing using Linux, UNIX and Windows-based systems (LUW servers) but it also saw the huge profits that could be extracted from customers locked in the old world of proprietary systems.
While the IBM mainframe was increasingly less appealing for new customers’ needs, existing mainframe customers found themselves locked into the application interfaces on the mainframe and found it difficult to move to other more modern, lower-cost platforms. And yet, these customers needed additional computing resources so were forced to continue to buy IBM mainframes for this class of proprietary legacy applications.
Download the research report PDF (658K)