IBM Unites Mainframe, Windows Systems

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Guest,
User Rank: Apprentice
11/21/2011 | 4:56:46 AM

re: IBM Unites Mainframe, Windows Systems

This is not two platforms on the same server (mainframe). It is Windows on x86, as everyone is running it today, and mainframe OSs on the mainframe. The Unified Resource Manager (zManager) connects the x86 and Power based workloads on the zBX chassis to the mainframe and allows you to manage everything from one counsel.

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Guest,
User Rank: Apprentice
11/21/2011 | 4:48:04 AM

re: IBM Unites Mainframe, Windows Systems

You're confused. OSA cards are not and never were Windows PCs on the mainframe. OSA is just an open standards adapter to the mainframe's CPU controller bus. The OSA integrates the control unit and device into the same hardware. It does so by placing it on a single card that directly connects to the central processor complex I/O bus. People use OSA today for connecting mainframes to systems that run open protocols (TCP/IP for instance). Basically, OSA is a NIC on the mainframe.

This is way different. First, Windows is not actually going inside the mainframe. Windows servers are being run on x86 blades (native Windows) in the zBX chassis which is connected to the mainframe on a low latency private network. The mainframe is able to control the Windows workloads from the zManager counsel, as well as Unix, Linux on x86 and other workloads. Second, this is not Windows desktop version. This is Windows Server. You could run thin-client PCs or Exchange or whatever else you want to do on a Windows platform. Third, this has zero to do with z/OS, MVS, MIPS or any other mainframe licenses with the exception of zManager. It does not effect the MIPS count for software licensing.

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rrapport145,
User Rank: Apprentice
11/7/2011 | 11:39:49 PM

re: IBM Unites Mainframe, Windows Systems

Cool. Dr Lou's comment shows that technology is sometimes too advanced for the current generation of users. DEC also had distributed DOS and Windows platforms served from a central computer in the early 90s. It didn't scale well when PC prices went down with simultaneous increase in application base.

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Dr Lou,
User Rank: Apprentice
11/7/2011 | 5:39:06 PM

re: IBM Unites Mainframe, Windows Systems

IBM has been putting PCs inside mainframes since the late 80s and 90s. They were called OSA or open systems adapters. The problem was always cost and licensing. Mainframe licenses are way more expensive and they go on and on. PC or windows licenses don't. The question was always how to monetize it without ruining the business they already had. IBM had he chance to corner windows in the office environment in the late 90s with OS/2 Workspace On Demand, which would have added unlimited remote boot OS/2 instances with control at the "icon level" for businesses using mainframe resources as the platform. A short sighted executive killed it with the stroke of a pen, calling OS/2 and Albatross, never seeing that windows, which ran on OS/2 at the time, would have been next. Too much time around the executive coffee machine or too much hard hairspray causing atrophy to the little mind...Now they want to put windows on the mainframe (again). One thing for sure, having too big a bank account can lead to some very obfuscated decisions. I guess if it's your money and you want to bet on folks who think themselves so elite that their own whims direct large markets, company fate, and other bone headed long term effects, then go ahead, buy in. One thing for sure, if it was so easy, then it probably would have been done before...sounds like old stuff rehashed by a new line of wannabe thinkers with overgrown egos...if you hang around long enough, you'll see it all, a couple of times over...few new inventions exists, just old thoughts shown to a new group of gullible animals...hey, just one voice...

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