Is the mainframe dead? No, but it's changing shape. IBM's latest launch is a good example of how traditional mainframe culture is disappearing -- and how the landscape for
mainframe skills is changing, too.
IBM's new machine, called the zEnterprise 196, is an update of its System z mainframe. The company, which is calling the unit a "hybrid computer", has married traditional mainframe components along with Power 7 blades, and x86 blades, too. The system, which is also being trumpeted as a "data centre in a box", is designed to support heterogeneous IT operations from a single platform.
Back in the day, a mainframe was a mainframe. Processors designed purely for the mainframe platform were combined with an operating system dedicated to that system. Developers wrote applications in mainframe-centric languages such as COBOL, and the concept of merging different operating systems and hardware platforms into the mainframe was rare, if heard of at all.
For some years now, IBM has been changing that. It has given its mainframe users the chance to run virtualised instances of Linux on its mainframe boxes, opening up the opportunity for many instances of open source applications to run alongside each other. And the zOS operating system supports many modern computing frameworks, such as Java. But IBM still relied heavily on its own processors as the hardware platform for the mainframe and operating system. Conversely, its competition -- who collectively make up a small percentage of the market that IBM dominates -- have mostly switched to commodity Intel CPUs to lower development costs for the hardware.
IBM's decision to mix its traditional home-grown processors along with commodity chips in its new mainframe offering indicates a significant change of direction. The company appears to be acknowledging that the mainframe is increasingly becoming a 'build-out' platform, rather than a traditional 'big iron'-only resource. The introduction of distributed technologies into the mainframe platform shows just how far it has penetrated this traditionally monolithic world.
IBM has explained that this system is essentially a heterogeneous datacentre in a single hardware platform, with all the associated benefits, such as a smaller physical footprint, a unified management hub, and an integrated set of components.
What will this do to traditional mainframe skills? It simply acknowledges their passing.
Mainframe administrators as we used to know them are retiring and their skills are disappearing. The new, modern breed of administrator is increasingly required to cope with a variety of heterogeneous technologies in addition to traditional mainframe system management. The mainframe as we knew it may not yet be dead, but it is certainly being displaced by a newer, more flexible approach to big iron
