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In insurance, the question about the future of mainframe legacy systems is a perennial favorite. While most technologies only last a few years, legacy mainframe systems hang on as the […]

The Year 2000 problem will mostly affect mainframe-based systems. Companies can deal with this problem if they are sufficiently aware of the technical causes of this date processing problem. One of the causes of the Y2K problem is that year dates for the 21st century will be mishandled on many systems. In addition, the fact that 2000 will be a leap year is expected to further exacerbate the matter. Hardware and system level problems also contribute to this problem. A six-step program is recommended to combat the Year 2000 problem. The steps involved in this solution are cost/benefit analysis, impact analysis, correction of the problem, correction of hardware and system problems, compliance testing of in-house systems and compliance testing of external interfaces.

Ever on the cutting edge amongst government agencies, NASA announced it has shut down its last mainframe to complete its move to smaller, distributed systems running Linux and other systems.In [...]

IT managers looking to cut labor costs during the ongoing recession might want to think twice before laying off any of their workers who have mainframe or data center skills. […]

IBM plans to ship a Linux-only mainframe that's expected to cost about half the price of its current machines, which support both Linux and the company's z/OS operating system. The […]

FIRMS need to rediscover traditional mainframe-based disciplines to make e-business work effectively, according to members of the UKCMG user group. In a debate at last week's UKCMG conference in Edinburgh, […]

While it's perfectly natural for IT managers to want to mine their mainframes and make host data available on the Web, up until recently, the steps required to access that […]

A mainframe skills shortage is emerging as subtly as gray hair. It's bumping up training costs and raising concerns among data center managers who wonder how they will replace retiring […]

Electronic securities trading companies not only must face the challenges of World Wide Web (WWW) reliability and delays but those of the mainframe computers that translate information used to process transactions from the Web site and the gateway servers. Capacity is often an issue with WWW sites and can cause them to fail. Charles Schwab and Company Inc. recorded 75 million page hits in one day in April 1999. Mainframe computers contain dozens of software programs that can cause a system crash.

Moving the weekend isn't long enough to convert yopur customer information system. No matter how you cut it, the Customer Informafion System (CIS) represents a utility's largest computer asset. It [...]

Many large users of proprietary systems are finding it hard to shake them off and move to client-server computing, with the cost and logistics of retraining their workforces being one […]

FOR MANY LARGE ORGANIZATIONS, IBM SYSTEM Z MAINFRAMES ARE AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF THEIR ENTERPRISE. The platform's robust database management systems, security, and transaction processing capabilities have contributed to the [...]

The old IBM Corp. mainframes that the Federal Aviation Administration uses to host directional and radar applications for the nation's air traffic control systems are ready for the year 2000, […]

Ten Defense Information Systems Agency mainframe data processing centers will shrink but not close under the final version of DISA's consolidation plan. DISA will consolidate into six mainframe centers 16 […]

Once again, it's time for unsuspecting IS leaders to take a good idea, overdo it, and end up delivering shoddy service. Today's example: recentralization of corporate computing services. After years […]

'End-users? They're just parasites on the system.'--A programmer/analyst colleague in 1980 An ongoing debate fostered by Stewart Alsop rages over when we'll unplug the last mainframe. (Does this mean there […]