A Mainframe Renaissance
by Chris Craddock

Many of the digerati in the IT industry and on the blogosphere have been debating whether or not there is a mainframe renaissance going on. As you might expect, IBM touts their case in favor, and many in the mainframe camp assert that the 'little boxes' couldn't possibly replace mainframes. There are also nay-sayers who believe the mainframe is a dinosaur: cumbersome and slow. Objectively, there are elements of truth on both sides of this argument. READ MORE >

Top Mainframe Stories from Around the Web

(IT Director) Running OpenSolaris on an IBM System z mainframe offers benefits not only to IBM and Sun, but to the end user organizations as well. For Sun, expanding ISV and developer support for Solaris is important. For IBM, it's about making mainframe sales. Organizations can benefit from mainframe delivers greater energy efficiency than a roomful of RISC machines, so the thinking goes. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) According to Scott Crenshaw, Red Hat's vice president of Enterprise Linux Business, many enterprises are planning mainframe consolidation projects. Want some evidence that this idea has enough merit to be taken seriously? The SAP Business Suite family of business applications and the SAP NetWeaver middleware are now certified on RHEL running on an IBM mainframe. READ MORE >

(Mainframe Update) If you missed our first reference to this SHARE survey in the January 22 edition of Big Iron, here's your second chance to take a peek inside several hundred mainframe shops. You'll find interesting results on topics like service oriented architecture, hand-coded scripts, and enterprise-wide sharing of data. READ MORE >

(CMG) The Computer Measurement Group, the IT professionals responsible for planning, measuring, analyzing, and managing the world's largest IT infrastructures, is now accepting applications for papers and presentations for the 34th International Conference to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, December 7 through 12, 2008, at the Paris Hotel. All paper and presentation submissions will be evaluated through a blind peer-referee process. READ MORE >

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

See our full calendar of events at
http://www.itjungle.com/big/big-calendar.html

February 24-29 -- Orlando, Florida - The SHARE mainframe user group will be hosting its spring event in sunny Florida, and will be focusing on two areas that are affecting mainframe shops in a big way these days: Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) application software design and server virtualization and consolidation. As usual, SHARE will also include the Technology Exchange Expo, where vendors can hawk their mainframe wares and attendees can try to find the tools to solve their IT woes. LEARN MORE >

April 6-11 -- Las Vegas, Nevada - Impact 2008, IBM's "Smart SOA Conference" is a showcase for WebSphere as the foundation, the tools, and all the materials needed to create a service oriented architecture. Technical experts from IBM, analysts, and companies that have implemented SOA solutions are taking the starring roles in this production. In addition to educational sessions and keynote addresses, there will be a solution center expo area. LEARN MORE >

May 18-22 -- Orlando, Florida - Users of IBM's Tivoli Maximo and Netcool software have their own conference dedicated to integrating the silo environments that are prevalent in many data centers and improving service management. Included in the event will be presentations by more than 100 customers and business partners and one-on-one meetings with IBM executives, industry experts and analysts. LEARN MORE >