Brazilian Game Site Chooses Hybrid Mainframe-Cell Platform
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

When people think of multiuser games, they are rarely thinking about mainframes. But if you stop to think about it for a second, the workload management and high bandwidth capabilities of the mainframe would make it ideally suited to simulated worlds if the machine only had some serious number-crunching power to bring to bear on the visual simulation of the virtual worlds in a game. Apparently that's exactly what Hoplon International, a Brazilian online video game company, was thinking when it hired IBM to create a new gaming platform. READ MORE >

Top Mainframe Stories from Around the Web

(SearchDataCenter) If you haven't already had a meaningful discussion about energy efficiency in your data center, it's time you did. Power consumption is, if nothing else, a dollars and cents issue. Focus on the power required in relation to the amount of work being done. READ MORE >

(Insurance Networking News) The Hartford is one of most well-known insurance brand names in the United States. It has depended on mainframe systems for decades. But now it's undertaking a modernization strategy that upgrades applications to support a service oriented architecture and makes it possible to share applications and data with end users. READ MORE >

(IBM) System security on the mainframe stems from a design that allows multiple applications to concurrently share computing resources without interfering with one another and remain separate from the operating system. According to the points made in this white paper, it's the interaction of hardware and microcode that gives the mainframe its security advantage over other platforms. READ MORE >

(H&W) Imagine a billion-dollar corporation trying to meet its customers' requirements while running batch jobs once each hour. Now imagine the change after implementing virtual batch, which leads to running batch jobs at any time and provides uninterrupted CICS applications and immediate data access to the CICS user community. READ MORE >

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

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

May 6-10 -- San Jose, California - The International DB2 Users Group conference, known as IDUG 2007 North America, offers training and education on topics that include including DB2 for Linux, Unix, Windows; DB2 for z/OS; Informix; Java; Websphere; and XML. LEARN MORE >

May 18-22 -- Green Bay, Wisconsin - The WAVV Conference for users of the VSE, VM, and Linux operating systems, will include session topics such as z/VSE Version 4 features and benefits, SOA and interoperability, new workloads for the System z9 Business Class server, and integration of z/VSE processes into distributed environments. The event will be held at the Regency Suites Hotel. LEARN MORE >

May 20-25 -- Orlando, Florida - IBM's Impact 2007 conference features WebSphere and service oriented architecture (SOA) as the stars. Hear the story from IBM, analysts, and companies that have implemented SOA. There will be 325 sessions and labs and three separate tracks are designed for business leaders, IT executives, and technical personnel. LEARN MORE >