Mainframe Myths Debunked in 5 Minutes 

If more people spent just 5 minutes watching this,then the world would be a better place

Proud to be Mainframe Developer

My first 10 years in the industry were spent on big mainframes in the banking industry back in the 1980's doing transaction processing with ATM's and branch automation (and more). We had virtualization and distributed systems long before PC's even had viable networking. It's been interesting watching it go full circle over the last 40 years. A room full of rack mounted individual machines always seemed unnecessarily complex compared to a room full of a couple of mainframes.

I've learned so much about mainframes over the past year, and I'll tell you, I was very surprised! So much of global commerce and transactional processes are run on IBM mainframes, and I also didn't know that most batch jobs are run through IBM mainframes as well. This video was very informative and helpful, Rosalind. Thank you!

Circa 2000 I worked in a data center in Nashville, TN. A coworker went to school with a guy who ran three mainframes, he got paid 200k a year for each (lots of money today, even more back then). When I asked what they were used for, thinking it was science or modeling, all three were payroll servers ;_; he told me how they processes thousands and thousands of paychecks in just a few days, for government, healthcare, etc. Not what I expected.

It's.not expensive until you see the quotes from IBM.

Between 1997 and 2016 I used to work at Miami Dade College. The IT department had an IBM OS/390 with MVS Operating system. I was one of the 25 developers maintining applications with thousands on lines of code written in JCL, Cobol and Natural. The system also had night shift operators running scheduled jobs for the users. Online serving 8 campuses, 36,000 students and 4,000 employees. The system was running smothly until everything was migrated to ERP PeopleSoft working on PCs

I've done software development for 20 something years, but never mainframe. Recently, I started the Zexplore tutorial and learning more about the hardware. It's a whole other universe! The hardware throughput and flexibility of configuration is absolutely bonkers. Now It feels like commodity hardware has basically been asleep for the last decade.

Thanks for the informative video! I learned a lot about mainframes - I didn’t realize their prevalence!

I think IBM Mainframe users should bring the customers to talk about it.. only then people in the world and the tech professionals will realize the significance of it.. Unfortunately customers can't be brought for IBM's benefit and of course their's.. today's world needs more advertisement.. New Tech guys don't check the facts.. So, along with facts, we need the real users (customers of mainframes) who should come front and talk about it.. then eventually they will find it a career opportunity and join us..

I like this explanation. Excellent video

I'm retired now, but I have been working with Mainframes & EAMs since 1964. I've worked with IBM, RCA's, Honeywell's, Burroughs, CDC, Crays, Nixdorf's, ICL's, Univac's, Xerox, Magnuson's, and more. It has taken me to 64 countries and met many great people both in the industry and out. A Great IBM update Video.

Wonderful presentation, congratulations!

Basically it's a mainframe on steroids, occupies less space, flexibility in working in various cloud environments, conducive to applications development and maintenance

The last 3090 I was on was at a bank in the 90's. I was sold when I wrote a simple COBOL program to do some check processing and in less than 20 seconds or so, it went through 2M records. I was impressed!

Great video!!!! THanks Rosalind!

I am impressed with the backwards writting.

Retired z/OS sysprog. What do I think of when I hear "mainframe"? Hyper-reliable. Ours had a CPU fail once. How did we know? IBM called my boss to schedule the CE to come in to replace a module, hot swap. We didn't suffer any outage because the firmware swithed in a backup CPU and restarted the failing instruction on it. No user or system software outage. Just and entry in the OS hardware log.

IBM mainframes had a reputation for being old and stodgy, even when I was a kid, but they are really impressive tech for their use case. What they were built to do, they do like no other system. And with Linux on z coexisting alongside z/OS on different LPARs on the same computer, mainframes are poised to bridge the world of modern tech with the world of applications that have been running since before hippies emerged. I find the mainframe platform fascinating.

If it's not expensive, why don't you explain how z/OS license price changes proportionately with CPU count... or how much a 64GB memory upgrade costs.... Oh, and the IBM cloud charges you a mere $5.28 per hour for a small z/OS VM...

thanks a lot, for share this knowledge.

Very interesting perspective, but the machine is not old because we don't have any new hardware, but because of part of the environment. For example, creating a file and editing it. Most corporations run mostly legacy Applications on them. It does have pretty powerful tools,, but nobody is telling me JCL is a language with a modern syntax. It's also expensive to run and maintain. I know high-performance cloud-based solutions are expensive too. The consolidation 40:1 is just wishful thinking unless we are comparing a hierarchical problem running on a relational database on Linux vs IMS running the same problem on the mainframe, or a 15K Linux box against a million-dollar Mainframe platform.

I used a 1410 main frame in about 1963 to run a statistical model of a large experiment, then in grad school I used a 7040 main frame to run numerical models. In about 1970 my team fixed MVS to do cloud computing using remote Aschi card readers, punches and printers. Later on, I found VM/CMS much more useful than TSO as a development system. We could submit jobs to MVS for compilation and execution. I think that the video should talk more about z-os and hardware high reliability (like say Stratus) for CICS and IMS transactions.

What goes around comes around. The issue isn't that mainframes are outdated, but the business requirements the fill are becoming more niche. Back in the 1970s, 1980s mainframes were needed for nearly every large organization to handle rather simple (in todays standards) form apps. Then PC came affordable and performed faster per user than the mainframe, for the basic form/small data number crunching. Then we went to centralized databases where mainframes became more useful, then PC hardware became good enough to run most small to midsized scale databaes. The Internet began to boom, where larger mainframe systems could handle the load of hundreds of connections a second, then PC Distributed hardware servers came out to handle a lot of this action... The real question isnt if the mainframe is better, but is it cheaper inital cost system good enough. As most companies need to budget for short term needs and large single expense even if it will offer a lower TCO is a tough sell to management.

Thx. for the Video. I am an old mainframe developer. :)

Hello everyone, I have 5 years of experience in Mainframe and took a break in 2015. Now I’m running a restaurant. I always wanted to go back to IT. What course would you recommend to update my resume and find a job? Please help

I never understood why IBM was so intent on making mainframes seem affordable. They're not! And that's OK. You're paying (handsomely) for very specific benefits that are only worth it to a small portion of the overall compute market. I also don't understand why IBM is intent on throwing every workload on these things. A lot will never work on z series, like commercial applications compiled for x86 for Windows/Linux, so you still have to have that platform running as well along side z in most cases. And your average DC workload, you can put it on an x86 blade system or similar for a *fraction* of what if would cost to run on z, and you can run a *much* wider variety of workloads on it to boot. I don't hate mainframes, but they're great for only a small niche of workloads. For the rest, they're just overly expensive.

There's still a skills shortage for classic "Z" as we are all old (or dead) but I guess this video is aimed at getting new customers on z hardware. In 1982 I was told "COBOL only has 5 years left" Nope.

YoY apprx. 3-5% of the Mainframe Customers decommissioned their MF in Germany. Reason: Skill gap (Cobol, Assembler, PL/1, z/OS SysProg, Db2 and IMS skills etc.), Cost (24% MLC Increase of IBM Software and of course of the ISVs), Agility in Development. Each industry is affected (Insurance, Finance, Public, Retail, Automotive etc.). Good bye mainframe....

“Back in the day” I spend almost 40 years creating software for an IBM mainframe environment. I’ve seen the rise (and fall) of “minicomputers,” and the rise and proliferation of PC’s and networks. All are good, depending upon the task. But like I like to say, “PC’s are fast, but Mainframes SCREAM with power.” Long live Mainframes! But I still like my PC (and iPhone, too)

Interesting

I worked on Mainframes until the early 90s and then again 1998 with millennium issues. Moved onto UNIX/Oracle then Windows SQL Server. On the mainframe you needed so many more staff toto the same job. DBAs, System Programmers, operations staff etc. how has this been rationalised?

Is PL1 still available? JCL? MVS?

Not one word was false, but it's all the same song for decades with IBM. They keep fighting the wrong fights. Telum is amazing. Z is amazing, but for a huge amount of the industry, that's just noise.

I have been working on Mainframes from past 16 years for some of the world's finest banks, insurance and retails customers. Trust me there was not an single day in my 16 years I have seen it going down. Mainframe is and will be reliable and scalable. The best in the market.

As a retired sysprog, when I think mainframe, I think RACF. I know it has been renamed but it's still the BEST. ALL the other features would be in danger without it.

When did On-Site or In-House get replaced by On-Prem.?

z machine rocks!!!

In school I wrote in IBM assembly. I'm sure the instruction set has evolved but is it still based on on that instruction set? I've heard that the modern systems can still run software from 60 years ago. I don't think thats a bad thing btw.

Utterly awesome technology, just wish the price of entry was lower ...

IBM should look to what DEC (RIP) did that kept VMS/OpenVMS alive as long as it has been... The Hobbyist Community. I'd love to play with z/OS myself, but IBM has refused to allow access to it via Hercules - not because it won't run on it, but simply licensing. If IBM made the technology accessible to the hobbyist community, they'd probably not have to make videos like this to convince people that z/OS platform is good, they'd have a lot of folks that would do that work for them and for free. I'd be willing to bet that there would be tons of "how-to" videos on z/OS and those extolling it's virtues if it were made available for the hobbyist community... Just my 2 cents worth...

I think it was IBM that pioneered Virtualization on mainframes. Am I correct?

What people think is "Cloud" is still so incorrect. It isn't containers or virtualisation. Cloud is the use of commodity applications services provided over the network with a consumption based pricing model. Running your own kit and running containers is no more cloud than using a Cpanel host in 2005.

75% more efficient compared to what?

👍🏾

actually i think about ibm when i hear mainframe

Is C#, .NET supported?

Bravo!

She writes backwards flawlessly.

What could someone who wanted a mainframe for personal use do with it?

The hardware is pretty reasonably priced for enterprise gear. But the z/OS licence costs are insane.

I picture most people with mainframe skills are 50+ years old. No younger people get into IT to be a mainframe jockey. When IBM hits you with hardware and licensing costs and you recover from that shock, a data center full of super micro or other brand of Linux servers looks reasonable in comparison.

Is she printing backwards? Well done!

When your application absolutely, positively needs to run without interruption. You can add/swap CPU, disks, memory and any other components on the fly. Yes, it is expensive.

She, at least, has the skill to write with her left hand from right to left in mirror. Perhaps that is needed to be an expert on Mainframes as well. My biggest concern, no matter how unarguably awesome those systems are: Vendor lock in. Your entire system is in the hand of one and only one company. And companies sometimes make stupid decisions. BWT: I'd love to work on a z system.

In 1980 the IBM 3033 cost $3,000,000. That was with ONE CPU. IBM talked about channels but never gave a good explanation of what they were. I presume they were I/O processors taking that workload off of the single CPU. It was possible to get 2 CPUs on the 3033 but then the price went up significantly. Mainframes no longer exist people just keep using the word. IBM did not use the word 'minicomputer', that was for scum like, DEC and Data General. The things called mainframes today are massive collections of microprocessors with great attention and effort put into reliability and redundancy. The true Big Iron is gone. There was a benchmark program in the Jan 1983 BYTE Magazine that tested lots of computers and languages. The 3033 running assembly language beat all comers. I rewrote that program years ago in 'C'. I recently purchased a used Dell Optiplex with a Core i7. I estimate it is about 70 times as powerful as a 3033 and that is ignoring the inefficiency of the compiled code.

I think IBM mainframes are things of buty, row machine power highly optimized hardware to run very and very big tasks and you can mine crypto, but the best use for mainframe in my experiance are running complex datasets and like filter trough them for valuable data.

Mainframe is all good if you have niche needs. But 99,5% people/companies don't have those needs.

Sadly in many Companys Projects hast been Setup to leave the Mainframe. Also you get less young people been interested learning mainframe. Projects are mostly Planned Not on Mainframe Management people learned Linux or Cloud in there Studium. And that ist what they Push..because they think to now the advantages.

Still expensive

I appreciate the effort, but you have to know what the myths are before you debunk them. You should interview a developer who grew up with PCs to find that out. I still have no idea how it's structurally different from a huge multicore PC, where the "batch processing" comes in (does it still?), why the AS/400 text interface (still?) seems to be the norm.

A mainframe is simply a computer system that isn't designed to be used by just one person at a time.

How do I go and try out a mainframe? Say VM (z/VM?). Thank you.

Yes but, mainframe are still use to run applications develops in the 80’s and 90’s, COBOL, IMS, DB2, CICS, Assembler and those skills are not teach anymore, yes the computer is powerful, but that’s not how they are use.

nobody listed

If you need low latency, ultra secure, and maximum flexibility, Z is the solution.

IBM has lost the ability to market its stuff so its name is losing its presence in the market space

So how much does a mainframe cost these days? Videos tell how much mainframes cost in past years, but EVERYONE wants to keep the price of todays mainframes a secret. To me that is as important a spec as processing power.

Python on Mainframe

Never fails … upward migration paths are simple

Does she know how to write backwards?

Nice marketing. They aren't "myths". Show of hands: how many people are submitting python jobs to their mainframe? (not running scripts in a linux image on the MF.) how many are still running COBOL (or FORTRAN) that was originally written decades ago? Most people run mainframes because they always have. The applications / workloads they run can't be retooled for anything else. (time, money, proven reliability, etc. etc.) [COBOL is really hard to translate into anything sensible.] The claims of "40:1", power and space efficiency are "lies, damned lies, and statistics." For the cost of one modern (z16) MF -- and _licenses_ -- I can *build* a small data center. (the last one... the power cost less than half what IBM charges for a single z/OS VM.)

So not much of a difference between todays mainframe, and a big 2u server (or multiple 2U servers).. So really the myth is the mainframe which means they are old big expensive boxes from the past. Your Zbox is really nothing more than a consolidation of 2U/3U/4U servers in a pretty IBM custom rack, with some IBM boiler plate gluing it all together. . meh... Everything mentioned here I can do on my old Dell R815 box. so meh meh...

This is nonsense and explains nothing. Mainframes maybe do have their uses, but it is rarely performance. It is more about paranoid security and redundancy at all levels, it is about legacy software. Google doing 60k transactions per second. Taken from who knows where. I worked there, and I can tell you we were doing 60 billions of transactions per second years ago.

Is she writing sdrawkcab on the fly?

The Myth is that licensing costs are insane.....well they are.....also mainframes are for specific workloads and legacy code. Nothing else....

Meh… One way marketing video is about as old as the Mainframe itself; sure people still use it, but modern theory runs away from it at first opportunity.

If i run a bank then mainframe is the winning key

And you‘re running it on prem… shure.😂

i need to write a program to compare two files ,while in linux side i did in command itself.....

So many negative comments from people desperate to show the world the depths of their ignorance, it makes me sad.

Cobol

What a weirdly defensive presentation.

90% of the words she used…..I did not understand….. oh dear….😞

Stupid, and I mean that with all genuine respect. The main advantage of the mainframe ideology was a team of people that ensured changes to the database, access, programmes, execution etc etc was a guard and protection from open source being a dumb cut corner from managers that ended up bringing a business to bankruptcy. They pee on the tree at the expense of the existence of the corporation. Mainframe is more than a method; it is an ideology of doing things with professionalism and properly.... If you have to demean yourselves to chase the checklists of pc fools you don't even understand your own benefits properly.

IMO that you must want, because comments are open and allowed... This is horrible. These aren't mainframe myths and realities. I don't understand what the point of this video is (obviously I do, I just don't care for the failed execution of the presentation). It's like terminology of all aspects of computing were selected at random and put in a blender to decided their position along the timeline of the video. Just do a video focused on your new Z16 mainframe instead of whatever this was supposed to be. Mainframe realities, mainframes are old but new ones are backwards compatible and can still run the stuff from the 1960s. Mainframes are very much so expensive (I like how that "myth" was just seemingly ended mid sentence). Mainframes are large and power hungry. Guess this is what happens when all the writers are on strike

Glorified advertisement

The myth is she thinks her audience is ignorant .

Mainframe belongs to museums.

😂😂😂 1x Epyc Prozessor Beats all that 😂😂😂 and then nvme 😂😂😂 i See No Horizon for your Mainframe.

You introduction is lame. Why would anybody think that old is what mainframes are? Expensive they are but there are brand new mainframes out there.

Low effort marketing Lame. No facts, only some lame arguments.