Tuesday, October 31, 2006

The mainframe making its comeback ?

Urban Dance Squad was definitely not singing about the mainframe in their song called 'Comeback' :
"What a drag to see an old bag
sweatin'n'fakin'
for a comeback"
But still it could've been a prophetic message in 1991. It sure seemed to come true in the years to come, but I have the impression that the tide has turned the last months (if not the last couple of years). Take a look e.g. at a former post here about the revenue of IBM in 3Q2006 and the large contribution the mainframe had.
Moreover (and perhaps even more important) there seems to be a turning point in the perception of the mainframe. It does not only gain the credit it deserves in the business world but also the media seem to pay more attention to it. As an example, here's two articles I stumbled across lately. The first is an interview
"In a sea of middle-aged men roaming around the Share mainframe conference this summer, there walked an anomaly: Kristine Harper. (...) Harper defies the stereotype around mainframers, being young
and a woman."
You can read the entire interview here . The second is a recent article on the CNN site about the comeback of the mainframe that you can find here .

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