Short Takes

Here are some more short takes

• CA, Datacom and zIIP
  Last week, CA announced that the newest release of CA Datacom now also makes use of the zIIP engine. I must admit I have the feeling I lost a bit track of how many products now use specialty engines. But I guess that's a good thing : more and more ISVs use them because every one realizes it's a great way to help reduce cost for the clients ànd at the same time keep the mainframe alive and kicking. The counter for CA seems to be at 14 products now. Still recently, they gave an overview over here.

• zPrime
  Talking about saving money : a couple of weeks ago I received this mail from Neon Enterprise Software about zPrime. What is zPrime ? I don't know and they're not going to tell you straight away, so if you want to take a guess yourself, take a look at the zPrime Site. Here's the initial explanation in the mail : "zPrime is a radical new technology in mainframe computing. It cuts the cost of mainframe computing significantly and immediately. No new budgets, no complicated projects, no expensive consultants, no new equipment purchases. Want to know more? Go to www.zPrime.com and learn about zPrime -- and have some fun and maybe win some prizes at the same time". We'll just have to wait and see. Oh, you can also follow zPrime on Twitter !

• When will I use Solid State Drives ?
  I know I'm a bit late with this. One very interesting presentation on the System z Conference some weeks ago was the one of Pat Artis of Performance Associates on SSD. According to Pat Artis the question is not whether we will switch to SSD but when. He expects that very soon every one will only use SSD drives for production data. Interested ? You can now find the slides and the video if this presentation on their site.