#Mainframe50

"To boldly go where no man has gone before", I know I'm ripping this out of its context, but I think it's fitting for the mainframe as well. Many will say that this was definitely the case 50 years ago, by now some will argue that the mainframe is a thing of the past (remember the Mainframe is Dead saga) but I'm convinced (and lots of others with me of course) that it is still the case today. People have absolutely no idea how strongly our lives are intertangled with the mainframe. Have a look at this video.



And here's another one.



Well, you know why I'm writing about this : the mainframe is turning 50 and you're still going to hear and see A LOT about it. Just let me give you some places to go to when you want to celebrate with us.

IBM has created two new sites for the occasion. The first is over here. There also a tumblr site that you can find over here. It has weekly themes and this week's theme is mobile. There are also lots of interesting infographics. Further, you will see (on this site and others) a lot of attention for the IBM Master the Mainframe World Championship. It's "a first-of-its-kind, premiere enterprise computing competition. Students from over 20 countries around the world will compete in a series of challenges, which will culminate on April 7, 2014 at IBM in New York City". Check out it's own site over here.

If you want to follow everything on Twitter these are the hashtags to use : #mainframe50 and if you're in for it also #MainframeMemories. Of course, at an anniversary, we have to look forward but we can learn from our past and there will be lots of reminiscing about the good old times as well. Here's an example I came across today : the Mainframe Memories by Neale Ferguson (@NealeFerguson).

I can tell you one more thing : over the last years I regularly heard voices coming up to abandon the term 'mainframe'. "Call it a large enterprise server" or whatever, but I've always stuck to the mainframe terminology as such and so I'm still proud my blog is called the MAINFRAME Watch.

So, let's get started on those next 50 years !