Fujitsu confirms end date for mainframe and Unix systems
https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/25/fujitsu_signposts_the_end_for/
5 replies (most recent on top)
Z Linux is already not working, it's been struggling for years and there is no end in sight... well I mean the end is near!
IBM bet the company on Redhat. You don’t spend 34 billion and not have a plan. So what is IBM’s plan? It’s obviously LINUX and all of its iterations sacrificing the old IBM cloud legacy for the new Redhat offerings. Z LINUX is a great tangent that dovetails nicely with the current plan. Z LINUX keeps IBM in the HW game as a “niche” player. If Z LINUX doesn’t work IBM just modernizes to Intel LINUX and completely exits the HW game. If Z LINUX works you have a platform that prolongs IBM’s mainframe monopoly for another 20 years via running a legacy backend and a modern front end. Either way the plan closes because there is 2 trillion in IBM mainframe SW that has to be modernized.
Ah yes - The mainframe is dead, (again). All must go to "the cloud" - 5 minutes from now.
So, what is the cloud?
Why it's a "server" (that could be a mainframe) off somewhere else on planet Earth - at a site of unknown security and protection.
Sounds great - until communications are disrupted. Foreign enemy? (look at today's news), problems from outer space?, etc.
Anyone every think that concentrating your firms I.T. structure in a warehouse with other I.T. services of other companies just make that concentrated conglomerate of information a sitting duck for sabotage?
So, Fujitsu is ditching the mainframe by 2030-2035. OK - but IBM has leveled RCA, CDC, Burroughs, Univac, Amdahl, Hitachi, etc. over the decades. The z/15 is still standing and will continue to stand. Do you really think Social Security, the FBI, CIA, Federal Reserve, major banks, credit card companies, Amazon, EBAY, top secret government agencies, etc. are going to sunset the mainframe because Fujitsu says so? I don't think so. So here we go - "The mainframe is dead - release 2.0 (or is it release 3.0+?)
Yawn!
The writing is on the wall and this is the first shoe to drop. I'm curious how much COBOL and TPF is still running out there. Those migrations would be a challenge.
The CIOs need to start earning their pay instead of pushing workloads to the cloud and touting AI nonsense. The one thing Z has going for it is availability.
"As part of this new hybrid IT roadmap, IBM will cease manufacturing and selling its mainframe systems by 2030, and will also discontinue its Unix server systems by the end of 2029. Support services for both portfolios will continue for five years afterwards, meaning these will end in 2034 for Unix servers and 2035 for mainframes."
Scary reading IBM? All I did was changing one small (company) word. I think IBM throws the towel in well before Fujitsu, so more words (dates) should be changed?