Category: Mainframes

Published on June 10, 2013

With the vast amounts of storage space available on mainframes and their associated direct access storage drives (DASD), there's no need to worry about drive defragmentation or space allocation, right? Right? Wrong. The huge volume of data stored on many businesses' DASD systems make it…

Published on June 5, 2013

Although we all think our mainframes are super, mainframes and supercomputers are different on some fundamental levels. Here's why. Both mainframes and supercomputers push the limits of what can be accomplished through computing. They are both large and powerful machines, but they are not the…

Published on May 23, 2013

In the early years of mainframe security, keeping unauthorized people from sitting down at a terminal was enough to protect the data on the mainframe. As time went on, mainframe security matured to the degree that the data was considered safe as long as its…

Published on May 8, 2013

Mainframes have reliably served the heavy computing and security needs of large and medium-sized enterprises for decades. More recently, cloud computing has emerged promising scale, availability, simplicity, and lowered costs. But will it deliver? Similarities and differences exist between mainframe and cloud computing, as well…

Published on May 1, 2013

Thinking beyond simply saving space Frequent flyers know how much space they can gain just by squeezing the air out of their luggage. They can pack for a week-long vacation in the same bag others will over-stuff with clothes for a simple overnight trip. Atoms,…

Published on April 29, 2013

Running heavy mainframe applications with a light touch Quick quiz: What's the most powerful iPhone app? A mainframe. What's the most useful mainframe? The one you have with you. Combining the power and reliability of mainframe applications with the broad accessibility of web 2.0 technology…

Published on April 23, 2013

Here's four reasons mainframes remain a strong bet It has long been thought that the mainframe was becoming antiquated, that it would ultimately succumb to the PC and become a rare and outdated form of computing. Mainframe sales did dip substantially with the rise of…

Published on January 24, 2013

With Cloud computing a hot topic, do mainframes still matter to Enterprise IT departments? You bet. If you ask the average person on the street about mainframe computing, you know what you're generally going to get: Either a blank stare, or a description of a room-filling…