“IBM has upgraded the operating system for its S/390
mainframe computers to make them better suited for e-commerce and
other business applications.”
“E-commerce is one area where mainframes can make sense. Another
is customer relationship management (CRM) software, which handles
tasks such as keeping track of what phone service a customer has,
how often they missed payments, and when a good time might be for
the phone company to try to sell Caller ID.”
“The new version of OS/390, the S/390 operating system, is
better suited to CRM and to e-commerce, IBM said. For e-commerce,
the new version makes it easier to translate Unix programs to the
S/390 and connect to databases using Sun Microsystems’ Java
technologies; supports hardware that automatically encrypts and
decrypts information; and has the ability to handle XML data.”
“IBM also is putting Linux on its S/390, arguing that Linux
is a common ingredient in Internet operations.”