“As the B2B scale-out and scale-up trend continues to shape the
corporate landscape, lining the pockets of Unix, Windows and Linux
vendors, IBM is trying to breathe new life into its mainframe
sales. Armed with new offerings, IBM is trying to reposition
mainframes as high-end servers that allow companies to scale up and
integrate their B2C and B2B applications vertically, as opposed to
across many PCs or midrange servers. The company will emphasize the
rock-solid reliability and scalability of mainframes-the so-called
five-nines.”
“It will, however, take some money and marketing to reverse the
prevailing image of the mainframe as a dinosaur. According to
Gartner Dataquest, for instance, the number of mainframe systems
sold in the United States is expected to drop to slightly more than
6,000 in 2000 from almost 6,700 in 1999.”
“This September, IBM plans to unveil a 64-bit version of its
26-year-old mainframe, currently code-named Freeway, that
incorporates new CMOS technology. IBM also plans a major
revamping-and renaming-of its OS/390 mainframe operating system
that exploits the 64-bit architecture and incorporates additional
Java, Internet and Linux support.”