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Mainframe - a falling star?
This DeveloperEye.com market study disclose the competition amongst players within the mainframe market, the vertical sectors where mainframe is still used as well as the main challenges/problems with the mainframe. PR9.NET April 12, 2005 - London, UK - Mainframe is an industry term for a large computer, typically manufactured by a large company such as IBM. Today, the mainframe is often referred to as large servers instead of a computer. The Mainframe Market The market leader is IBM, with their portfolio of the zSeries. The software giant experienced a strong growth in the world of servers, with zSeries, pSeries and xSeries each increasing its share position in 2004. Other mainframe vendors in the marked include Computer Associates, BEA, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Fuijitsu Siemens, Unisys, Sun and Micro Focus. MediaDev carried out a Pan-European telemarketing campaign to investigate the usage of mainframe in end-user companies across Europe. Over 1000 companies across France, Germany, Italy and the UK where interviewed in order to identify users within vertical sectors. The results from the telemarketing campaign showed that companies' using IBM Mainframe or iSeries technology is relatively lower than possibly 10 years ago. A large number of companies were using Windows Server 2003 instead of mainframe. Mainframe Users Regardless of the fall in mainframe usage, the report also concluded that specific sectors are still using Mainframes. Vertical sectors like the Financial Sector, Utilities, Airlines, Railways, Armed Forces and Travel Industry are still using mainframe. The mainframe users are all large organisations with 500+ employees. The Financial Dilemma Although the mainframe's total cost of ownership (TCO) continues to improve, the cost of software continues to be a major burden. The results from the MediaDev study confirmed this, with 44% of the respondents claiming that the mainframe costs are too high. Tight IT budget combined with the high mainframe operating costs are the main problem that IT Managers are facing. It is evident that the mainframe is no longer the most cost-effective platform to operate core business services. Fierce competition between platform vendors has driven new server technology to 'enterprise scale' with prices the mainframe cannot match. By moving critical applications to low-cost platforms such as Linux and Windows, reduction of the mainframe costs will be apparent. As MediaDev's telemarketing campaign illustrated, many users have moved from mainframe to more cost-effective platforms. Linux users often highlight the cost as one of the most important reasons for choosing Linux above Windows. The reason for this is that Linux is normally free. However, previous studies conducted by MediaDev, actually concluded that Windows is cheaper when it comes to overall costs. Mainframe Challenges Another challenge is the perceived complexity and inflexibility of the mainframe. Many of the large mainframe vendors will struggle to offer this expected level of flexibility, due in part to large fixed costs and a lack of quickness. A large number of the mainframe users claimed that they often experienced integration problems. The problems encountered by the European respondents falls under categories, such as security, performance, connectivity and software incompatibility. Most mainframe users are more likely to try to fix the integration problems themselves instead of contacting a mainframe system integrator. In conclusion IBM remains the strong leader within the mainframe market, despite the competition of vendors like Computer Associates, BEA, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Fuijitsu Siemens, Unisys, Sun and Micro Focus. Due to the high mainframe costs, many companies are moving to more cost-effective solutions like Linux or the Windows Server. However, the mainframe is still popular amongst large organisations within vertical sectors such as finance, travel, transport and utilities. # # #
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DeveloperEye.com is the premiere online resource for the European application development and IT infrastructure communities. Localized news and events information coupled with technical articles, informed editorial and market studies make the portal and its associated offerings make Developer.Eye.com the ideal multilingual information resource center. For further information, please visit www.DeveloperEye.com. About MediaDev MediaDev is a leading global marketing agency with a sole focus on the application development and IT infrastructure market places. |
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