James Governor, an analyst at RedMonk, has a great post on CICS over at the Mainframe Typepad blog. His basic thesis: CICS is becoming a cash-cow because IBM is invested in SOA-ing it to death instead of in expanding the features of CICS itself:

What happens if you want to change the underlying enterprise data model, for example? You can’t do that without changing the code. You can service-enable all you want, but SOA is as much about component and service isolation, enabling flexibility and portfolio maintainability, than service reuse.

Governor, who lists IBM as one of RedMonk’s clients, adds that down at Impact 2008, an IBM conference on SOA held in Las Vegas earlier this month, it sounded to him like IBM was too interested in, as he wrote it, “extending existing investments” instead of trying to find “net new customers for the box.”

“Leverage existing workloads? I am most interested in net new workloads on Z - and I don’t just mean Linux-based,” he wrote.

It’s an interesting concept, and one that I’m always asking IBM about. New mainframe customers, especially in the United States, can be hard to find. It seems that IBM is investing in existing customers in the U.S. and then grabbing new customers outside the U.S. Whenever I ask about new mainframe customers, IBM always falls back on the BRIC acronym — Brazil, Russia, India, China. Hoplon Infotainment is one of IBM’s most-often touted new customers because a) they’re a new customer; and b) they do online gaming on a mainframe, which is a novelty all its own.

But as much as IBM talks about BRIC when it comes to new mainframers, it seems like they’re throwing bricks in the U.S. There may be some American companies new to the mainframe, but overall for new customers, IBM seems focused overseas.

Novell has announced some discounts for users that want to run its SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) on a mainframe. Novell already has about 80% of the mainframe Linux market, with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) having the other 20%, and so Novell is trying to expand upon its dominance in the area.

With the new Novell pricing, a three-year subscription to SLES on the mainframe will cost what a two-year subscription now costs. And a five-year subscription will cost what a three-year subscription costs now.

There is a catch — isn’t there always? The discounts only apply to users who are coming to Linux on the mainframe through consolidation of distributed servers, or for renewing SUSE Linux on mainframe customers. Although I would guess that probably covers a large chunk of the users who run or would run Linux on the mainframe.

A one-year subscription for patch and upgrade for Novell SUSE on the mainframe is about $12,000. RHEL starts at $15,000 per license per year on the mainframe.

The Novell announcement continues its push on the mainframe. Earlier this year, it came out with a starter kit that lets mainframe users try out SUSE Linux on that platform for free, giving still-skeptical users a chance to try out Linux on big iron.

IBM is expected to introduce its new mainframe next Tuesday. They’re holding an event in New York City, during which they’re expected the roll out the new version of big iron as well as preview z/OS v1.10, which is expected out in September.

I had thought that maybe IBM would make the announcement in Orlando, where the Share user group is holding its conference. But it looks like it will happen in NYC. I’ll be there and snapping pictures when they roll the new machine out. In the meantime, here are some details on the new z10.

For now, it’s just called ?????? ?. But you can still register for the mystery Web event, to take place at 2pm ET on Feb. 26. Hmm, that’s right in the midst of the Share user group conference in Orlando. Wonder what it could be, especially considering a new mainframe system is due out around that time. From the invite:

We have an extraordinary new product that we want to introduce to you. We can’t reveal much about this amazing new product just yet. But we can tell you it can remarkably lower your power and cooling costs. It can help reduce floor space needs, and is designed to deliver significant capacity improvements.

It’s truly an amazing product that your data center has never seen the likes of before. Please be sure to attend the web seminar so you can see for yourself why we are so excited about this announcement.

IBM also wants to invite you to a roadshow called “The Future Runs on ?????? ?,” which will bring the new ?????? ? to a city near you in the month of March. Have you figured out what ?????? ? stands for yet? I’ll give you a hint: The first word probably stands for “System.” You can figure out the rest from there. See you in Orlando.

In a conference call with investors, IBM Chief Financial Officer Mark Loughridge mentioned that Big Blue will be rolling out its “next-generation mainframe” this year, with the announcement and availability coming in late February.

Loughridge said the new version of big iron will have 50% more capacity than the current System z9 and enable “unprecedented levels of workload consolidation,” as well as being more energy efficient. We haven’t heard about any special events that IBM is holding, but Share, the mainframe user’s group, is holding a conference in Orlando in late February, so don’t be surprised if IBM makes the announcement there.

It has been about two years since IBM introduced its latest mainframes, the Enterprise Class and Business Class.

Timothy Sipples, who works in the IBM software division, has a post over at the Mainframe Typepad blog about Web-like interfaces for mainframe users.

The post is partly a discussion of mainframe interfaces (Screen Definition Facility II or SDF II and 3270) and partly a pitch for WebSphere Dashboard Framework, which Sipples likens to SDF. The bottom line, Sipples said, is that Web interfaces have been on the mainframe for decades.

Most business users want graphical Web interfaces, so if you’re not delivering them, who (what) will? I directly interact with a mainframe every day, but I cannot remember the last time I used a 3270 terminal emulator. The face you present to your users is critical, just as the face your company presents to your customers determines your business success.

There’s nothing wrong with terminal interfaces per se, and many users are quite productive with them. I have a guess that many blog readers happen to like this traditional user interface, but what you use and prefer shouldn’t influence the service you deliver to most business users.

The features and benefits of the WebSphere Dashboard Framework are displayed in a demo on the IBM site.

This week we’re at the Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas and we caught up with David Boyes of Sine Nomine Associates. Boyes was demonstrating OpenSolaris running on an IBM System Zmainframe at the conference and we have him here in these five videos, giving you a first look.

Boyes’ team (which was responsible for bringing Linux to Big Iron) has been working on porting Solaris to the mainframe for 18 months. But Boyes won’t say when Solaris on System Zwill become available beyond “soon”.

According to Boyes, Sun customers that are sitting on a lot of small to medium-sized pizza box servers are facing the same problem as Wintel users - server sprawl. This port could allow users to consolidate some Solaris workloads onto the mainframe.

YouTube doesn’t like files over 100mb or movies over 10 minutes long, so we had to break the presentation up into five parts. Here are the rest of the videos:

Solaris on the mainframe demo Part II

Solaris on the mainframe demo Part III

Solaris on the mainframe demo Part IV

Solaris on the mainframe demo Part V

This cheesy commercial for DataDirect Shadow RTE integration software shows that mainframe modernization can be done successfully in a large institution. DataDirect isn’t the only one offering this kind of technology, it just has the only video I found with that local commercial feel to it. For example, you could choose to use the SOLA tool set from SOA Software, which specializes in modernizing apps like CICS and COBOL.

A lot of agonizing over the mainframe has to do with modernizing applications. Why? Presumably to broaden the platform’s appeal, particularly among younger people who often prefer Linux and Web-like dashboards with their applications.Presumably to broaden the platform’s appeal, particularly among younger people who often prefer Linux and Web-like dashboards with their applications.

On that note, IBM has announced updates to its Rational software geared toward modernizing mainframe applications for — get ready for the buzzword — service-oriented architecture.

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James Serton at Computer Technology Review is comparing the mainframe to The Six Million Dollar Man, that famous television character that was half-man, half-butt-kicking machine.

You remember the show, right? Steve Austin’s plane crashes to the ground, and so the government replaces his destroyed organs with bionic ones that enable him to, among other things, run 60 miles per hour, which is not only good for catching bad guys but also gives you a fighting chance in a 100 yard dash against a juiced-up Marion Jones.

How does Serton make the connection between the two, pray tell?

Coming back to 2007, the phrase “Gentleman, we can rebuild him” has a unique meaning when talking about mainframes and coincidentally has been used more than once when discussing various topics about bringing older technology into the 21st century, especially now that we have transferred and established the knowledge needed to ensure the mainframe system will continue unabated. The key now is to take that knowledge and combine it with current software technologies and concepts, ultimately integrating the mainframe into today’s technology environment.

Ah yes, the mixing of the old and the new. Now I get it. The mainframe, traditionally known for its great RAS features, now needs emulators so that them there Internet kids can learn themselves the platform. If the mainframe’s star is going to continue to rise, Serton says, then keeping it up-to-date with emulators and the ability to run Linux are crucial.