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JJ01
Asked: 2009-10-10 20:20:46 +0800 CST

Would you ever use or suggest a midrange or mainframe for a new project?

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Calling all system admins!

Would you ever consider starting to use a IBM midrange / mainframe / power series / HP Integrety server instead of x86/x64 for a "new" project ?

Does anyone even care about these types of platforms anymore ?

What are your thoughts ?

mainframe

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Mainframe-type and Power systems are still very relevant. x86/x86_64 environments are typically built to run 'reasonably' reliably with redundancy built into the software layer.

    Mainframe/Power systems are built with huge RAS features - properly managed, they are not going down. Another advantage is the massive virtualization partitioning that they can handle - you can have thousands of Linux or AIX instances running in parallel on a single high end Power server.

    Yes, they are still being sold and deployed for new projects.

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  2. Yes - depending on what the project is.

    Linux on z-Series, for example, could be a strong contender for cloud computing.

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  3. It's impossible to tell which platform is right for a generic "new project".

    It totally depends on what the "new project" is.

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  4. The choice of platform is often dependent on the availability of software. There are a number of manufacturing, point-of-sale, statistical analysis and scientific applications available only on midrange/mainframe.

    Software and usage requirements should dictate the hardware used.

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