Mainframe careers:

Information technology’s best-kept secret

© 2008
2006 IBM Corporation
IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 This presentation will answer these questions:

•What are mainframes?

•Who needs mainframes?
•Why a career in mainframes?
•Why would you want to work for IBM?

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
What are mainframes?
 Mainframes defined

ƒ Wikipedia says: “Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as big iron) are large and ‘expensive’
computers used mainly by government institutions and large companies for mission critical
applications, typically bulk data processing such as censuses, industry/consumer statistics,
ERP, and financial transaction processing.”
ƒ searchDataCenter.com says: “Mainframe is an industry term for a large computer, typically
manufactured by a large company such as IBM for the commercial applications of Fortune 1000
businesses and other large-scale computing purposes. Historically, a mainframe is associated
with centralized rather than distributed computing. Today, IBM refers to its larger processors as
large servers and emphasizes that they can be used to serve distributed users and smaller
servers in a computing network”
ƒ Mainframes.com says: “A mainframe is a continually evolving general purpose computing
platform incorporating in it architectural definition the essential functionality required by its
target applications.”
ƒ Answers.com says: “A state-of-the-art computer for mission critical tasks. In the ‘ancient’ mid-
1960s, all computers were mainframes, since the term referred to the main CPU cabinet. Today,
it refers to a class of ultra-reliable medium and large-scale servers designed for enterprise-class
and carrier-class operations.”

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 Differences between PCs and mainframes

ƒ Small size ƒ Large size

ƒ PC stores programs ƒ Mainframe stores the
programs, not terminals
ƒ Files often on hard drive
ƒ Files stored on the mainframe,
ƒ Perfect for a single user or
not terminals
grouped together for smaller
businesses ƒ Perfect for larger businesses
with many users needing access
to the same information
© 2006 IBM Corporation
IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 Distributed access

Request

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© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 Hardware and software

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 Is this new technology?
One System z10 core can do work of up to 30 x86 Cores,
helping to reduce licensing costs by up to 30 to 1 and lower
TCO by up to 80%*

2008
2006 System

2003 System z9 z10

BC/EC
2000
z890/z990
1990’s
z800/z900
1980’s G5/G6
S/390
1960’s

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
Who needs mainframes?
 Uses

Government Banking/finance

Gaming / virtual worlds

Auto insurance Airline

© 2006 IBM Corporation
IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 Advantages of mainframes

ƒ Reliable
- z/OS has up to 99.9999% uptime.
- Some customers haven’t rebooted in over 10 years.
ƒ Secure
- No known viruses have been created or deployed on mainframes.
- Use logical partitions (LPARs) to control access to data and
applications.
ƒ Flexible
- Run multiple operating systems on one mainframe
- Run proprietary software (z/OS) or open software (Linux)

“IBM’s z10 is the computer industry’s pinnacle systems platform. Blow-away

performance, increased capacity, and expanded memory makes this system the
absolute best scale-up architecture — bar none — in the computing industry”
Joe Clabby, President, Clabby Analytics 2008

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 Environmental advantages of mainframes

ƒ Reduces energy
consumption
- Fewer servers
- Less heat
ƒ Reduces required floor
space

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 Give up the farm…the server farm
ƒ IBM has invested billions of dollars in Hardware
and Software Development to make System z10 an
industry-leading platform.

ƒ System components are integrated and tested to

enable optimal synergies
ƒ Powerful and scalable capacity
ƒ Hundreds of support processors
ƒ Central point of management
ƒ High resource utilization
ƒ May offer lower cost of operations
- Fewer servers
- Fewer software licenses
- Fewer resources to manage
- Less energy, cooling and space
ƒ Fewer intrusion points help provide tighter security
ƒ Fewer points of failure help provide greater availability

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 Workload advantages over server farms

ƒ Near-linear scalability allows up to 900,000+ concurrent users

ƒ Mean Time Between Failure is measured in decades vs. months

ƒ One-fourth of the network equipment costs using virtual resources versus physical

ƒ 1/25th floor space of a server farm 400 sq. ft. versus 10,000 sq. ft

ƒ 1/20 energy requirement $32/day versus $600/day

ƒ 1/5 the administration Less than 5 people versus less than 25

people
ƒ Highest average resource utilization Greater than 70% versus less than 15%

ƒ Highest concurrent workload hundreds of applications versus a few

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 Strength of the mainframe market

ƒ $4.5 Billion in IBM mainframe sales in 2006

ƒ All of the top 25 worldwide banks use mainframes
ƒ 23 of the top 25 retailers in the U.S. run on mainframes
ƒ 95% of US Fortune 500 companies are System z clients.
ƒ 71% of global Fortune 500 companies are System z clients.
ƒ 80% of world’s corporate data resides or originates on mainframes.
ƒ The mainframe is one of the most secure servers on the market; a
16-way System z990 can securely process 12,000 transactions per
second.
ƒ Since 2000, the mainframe has captured 17 points of market share
in the high-end server category according to IDC, a global provider of
market intelligence.

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 In other words, without a mainframe…

ƒ Your airplane might not land safely (air traffic control)

ƒ Your ATM would not give you $$ (banks all over the world)

ƒ You could not buy something online (transaction processing)

ƒ Trains could not run everywhere (virtual Linux servers)

ƒ Hospitals could not access patient records (Patient Management)

ƒ Your FedEx /UPS package would not ship? (shipping and tracking
of shipments)

ƒ The internet would not work.

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
Why a career in mainframes?
 Career outlook

ƒ Many jobs are predicted to open in the upcoming years, as

current workers retire.
ƒ Salary range for an entry-level position is over $50,000.
ƒ Job placement is very high.
ƒ Patent opportunities.

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 Required skills

ƒ Computer programming
ƒ Communication skills
ƒ Teaming skills
ƒ Project management skills
ƒ Attention to detail
ƒ Creativity

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
 Things you can do…
ƒ Attend a school offering a mainframe program or mainframe courses.
Some schools are listed at the Participating Schools tab of the IBM
System z Academic Initiative Web site.
ƒ Encourage your professors to enroll in the IBM System z Academic
Initiative program
ƒ Participate in the Master the Mainframe contest
ƒ Apply for the IBM co-op and intern program
ƒ Apply for the IBM Extreme Blue internship program for qualified
college students

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
Why would you want to work for IBM?
 IBM advantages

ƒ Large, worldwide company

ƒ Innovative
- Number one in patents for 15 consecutive years
- Genographic project
- Blue Gene/L
ƒ Adaptive
- IBM used to manufacture meat slicers
- Shift from proprietary to open environments
- Finding new ways to use technology
ƒ Diverse
- Led the corporate initiative providing equal work for equal pay in
1953
- Promotes flexible schedules to accommodate different
requirements

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM System z Academic Initiative
West | Mainframe
Lake Middle School careers: I.T.’s best-kept secret July 17, 2009 © 2008 IBM Corporation
Thank you

For additional information about the IBM System z Academic Initiative,

visit our Web site at:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/university/systemz/index.html

Or contact the IBM System z Academic Initiative at:

[email protected]