[Info-vax] For sale: VAXstation 4000/90 128MB Fully Working and Tested

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax <info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com> On Behalf Of Arne Vajhøj
> via Info-vax
> Sent: July-09-22 8:43 PM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Cc: Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk>
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] For sale: VAXstation 4000/90 128MB Fully Working and
> Tested
> 
> On 7/3/2022 8:13 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> > On 7/2/2022 8:26 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> >> On 7/1/22 20:41, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> >>> On 7/1/2022 6:45 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> >>>> Most of the Fortune 500 still use mainframes and COBOL. Most major
> >>>> banks still use mainframes and COBOL.  Credit Card companies.
> >>>> Airlines.  All of the major automobile companies.  All of the major
> >>>> Aircraft companies.
> >>>> The Government at all levels except maybe local who never made it
> >>>> past the PC.
> >>>
> >>> There are a lot of Cobol code running. And there will continue to be
> >>> for decades.
> >>> But the new stuff are done with other languages.
> 
> >>                              When you look at percentages ot
> >> languages used COBOL seems to be on the decline.  But if you classify
> >> work by its actual value, well, Candy Crush wasn't written in COBOL
> >> and neither was Minecraft.  But when it comes to banking, insurance
> >> and other really needed application....
> >
> > Cobol is becoming a pretty small part of what the financial sector use.
> >
> > They prefer C++, Java, Python etc. for new projects.
> >
> >>> And companies slowly migrate off. Not many, maybe just a few percent
> >>> per year. But it accumulate over many years.
> >>
> >> Very few of the important ones are migrating off and many of those
> >> that do migrate into failures.
> >
> > Some succeed.
> >
> > And it accumulates.
> 
> A recent case: Fedex.
> 
> They are moving from Cobol/IBM mainframe/own data center to "cloud
> native"/Azure & Oracle cloud.
> 
> The CIO announced when this thread was going on that they has already
> moved 80% of applications and that the remaining 20% would all be done in
> 2024.
> 
> He did not mention what "cloud native" covers, but elsewhere it is revealed
> to be:
> - Angular for client side
> - Java and Spring Boot for applications
> - kubernetes and docker for infrastructure
> 
> Which is not really surprising. In the 1980's nobody got fired for choosing IBM.
> Today nobody get fired (in a large conservative
> company) for choosing above stack.
> 
> Arne
> 

The case for App modernization as part of changing the companies business model from self-supporting to outsourcing (aka public cloud) has been around for 40+ years. 

The justification usually means reducing the companies IT staff headcount (shows up as big benefit for the financial bottom line). It often provides short term benefits (read senior execs BOD get bonuses), but long term challenges (read execs making those decisions will be gone by then). 

While decisions like this at the top of a company like this might make the senior execs look they are "forward thinking" to their shareholders and CEO, the reality is that "rip-and-replace" projects like this inevitably:

- cost much more (in some cases, astronomically) than originally budgeted when the full picture is evaluated
- take much longer than originally anticipated
- those making this original decision are usually never held accountable for those business model changes

Hence the "upgrade and integrate" strategies are becoming more common i.e. private or on-prem cloud with a small bit of public cloud (aka hybrid strategy). 


Regards,

Kerry Main
Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com







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