I, just now, ordered some mainframe hardware... :) :)

[Sysman]

11:00 PM on a Friday night, and what is Sysman doing?

3 years ago, we got a nice new project from one of our best customers. It was a tough time for the company. We had just lost another big client, and had to lay off 20% of the staff. The new project really was a huge part of our future...

It took us more than a year to write/modify the programs, almost another year to "debug" it in a real world production environment. But we finally "went live" on April 1 this year...

We have a pretty nice mainframe at work. An IBM z/800 with 3 CPUs, 16 fibre channels, 8 of which talk to the disk array. A couple more channels feed the "OSA" adapters, which are the interface to the web, and our local LAN. A couple more run the tape drives, etc...

Before we "went live" we had about 150 on-line users. Plus a fair amount of "batch work", like customer service people doing custom reports, us programmers doing compiles and tests...

But since we "went live" we now have about 250 on-line users. And the amount of batch work has also increased a fair amount. It is starting to "stress" the system...

So I just ordered a 4th z/800 CPU, another OSA adapter to keep up with the increased web traffic, another disk array, and another 8 fibre channels to drive the array. We do have plenty of space on the first array, but being able the "split the load" on another set of channels, another set of access arms, etc., should provide a giant overall performance improvement...

The boss just said yes, I just called my IBM dude and said yes...

So have a beer, and help me celebrate! Life is good!!!

.

[erichtmobile]

sounds expensive

[Sysman]

sounds expensive

You could say that. A brand new state of the art, maxed out z/196 goes for about $28,500,000

But since our z/800 is "2 generations old", and since it has only 4 CPUs instead of 96, only 24 channels instead of 512, it doesn't cost quite that much...

It ain't your average thousand buck PC though...

.

[Cabal]

11:00 PM on a Friday night, and what is Sysman doing?

3 years ago, we got a nice new project from one of our best customers. It was a tough time for the company. We had just lost another big client, and had to lay off 20% of the staff. The new project really was a huge part of our future...

It took us more than a year to write/modify the programs, almost another year to "debug" it in a real world production environment. But we finally "went live" on April 1 this year...

We have a pretty nice mainframe at work. An IBM z/800 with 3 CPUs, 16 fibre channels, 8 of which talk to the disk array. A couple more channels feed the "OSA" adapters, which are the interface to the web, and our local LAN. A couple more run the tape drives, etc...

Before we "went live" we had about 150 on-line users. Plus a fair amount of "batch work", like customer service people doing custom reports, us programmers doing compiles and tests...

But since we "went live" we now have about 250 on-line users. And the amount of batch work has also increased a fair amount. It is starting to "stress" the system...

So I just ordered a 4th z/800 CPU, another OSA adapter to keep up with the increased web traffic, another disk array, and another 8 fibre channels to drive the array. We do have plenty of space on the first array, but being able the "split the load" on another set of channels, another set of access arms, etc., should provide a giant overall performance improvement...

The boss just said yes, I just called my IBM dude and said yes...

So have a beer, and help me celebrate! Life is good!!!

.

Don't ya just love the IT world? As long as you're the guy doing the hands on, you'll have a job!

Congrats mate!

[Cabal]

You could say that. A brand new state of the art, maxed out z/196 goes for about $28,500,000

But since our z/800 is "2 generations old", and since it has only 4 CPUs instead of 96, only 24 channels instead of 512, it doesn't cost quite that much...

It ain't your average thousand buck PC though...

.

But if you could find the capital to do that upgrade... wow

[Double_A]

That's an interesting Fetish you have.

[Sysman]

But if you could find the capital to do that upgrade... wow

All I gotta say is: ...

I think this company has a great product and a great future. Once again, I find myself wishing I was about 20 years younger...

I'm too old for this shit. I hope to become one of the "entitled" in a couple years, when I file for SS. We have several "old timers", we all know the company belongs to the son of the owner...

Then again, I don't think I can ever imagine myself being "totally retired". As much as I love the farm, I really don't want to be here 24x7. I need something to do, something to get me out of the house. "Part time", and "under the table" would be even better...

Ya never know what tomorrow will bring. As long as I keep seeing tomorrows, I'll figure it out then. I'm sure I'll be happy doing whatever it is that I do...

Base-a-ball has been bery bery good to me...

...

.

[CGTech]

You could say that. A brand new state of the art, maxed out z/196 goes for about $28,500,000

But since our z/800 is "2 generations old", and since it has only 4 CPUs instead of 96, only 24 channels instead of 512, it doesn't cost quite that much...

It ain't your average thousand buck PC though...

.

I start having visions of geek heaven at the mere thought of playing with gear like that....