Hot Topics - Messmer The Brain House

Head to head with benchmarks
Consider the mainframe
BY JIM PORELL
What is a benchmark? Typically, it is a
comparison of two things in a “head to
head” contest. In computer terms, it’s
evolved down to the price performing
solution. There is a problem with
benchmarks, though. They can only
compare one thing at a time. In a large
enterprise, the cost of a single function
may pale in comparison to a multi-function
enterprise. And benchmarks sometimes
compare mainframes to other systems in
terms of cost and complexity often to the
disadvantage of the mainframe.
Let’s look at an example of a
benchmark. If you need to commute to
work in Europe, the Smart brand car is
a very attractive alternative to the cab of
a tractor trailer truck. Both the car and
truck hold two people with a couple cubic
feet of storage. The car gets around 60
miles per gallon of gasoline and won’t
cause sticker shock on the show room
floor. The truck gets around 4 to 6 miles
per gallon of diesel fuel and it will cause
your checkbook to go up in flames if you
were to acquire it. It is obviously cheaper
to commute in the Smart car.
The wind blows softly
through the leaves of autumn...Wait,
that’s just the mainframe!
Frank Migacz,
Northern Illinois University
But, what if the problem was to move
your house? You wouldn’t fit a piano in
either vehicle, so you accessorize them
with trailers. It’s still going to be tough to
put a trailer behind a Smart car. And how
many trips would you make in the car to
get the move done? Now the tractor trailer
combination can haul quite a bit of material
in it. In fact, you might share trailer space
with others to get a better price.
In these examples, we demonstrated
the typical “either/or” mentality of most
benchmarks. But we’re not done yet. Why
can’t you use both? The family moves in
the car and you hire the truck to move
your furniture.
The same is true of computers today.
Just like the tractor trailer that can’t zip
through traffic, our mainframes just can’t
drive the graphics in our PCs and PDAs.
But they can do other great things. And
they need a partnership with other systems
to complete the tasks. This partnership can
extend to application and database serving.
A recent customer test demonstrated that
beginning a transaction on a non-z/OS
web portal server to an existing mainframe
transaction utilized 4 times more CPU
on z/OS than when the same portal
called Websphere on z/OS to launch the
transaction. Those CPU savings translate
directly to dollar savings in software
license charges. But also in reduced
operations complexity. Like all tests of this
nature, the value to any particular business
will vary.
So when you think of mainframes
and you read about those benchmarking
exercises that compare the mainframe to
other kinds of systems, keep in mind what
you’re comparing and understand how to
leverage the power of the mainframe for
your business. Remember to use the best
of each of the servers that you may have
to their advantages to get the best of all
worlds. That’s something the benchmarks
forget to tell you!
Nothing can compare;
This mainframe beats all others
flat into the ground.
Aaron McMahan,
West Virginia University at Parkersburg
February 2006 z/OS HOT TOPICS Newsletter, Issue 14 41