Research finds that running 10-50 apps on a mainframe costs less than on one Linux or Solaris server.
I was lucky enough to work on IBM AS/400 system for some time. We used to run AIX, RedHat Debian Linux natively on an iSeries Logical Partition (LPAR).
According to this article:
Fresh light on mainframe total cost of ownership reveals Big Blue's big iron is cheaper than a roomful of servers.
Research house Illuminata's report, 'IBM System z TCO: Man Bites Dog' shows that running 10-50 applications on a mainframe costs less than running the same workload on a one server/one application basis where the servers run Linux or Solaris.
Reasons for low cost / TCO
=> Mainframe has better cooling technology - A mainframe typically requires less electricity and air conditioning than many 1U servers running the same workload.
=> Cost of people - When running multiple applications the mainframe's people costs are much less than those needed to run the same workload on distributed systems.
=> Mainframe memory prices have fallen significantly in recent years.
This is an interesting study :)
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Very interesting study indeed. I wonder if there are any mainframe hosting sites out there that are using this as a reason why they are “better”. On another note, if mainframes weren’t so expensive, perhaps I’d buy one instead of a 1U.
On the basis of this study I have to ask is an IBM mainframe cheaper when one run one application per mainframe? This is the basis of the comparison. How does and IBM compare to a clustered linux application server which runs 10 to 50 apps on 3 to 5 1U servers?
Adam and Doyle,
Cost is main factor here. No one offers hosting based upon mainfaram. This study is more useful for enterprise computing, IMPO. I think study suggest that you save money using two factores cooling and electricity in a long run.