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> They can't even maintain the software they wrote 5-10 years ago, they just don't make any effort to retain that knowledge. IBM is the company that keeps a ne

by derleth 16y ago

> They can't even maintain the software they wrote 5-10 years ago, they just don't make any effort to retain that knowledge. IBM is the company that keeps a nearly-five-decade-old architecture and ISA around for its business customers, correct? (zSeries (or whatever its name is this week) is derived from s390, is derived from s370, is derived from s360, was created in the early 1960s.) z/OS and z/VM are modern versions of MVS and CP-40, which date to 1974 and 1967, respectively. It seems odd that the company that does that would have problems with decade-old software in any of its business units.

kamaal 16y ago
Big companies divide their company internally into many units. Things like research, services or even on basis of Industry verticals like Banking, Communication and Entertainment. The units in IBM that work on Mainframes and Supercomputers et al, are totally different than the ones that execute maintenance and service projects. The people, the culture everything is different.
rbanffy 16y ago
It seems Stormbringer was looking at the IT consulting division. I have to agree with him/her on that - I hear horrible things about them and I'd never, ever, under no circumstances, hire them. That said, I have enormous respect for their mainframe division and operating system programmers. Their server hardware (z, i, and x), z/OS/, z/VM, AIX and their contributions to the Linux kernel are all very good. IBM is certainly big enough and old enough that different divisions can behave like completely different companies. It's a bit unfair, in fact, to see one division tarnishing the image of a company so full with groundbreaking accomplishments and such a rich history as IBM. The consulting division has to compete for huge contracts, that are managed by pointy-haired lifeforms who can't see beyond hourly rates, with equally incompetent organizations like EDS/HP, Accenture and Tata. You put an evolutionary pression on the market driving it to provide low prices. The marker responds optimizing for price and price alone. When you have to compete in price with incompetent-but-cheap organizations, you either become incompetent-but-cheap or get out of business. Tough choice.

by derleth 16y ago

kamaal 16y ago

Big companies divide their company internally into many units. Things like research, services or even on basis of Industry verticals like Banking, Communication and Entertainment. The units in IBM that work on Mainframes and Supercomputers et al, are totally different than the ones that execute maintenance and service projects. The people, the culture everything is different.

rbanffy 16y ago

It seems Stormbringer was looking at the IT consulting division. I have to agree with him/her on that - I hear horrible things about them and I'd never, ever, under no circumstances, hire them. That said, I have enormous respect for their mainframe division and operating system programmers. Their server hardware (z, i, and x), z/OS/, z/VM, AIX and their contributions to the Linux kernel are all very good. IBM is certainly big enough and old enough that different divisions can behave like completely different companies. It's a bit unfair, in fact, to see one division tarnishing the image of a company so full with groundbreaking accomplishments and such a rich history as IBM. The consulting division has to compete for huge contracts, that are managed by pointy-haired lifeforms who can't see beyond hourly rates, with equally incompetent organizations like EDS/HP, Accenture and Tata. You put an evolutionary pression on the market driving it to provide low prices. The marker responds optimizing for price and price alone. When you have to compete in price with incompetent-but-cheap organizations, you either become incompetent-but-cheap or get out of business. Tough choice.