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Granted jargon can be jarring to outsiders. But the cultural problem is that smart, clever younger folks would rather talk in acronyms like AI, ML GPT, exits, c

Granted jargon can be jarring to outsiders. But the cultural problem is that smart, clever younger folks would rather talk in acronyms like AI, ML GPT, exits, cap table, vesting, etc. Talk to anyone under 40 and they will tell you that mainframes are extinct, that Java is sooo old, COBOL: what's that? They could rewrite those dinosaur systems in a weekend's hackathon.

Spooky23 2y ago
Mainframes are awesome, but they’ve achieved what the hyper scalers aspire to - complete market domination. They finished up in 1991 or so. The problem is there’s no growth. There are no new customers, no new patterns or meaningful growth areas. It’s a career cul de sac, and when the bean counters at your big bank discover Oracle Cloud ROI is 6% more than you, you get nuked from orbit.
- Animats 2y ago
  IBM Endicott is being demolished this month.[1] IBM hadn't been doing much there in the last 20 years, but now it's all being flattened. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuPyfD5vdHo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuPyfD5vdHo
- JSR_FDED 2y ago
  This underestimates the switching costs from mainframes. As one CIO told me, it’s basically career suicide. You take a rock solid system that’s been working forever and embodies decades ago of knowledge and replace it with something that while modern and cheaper exposes you to massive risk.
  - Spooky23 2y ago
    CIOs have a bias to be wimps. It's easier to kick the can down the road. I work with alot of orgs that have these things, both directly and from a association/conference perspective - it's starting to change because the new CIOs didn't grow up with mainframes, and are finding themselves with no alternatives other than expensive and increasingly ineffective contracts to operate these things. 1990 was 35 years ago, the old guys are dead - the can has been kicked off a cliff.
pjmlp 2y ago
Surprise them telling that UNIX and C are double their age on average.

Spooky23 2y ago

Mainframes are awesome, but they’ve achieved what the hyper scalers aspire to - complete market domination. They finished up in 1991 or so. The problem is there’s no growth. There are no new customers, no new patterns or meaningful growth areas. It’s a career cul de sac, and when the bean counters at your big bank discover Oracle Cloud ROI is 6% more than you, you get nuked from orbit.

Animats 2y ago
IBM Endicott is being demolished this month.[1] IBM hadn't been doing much there in the last 20 years, but now it's all being flattened. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuPyfD5vdHo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuPyfD5vdHo
JSR_FDED 2y ago
This underestimates the switching costs from mainframes. As one CIO told me, it’s basically career suicide. You take a rock solid system that’s been working forever and embodies decades ago of knowledge and replace it with something that while modern and cheaper exposes you to massive risk.
- Spooky23 2y ago
  CIOs have a bias to be wimps. It's easier to kick the can down the road. I work with alot of orgs that have these things, both directly and from a association/conference perspective - it's starting to change because the new CIOs didn't grow up with mainframes, and are finding themselves with no alternatives other than expensive and increasingly ineffective contracts to operate these things. 1990 was 35 years ago, the old guys are dead - the can has been kicked off a cliff.

pjmlp 2y ago

Surprise them telling that UNIX and C are double their age on average.