IBM Mainframes

Comments discuss the capabilities, history, reliability, high availability, and ongoing relevance of IBM mainframes, often comparing them to modern x86 servers, cloud infrastructure, and questioning their use versus emulators.

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Keywords

RAM e.g IT CPU DB2 youtube.com CICS VSE UNIX TPF mainframe mainframes ibm unix os vm hardware x86 obsolete running

Sample Comments

tester756 Aug 26, 2022 View on HN

Maybe IBM's Mainframe? I mean reliable hardware, etc.

PeterStuer May 24, 2023 View on HN

Same would have been said of running IBM mainframes in the 1970's no?

kevin_thibedeau Jul 12, 2022 View on HN

IBM does this with their mainframes.

o11c Jan 11, 2024 View on HN

It's not a mainframe unless IBM ships 6 entirely different OSes for it.

asymmetric Jul 18, 2025 View on HN

This is a good article on the subject: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/07/the-i...

sydthrowaway Jun 23, 2022 View on HN

Surprised they’re still not on IBM Mainframes

josho Aug 29, 2012 View on HN

Ex-IBMer here. I worked with WebSphere (IBM's Java App Server) on zOS, and am by no means a Z-series expert.My understanding is that these machines are amazing at IO, and handle virtualized environments incredibly well (and have so for decades) (e.g. thousands of Linux machines running).If you need raw CPU performance then a mainframe is not for you. If you need competitive pricing then a mainframe is not for you. If you have a mainframe and need a have an expiring agreement then this mach

rubyfan Nov 28, 2017 View on HN

I think IBM actually has something like this for their mainframes right?

yk Jan 15, 2013 View on HN

I am not a mainframe guy, but AFAIK mainframes are very special beasts. Especially they guarentee very high aviability and have special hardware features to support this guarentees. So you do not use them in the first place if you are not more scared of downtime, than of hardware costs. And with this comes a specific very conservative style of software development. If it ain't broken, don't fix it. So a lot of the mainframe code is very old and will only be replaced, if the company is replaced b

frogperson Mar 24, 2023 View on HN

IBM has been doing this for decades with mainframes.