Host Connectivity News and Articles (27/27)
Mainframes are powerful computers that rose to prominence in the world of big business during the 1960s. Despite the rise in prominence of high-end Unix and Intel-based servers, as well as the rise of the personal computing and cloud computing, mainframes are as relevant as ever in the year 2011. In this article, we'll take a look at some of the reasons behind this, such as terminal emulation software, as well as some of the biggest challenges facing mainframes.
Here are a few quick facts about mainframes, from the recent upsurge in mainframe training to the critical role of terminal emulation in the modern mainframe environment.
IBM has been creating "Big Iron" -- mainframes that act as database platforms for many of the world's biggest businesses -- for decades now. In the modern computing environment, mainframes remain as relevant as ever, even though the old hardware terminals have been replaced with terminal emulation software such as 3270 emulators. In this article, we'll look at the newest member of IBM's mainframe family, the zEnterprise.
The death knells of the mainframe have been sounded for years now, yet despite all these calls, the mainframe lives on. It has not died, and it is showing no signs of dying. Despite competition for workloads from high-end Unix and Intel-based servers, as well as the rise of cloud computing, mainframes - or 'big iron' as they're colloquially referred to - persist. However, the terminals or 'green screens' that were traditionally used to communicate with mainframes have not persisted, instead being replaced with terminal emulation software ( 3270 emulation, for example), which mimics the role terminal hardware once played.