Just over seven years ago, I was hired as the Financial System Administrator at my place of emplacement. In my first interview, I was told how they were getting ready to pick a new ERP and get off their “archaic” mainframe. After I was hired, the IT director at the time told me with glee how they would be shutting down the mainframe in six months. This shocked me a bit it was going to take at least a year to go live with the new ERP solution.
It turned out maintenance on the 20-year-old software was going to end in six months. The mainframe was actually scheduled for shutdown six months after we went live on the new software and platform. Well we did go live on the new ERP within a year, but the mainframe at one time had run the entire business of the company and while the financial suite was the last large part to go off it, there were still several “smaller” but just as important systems still running on it.
Consequently, it took seven years, and two other IT directors, before access to the now 11-year-old System/390 was finally cut this week. At some point after the New Year, a ceremony is being planned to let the Chairman flip the final switch to turn off the system. He has been a “Champion of Modernization” to get us off the mainframe for almost 10 years. I’m sure speeches will be made about how far we have come. Yet, as I look around at the countless servers, real and virtual, and think about the major software platforms hosted by outside vendors, all to replace the one S/390 that was divided in to four virtual systems I can’t help but wonder if we are really better off.
