IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe - January/February 2014 - 6

EDITOR'S DESK
The Father of Innovation
hen we were ﬁrst dating, I remember asking my
now husband what his father did for a living.
The reply: "He installs and repairs mainframes for
IBM." I'll admit I had no idea what a mainframe was. That
was before I took a job publishing magazines and online
content for IBM.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DARIN BACK

Truth be told, the mainframes my father-in-law installed
for IBM bear little resemblance to the zEnterprise* System of
today. That's because IBM wasn't content to rest on its laurels
when it introduced the big iron servers back in the day. With
each release, new features are added, making the IBM flagship
server stand out from its brethren.
Mainframe innovation has helped shape and reshape the
world of IT as we know it. "The mainframe is where all of this
began, with virtualization being just one example," says Bernard
Meyerson, IBM Fellow and VP, Innovation. "Although the time
delay between mainframe implementations and movement to
other platforms has shrunk from, say, 20 to 30 years to five to
10 years, it remains the leader in new-technology deployment,"
he notes. In the cover story on page 22, Meyerson and Jeff
Frey, System z* CTO, share more on how these mainframe-led
technologies have trickled down to other platforms.
The platform continues to evolve. In the feature story on page
28, Meyerson and Frey explore some of the future innovations
planned for the mainframe. For instance, by treating servers,

storage and networking as virtualized services, the notion
of hardware-defined environments is being turned on its
head to become software-defined environments. This allows
administrators to dynamically provision resources using policydriven automation.
Other articles in this issue include a case study on how the
U.K.'s Met Office has consolidated on Linux* on System z, a
look at Flash Express and System z, and mainframe strategist
Paul DiMarzio's two bits about his passion for numismatics, the
study and collection of currency.
The past, present and future of the System z platform
have been and continue to be bright. My father-in-law
would be proud.

Evelyn Hoover // Executive Editor
ehoover@msptechmedia.com

CONTRIBUTORS

R George Ng
Traveler's taste
George Ng, co-author of the How To
article on page 34, enjoys traveling
with his wife and family in his spare
time and has visited more than 30 countries. He's also a bit of a foodie and
enjoys culinary gourmand trips. Some of the favorite exotic delicacies he's
sampled include fried scorpions, snake blood wine, haggis and balut. He has
resided in Rome, Beijing, and Poughkeepsie, N.Y., among other exotic locations.

6 // JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 ibmsystemsmag.com

R Alisa Morse
Running at full blast
Outside of work, Alisa Morse, co-author of the Trends
article on page 10, enjoys music and running. Since
her 50th birthday last year, she has run three halfmarathons with her husband, Mike, and friends. She
also plays the tenor horn in a brass quartet and in the
Triangle Brass Band. She also accompanies members
of her family on piano.

http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com

IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe - January/February 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe - January/February 2014