Dell-Clerity: Shifting IBM Mainframe Apps to Linux, Windows
Dell remains on an acquisition binge. The latest deal involves Dell acquiring Clerity Solutions, which helps customers to migrate applications from IBM mainframes to x86 servers running Linux and Windows. More than a decade ago, Michael Dell personally told The VAR Guy that he wanted x86 servers to gut the mainframe business. Will Dell’s buyout of Clerity fulfill that vision statement?
At first glance, Dell gently describes Clerity Solutions as a “leading global provider of application modernization and legacy system re-hosting solutions and software.”
Translation, please? Read between the lines and Clerity Solutions helps customers to…
- Modernize applications on IBM mainframes, moving them to Linux on IBM System Z platforms.
- Migrate and modernize legacy mainframe workloads to run on Linux, Windows and UNIX.
The Real Path Forward
Under Dell’s ownership, it’s a safe bet Clerity will offer more of item two and less of item 1. Sure, Clerity wants to remain platform agnostic. But Dell’s core business involves selling Windows and Linux servers. So you can safely assume Dell Services will use Clerity to accelerate mainframe application migrations onto x86 systems.
So what’s the opportunity here for smaller VARs and MSPs? At first glance, not much. Still, The VAR Guy will be watching to see if Dell extends the Clerity migration services into the Dell PartnerDirect channel.
Parting note: Yes, The VAR Guy really did speak with Michael Dell about his intent to gut IBM’s mainframe business. The conversation happened back in 1996 or so, when The VAR Guy was working under a different alias for Windows Magazine. Fast forward to the present and IBM’s mainframe business remains strong… though application migrations to x86 servers offer fertile ground for Dell and Clerity.
It’s interesting that some people believe Linux on mainframe is there because it’s “legacy” or needs to be “modernized” when Linux was on x86 first, before it was on mainframe. Linux runs on mainframes because of 1) reduced cost, 2) data transfer speeds that can’t be matched, 3) reliability, and most importantly 4) mainframes virtualize themselves on the bare metal (they “know how” to virtualize in the firmware), in networked clusters. If you build a cluster of x86 servers running Windows or Linux to the same data throughput and with the same reliability, you’ve got clusters of mainframes, probably at much higher cost! That’s why banks use them; banks are notoriously frugal.
Yes Ken:
Mainframes has it’s own space and can’t be replaced by clusters of x86 servers. In fact, the direction was the opposite when several banks and companies replaced entire x86 farms with 1 mainframe using virtualization. In a time when people thought was the end of mainframes, virtualization capacity gave a new life.
The most notable example I remember was when Shell got a Z Series to virtualize about 35.000 clients. And that was about 10 years ago.
Ken, Pietro: The VAR Guy isn’t suggesting mainframes are bad. IBM’s mainframe sales remain strong. And when was the last time you heard about a mainframe crash?
All that said: Do you think Dell is going to use Clerity for more “mainframe” projects, or for application migrations to Linux and Windows servers?
The answer seems pretty obvious to The VAR Guy.
-TVG
Fine VAR, I got your point but I can’t see and opportunity for Dell business. If someone has a mainframe is because want stability / reliability / scalability and x86 can’t compete in this area.
Maybe if someone has a very old hardware can be interested, but that is an exceptional case. In that case, Linux can take some advantage if the mainframe has Linux already installed, but Linux installed in an old mainframe, is not very probable.
Pietro: Generally speaking, The VAR Guy agrees… Difficult for x86 PC servers to ever match the reliability of mainframes.
But… Why didn’t Google, FaceBook and all the other big cloud vendors buy “mainframes” upon which to build applications that need absolutely reliability.
Whether you call it grid computing, clustering or cloud computing, their are scenarios where x86 servers are tough to match. And in some cases, for sure, customers move mainframe apps to Linux and Windows servers. Otherwise Clerity (now owned by Dell) wouldn’t exist.
-TVG