Theoretical Background

At the dawn of IT solutions (in the sixties and seventies of the 20th century), only a few companies (IBM, Unisys, Wang) were able to manufacture computers. These were uniquely designed, special machines which could only run software products of the particular manufacturer. Collectively, these were called mainframe computers, or colloquially referred to as "big iron”. The 1980s saw two trends emerge in the market: the appearance of midrange computers based on RISC microprocessors with open systems and running the Unix operating system (SUN Solaris, HP-UX, IBM AIX), and the development of a range of personal computers based on Intel microprocessors with open architecture. The latter penetrated the server market in the 1990s, and in the early 21st century it became the equal of mainframe and midrange systems with the appearance of the X64 architecture.

What is Downsizing?

For corporations it is not the deployed information technology platform (server and operating system) that produces value but the application running on it and used for their daily business operations. In many cases these applications actually determine the IT platform required for their operation, while other applications are operable on numerous different platforms, as well.

Downsizing is the procedure when an application is migrated to a smaller environment, that is from a mainframe platform to a midrange, or from a midrange to an X64 platform.

Why may it be worth migrating an application to a different platform?

The operational costs of mainframe, midrange and X64 platforms may significantly differ, with a clear downward trend. These costs are partly incurred from the maintenance of the implemented hardware and software tools, as well as from other, incidental costs. To get an idea of the above, you may wish to consider how difficult it is to find a suitably qualified professional for the operation of the different platforms.

Our experience shows that when a business application will run on the X64 platform (e.g.: SAP), considering the acquisition costs of the new platform together with the costs of the migration project, the downsizing project may be planned with a surprisingly short break-even period. The case is not so straightforward if the application does not directly support the X64 platform. Then, the downsizing project may involve unique developments the costs of which will add to the break-even period.

G-DAS Consultants are pleased to be at your service in reviewing an application of your Company with respect to a possible downsizing project from a mainframe or midrange platform, and to draw up a feasibility study with the technical and financial findings.

Does Quality Suffer in Downsizing?

During a downsizing project, we measure the quality of information technology services along two dimensions: in terms of performance (response time, run time, capacity, user number) and reliability (number of outages, data loss, maximum downtime, availability).

From the 1990s it has been a typical decision of Hungarian large and medium-size enterprises to install critical business applications on mainframe, or more frequently on midrange platforms. Today, however, the performance of the X64 platform much exceeds that of a midrange platform a few years ago. The present difference has been shifted to a range which is thought to be of no relevance in any corporate environment in Hungary.

As for operational reliability, professionals often disagree about the reliability of the different platforms. Nevertheless, experience has revealed that with a suitably controlled operational procedure, the X64 platform may be operated with just as much reliability as a Linux or Windows server operating system.