IBM-2007-04569-E-01
©2007 Sine Nomine Associates
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1 Introduction and Preface
“With its announcement of z/VSE 4, IBM has executed a hat trick. It has brought new
technical life to an operating system that has not been part of the swift flow of
mainstream computing. It has brought the usage-based pricing model used by z/OS
mainframe shops to the VSE users who had previously been neglected. And it has set the
stage for fresh hardware initiatives by speeding the exit of users with older machines.”
Hesh Wiener, Big Iron
The intent of this document is to provide those responsible for making the long-term decisions on
the nature and direction of their company's IT strategy with the information and arguments to
continue with their investment with z/VSE.
This white paper illustrates the value of upgrading hardware and software portfolios to VSE
customers currently running pre- z/VSE 4.1 systems on pre System z9 processors. For those
running a standard portfolio of z/VSE products on Multiprise, 9672 or z8xx/z9xx classes of
machine, there are significant TCO savings to be realized.
1.1 Executive Summary
Tracings its heritage back to the days of S/360, z/VSE continues to meet its users business
requirements with a robust, lean, and efficient environment. Sine Nomine Associates’ own
experiences with z/VSE date back over twenty years to an organization that had been a VSE
customer since the DOS Rel 16 days. It was the backbone of an organization that turned over $4
billion per year and did so with great reliability.
Subsystems such as VTAM, CICS, POWER, and TCP/IP provide the infrastructure that satisfies
most of the VSE customer requirements. To VSE customers like these it is no wonder why the
question of “Why are you still running VSE?” is one that is usually answered with “Because it
works and works very well.”
Increasingly, however, there are business requirements and cost pressures that cause those
running VSE to look at how their investment can be maximized and the needs of their users
satisfied. With the introduction of the System z9 family and the availability of z/VSE 4.1 IBM
has attempted to help the VSE community address these concerns.
Today, for those customers facing end of life on their existing hardware there are compelling
technical and financial reasons to look at upgrading both the operating system and the hardware
on which it belongs. The combination of z/VSE and z9 address the questions of:
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How can value be most efficiently generated to maximize ROI?
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How can modernization of technology be applied to preserve the best of the existing
applications and enable developing services to rapidly adapt to new demand?
z/VSE 4.1 provides a strong foundation and enabling services to allow organizations to adapt
without risking the farm through:
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Technology enablement:
