Microsoft Worries About Mainframe Competition

BBCWatcher writes "Microsoft has long claimed that the mainframe is dead, slain by the company's Windows monopoly. Yet, apparently without any mirror nearby, Microsoft is now complaining through the Microsoft-funded Computer & Communications Industry Association that not only are mainframes not dead, but IBM is so anticompetitive that governments should intervene in the hyper-competitive server market.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft is worried that the trend toward cloud computing is introducing competition to the Windows franchise, favoring better-positioned companies including IBM and Cisco. HP now talks about almost nothing but the IBM mainframe, with no Tukwila CPUs to sell until 2010. The global recession is encouraging more mainframe adoption as businesses slash IT costs, dominated by labor costs, and improve business execution. In 2008, IBM mainframe revenues rose 12.5% even whilst mainframe prices fell. (IBM shipped 25% more mainframe capacity than in 2007. Other server sales reports are not so good.) IBM mainframes can run multiple operating systems concurrently, including Linux and, more recently, OpenSolaris."

View of the Future

The Employment Outlook Tool has a feature to select long-term high growth/high wage and high demand/high wage occupations. Four of the top 15 long-term High Growth/High Pay Occupation Projections are computer-related occupations.

• Network Systems and Data Communications: Percent change rate of 51.4% with 4,113 total openings and median salary of $75,140
  
• Computer Software Engineers, Applications: Percent change rate of 40.6% with 8,888 total openings and median salary of $81,662
  
• Computer Systems Analysts: Percent change rate of 23.9% with 4,530 total openings and median salary of $72,371
  
• Network and Computer Systems Administrators: Percent change rate of 23.3% with 4,006 total openings and median salary of $65,236
  

Computer Jobs Hit Record High

Unemployment among computer related jobs hovers near historic lows as the U.S. information technology workforce tops 4 million for the first time.

The IT unemployment rate inched up one-tenth of a percentage point last quarter to 2.3 percent, but still hovers near historic lows. That’s in contrast to overall unemployment, which last quarter stood at 4.7 percent, more than double the IT jobless rate.

Why would IT employment remain robust as unemployment rises in most other job categories? IT performs a critical role in business productivity, and the efficiencies it brings are crucial for employers looking to trim costs—including payrolls—as fuel and related expenditures soar and the economy and dollar weakens. In addition, companies today cannot operate without functioning IT systems, so certain business technology skills cannot be eliminated if a company wants to remain competitive.    read more