Marketing naivete coupled with technical excellence. So say some mainframe observers, but ICL Plc hotly denies the first and says that it is an historical judgement. Peter Slavid claims that ICL’s approach to open systems on the mainframe is entirely different from that of the major mainframe manufacturers. Putting Unix into a partition means that it is used only for traditional workloads, and users have few incentives to make the transition from proprietary environments. ICL’s corporate systems manager claims that ICL’s strategy is to make its existing systems open and have VME as the managing system with Unix interfaces. Nonetheless, while Slavid is keen to emphasise the openness of VME – and it was the first system to meet the requirements of and comply with Release 3 of X/Open’s Portability Guide – he is admittedly sceptical about the timeframe for Unix world domination. Apart from there being a dearth of skills, users will bide their time until they feel confident that Unix handles business processing as well as it does engineering or scientific workloads. Slavid is fairly bullish about ICL’s mainframe business, saying that it has scored more knockouts in the past 12 months than at any other time. The most notable was the deposition of IBM Corp and Amdahl Corp at British Gas Plc, but others include several building societies and the UKP2.1m contract with Barclays Registrars Ltd which has taken delivery of a 29 MIPS Series 39 SX 480-20. ICL’s top-end Essex mainframe is a two-processor 90 MIPS system, and while it’s no secret that a four-way is imminent, ICL is not planning to match the 200 or 300 MIPSers on offer from IBM, Amdahl and Hitachi Ltd. Slavid says that ICL could offer the technology, but its biggest system is determined by the needs of its biggest customer. Also, with the exception of British Gas, he is not aware of any top-end user coming out of the IBM architecture. Nonetheless, if ICL’s offerings are to be dictated solely by its existing user base, this implies that ICL won’t be attacking the IBM and plug-compatible community, and that ICL does not intend to grow its mainframe user base.

Fujitsu mainframes

Not so, says Slavid. As systems become more open, there will be opportunities to bid for IBM accounts and that represents major growth potential for VME. Observers have suggested that ICL could grow its base by other means, not least of which would be the marketing of near IBM-compatible Fujitsu Ltd mainframes. Slavid believes that ICL’s 80% shareholder is not interested in putting its mainframes through ICL, and ICL itself has strong reservations since they are proprietary systems. To an extent, says Slavid, it adds doubt to the ICL product. Of course, if a user demanded a proprietary Fujitsu mainframe as part of a systems integration contract, ICL would supply it. Nonetheless, while ICL cannot take IBM on in its traditional stamping ground, the big in-house development shops, Slavid reckons that MVS is dying and users are buying application and business systems, and that’s where ICL comes good. ICL may have lacked marketing nous in the past, says Slavid, but he believes that it now occupies a leading position by dint of two decisions. The first was to follow a vertical business strategy, and the second was to adopt open systems at an early stage. And what of Fujitsu? Slavid maintains that the Fujitsu takeover has not ushered in a new management regime, and that the Japanese leave well alone. Others feel that an UKP840m investment deems more attention than a determined hands-off approach. Nonetheless, technical collaboration has broadened, and one very positive spin-off from the Fujitsu connection is that third parties no longer pay heed to the FUD Fear Uncertainty and Doubt factor which others may have exploited during the 1980s. – Janice McGinn