Gender Neutral Mainframes ... Thanks SOA

I recently came across an article of interest entitled "Mainframes, SOA and SEX" by James Governer regarding SOA as a catalyst for mainframe growth and respect.

As an equal partner in the delivery of business services the mainframe can be leveraged as "just" another technology, and its strengths can be exploited. In order to exploit those strengths, SOA architects,  SOA programmers and SOA vendors unfamiliar with the mainframe need to get spec'd up. Exploitation is only possible with the knowledge of the capabilities and strengths of the platform. Think of the possibilities ...

When the internet bubble began to increase in size ... and the ASP model became the talk of the town there were thoughts that the ability to cloak the platform behind the internet might support a resurgence for more mature platform like the mainframe and the AS/400. There were some providers actually offering services over the internet which were delivered by these platforms. I believe psychological barriers proved to be insurmountable, and the need to have data (a companies crown jewels) within the confines of the company's walls thwarted acceptance of this model.

SOA does not suffer from the remoteness of data, but does cloak and exploit mainframe systems. It allows mainframes to do the heavy lifting, and GUI enabled platforms to make life easy for users. This is just what the mainframe needs ... a way to appeal to the non-mainframe techies ... and to continue to support business. SOA is the 'Screen' providing a gender neutral approach to computing platforms.