Mainframes don’t often make headlines – but behind the scenes, they power some of the most critical systems in Europe. At ICSS, the team has been living and breathing this world since 1997. And their latest lab upgrade shows they’re not slowing down.
Warning: contains advanced technical details, mainframe fans, enjoy.
Earlier this year, ICSS significantly expanded their internal mainframe demo lab with enterprise-grade IBM components that closely match what their clients run in production. These include a z15 CPU, DS8884 storage subsystem, TS7700 Virtual Tape Library, and a TS4500 Automated Tape Library – all delivered, installed, and ready for testing in-house. (Yes, that’s CEO János Mocsáry helping stabilize a 930 kg DS8000 unit during the delivery.)
The upgraded environment now includes:
- Two mainframe CPUs (including the z15)
- Two DS8000 storage systems (including the DS8884)
- TS7700 VTL and TS4500 ATL
- Six SAN switches (SANB and SANC)
- Plus legacy components like 3490E, 3590, and 3592 Jaguar tape drives
Why keep those old systems around?
Because their clients need continuity – and sometimes, that means recovering or migrating data from storage media that hasn’t been touched in 30 years.
One of their most unique projects involved extracting archive data from 3490E EBCDIC cartridges and converting them to ASCII DVDs. It worked. The data was delivered. The client was impressed.
At ICSS, they don’t just talk about infrastructure. They build it, maintain it – and sometimes, resurrect it.