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FedEx to close data centers, retire mainframes

datacenterdynamics.com

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Re: FedEx to close data centers, retire mainframes

#531

Post by dx034 »

kamaal wrote: post #234
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #136

I've seen two mainframe "replacements" fail to either retire the mainframe, OR produce an alternative system which people like. Has any Fortune 500 company successfully "retired" their mainframe?

Not sure about 'mainframes' specifically. But one of the easiest way to retire anything, is to stop doing new work on the older systems. Any new project should go on the new tech. Soon enough you will see the older systems gone. It won't happen in weeks or months, but 1 - 2 years is enough. At one point the whole banking industry used to de-facto run on Java. Eventually people just started doing new work on Python. T…

I've seen that with a core banking system. A decade later it's still running, with many patches in other systems to avoid its shortcomings. there's still no viable plan for migration.

Just because you don't invest in a system doesn't mean it becomes obsolete.

Re: FedEx to close data centers, retire mainframes

#532

Post by dx034 »

Jochim wrote: post #225
throw0101a wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In-house development teams have more agility in standing up new services, since they can just use EC2/ECS/one of the other 1500 container runtimes AWS has, rather than having to wait for someone to provision new physical servers for them. How many people run physical servers 'raw' anymore? I would hazard their current stack involves VMware, Hyper-V, Open Stack, or a combination of the three. You can have an API sys…

I worked somewhere with a private cloud. It was permanently over-subscribed and the VMs were nearly unusable because of it. Not saying it can't be done well but there's less incentive for a company whose main business isn't providing infrastructure to ensure they've provisioned enough resources to meet demand.

That's like running against cost limits in AWS. If no money is spent, you won't have the flexibility. But it's not the fault of private clouds, they can be as flexible as a public cloud.

Re: FedEx to close data centers, retire mainframes

#533

Post by dx034 »

nly wrote: post #28
iso1631 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fedex will continue to charge as much as they can to boost their profits. This move will increase their profits, making $1.50 on each of 100 million deliveries instead of $1, boosting profits from $100m to $150m However if they were to undercut UPS and others they might be able snap up UPS business, dropping the profit to $1, but on 200 million deliveries, and thus they'll make $200m instead, you the customer will ha…

Until it becomes a race to the bottom and UPS drop their prices as well. Then both companies suffer

They're not really competing on price but on quality. They make the most money with super urgent deliveries. If they offer later pick up times or earlier guaranteed deliveries, customers will be happy to pay more. And their IT system is crucial for that.

Re: FedEx to close data centers, retire mainframes

#534

Post by dx034 »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #441

I think they will regret this in the long run when they have disagreements with their providers or their providers go bankrupt and fold overnight because of corporate mismanagement/thievery (ala Enron). Even Amazon and Google will go under eventually...

Or the amazon cloud becomes the new IBM mainframe and in 20 years they all work on getting off it, but can't because they are so deeply integrated.

Re: FedEx to close data centers, retire mainframes

#535

Post by dx034 »

Ekaros wrote: post #30

Where are they using all of these data centers and mainframes? That is they are spending at least 400 million to do what exactly? To me that seems like rather high figure in any case for their sites and logistics...

With airplanes especially, optimal utilization is key. Routing millions of packages a day through such a complex network around weather and other incidents while keeping SLAs is simply astounding.

Re: FedEx to close data centers, retire mainframes

#536

Post by dx034 »

perlgeek wrote: post #117
fanf2 wrote: post #58

”FedEx first opened an on-premise data center at 250 Spectrum Loop in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2008” That seems implausible: where did they keep their mainframes before 2008?

Colocated in another company's data center.

They could get back to colocation. I think even AWS & Co don't own all physical buildings, they also rent parts of data centers in some locations. You don't need to own real estate or a physical building to run servers.

Re: FedEx to close data centers, retire mainframes

#537

Post by dx034 »

imperialdrive wrote: post #318

https://www.switch.com/colocation/ The Switch colos all appear to be rendered concepts, but impressively so.

I always wondered what latency requirements they must have in a distribution center that has to route packages dynamically and make those routing decisions within milliseconds. Surely there must be a lot of logic at the distribution center, they probably are their own data centers. Or can you really have 10+ms latency for each decision?

Re: FedEx to close data centers, retire mainframes

#538

Post by otabdeveloper4 »

missedthecue wrote: post #323
otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hetzner is about 10x cheaper than AWS, give or take.

I love Hetzner and send them money every month, but you do get what you pay for. I don't think I'd like to run FedEx off of Hetzner.

I was actually commenting on the margins that "cloud providers" charge.

If I was a manager at FedEx I'd definitely spend some resources to DYI and send some of those millions over to my direction instead.

Re: FedEx to close data centers, retire mainframes

#539

Post by jeffbee »

nix23 wrote: post #518
mbesto wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I procure a fleet of cars I expect none of them to be faulty...how about you?

>I expect none of them to be faulty So you don't even test the car's, you just expect that the tire pressure is correct, tank is full? Expect that something "just" works is exactly why pilots have checklist's. Expectations are the main point for disappointments, you would never do that with software right?

The point, which you seem so dedicated to avoiding, is that "in the cloud" these steps are not my problem. Inspecting a literal shipload of computers for subtle defects is a pain in the ass. Amazon does it for me. When I get on an airplane I do not personally have to run the checklists. The airline does it for me.

Re: FedEx to close data centers, retire mainframes

#540

Post by nightpool »

scottyah wrote: post #381
shuntress wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think its more fair to so that FedEx building their own datacenters is like building their own roads to deliver packages on. Your metaphor is a little bit off. This is more comparable to FedEx renting vs owning their fleet vehicles. Obviously they aren't going to be setting up foundries to to scratch-build engines and network switches. But it probably makes as much sense for them to own the buildings & computers…

Fun Fact: They don't technically own their planes, since it would have made them an nice target for a hostile takeover if someone wanted them

This seems... incorrect? http://www.fedex.com/us/about/overview/companies/express/Exp... indicates that they own 696 aircraft, and https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airline-fedex-orders/fede... says that they just bought 50 more in 2015. No mentions of a lease agreement here. In fact, according to Wikipedia, for smaller aircraft FedEx operates a dry lease business where they lease their fleet out to contractors to deliver certain routes:

    In the United States (along with Morningstar Air Express in Canada), FedEx Express operates FedEx Feeder (and for Morningstar, mainline FedEx service) on a dry lease program where the contractor will lease the aircraft from the FedEx fleet and provide a crew to operate the aircraft solely for FedEx
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