And the Oscar goes to ……..

… IBM Lab Boeblingen in the category of “RAS” (Really Appealing Series) for their Linux on IBM System z videoclip. First time I saw this “feature” was back in June. I just rediscovered it on YouTube and I wanted to share it with you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i7kBnhN3Lg

Some of you might know that I have an affinity to the cinema, as I have also a masters in science of mass media, cinema and theater. Don’t laugh, it isn’t that ridiculous as it might seem: the industries of the movies and of IT are quite similar. Both be brutally expensive, are fast-moving and consistently changing, and absolutely merciless if you strike the wrong note or do one wrong step.

No worries, our friends from IBM did all things right here. As leading actors we do not see professional comedians but the IBM heroes Siegfried Langer, Wilhelm Mild, and Hans-Joachim Picht. But the results are impressive – already about 3,500 views on YouTube. And a message well transported. Even if it starts with some kind of “once upon a time”, this movie is not a fairytale, but a documentary on how a vision becomes reality. A platform under suspicion of being moldy and old-fashioned demonstrates its cutting-edge nature. Many technologies now being “hyped” originally had been or born or early adopted on the mainframe – think of virtualization, think of “cloud readiness”, think of “business continuity”.

There is one thing that could be done even better next time. For your next movie, plan also with minimum a supporting if not a leading role for Geeko – and you bet you will sweep the board in the most important categories for IT customers: you´ll hear the “and the Oscars for the categories Best TCO and best ROI go to IBM System z running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z”.