
Chapter 1. Introduction to the new mainframe 23
In a distributed systems environment, many of the same roles are needed as in
the mainframe environment. However, the job responsibilities are often not as
well defined. Since the 1960s, mainframe roles have evolved and expanded to
provide an environment in which the system software and applications can
function smoothly and effectively and serve many thousands of users efficiently.
While it may seem that the size of the mainframe support staff is large and
unwieldy, the numbers become comparatively small when one considers the
number of users supported, the number of transactions run, and the ...