AXiS (the Association for the eXploitation of information Systems), which supports users of the flagship Fujitsu (formerly ICL) mainframe operating system, VME, announced today that it is to close down next year.
Harold Cloutt, Chairman for the last 10 years, comments, "VME is still thriving and in daily use by a number of high profile customers. It is hard to beat in terms of reliability and performance, but with more and more VME applications are being delivered as bespoke managed services, the value of collaboration between users has been dramatically reduced and sadly renders the work of AXiS obsolete".
AXiS has a distinguished history and can trace its ancestry directly back to the ICL 2900 User Group which was formed as part of the ICL Computer Users Association (ICLCUA) in 1975. The name may have changed over the years; Large Systems User Group (LSUG), the Association of Mainframe System Users (AMSU), but the group remained the last to actively serve the strategic and development needs of the Fujitsu VME platform client base.
In the seventies and eighties the group boasted thousands of members and hosted several events and special interest sessions every year. The Spring and Autumn conferences frequently took over the entire York University campus for days on end. Recent events have been smaller affairs, reflecting the reduced user base, but still sparking much interest and debate.
It is perhaps fitting that the last Conference was held at Bletchley Park, arguably the birthplace of modern computing. Cloutt continues, “The Bletchley event was very well received by delegates and we were looking forward to holding the Autumn 2011 Conference. However, the economic climate forced us to reconsider our plans. Market Research identified that the conference and indeed the entire user group, was no longer needed or economically viable in 2012. Closing down after all this time was a difficult decision to reach but one unanimously supported by the current AXiS Committee. I owe it to my distinguished predecessors that we do this in a diligent and respectful way”.

Harold Cloutt, Chairman of AXiS