DEWR has about 120 SQL Server database servers in production but the new Job Network portal on SQL Server 2005 did allow consolidation of three SQL Server 2000 cubes into one, which interoperates with Oracle and DB2.

The core system will remain DB2 on an IBM mainframe, which was migrated from an Hitachi mainframe as recently as last month.

"Mainframes have come down in price and are not as expensive as they used to be," Taylor said. "If you look at the TCO of mainframes and what they are doing you get some surprising answers back."

Taylor said mainframe competition has effectively disappeared, because "if you want to get 64-bit mainframes and the bigger boxes there is only one player in the market, IBM".

"If the application is working well - and it is a major exercise to pull all that data off and try and put it on an SQL or Oracle - why would you move it?" he said.