In an industry that can best be characterized by “What have you done for me lately?”, the continued existence of the mainframe is somewhat perplexing. While rumors are circulating that the IBM zSystems (mainframe) division is up for sale, Compuware is continuing its quarterly release cycle cadence with a set of new products and announcements intended to keep Big Iron relevant.
Hardware may be mainly about Moore’s Law and smaller, faster and cheaper, but after more than half a century (52 years young, but who’s counting), the mainframe continues to chug along. Almost all Fortune 100 companies – 90% according to IBM – are mainframe users. In addition:
-71% of all Fortune 500 companies have their core business on the mainframe;
-23 of the world’s top 25 retailers use a mainframe;
-92% of the top 100 banks use a mainframe;
-10 out of 10 of the top insurers use a mainframe;
-more than 225 state and local governments worldwide rely on a mainframe; and,
-9 of the top 10 global life and health insurance providers process their high-volume transactions on mainframe.
However, the world, especially IT, has changed dramatically over the last 50 years, and today everybody is talking about mobile, cloud, analytics and social, and that means more changes, more frequently. Seeking to bring continuous delivery and DevOps to the mainframe, the Compuware has announced code deploy capabilities in its mainframe SCM solution, ISPW, to help facilitate and speed the SCM-to-production pipeline. It also announced an integration with XebiaLabs, which will encompass the mainframe as part of cross -platform, continuous delivery efforts; and an integration with ConicIT, to help IT operations teams identify and resolve application performance issues rooted in the mainframe.
Asked how these announcements position the mainframe against newer — and less-expensive — platforms, Compuware CEO Chris O’Malley told IT Trends & Analysis “It definitely levels the playing field… in the critical first steps the customers has to take to bring DevOps to the mainframe.” He said the first steps include addressing the accelerating release frequency — instead of 6, 12 or 18-month software release cycles, organizations are dealing with monthly, weekly and shorter timeframes; testing the new code; and managing the code to be more agile. In addition, there is also making the whole process accessible to a broader audience, so that the issue of a highly skilled mainframe workforce that is at or nearing retirement does not become an insurmountable barrier.
“When you get to that point, the mainframe is now equal to any other platform,” said O’Malley. “I’m trying to make big aggressive statement in the market, it’s showtime!”
In his blog about the announcements, O’Malley stated that mainframe agility matters. Any mobile, web, and/or cloud app that extends a core business process, enables a transaction, or uses core data in a large enterprise has to work in concert with mainframe code. ‘So if you can’t quickly make small updates to that mainframe code whenever and wherever necessary, you’re going to be digitally hamstrung.’
O’Malley said his company is focused on tools, but there are other challenges with ‘mainstreaming the mainframe’, including corporate culture.CIOs are challenged with how do I create a pervasive culture that, at least in terms of innovation, is similar to a startup. “Culture is a big problem.”
The other big problem, he added, is process, waterfall versus agile, AKA Gartner’s bimodal concept — the practice of managing two separate but coherent styles of work: one focused on predictability (i.e. traditional); the other on exploration (i.e. agility/DevOps). “So it’s culture and process.” Now with the tools we gave them, they don’t have to be tied to waterfall in the mainframe, they can be agile.
O’Malley thinks they’ve “cracked the code”, and customers are buying into Compuware’s new direction. Looking ahead, he believes Big Iron will continue to remain relevant. “The mainframe platform is going to remain viable. We’re coming out with something that is making the mainframe a first-class citizen.”
While he is comfortable with the company’s progress, and what a handfold of other vendors like BMC are doing to promote the mainframe, he is concerned with IBM’s performance, or, other than the recent hardware refresh, lack of performance. IBM has done nothing, and CA the same, he said. “They have to be a good steward of the platform.”
Big Blue may be hedging its bets about the mainframe, but Compuware has a contrarian position on that, said O’Malley. “Our success is proving those decisions wrong.”
The Fiddly Bits
Compuware ISPW brings continuous delivery to the mainframe:
-by providing unmatched automation, visualization, and integrations, ISPW Deploy enables these enterprises to promote new mainframe code more quickly and with fewer errors than ever; -enhancement to ISPW’s source code management capabilities include: capabilities in Compuware File-AID that help customers migrate to COBOL v5 and above and reap associated performance benefits; new features in Compuware Topaz Workbench that reduce dependency on arcane TSO/ISPF utilities; enhancements to Compuware Strobe that include the addition of IMS Transaction Profiling and automated initiation of measurements across all members of a targeted CICSPlex; and, integration between Compuware Strobe and ConicIT mainframe performance analytics that helps IT organizations predictively discover and remediate operational issues.
Compuware and XebiaLabs partner to provide cross-platform continuous delivery for the mainframe:
-integration of Compuware’s ISPW mainframe DevOps solution with XebiaLabs continuous delivery technology for cross-platform release orchestration helps enterprises overcome this common hindrance to digital agility;
-faster, more reliable upgrades of applications that span multiple platforms—including the mainframe;
-clear and complete visibility into upgrade rollout timelines—enabling DevOps managers to discover and remediate bottlenecks in the end-to-end continuous delivery process;
-simplified one-click rollback and re-start for all application components; and,
-reduced dependence on idiosyncratic mainframe expertise.
Compuware and ConicIT simplify mainframe ops with guided, predictive problem resolution:
–ConicIT utilizes state-of-the-art machine learning to automatically baseline normal mainframe behavior across thousands of metrics and then applies advanced algorithms to recognize in real time when those metrics deviate from the baseline;
-Compuware Strobe empowers even mainframe-inexperienced systems staff to act on those alerts by guiding them through an exploration of the problem using a combination of built-in platform intelligence and intuitive visualization; and,
-mainframe metrics analyzed by ConicIT and addressed by Strobe’s built-in platform intelligence include those associated with CICS. DB2, IMS, WebSphere MQ, CA IDMS, ADABAS, and z/OS UNIX; the combined solution can also help systems staff and developers understand issues relating to programs written in COBOL, C/C++, PL/I, Assembler and CA Gen.