VIEWPOINT - Focus on Mainframe Cost Optimization

Transcription

A Compilation of Articles by Industry Experts
VIEWPOINT
Focus on: Mainframe Cost Optimization
The Mainframe Strikes Back:
5 Reasons to Stay with the Mainframe
This publication was created by BMC Software.
Business Runs on IT. IT Runs on BMC Software.
The Keys to Effective Integration
*199997*
VOLUME 10
Business thrives when IT runs smarter, faster
and stronger. That’s why the most demanding IT
organizations in the world rely on BMC Software
across distributed, mainframe, virtual and cloud
environments. Recognized as the leader in
Business Service Management, BMC offers
a comprehensive approach and unified platform
that helps IT organizations cut cost, reduce risk
and drive business profit. For the four fiscal
quarters ended December 31, 2010, BMC
revenue was approximately $2 billion.
Visit www.bmc.com for more information.
The Economics
of Computing
4 Guidelines for Maximizing the
Value of the Mainframe
Published by BMC Software
Acknowledgments
We greatly appreciate the contributions of the following people and companies:
Jonathan Adams, BMC Software
Bruce Chen, Galaxy
Al deMoya, BMC Software
Felix Garcia, Thomson Reuters BETA Systems
Tim Grieser, IDC
Per Johansson, Volvo Information Technology
Bill Moran, Ptak, Noel & Associates
Nick Pachnos, BMC Software
John McKenny, BMC Software
Dr. Howard A. Rubin, Rubin Worldwide
Dr. John Shedletsky, IBM
Lilian Vieira, CSC BRASIL
Editor-in-Chief: Elaine Korn
Executive Advisors: Bill Emmett, Roy Ritthaler
Technical Editors: Nick Pachnos, Robin Reddick
Senior Editor: Lea Anne Bantsari
Editorial Team: Janice Brown, Linda Donovan, Kurt Milne, Karen Nichols,
Heather O’Neill
Technical Reviewers: April Hickel, Jay Lipovich, Danielle Scherer, Bronna Shapiro
Creative Design and Layout: Liora Blum, Liora Blum Graphic Design
Creative Direction: John Bishop
Special Thanks: Larry Bandemer, Ali Ghazanfari, Helen Greenstein, Matty Kaffeman,
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To learn how BMC Software BSM solutions can help your business, call 800-841-2031.
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respective companies. Copyright © 2011 BMC Software, Inc. All rights reserved.
6 Technology Economics: The Internal
Combustion Mainframe
Technology Economics reveals that com
putational platform choices have economic
consequences that must be assessed from
a business — rather than a technology —
perspective. With such knowledge, it is
possible to engineer the “IT cost of goods”
for maximum business value. This article
shows how.
By Dr. Howard A. Rubin
16 The Keys to Effective Mainframe
Integration: Automation,
Collaboration, and Education
Most IT organizations with mainframes
have technologies and best practices that
can help integrate the mainframe effectively
into today’s multiplatform enterprises.
Volvo Information Technology found three
practices — automation, collaboration,
and education — invaluable in overcoming
integration challenges.
By Per Johansson
22 Four Guidelines for Maximizing the
Value of Your Mainframe
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a simple
formula for maximizing your mainframe
and integrating it into a hybrid data center?
Of course, it is clear that there is no such
formula — because each IT organization
is unique in many ways, especially in the
nature of the workloads it supports. While
this formula does not exist, this article
provides four guidelines to help you make
the most of your mainframe investment.
By Tim Grieser
28 The Mainframe Strikes Back: Five
Reasons to Keep Your Applications
on the Mainframe
Many IT organizations are considering
moving workloads from mainframe to
distributed platforms to reduce costs. But
take a look at the hidden costs of doing so …
By Dr. John Shedletsky
table of contents
4 A Message from John McKenny
Vice President, Mainframe Service Manage
ment, BMC Software
34 The Lasting Power of the Mainframe
With the growth of mobile and cloud tech
nologies, the volumes of data and business
transactions that must be processed will
only increase. The mainframe will be a
critical player in meeting the IT challenges
presented by this inevitable growth. Read
this article to find out why.
By Al deMoya and Nick Pachnos
1
table of contents
40 Keeping Up with Demand While
Mainframe Teams
Is your IT organization being asked to con
stantly provide more and better business
services through your hybrid computing
environment? You can deliver the business
services your company needs while over
coming the sometimes daunting problem
of complexity. Here are five ways you can
stay ahead of demand.
By Lilian Vieira
The mainframe has a bright future, but
only if you continue to leverage your
mainframe investment and explain how it
maximizes the entire corporate IT invest
ment. To accomplish this, practice the
seven habits of highly effective mainframe
teams — those teams with a track record
of successfully leveraging and promoting
their mainframes.
By Bill Moran
48 Close to Real-Time Delivery of
Millions of Messages
Thomson Reuters BETA Systems effectively
processes 120 to 140 million businesscritical messages each month. This article
explains how.
By Felix Garcia
54 Flexible, Yet Reliable: Meeting the
Challenges of Global Business
The needs of global IT users are growing
in complexity and diversity. To meet these
requirements, use a hybrid solution con
sisting of distributed systems integrated
with a centralized mainframe. Distributed
systems offer flexibility in meeting local
user requirements, while the mainframe
offers superior reliability and the benefits
of centralized data management.
By Bruce Chen
2
62 The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
Overcoming Complexity
68 Ten Tips for Mainframe Success
IT organizations can reduce and optimize
mainframe costs by taking advantage of
specialty processors, selecting the right
vendors, and continually tuning perfor
mance. Follow these ten tips to make the
most of your mainframe investment.
By Jonathan Adams
Mainframe
Cost Optimization:
Delivering the highest levels of service using
the least amount of resources.
3
A MESSAGE FROM JOHN MCKENNY
Vice President, Mainframe Service Management,
BMC Software
The mainframe’s unmatched reliability, security,
and efficiency in processing large transaction
volumes make it critical to many IT organi
zations today. But while the mainframe is
a key element of many IT infrastructures, 65
percent of the respondents to BMC Software’s
2010 Annual Mainframe Survey indicated
that reducing IT costs is a top priority.
As a result, this edition of VIEWPOINT, which
includes contributions from industry experts,
BMC Software customers and partners, and
BMC thought leaders, provides advice and
practical guidance to help you effectively
maximize your mainframe investment and
increase the mainframe’s value to the business.
In our lead article, Dr. Howard A. Rubin intro
duces the concept of Technology Economics
to provide a way for IT organizations to make
more informed decisions about platform
choices, as well as relate compute costs to
revenue. Next, Per Johansson of Volvo
Information Technology discusses how auto
mation, collaboration, and education are the
keys to effectively integrating the mainframe
into your business operations.
4
The article by Tim Grieser of IDC describes
four broad strategies for maximizing your
mainframe investment, with the ultimate
goal of delivering an excellent end-user
experience — end-to-end performance, avail
ability, and security — at a reasonable cost.
Did you ever wonder if there are hidden costs
associated with moving workloads from a
mainframe to a distributed systems environ
ment? If so, be sure to read the article by
Dr. John Shedletsky of IBM, which talks about
five hidden costs of doing so.
Two articles by BMC partners provide guid
ance based on experience with a variety of
mainframe and hybrid computing environ
ments. Lilian Vieira of CSC BRASIL outlines
tips for keeping up with the constant demand
for more and better business services while
meeting the challenges of increasingly com
plex hybrid computing environments. Bruce
Chen of Galaxy describes how to best meet the
needs of global end users by implementing a
hybrid environment that offers flexibility on
the front end and stability and centralized data
processing with the mainframe.
How can you effectively process more than
120 million business-critical messages each
month? To find out, read the article by Felix
Garcia of Thomson Reuters BETA Systems.
And don’t miss the article by Bill Moran of
Ptak, Noel, which discusses the characteris
tics of teams that have successfully leveraged
their mainframe investments.
These are just some highlights of the infor
mative articles you will find in this edition of
VIEWPOINT. We hope the information provided
in this publication will help you make the most
of your mainframe investment.
About John McKenny
John McKenny, BMC Software vice presi
dent of worldwide marketing for Mainframe
Service Management (MSM), leads global
teams responsible for the product strategy,
direction, and marketing activities for main
frame management solutions. He joined BMC
in 1995 as a member of the DB2 research and
development team, and served as a director
in research and development and as senior
director of marketing and product manage
ment. Prior to joining BMC, he spent 15 years
in various IT roles.
Best regards,
John McKenny
Vice President, Mainframe Service Management
BMC Software
5
Technology Economics: The Internal Combustion Mainframe
Technology
Economics:
The Internal Combustion
Mainframe
Technology Economics reveals that computational platform choices
have economic consequences that must be assessed from a business —
rather than a technology — perspective. With such knowledge, it is
possible to engineer the “IT cost of goods” for maximum business
value. This article shows how.
By Dr. Howard A. Rubin
6
7
F
or a few moments, don’t even think
about information technology. Think
about the automobile.
There are 750 million to 900 million auto
mobiles on our planet: diesel, electric, hybrid,
and Hybrid Synergy Drive. And, most of all,
automobiles powered by the gasolineburning internal combustion engine. Internal
combustion, in use for a century, still powers
99 percent of automobiles. It is predicted to
remain the main engine of transportation,
with at least 50 percent penetration, through
at least 2025.
Consider how the internal combustion engine
has evolved and has been tuned and refined
based on a century of experience.
Neither mainframe computing nor
server-based computing is right for
all forms of computation.
This evolution became more obvious to me
recently, as I attended the U.S. introduction of
the Ferrari 458 in Greenwich, Connecticut.
There, under glass, as an integral part of this
automotive masterpiece of art and design,
was a 275-cubic-inch internal combustion
engine producing 580 horsepower, or 2.11
horsepower per cubic inch.
It definitely was not my “father’s Oldsmobile”
(he actually had a 1970 Buick and, yes,
Oldsmobile is gone). His Buick had 350 cubic
inches and produced 125 horsepower, or
0.24 horsepower per cubic inch – and
probably delivered fewer miles per gallon
than the Ferrari.
8
That’s an almost 10x improvement in efficiency
over 40 years. It’s a major indication that the
industry will not soon discount, discredit, or
abandon the internal combustion engine.
The Economics of
Computational Platforms
The same thinking applies in computing. The
industry will not soon discount, discredit,
or abandon its 50-year history of computing
by replacing all computational engines
with the “flavor of the day” – servers, blades,
or the cloud.
But this article is not about mainframe
superiority. It is about the economics of com
putational platforms and the import ance
of Technology Economics in maximizing the
value of IT to your business.
Most businesses today rely on a mix of com
putational platforms – mainframe computers;
UNIX, Wintel, and Linux servers; and mid
range computers (e.g., AS/400). This mix is
mostly un-engineered.
Neither mainframe computing nor serverbased computing is right for all forms of
computation (and I haven’t even mentioned
supercomputing or megaFLOP environ
ments). It is essential for organizations to
consider both the functional characteristics
of their computing needs and the economics.
Determining Compute Cost
Per $1 Million Revenue
The economics include relating compute
cost to revenue. Recently, Rubin Worldwide
analyzed data from 21 sectors (including gov
ernments) and 133 companies. The average
company has about 0.37 MIPS and 0.17
servers per $1 million of revenue. In other
words, the average $10 billion company
has a core platform of 3,700 MIPS and 1,700
physical servers. (As virtualization takes
hold, this will change.)
Sectors vary widely in their computational
needs. At the high end, banking and finance
require 10,700 MIPS and 4,600 servers, on
average, to support $10 billion in revenue.
At the low end, professional ser vices
companies require only 1,400 MIPS and
800 servers.
If you combine these “platform demographics”
with typical values for the average cost of
MIPS and the average cost of physical server
operation per year, you can determine com
pute cost per $1 million revenue (see Figure 1).
Sector averages
n = 133 companies
Industry
MIPS
per
$1 million
revenue
Servers
per
$1 million
revenue
Compute cost
(MIPS + server
cost) per
$1 million revenue
Banking
0.98
0.39
$8,505
Consumer products
0.19
0.16
$2,535
Education
0.13
0.05
$1,110
Electronics
0.25
0.11
$2,280
Financial services
1.07
0.46
$9,645
Food & beverage processing
0.18
0.12
$2,070
Government – federal
0.49
0.12
$3,413
Government – state & local
0.38
0.09
$2,655
Health care
0.19
0.13
$2,220
Insurance
0.33
0.16
$3,165
Manufacturing
0.21
0.12
$2,205
Metals & natural resources
0.16
0.12
$1,980
Professional services
0.14
0.08
$1,470
Telecommunications
0.85
0.25
$6,450
Transportation
0.23
0.21
$3,240
Utilities
0.16
0.08
$1,560
Cross-industry average
0.37
0.17
$3,406
Figure 1. Compute cost per $1 million revenue
9
For example, a financial services company
has a compute cost of $9,645 per $1 million
on average, as compared with $1,470 for
a professional services company. Note that
the analysis uses number of MIPS and
number of servers, as opposed to a com
mon unit of processing power. The reason
is that currently there is no common unit of
process ing power.
Analysis of Platform Choice
To get at the essence of the economic trade-
offs between mainframe and server computing
choices requires more analysis – beginning
with a sector-by-sector analysis of companies’
platform choices. For example, in the study
database there are numerous financial ser
vices organizations with approximately $10
billion in annual revenue, including a main
frame-biased financial services organization
with 13,102 mainframe MIPS and 2,359 servers
and a server-biased financial services organi
zation with 7,643 MIPS and 8,846 servers.
Using cost-per-MIPS and cost-per-server
data indicates that the mainframe-centric
organization has an expense of $83.7 million
while the server-centric organization in the
same business has an expense of $127.3
million in supporting approximately the same
amount of revenue.
Of course, making platform and architectural
choices requires numerous considerations
other than raw economics. However, few
organizations even take the time to examine
the indicated trade-off. And if you scale this
analysis up to a $100 billion enterprise, the
10
cost spread is more than $300 million – that
is real money.
Extending this analysis across all 21 study
sectors indicates that the average $10 billion
company would use approximately 3,700
MIPS and 1,700 servers at a cost of $34 million
(see Figure 2).
A mainframe-biased company would use
approximately 4,500 MIPS and 850 servers,
at a cost of $29.4 million, while a serverbiased company would use approximately
2,700 MIPS and 3,200 servers at a cost of
$45.3 million (see Figure 2; see www.rubin
worldwide.com for a table of the elements
that shows all this data).
Making platform and architectural
choices requires numerous
considerations other than
raw economics.
Therefore, the hypothetical average company
is $4.7 million or 16 percent higher in expense
than the mainframe-biased company. And
the server-biased company has $16 million or
55 percent more expense than the main
frame-biased company.
If business leadership were to see all this
analysis, they might ask, “What is the busi
ness value of this extra expense?” (Sounds
like the issues you hear about power choices
for automobiles. And, as with the automotive
question, the answer lies in the context and
not just with the numbers.)
11
9,800
1,900
1,300
2,500
10,700
1,800
4,900
3,800
1,900
3,300
2,100
1,600
1,400
8,500
2,300
1,600
3,713
Banking
Consumer products
Education
Electronics
Financial services
Food & beverage processing
Government – federal
Government – state & local
Health care
Insurance
Manufacturing
Metals & natural resources
Professional services
Telecommunications
Transportation
Utilities
Cross-industry average
1,653
800
2,100
2,500
800
1,200
1,200
1,600
1,300
900
1,150
1,200
4,600
1,100
500
1,600
3,900
Servers
4,041
2,571
1,959
$31,650,000.00
$22,050,000.00
$19,800,000.00
4,546
2,327
$22,200,000.00
$34,064,062.50
4,653
$26,550,000.00
1,959
6,000
2,816
2,204
$20,700,000.00
$34,125,000.00
$15,600,000.00
13,102
$96,450,000.00
$32,400,000.00
3,061
$22,800,000.00
10,408
1,592
$11,100,000.00
$64,500,000.00
2,327
$25,350,000.00
1,714
12,000
$85,050,000.00
$14,700,000.00
MIPS
Figure 2. Analysis of platform size and costs by industry sector
MIPS
Industry
Estimated
platform
cost
Platform size and costs to support
$10 billion revenue
848
410
1,077
1,282
410
615
615
821
667
462
590
615
2,359
564
256
821
2,000
Servers
$29,385,075
$13,124,019
$23,981,162
$60,298,273
$12,021,978
$15,277,865
$18,032,967
$26,799,058
$17,469,388
$25,784,929
$33,192,308
$16,379,906
$83,728,414
$19,698,587
$9,855,573
$19,084,772
$75,000,000
Estimated
platform
cost
-13.8%
$(4,705,988)
$(2,475,981)
$(8,418,838)
$(4,201,727)
$(2,678,022)
$(4,522,135)
$(4,017,033)
$(4,850,942)
$(4,730,612)
$(765,071)
$(932,692)
$(4,320,094)
$(12,721,586)
$(3,101,413)
$(1,244,427)
$(6,265,228)
$(10,050,000)
Gap to
“average
model”
962
2,115
8,846
2,308
2,212
1,731
2,500
3,077
2,308
2,308
1,538
4,808
4,038
1,538
3,179
7,643
1,286
3,500
2,714
1,357
2,357
1,500
1,143
1,000
6,071
1,643
1,143
2,652
3,077
1,357
929
7,500
7,000
1,786
Servers
MIPS
$45,313,444
$21,296,703
$49,796,703
33.0%
$11,249,382
$5,696,703
$17,396,703
$5,953,846
$13,302,198
$77,802,198
$9,573,626
$29,373,626
$20,653,846
$8,930,769
$30,980,769
$11,264,835
$10,157,143
$32,357,143
$42,914,835
$3,837,363
$4,846,154
$9,316,484
$30,827,473
$30,387,363
$38,971,154
$30,016,484
$127,277,473
$7,447,253
$3,174,725
$14,274,725
$30,247,253
$13,064,835
$25,200,000
Gap to
“average
model”
$38,414,835
$110,250,000
Estimated
platform
cost
Server-centric model
$10 billion revenue
Mainframe-centric model
$10 billion revenue
The IT Cost of Goods
You can bring this analysis down one level to
the IT cost of goods (see Figure 3). For example,
an optimized mainframe-server mix would
reduce the IT cost per stock trade by $.013 –
multiply that by a few billion trades and you
c a n re a l l y s e e t h e b u s i n e s s v a l u e
of optimization.
But you can’t make decisions on the econo
mics of the platform. Cost per processing
second is different on a mainframe, or a
server, or even in the cloud, but that’s not
a sufficient measurement. You need to
measure the business value; for example,
the business value of a mainframe’s ability
to pump large transaction volumes through
for DB2.
Industry
Measure
Airlines
Per passenger mile
Automotive
To make good technology decisions, you
have to take a business perspective. If
you’re looking at platforms, you have to
look at the primary issuer’s cost of goods,
time to market, and a couple of other mea
surements. Cost of goods is a major one for
a transaction-based business.
The Future of Technology
Economics
Technology Economics is clearly still in its
infancy. However, with its 50-plus years of
history, the mainframe itself is as mature
and reliable as the internal combustion
engine, and still evolving. Today’s newer
platforms will also evolve and will in turn
experience competitive pressure as even
newer technologies enter the marketplace.
Average IT cost
of goods
Mainframe-biased
Server-biased
$0.0070
$0.0061
$0.0076
Per vehicle
$333.0000
$275.0000
$370.0000
Chemicals
Per patent
$57,717.0000
$55,800.0000
$59,552.0000
Consulting
Per consultant
$53,060.0000
$48,900.0000
$62,344.0000
Hospitals
Per bed per day
$64.3000
$54.4000
$71.7000
Railroads
Per ton mile
$0.0014
$0.0012
$0.0018
Retail
Per store (door)
$494,818.0000
$421,346.0000
$560,300.0000
Web sites
Per search
$0.0420
$0.0460
$0.0041
Trucking
Per road mile
$0.1770
$0.1550
$0.1940
Armed service
Per person
$8,036.0000
$6,871.0000
$9,839.0000
Utilities
Per megawatt-hour
$2.6300
$2.2100
$2.9400
Oil and gas
Per barrel of oil
$2.1000
$1.7800
$2.3200
Figure 3. The IT cost of goods
12
Decisions about computing need to be
made in the context of business relevance.
Relevance implies applicability to the busi
ness application and a true understanding
of econ omics in terms of expense and
real value.
It is time to explicitly engineer the economics
of core computational platforms with the
little that is known – that the marketplace
doesn’t reward firms that are using only
the latest technology at any expense. In
the long run, it rewards those that make
the optimum use of the right computing
res ources in the right way, as evidenced
by business performance.
clouds, to in-house servers, to traditional
mainframes. You’ll see the evolution of bro
kering systems that can do provisioning
across different environments on demand.
You may see the birth of large-scale tech
nology commons, with massive sharable
resources at known service levels, at defined
costs, with dynamic provisioning, so com
panies will have the option of doing most
strategic work internally.
The zEnterprise will bring mainframe and
some ser ver platforms under common
managem ent. Eventually algorithms may
dynamically make the best choice for optimal
economics during operation.
Many companies today have a server utiliza
tion of 6 to 12 percent on a good day. With
good common systems management and
other kinds of brokering software, and
by being able to move things around more
fluidly, companies can start to get utilization
levels that are consistent and balanced across
the platforms. And maybe someday some
dynamic brokering – moving the right
things to the right place at the right time.
In the technology economy, a free market
is developing. There are going to be options for
doing things – from public clouds, to private
Eventually, you will have a tool like a power
grid that gets you the best price and processing
option – nanosecond by nanosecond –
5 basics
of Technology Economics
»» Consider both the functional characteristics of your computing needs and the economics.
»» Relate compute cost to revenue.
»» Analyze the economic trade-offs between mainframe and server computing choices.
»» Measure the business value of a computing function.
»» Take a business perspective when making technology decisions.
13
and brokers it to you. This could be the
cornerstone of a core system that will
change the economics of all computing.
Self-optimizing economics.
the business.” Speak in terms of real busi
ness-facing classifications: grow revenue,
protect revenue, avoid cost, reduce cost, and
manage risk.
The Time to Start Is Now
Then “bite the bullet” and begin to compute
return on IT. This is another way of ensuring
that IT is viewed in meaningful business
terms – as a creator of business value,
not a cost.
How should CIOs and senior IT profession
als begin taking advantage of Technology
Economics?
The first action is to really “connect the dots”
and implement bidirectional transparency.
IT infrastructure and development manage
ment organizations need to implement the
cost accounting to tie what they are doing
to platforms, applications, and business
products/volumes from the bottom up; then
from the top down.
The third action is to set up a program to
continuously understand the implications
of your choices and optimize your choices.
Find a way to self-impose continuous
discipline. This is not a static market; the
workloads are changing and the customer
expectations are changing.
Historically, the top-down mainframe num
bers have looked very high, because the
mainframe has been a cost-pool dumping
ground. The ser vers ate the meal, but
the mainframe paid the check. The space,
depreciation, and software suites were
allocated to the mainframe. Some orga
nizations ar bitrar ily a s signed a high
percentage of total data center costs to
the mainframe.
IT infrastructure and development management
organizations need to implement the cost
accounting to tie what they are doing to
platforms, applications, and business
products/volumes.
Traditional top-down cost accounting by allo
cation naturally leads to false conclusions.
A better way is activity-based costing –
using granular data from the bottom up to
connect the dots.
If you start doing it today, you will have
an extreme strategic advantage in the
short and long term. You’ll make the right
platform choices. You’ll make the right
moves. You’ll know when to go to cloud.
You’ll be dealing in the free market tech
nology economy, with tools that no other
company has. And that’s a definite com
petitive advantage, all around. ●
The second action is to change your language
and outlook. Implement an expanded port
folio model. No longer speak in general
terms such as “run the business” or “grow
14
A Huge Opportunity
The companies that can master their own
Technology Economics, and can master it
quickly, will be the real winners.
About the Author
Dr. Howard A. Rubin is president and CEO of Rubin Worldwide. He is inter
nationally recognized for his work as an author, researcher, speaker,
and consultant in the areas of IT measurement, techno-business strategy,
global software economics, the workforce of the future, the business value
of technology, performance measurement and benchmarking, and green IT.
Dr. Rubin is a professor emeritus of computer science at Hunter College of the City University
of New York, an MIT CISR research affiliate, a Gartner senior advisor, a former board member
and executive vice president of META Group, Inc., and a former Nolan Norton research fellow
focusing on the development of the balanced business scorecard. In addition, Dr. Rubin has
served as a member of the Global Information Economy Working Group of the U.S. State
Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. He has also worked
directly with heads of state around the world to develop national competitive technology
strategies for Canada, India, the Philippines, South Africa, and the United States. Dr. Rubin
possesses a Ph.D. from the City University of New York in computer science and oceanography.
Rubin Worldwide is currently analyzing the microeconomics and macroeconomics of
Technology Economics. The firm is building the first “periodic table of the elements,”
industry by industry, for IT cost of goods and the linkages between technology costs, total cost
of goods, business performance, and even national competitiveness. Visit Rubin Worldwide
at www.rubinworldwide.com/rubinww.php.
15
The Keys to Effective
Mainframe Integration:
The Keys to Effective Mainframe Integration: Automation, Collaboration, and Education
Automation, Collaboration,
and Education
16
Most IT organizations with mainframes have technologies and
best practices that can help integrate the mainframe effectively
into today’s multiplatform enterprises. Volvo Information Tech
nology found three practices — automation, collaboration, and
education — invaluable in overcoming integration challenges.
By Per Johansson
17
At
Volvo Information Technology,
effectively integrating the main
frame into business operations
is vital to maximizing revenue. Everything the
company does is with the goal of providing
better service to its customers in the most
efficient way.
The mainframe’s traditional strengths —
reliabilit y, securit y, per formance, and
scalability — make it a trusted platform for
managing business-critical data, applications,
and transactions. More recent developments,
such as the new zEnterprise platform, make
it possible to stretch the capacity and perfor
mance of the mainframe while lowering
management and labor costs.
Volvo Information Technology is a separate
company within the Volvo group of compa
nies. Volvo Information Technology provides
global IT services to the Volvo group, as well
as to other businesses that purchase capac
ity and expertise on an outsourced basis.
About 40 percent of our business comes
from external customers, which span a
broad range of industries. Customers value
this broad experience and the security of
knowing they have the capacity they need,
when and where they need it.
The mainframe’s traditional
strengths – reliability, security,
performance, and scalability –
make it a trusted platform for
managing business-critical data,
applications, and transactions.
Today, most customers are in the Nordic
region, but our business is starting to expand
18
globally. In addition to expanding the busi
ness, each new customer enriches the IT
team’s experience in managing different kinds
of workloads.
Integrating the Mainframe into
a Multiplatform World
Historically, the mainframe had been the
dominant server platform at Volvo Information
Technology. However, even as many business
applications have migrated to UNIX, Windows,
and other distributed platforms, the mainframe
remains a key component in customers’ busi
ness operations. Most notably, the mainframe
houses databases. Today, these databases
must connect to a growing — and increasingly
diverse — set of business applications.
In integrating the mainframe into this wider,
multiplatform world, the company has faced
three challenges: (1) problem detection and
resolution is more difficult, (2) a natural
cultural gap exists between mainframe
IT operations teams and distributed IT
operations teams, and (3) getting executive
buy-in for the mainf rame is sometimes
difficult because of the perception that it is
more expensive.
In meeting these challenges, three factors —
automation, collaboration, and education —
have been essential vehicles for success.
Simplifying Problem Detection
and Resolution Through
Automation
Meeting customers’ service level agree
ments (SLAs) depends on being able to
quickly diagnose a problem in a business
transaction and find the source — whether
it’s in a mainframe subsystem or an IMS
table. In earlier times, when workloads ran
exclusively on the mainframe, it was usually
relatively easy to detect and solve a problem.
Today, with pieces of applications residing
on different platforms and tapping into
the mainframe for data, incident and
problem management becomes much
more dif ficult. Measuring end-to-end
response time for applications is trickier,
and identifying the source of a problem
can require many different people from
inside and outside the mainframe infra
structure group. Now, automated tools
and processes provide an “aerial view” of
business transactions to the service runtime managers, allowing faster problem
detection and resolution across platforms.
together in an integrated fashion. This means
becoming more open-minded to different IT
management approaches.
Many individuals on distributed teams aren’t
aware of the advantages of the mainframe,
including its superior reliability, availability,
and security. When they find out, they are
often interested in how these capabilities can
make them more effective. By getting the two
teams to collaborate, it’s possible to discover
new ways to serve the customers better.
Meeting customers’ service level
agreements depends on being able
to quickly diagnose a problem
in a business transaction and find
the source.
Promoting Collaboration
Between the Mainframe and
Distributed Systems Teams
The infrastructure and operation group within
Volvo Information Technology is predominantly
organized by platform, but it is moving toward
a service run-time management model, where
there will be people responsible for whole
applications regardless of platform. Service
run-time managers work side-by-side with
the teams responsible for parts of the infra
structure, such as iSeries, UNIX, Windows,
storage, networks, and integration platforms
such as middleware. New ways of organizing
people to better meet customer SLAs pro
motes collaboration and a better appreciation
of the mainframe’s advantages.
As in many IT organizations, the mainframe
and distributed teams are separate in Volvo
Information Technology. Each team has its
own set of tools and practices. However, as
the infrastructure platforms become more
integrated and shared by different operating
systems, the teams must work more closely
Eventually, IT staff will be organized into
capability layers instead of vertical technol
ogy silos. One person will be responsible
for hardware, one for operating systems,
one for databases, one for transaction han
dlers, and so on. There will also be “business
Proper automation — automated problem
detection and resolution processes that
span platforms and teams — is a start to
overcoming these challenges. It is essential
to continually look for opportunities to raise
the level of automation — for example,
by building intelligence into processes so
that they require little or no intervention
by technicians.
19
tracks” — for example, an SAP track — with
people responsible for those tracks; each
person will decide which resources from
each layer to “buy” to meet his or her needs.
Dispel Misperceptions
Through Education
Misperceptions abound about the mainframe.
Many think of the mainframe as expensive and
unnecessary, particularly when compared to
Windows or UNIX servers. To make matters
worse, the investment approval process may
inadvertently confirm this misperception. The
cost of a mainframe investment decision is
usually in the millions of dollars; accordingly,
senior executives take part in the approval
process. In contrast, a distributed systems
investment decision is usually in the tens of
thousands, but it is one of many such decisions.
For example, a company may make 20
separate purchases of 100 x86 boxes at
$500 per box. That’s $1 million dollars in
20 separate checks. The net effect is that,
on the surface, mainframes may appear to
be multimillion-dollar extravagances, and
distributed servers may be perceived as lowcost computing power.
But in reality, the mainframe is often less
expensive than distributed processors. You
need to differentiate between total cost of
acquisition (TCA) and total cost of ownership
(TCO). When investing in a new mainframe,
the old one isn’t thrown away — it has tradein value. Behind that big, single number with
so many zeros is the hardware, a three- to
five-year contract, software licenses, and
other value. Plus, the mainframe might be
upgraded only every three to four years. It
takes fewer people to run the mainframe,
and this continues to improve as the man
agement tools improve.
Spending time presenting facts about the
mainframe and its advantages — for example,
getting senior executives to consider assign
ing building facility costs to each processor
group — can overcome misperceptions and
objections to further investment. It’s important
5 points
to Consider About Mainframe Costs
»» Acquisition cost typically includes hardware, a three- to five-year contract, software licenses,
and other value.
»» The mainframe being replaced has trade-in value.
»» A mainframe needs to be upgraded only every three to four years.
»» It takes fewer people to manage a mainframe than it would to manage a similar-sized
distributed systems environment.
»» Be sure to consider both total cost of acquisition (TCA) and total cost of ownership (TCO).
20
to continue to look for better ways to make
apples-to-apples comparisons.
After these sorts of discussions, executives
begin to see the value and will be more open
to conversations about how the mainframe
can help their businesses. Involving the best
technical architects in these discussions will
help executives understand exactly how the
mainframe will integrate with their operations.
In particular, many external customers are
deploying new types of applications that can
especially benefit from the mainframe. And
they want to take advantage of mainframes
as their main platforms.
Mainframe Integration:
Look Beyond the Obvious
Mainframe integration is do-able, but it
takes some work. Technology — both
system-level technology and management
software such as cross-platform manage
ment tools — continues to improve, which
makes the integration job easier.
Volvo Information Technology has continued
to invest in the mainframe to extend and
improve it, adding technologies such as
zLinux to make the mainframe efficient
and cost-competitive. Currently, 150 Linux
serv ers are on the mainframe, covering
about 3,500 MIPS. Those servers run some
very important applic ations, such as large
WebSphere applications.
The team is enthusiastic about zEnterprise
and the evolution of the mainframe into a
hybrid server. This new architecture offers a
lot of potential for improving performance
by integrating multiplatform applications in
a blade rack combined with an enterp rise
mainframe. It will offer easier hardware ad
ministration, faster internal network speed,
and other benefits. A great deal of potential
exists for new levels of application integration
to businesses like Volvo Information Techno
logy, providing new ways to serve customers.
But beyond technology improvements, pro
cess improvements are equally important. It’s
essential to use automation strategically and
aggressively to simplify problem detection
and management, to deliver better service to
customers from current resources. It’s impor
tant to promote better collaboration between
mainframe and distributed teams, so that they
understand the advantages of integrating the
mainframe into operations and the value that
the mainframe can bring to the distributed
side. Finally, it’s important to continually
educate senior management about the
many advantages of the mainframe — and
the value it can bring to the business. ●
About the Author
Per Johansson is responsible for mainframe infrastructure and operations
at Volvo Information Technology. He is a member of BMC’s Mainframe
Advisory Council.
21
Four Guidelines for Maximizing the Value of Your Mainframe
Four Guidelines
for Maximizing the Value
of Your Mainframe
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a simple formula for
maximizing your mainframe and integrating it into a
hybrid data center? Of course, it is clear that there is no
such formula — because each IT organization is unique
in many ways, especially in the nature of the workloads
it supports. While this formula does not exist, this article
provides four guidelines to help you make the most of
your mainframe investment.
By Tim Grieser
22
23
M
ost enterprises with mainframes
are on a journey to continually
maximize the value of their main
frame investments. This means optimizing
mainframe performance to deliver the most
business value at the least cost. To deliver the
most business value, start by going to the
source: the workloads that define and differ
entiate your business. How efficiently and
cost-effectively you run these workloads —
particularly within the context of the hybrid
data center — can yield savings and provide
competitive advantage.
Which Workloads Should Run
on Which Platforms?
By following four broad guidelines, you can
effectively determine, on a case-by-case
basis, which workloads to run on which
platforms. These guidelines are (1) analyze
each workload, (2) consider your staff’s mix
of skills, (3) make the best use of tools, and
(4) carefully plan capacity.
And, while you are implementing these
guidelines, always remember that the ulti
mate goal of maximizing the mainframe and
integrating it into a hybrid data center is to
deliver an excellent end-user experience —
end-to-end performance, availability, and
security — at a reasonable cost.
1. Analyze Each Workload
Start by analyzing each workload. This is by
far the most important guideline. This guide
line is intuitive to most people who see the
mainframe as another class of server that
exists in a multi-server environment within a
data center. And most people understand
that certain types of applications and certain
24
types of workloads operate most efficiently
and most cost-effectively on certain types of
servers. This guideline may sound obvious
when it’s spelled out, but is also one step that
is often overlooked.
The workloads often supported on the main
frame include the following:
»» The traditional mainframe workloads of
high-volume transaction processing
against large databases, particularly
financial services applications; and batchprocessing workloads.
»» The recently popular (during the last five
years or so) workloads of Linux-based
applications and Java-based applications.
The mainframe increasingly plays a role
as part of a hybrid application deployment
(a hybrid application is an application with
one or more tiers on the mainframe and
other tiers on distributed platforms). In
these deployments, the mainframe is
especially effective as a database server.
The ultimate goal of maximizing the mainframe
and integrating it into a hybrid data center is to
deliver an excellent end-user experience at a
reasonable cost.
These are common uses of mainframes,
generally speaking. But when you analyze
your workloads, don’t generalize. Be specific;
take your analysis down to specific work
loads. Answer questions such as: Which
workloads is the mainframe supporting
and how effectively? What is the number of
accesses or users using those workloads?
What are the costs of supporting those workloads? And how does that compare to
spreading out the work across another
platform or platforms?
and operational practices — and sometimes
deeper topics.
Always look at things on a workload basis. In
the near future, vendors will increasingly be
discussing workload optimization and most
likely will provide even further optimization
capabilities than are available today.
As long as you have a source of deep main
frame expertise on staff, this can work
reasonably well over the near term. In the
longer term (five to ten years), though, as the
veteran mainframe professionals retire, you
may need to rely on vendors or other outside
services, at considerable cost. Or, of course, new
tools may be available by then to fill the gap.
2. Consider Your Staff’s Mix of Skills
The mix of skills on your staff, currently and in
the near future, is an important criterion for
platform selection because it partly deter
mines the cost of supporting the workload.
Some IT organizations are suffering from
a lack of a skilled mainframe staff and are
facing the prospect of needing to hire main
frame experts at high costs. They are looking
for ways to control or reduce those costs.
One way to control costs is to take advantage
of nontraditional sources on the mainframe,
e.g., Linux and Java, or use tools that have
more modern interfaces, such as Webbased interfaces, and don’t rely so much on
knowledge of traditional mainframe greenscreen interfaces.
The mix of skills on your staff, currently and in
the near future, is an important criterion for
platform selection because it partly determines
the cost of supporting the workload.
Another way to control costs is to train
existing and newly hired staffers. In many
organizations, the mainframe veterans for
mally or informally train new mainframe
administrators to become apprentice
mainframe specialists. They teach them
the basics — technology terms, attributes,
3. Make the Best Use of Tools
Always select and use tools with the goal of
maximizing the end-user experience. The
most obvious class of tools is event manage
ment tools. Every large data center needs to
be able to make multiple levels of response
to problems and outages. The problems and
outages will be unique to each data center,
depending on the mix of workloads and the
mix of platforms.
Every large data center needs to be
able to make multiple levels of
response to problems and outages.
The ability to deliver excellent service to an
end user also requires the ability to manage
across the multiple platforms on which the
end user’s application is deployed. The plat
forms will often include mainframe tiers and
UNIX, Linux, or Windows tiers. You need endto-end transaction management software
that successfully supports all the platforms,
so that you can monitor and remediate any
kind of event that might interrupt or degrade
service, regardless of the platform on which
it occurs. In other words, you need a holistic
25
approach to application performance and
service management.
Your event management tools should also
support, or even enhance, the mix of skills on
your staff. General practitioners can solve
many lower-tier problems, but as they trace
a problem into a technical area, they must
defer to practitioners with the technical
expertise to go after and fix that problem.
MIPS consumption is expensive
in terms of software license costs,
and there are ways — such as
offloading to specialty processors —
to avoid the cost of MIPS and
reduce software costs.
Tools such as simplified, Web-based inter
faces may be able to help your general
practitioners go deeper into silos without
having too many silo skills. Event manage
ment tools are evolving toward allowing
general practitioners to solve more kinds of
problems than they currently do.
4. Carefully Plan Capacity
Capacity planning tools and performance
management tools can help you carefully
size mainframe capacity, particularly proces
sor capacity, to fit your current and near-term
workload needs, and help you avoid buying
excess hardware capacity. Capacity tends
to come in large increments, in terms of
costs; therefore you can save substantially
if you can reduce the size of the increment
you must buy and delay the date at which you
must step up and buy it.
You can also leverage specialty processors.
They reduce general-purpose mainframe
MIPS consumption by individual applications
and even by utility and management soft
ware. MIPS consumption itself is expensive
in terms of software license costs, and there
are ways — such as offloading to specialty
processors — to avoid the cost of MIPS and
reduce software costs.
5 questions
to Ask When Analyzing Workloads
»» Which workloads is the mainframe supporting?
»» How effectively is the mainframe supporting those workloads?
»» What is the number of accesses or users using those workloads?
»» What are the costs of supporting those workloads?
»» How do those cost s compare to sprea ding out the wor k acros s another
platform or platforms?
26
It’s All About the End-User
Experience
Most data centers will continue to be hybrid
for a long time. Bringing the platforms closer
together and managing applications as a
whole across multiple platforms becomes
more and more important to delivering and
demonstrating value from your mainframe.
reasonable cost. Excellent end-user experi
ence becomes even more important as you
evolve — for example, as you add cloudenablement and a lot more Web access. Your
data center must continually become more
end-user focused, and must become more
capable of measuring and managing the
holistic experience. ●
Remember the ultimate goal is an excellent
end-user experience — end-to-end perfor
mance, availability, and security — at a
About the Author
Tim Grieser is program vice president, Enterprise System Management
Software, at IDC. He is responsible for system management software research
in IDC’s Enterprise System Management Software program. His coverage
includes software for managing systems and applications across a wide
variety of platforms. A key focus area is e-business and distributed applica
tions performance and availability, especially Web applications response time from the
end-user perspective. Grieser has also served in other key research management positions
at IDC. Before joining IDC, he had 20 years of experience in the development and marketing
of performance and availability management software. He was vice president of North
American Marketing at BGS Systems, later acquired by BMC Software. Grieser has graduate
degrees in computer science, specializing in computer performance analysis.
27
Five Reasons to Keep Your Applications
on the Mainframe
The Mainframe Strikes Back: Five Reasons to Keep Your Applications on the Mainframe
The Mainframe
Strikes Back:
28
Many IT organizations are considering moving workloads from main
frame to distributed platforms to reduce costs. But take a look at the
hidden costs of doing so …
By Dr. John Shedletsky
29
W
ith a relentless focus on cost
reduction, many IT organizations
are considering moving appli
cations from the mainframe to distributed
environments with the expectation of saving
money. Mainframes are big. Their purchase
and operating costs are often very visible.
As a result, they become a frequent target
for cost reduction. Individual distributed
systems have a lower cost of acquisition,
and their total cost of operation is often not
readily visible. The conventional thinking
is that mainframes are expensive to run, so
moving mainframe workloads to distributed
servers will cut costs.
IBM has conducted extensive on-site analyses
of the cost benefits of moving a wide range
of critical applications from mainframe to
distributed environments. These analyses
include the audited actual costs after appli
cations were moved. These studies reveal a
conclusion that is counter to conventional
wisdom: In 48 of the last 50 studies conduc
ted, it actually cost less to stay and grow on
the mainframe than to move to a distributed
systems environment.
Workloads running on the mainframe are
often a best fit for that platform, and admin
istrators achieve significant operational
efficiencies on a consolidated mainframe
platform. Alternative platforms often cost
more. In fact, on average for the 48 cases
studied, staying on the mainframe was 42
percent less expensive over a given time
period. The bottom line is that the actual cost
of moving applications from mainframe to
distributed environments may be greater
than you think.
30
The mainframe seems more expensive, but
in many cases it’s not. What drives the
misperception?
Five Hidden Costs
Five hidden costs often inflate the actual
cost of moving mainframe-based applica
tions to a distributed environment: core
proliferation, code expansion, systems
management creep, functional separation,
and disaster recovery.
1. Core Proliferation
IT organizations sometimes use simplistic
benchmarks to compare performance on
mainframe and distributed systems. Basic
performance tests might suggest that you
can replace a single processor on the main
frame with a single processor core on a
distributed server. However, these bench
marks don’t accurately reflect complex
application performance. As a result, you
might need multiple distributed cores to get
the same performance as a single processor
running an application in the mainframe
environment. One customer found that dozens
of distributed cores on multiple servers were
needed to replace a mainframe application
using only five processors.
In 48 of the last 50 studies conducted, it actually
cost less to stay and grow on the mainframe than
to move to a distributed systems environment.
Core proliferation drives up costs because
you need to buy more distributed servers.
The servers that are appropriate to run heavy
workloads are typically high-end, multi-core
servers. However, the biggest cost driver is
often software, which is typically priced per
core in a distributed environment. For an
enterprise database or other application that
is fairly expensive on a per-core basis, the
inflation of software license costs can be
quite substantial. So core proliferation in
distributed systems results in increased
costs for both hardware and software.
Mainframe failover capacity is provided
at a small fraction of the cost of the
primary production capacity.
2. Code Expansion
4. Functional Separation
The amount of code required to run a particu
lar application in a distributed environment
can often expand by several times. As a
result, you need more instructions to per
form the same amount of work. Increased
instruction volume increases the required
hardware capacity, which can also inflate
software license costs.
Many IT organizations have separate produc
tion, development, and quality assurance
environments — all running in isolated, logical
partitions on the mainframe. Workloads in the
non-production environments are typically
variable and may reach peak load when IT is
managing new releases. Each environment
shares underlying processing resources, so
the additional cost of each resource in the
mainframe environment is small as a per
centage of overall resource usage. But in a
distributed environment, all three often get
their own set of distributed servers. The addi
tional cost of redundant environments is high.
Functional separation adds to the proliferation
of cores and software license inflation.
Inefficient compiler technology contributes
to code expansion. Recompiling COBOL
applications to distributed platforms has
been observed to produce up to eight-times
code expansion. Rewriting COBOL applica
tions on CICS to Java applications on a Java
transaction engine can typically produce a
three-times code expansion.
tools are often priced by core, you can actually
end up spending more for systems manage
ment software in the distributed environment.
5. Disaster Recovery
Moving from a single logical database image
on DB2 for z/OS to a clustered solution on
Oracle RAC may require more cycles. When
moving from an IMS hierarchical database
model on the mainframe to a relational
database model in a distributed environment,
three-times code expansion is also common.
3. Systems Management Creep
To replicate mainframe systems management
capabilities in the distributed environment,
you may need licenses for a wide range of
systems management tools. Since these
For critical workloads that have a high cost of
downtime, you probably deploy duplicate
failover sites to use in the case of a serious
outage. Typical mainframe pricing includes
very deep discounts for the failover site
servers and a nominal recurring fee for the
right to exercise the backup processors
for testing purposes. The result is that main
frame failover capacity is provided at a small
fraction of the cost of the primary production
capacity. This is advantageous when com
pared to the price of building and maintaining
a failover site using distributed systems,
31
which often do not offer hardware and soft
ware discounts for the failover environment.
“Best Fit” Delivers Optimal
Price/Performance
However, there are many other types of work
loads that data centers may need to support.
When considering price/performance, it
may make sense to run these workloads on
Intel-processor-based or UNIX environments.
Recognizing this fact, IBM has recently
announced the zEnterprise System. This sys
tem is actually a hybrid, offering four different
execution environments in a single system
of systems. You can choose to run workloads
in z/OS, Linux on z/VM, or AIX on Power
blade environments. A statement of direction
also includes Linux on Intel blades.
Most of the workloads currently running
on z/OS are well suited for the mainframe
computing environment. They might have
high transaction scale; a large, single
database image; or significant I/O band
width requirements; or they might run
intensive batch processing jobs. For the
reasons discussed previously, moving
these types of workloads ends up costing
more and may reduce performance or quality
of service. So from a price/perform ance
standpoint, it makes sense to keep these
workloads on the mainframe.
You can evaluate each specific workload
to determ ine which environment in the
zEnterprise platform will provide the opti
mal price/performance. Most existing z/OS
workloads are already achieving optimum
price/performance on z/OS. A light process
ing workload may be best suited for the Intel
blade. A Power blade may be the right choice
for a heavy processing workload. A workload
with light CPU and heavy I/O may be a best fit
for the Linux environment on z/VM. Most
workloads can run on multiple environments,
You may optimize by using the distributed
failover capacity for development and quality
assurance workloads. In the case of an
actual site failover, these workloads would be
deferred while the production workloads
were run. But the net effect is that you still
pay twice the primary production cost.
5 Hidden Costs
of Moving to a Distributed Environment
»» Core proliferation
»» Code expansion
»» Systems management creep
»» Functional separation
»» Disaster recovery
32
but the best fit is the environment that satis
fies the quality of service requirements and
minimizes price/performance.
efficiency of systems management tasks.
zEnterprise extends the ability to apply these
practices to a broader set of workloads.
Reduce Management Costs
Combine the Best of Both
In the recent past, the productivity of main
frame management staff has increased
dramatically. IBM has kept track of this trend
during cost consulting studies with many
customers. The data collected suggests that
on average, the number of MIPS per full-time
equivalent (FTE) has increased 63 percent in
the last seven years. During the same period,
the average improvement in the number of
servers per FTE in a distributed environment
has been only 16 percent.
The ideal solution is to combine the benefits
of a “best fit” workload portfolio with the
efficiencies of a consolidated platform.
zEnterprise enables data centers to do both.
Instead of pursuing a strategy to move appli
cations off the mainframe, organizations
should move applications to the best-fit
environment on the zEnterprise platform and
use the common management framework to
support structured management practices
for all the workloads. The best-fit strategy
optimizes price/performance, while structured
management practices reduce labor costs.
The culture of structured management is the
biggest reason for the mainframe productivity
advantage. Consolidating many workloads
onto a single platform, with common manage
ment tools, is known to produce significant
labor productivity gains. Early mainframe
support for virtualization and consolidation
led to the practice of standardizing software
stacks for virtual machines. Quality assur
ance testing is a mainframe practice that
reduces the possibility of releasing problem
code to production. Automation of repetitious
tasks can also reduce labor requirements.
The integrated nature of the mainframe plat
form enables these practices to increase the
Stay with the Mainframe
Don’t rush to move workloads from the main
frame to a distributed environment. Analyses
show that a combination of a “best fit” hard
ware platform and structured management
practices gives zEnterprise the best price/
performance when considering a portfolio of
workloads. So, if you are considering moving
workloads from the mainframe to a distrib
uted environment, be sure also to evaluate
the benefits of consolidating more distributed
workloads on the zEnterprise platform. You
might be surprised by the results. ●
About the Author
Dr. John Shedletsky is vice president of competitive technology at IBM.
He leads an organization of systems experts whose primary mission is to
identify and quantify the benefits of IBM workload optimized systems.
33
The Lasting Power of the Mainframe
The Lasting Power
of the Mainframe
With the growth of mobile and cloud technologies,
the volumes of data and business transactions
that must be processed will only increase. The
mainframe will be a critical player in meeting
the IT challenges presented by this inevitable
growth. Read on to find out why.
By Al deMoya and Nick Pachnos
34
35
F
lash back to 25 years ago in the banking
industry. At that time, a state-of-theart business service was consolidating
customer data from multiple bank accounts
(savings, checking, trust, and so on) into sin
gle, unified statements that were mailed to
customers once a month. Today, you can take
a photo of the front and back of your check
with your smartphone, submit it to your bank
electronically, and the check is automatically
deposited into your account. Now that’s really
state of the art.
Soon you will be able to send a text message
to a vending machine and have your selection
pop out. With this technology comes the need
to ensure that every single text message is
captured and processed. A wireless service
provider may deliver billions of text messages
daily. Sure, many of those text messages will
be from teenagers saying “hey” back and forth.
But, now, text messages may also include
financial transactions. As a result, the wireless
provider will need to capture the vending
machine purchase and add the cost to the
purchaser’s bill — otherwise, the wireless
provider will be responsible for paying the
charge. This capability will amplify the data
volume that needs to be processed, as well as
expand the revenue-generating capability of
wireless providers.
Some major insurance companies now offer
applications for mobile devices that allow you
to read your policy online and provide you with
an image of proof of insurance. If you are
involved in a car accident — not your fault, of
course — an application provides guidance on
what to do. You may even be able to collect the
other driver’s insurance information, take
36
photos, and immediately submit this informa
tion with a claim via your mobile device. Data
captured within minutes of the accident is
instantly received by the insurance company,
speeding up the claims process.
The mainframe is still the best data processor,
and it’s the optimal platform to handle the
combination of very high data and transaction
volumes we see today.
The common theme for all of these scenarios
is that they involve very large volumes of data
and a huge number of business transactions
that must be processed by a reliable, secure
platform. This is why the commercial trans
action workhorse for the largest financial
institutions, insurance companies, phone
companies, and so on is the IBM zSeries
mainframe platform. More than 50 years
after its creation, the zSeries mainframe is
still a key element of the data center, as it
continues to keep up with new technologies
and new business requirements.
It’s All About the Data
The way we conduct business has changed
over the years, but the fundamentals remain
the same — namely, the need to quickly,
economically, reliably, and securely process
and capture each and every business trans
action. In addition, companies need to reliably
update customer data, vendor inventory, and
other essential records so that they can sup
ply goods and services, bill customers, and
be paid. Regardless of where the transaction
originates, the mainframe is at the back end,
keeping up with the enormous volume of
transactions and then accurately posting
those transactions to the huge volume of
data it holds. Quite simply, the mainframe is
still the best data processor, and it’s the
optimal platform to handle the combination
of very high data and transaction volumes we
see today.
Why Does the Mainframe
Continue to Be Critical
to the Business?
It’s clear that the mainframe is key to many
businesses. Some of the largest corporations
in the world may need to process billions of
transactions a day. Consider a company that
processes 1 billion transactions a day. That’s
over 40 million transactions per hour, or
11,000 transactions per second. The main
frame is capable of processing this level of
transactions while enabling the data to be
accessed 24x7x365.
And yet, despite its reliability and security, the
mainframe seems to be constantly defending
its position. So, what are the benefits of the
mainframe? Here are just a few.
1. Centralized Data: One Master
Customer Record
Most companies keep their most critical
production data in one place. Many corpora
tions have grown very large through industry
consolidations and, consequently, the
amount of data that must be processed is
incredibly large. Add the fact that many
industries have new compliance require
ments that necessitate retention of customer
data for longer periods of time. These factors
contribute to the growth in data volume.
Now consider that customers expect in
stantaneous access to their information
(accounts, transactions, and so on) 24 hours
a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. For
example, the package-shipping business
needs to track your package shipment from
the moment it is picked up through multiple
consolidation and distribution centers to its
final delivery to your doorstep. Then they
capture your signature to close the record.
Most industries have experienced similar
explosive growth in transaction volume.
The mainframe’s centralized environment is
the most reliable, secure, and effective plat
form for handling large amounts of data and
ver y high transaction volumes. As the
Internet opens up businesses to more and
more people who expect immediate access
24x7, it is essential to store data on a platform
that offers unmatched performance and
availability, i.e., the mainframe.
The mainframe offers a higher
level of continuous availability than
other platforms.
2. High Availability
The ability to handle large data volumes and
transactions is a continuous requirement.
The platform must be available 24 hours a
day because business transactions do not
sleep. The mainframe has matured to the
point that most maintenance processes can
be performed while the data is online and
available for update. As a result, the main
frame offers a higher level of continuous
availability than other platforms. Many
companies have gone multiple years without
experiencing a maintenance outage on their
mainframe systems.
37
3. Reliability
The mainframe platform is exceedingly reli
able because of the combination of redundant
mature hardware, a robust operating system,
and extremely reliable database software.
The mainframe can process transactions at
significantly higher transaction volumes than
other platforms. You can even drive CPU
utilization to peak levels without causing a
significant slowdown.
In regard to efficiency, reliability, and service
ability, the mainframe was designed from
the outset to handle multiple commercial
workloads. Over the decades, engineers
have constantly refined the firmware that
allows internal computers to serve the data
to the actual processing unit. This continual
refinement on the same basic architecture is
a major differentiator for the mainframe.
4. Adaptability of Middleware Layer
Previously, the process of getting transactions
into the mainframe was fairly rigid, as a result
of the mainframe’s closed, self-contained
architecture. But the Internet changed the
mainframe world. Organizations started moving
heavily to client/server and Web-based interfaces.
And it seemed, for a time, that the mainframe
was doomed. But a new layer of middleware
software was developed to enable the mainframe
to connect to the new Internet technologies.
It’s this middleware layer that allows the main
frame to interface with all kinds of devices —
smartphone, personal computer, or any device
that supports an Internet browser. Now, with
middleware infrastructure, the mainframe
can easily handle some very innovative data
types and transactions. This middleware
infrastructure has opened the door to trans
actions that in the past were quite restricted.
5. Cost Efficiency
For companies that have already made a main
frame acquisition investment, research shows
that the mainframe is the more cost-efficient
platform in IT. The mainframe’s architecture
enables it to be highly scalable, without the
need to add more staff. And the mainframe
offers security, availability, and recoverability
that cannot be matched in a distributed systems
5 reasons
to Keep the Mainframe as the Mainstay
»» Enterprises have very large volumes of data — and those volumes are increasing.
»» Enterprises have an enormous number of business transactions.
»» Data and transactions must be processed by a reliable, secure platform.
»» The mainframe is still the best data processor.
»» The mainframe continues to keep up with new technologies and new business requirements.
38
environment. Without significant investment in
redundant hardware in a distributed environ
ment, you can’t get close to the recoverability
that you have with the mainframe.
The mainframe offers security, availability,
and recoverability that cannot be matched
in a distributed systems environment.
Additionally, the distributed environment
consumes a significant amount of power,
cooling, and floor space. So, while you can
heavily invest in a distributed environment
to attempt to achieve the same level of avail
ability that you would have on the mainframe,
you will invest a hefty premium and your
costs will skyrocket.
An often-overlooked advantage is that the
mainframe requires fewer support staff than
a matching distributed environment. Main
frame growth does not result in a matching
growth in staff, as is often the case with other
IT processing platforms. Moreover, the scal
ability of the mainframe can allow you to grow
your business with a relatively small incre
mental increase in costs.
6. Low Risk
For companies that already have a main
frame, moving business-critical data to
another platform can be risky and is a huge
project requiring a significant amount of time
and staffing resources. When you already
own a system that is doing its job, is available
24x7, and is as efficient as the mainframe,
why move data to a system that may not be
as reliable?
The Mainframe Is Here to Stay
IT continues to evolve, allowing the end user
immediate 24x7 access through the Internet,
the cloud, and other advanced technologies.
As long as the need exists to process incredibly
large transaction volumes with very large
databases, the mainframe will continue to be
the platform of choice for most companies.
How long will the mainframe be around?
Quite a long time indeed. ●
About the Authors
Al deMoya has been in the IT industry for 26 years and has been with BMC Software for the last
21 years. In his current role, deMoya is responsible for assisting the BMC field organization to
better understand BMC Software’s portfolio of mainframe database and performance solutions.
Previously, deMoya managed marketing, sales, and development teams for BMC and was a
systems engineer for IBM, specializing in mainframe hardware and software systems.
Nick Pachnos has been in the IT industry for 27 years and at BMC for the last
13. In his current role, his responsibilities include managing the technical
marketing and sales enablement functions for BMC’s Mainframe Data and
Performance Management solutions. He also manages BMC’s Mainframe
Executive Advisory Council. Pachnos previously managed BMC’s mainframe
professional services practice and was a regional sales manager.
39
Keeping Up with Demand While Overcoming Complexity
40
Keeping Up with
Demand While
Overcoming Complexity
Is your IT organization being asked to constantly provide more and
better business services through your hybrid computing environment?
You can deliver the business services your company needs while
overcoming the sometimes daunting problem of complexity.
Here are five ways you can stay ahead of demand.
By Lilian Vieira
41
In
Brazil, as in most countries, IT
organizations are striving to keep
up with the constant demand for
new and better business services. They are
developing and delivering those business
services in hybrid computing environments
(mainframe platforms plus distributed plat
forms). For smooth operation and flexibility,
they are developing Java-based applications
for use on IBM’s WebSphere Application
Server to operate cross-platform.
A major challenge is that these hybrid com
puting environments are complex and
become more so as you add new applica
tions. Fortunately, today there are effective
ways of meeting this challenge. You can
quickly and accurately determine the causes
of bottlenecks and failures in the hybrid
computing environment and ultimately
ensure that your applications always operate
as expected. The following five tips can help
you meet the challenge.
Five Tips for Success in the
Hybrid Computing Environment
From its recent experience in guiding compa
nies to greater IT effectiveness, CSC BRASIL
offers the following impor tant tips for
companies who want to (1) deliver more and
better business ser vices in the hybrid
computing environment; (2) manage an
environment that provides big business
benefits but at the same time brings with
it a highly complex set of components that
must all work together to deliver value
(this environment spans platforms and
applications, which means it is much more
difficult to quickly pinpoint and resolve
problems); and (3) control costs.
1. Value Your Mainframe
First, recognize the real value of your main
frame. There is a common myth that the
mainframe is becoming obsolete and is
costly. But in fact, mainframe technology
has always delivered high reliability, avail
ability, security, and flexibility. The mainframe
now delivers those same capabilities but
in even greater abundance.
Today’s mainframe is the platform that hosts
the most powerful tools for monitoring,
managing, and automating.
Today’s mainframe is the platform that hosts
the most powerful tools for monitoring,
managing, and automating. These tools
simplify the management of business appli
cations and help deliver reliable business
services. And mainframe price/performance
continues to improve. For example, IBM :
»» Provides a major advance in costeffectiveness by offering specialty
engines that can offload DB2 processing
and other workloads from expensive,
general-purpose central processors, and
specialty engines that optimally execute
Java applications (CSC BRASIL’s customers
are currently acquiring more of these engines)
»» Offers the new zEnterprise System that
helps reduce energy consumption by up
to 80 percent1
1 “Announcing the IBM zEnterprise System,” IBM, www-07.ibm.com/systems/in/z/news/announcement/20100722_annc.html.
42
»» For Linux workloads, delivers up to 60
percent more performance at 35 percent
lower price2
By taking advantage of the mainframe’s
continuing evolution, you can streamline
service deliver y and constantly achieve
better price/performance.
2. Get an Integrated View
In a hybrid computing environment, most
transactions flow through many systems
and subsystems — multiple silos such as
z/OS, CICS, DB2, and middleware. Trans
actions can slow down or fail in any of these
areas, in TCP/IP, or while moving between
the mainframe and distributed systems. In
this environment, it can be difficult to identify
the location and cause of a bottleneck.
But don’t be intimidated, as you can tame
the complexity if you understand the flow:
where something starts, what it passes
through, and what systems it must touch
until it gets to its endpoint and delivers
a response to the user. You can acquire
an integrated set of tools to monitor and
manage both across and within the flow.
Comprehensive monit oring and manage
ment solutions give you an integrated view of
all transaction flows; they can put all your
applications and the components that sup
port them on “a single pane of glass.”
These tools can also give you the ability to
find and fix bottlenecks anywhere in the
environment. They can help you enter and
leave each silo quickly, without wasting a lot
of time keeping track of where you are and
without getting lost — and proceed directly
to the cause of any problem.
3. Automate as You Go
Have an automation platform and an
automation strategy. Your monitoring and
management solution should have an
automation platform. This should include
the right event management system to
make everyone’s job easier; however, suc
cessfully implementing such a solution
requires an understanding of the environ
ment. Best practices say that you must
determine the following:
»» Which metrics to collect, out of the large
number of available metrics
»» How to ensure that systems and
applications are running properly
»» How to determine the appropriate
threshold settings for the metrics
»» What steps to take when a threshold
is reached
»» How to immediately notify the right
stakeholders when problems arise
»» How and where to automate
Have an automation platform and an
automation strategy.
By following these steps, you will be alerted
to potential problems — in effect, you will be
creating a comprehensive early warning
system. When you reach that point, you will
have the right automation platform. You will
2 Ibid.
43
be resolving most problems automatically,
without getting people involved.
solutions? What is the most cost-effective
solution, considering all the factors?
Be sure to look at the business needs
and the desired business results when
selecting the platform or platforms.
Quite simply, if you make a platform decision
without considering business needs, it
may be difficult to actually meet all the
requirements of the business. Consider the
complete business requirements and answer the relevant questions, and then
determine the correct infrastructure to meet
the overall requirements.
However, as you are progressing to that
point, and even after you have reached it, you
will occasionally need to determine what to
do about new kinds of problems that arise.
This is where your automation strategy comes
in. Your strategy should be as follows: When
ever you encounter a new kind of problem,
strive to fix the problem rapidly, and fix it, if
possible, in a way that will allow the problem
to be remediated automatically when it
recurs. Don’t just do a manual fix and then
hope (often unrealistically) for the quiet period
in which you will have ample time to auto
mate everything.
4. Consider Business Needs When
Selecting Your Platform or Platforms
Be sure to look at the business needs and the
desired business results when selecting the
platform or platforms. In other words, don’t
buy a platform and try to retrofit it to meet
business needs. You’ll want to fully under
stand the overall business requirements and
user needs before you select the platform.
For example, be sure to answer questions
such as: What response time is required?
How many users will need to access the
business applications at the same time?
What level of availability does the business
require? Does the platform need to be
scalable to accommodate future business
needs? How fast do you need to roll out
44
5. Conduct Comprehensive Testing
Before Rollout of New Applications
Conduct extensive testing before rolling out
new applications. And of course, make sure
that you have the tools in place to effectively
monitor and manage new applications. This due
diligence should be done early in the process.
The use of analysis and predictive tools as well
as monitors will make your testing process even
more effective.
Remember, whenever a new application goes
into production, the whole environment —
and the user community — can be affected.
You’ll want to ensure that you have run as
many potential simulations as possible
before implementing a new application.
This means that you will want to ensure
that your test environment is as robust as
possible. That may require an investment
in people, software, and hardware.
It will also mean that care is taken in the
creation of test scripts and/or cases to be
sure that they emulate the production
environment and load as much as possible.
The effort and cost will be well worth it in the
long run. With comprehensive testing, you
can be more confident that the application
can handle the required workload with the
necessary response times, and that few, if
any, bugs exist.
Ensure that your test environment is as
robust as possible.
You will want to use your performance and
monitoring tools not only in production but
also as part of the testing environment. The
use of analysis and predictive tools as well
as monitors will make your testing process
even more effective. Use these tool sets to
ensure that when the application goes live,
you will know that its performance will meet
the needs of the business.
Keeping Up with Demand:
Two Examples
How are organizations addressing these issues in the real world? Here are two examples.
A Multiplatform Government Agency
One of CSC BRASIL’s largest customers is
a Brazilian government agency responsible
for hosting government applications. The
agency’s IT organization faces the challen
ging task of providing reliable and secure
IT for a growing number of applications while
continuing to control costs.
Years ago, this agency’s IT organization
dev elo ped and ran applications on the
mainframe only. More recently, the agency
has been developing and running applica
tions on distributed platforms as part of the
free software initiatives but has continued to
host applications on the mainframe.
A few years ago, the agency had moved
some existing applications from distributed
platforms to the mainframe and had also
upgraded some select mainframe appli
cations to reside on distributed platforms.
Today, the agency develops and runs many
5 questions
to Ask When Selecting a Platform
»» What response time is required?
»» How many users will need to access the business applications at the same time?
»» What level of availability does the business require?
»» Does the platform need to be scalable to accommodate future business needs? How fast do
you need to roll out solutions?
»» What is the most cost-effective solution, considering all the factors?
45
of its applications cross-platform. This
approach helps deliver services in a more
cost-effective way and delivers the high level
of data security that the government demands.
The agency runs a great number of Java
WebSphere applications both on the main
frame and on distributed platforms. These
applications access databases and process
data on the mainframe, then return to the
distributed side. The agency has established
an open environment on the mainframe side
and the distributed side.
The cross-platform approach has
allowed the agency to add new
applications more rapidly.
One major benefit of this openness is that
the agency is free to run applications where
they will deliver the best quality of service
to the government. This is a much more
productive and streamlined way of oper
ating, as opposed to being restricted to
keeping certain applications on the main
frame and certain applications on distributed
systems, as the agency had to do in the past.
The cross-platform approach has allowed
the agency to add new applications more
rapidly. Two years ago, for example, the
total number of Java applications running
on z/OS was 68. It is now more than 100.
With so much new and powerful technology
available, the agency can take advantage of
many new ways to meet increased demand
while controlling cost and complexity.
46
An Outsourcer Maximizing Capacity
Another large customer of CSC BRASIL is an
outsourcer that always strives to use its
mainframe capacity to offer more types of
services to more customers in an effort to
realize additional revenue. The outsourcer
has been very successful in finding ways to
use its IBM System z10 mainframe to its
maximum capacity.
For example, the company has been offering
Linux on the mainframe at an attractive
price. The outsourcer’s customers gain the
benefits of running Linux within the virtual
machine (VM) environment; they can run
multiple images — even in the hundreds or
thousands — which can reliably share
resources and high-speed communications.
Now the outsourcer plans to use the new IBM
zEnterprise System to deliver cloud services.
The company has successfully signed up
customers in advance — a private cloud
from a reliable outsourcer is a service that
seems to appeal to many customers.
Today’s mainframes are more
powerful, more flexible, more secure,
and easier to use than ever.
The new system gives the outsourcer an
opportunity to offer a wider range of oper
ating systems to its customers. The system
appears to be very flexible and very accom
modating for customers who want even
more mainframe security and stability.
Delivering Increased Value
Today, you have many opportunities to
deliver more value to the business. And
there are many tools and technologies
to help you overcome the complexity that
is part of delivering powerful applications.
The mainframe can be your ally. Today’s
mainframes are more power ful, more
efficient, more flexible, more secure, and
easier to use than ever. And the mainframe
works more smoothly and economically
with your distributed systems.
To keep up with the demand to deliver more
business services, be sure to take an inte
grated view of the mainframe and distributed
systems. Leverage automated solutions to
create an early warning system of potential
issues as well as to automatically fix problems
that may arise. Be sure to understand the
business requirements before selecting a
platform. Finally, before you roll out a solution,
ensure that it has undergone comprehensive
testing. By following these guidelines, you will
be well on your way to delivering more —
and more effective — business services. ●
About the Author
Lilian Vieira has a degree in business administration and has several spe
cializations, including an M.B.A. from the Fundacao Instituto de Administracao,
University of Sao Paulo. She has 28 years of mainframe experience, working
as a system consultant for several Brazilian companies. For the past several
years, she has worked as MSM Business Support Manager for CSC BRASIL.
47
Close to Real-Time Delivery of Millions of Messages
Close to Real-Time
Delivery of Millions
of Messages
How does Thomson Reuters BETA Systems
effectively process 120 to 140 million
business-critical messages each month?
Read on to find out …
By Felix Garcia
48
49
G
etting the right information — and
a lot of it — to clients or end users
in a timely manner is a big priority for
many large enterprises. At Thomson Reuters,
the middleware messaging infrastructure
enables flexible and reliable messaging that
helps our clients and firms make critical,
market-leading business decisions.
Thomson Reuters combines industry exper
tise and technology to deliver information to
businesses and professionals in the finan
cial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare,
science, and media markets. The company
has more than 55,000 employees in more
than 100 countries and posted 2009 revenues
of US$12.9 billion.
To our clients and firms in the financial
markets, Thomson Reuters provides content,
news, and data-feed solutions that help
close deals. The company offers several
different types of brokerage messages,
including trade executions, cash entries,
security movement, security master file
updates, a nd completion aler t s. T he
c o m p a n y a l s o p rov i d e s mi d d le w a r e
processing of vendor-related messages
from Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange,
DTCC Omgeo, and others, processing 120
to 140 million messages each month. All
of these message sites offer a comprehen
sive online user transaction suite, which
enables customers to conduct a full range of
brokerage activities.
An interruption in the messaging backbone
can have serious ramifications for our clients
or firms. As a result, service level agree
ments (SLAs) between Thomson Reuters
50
and its clients or firms usually carry critical
and short time requirements. Some SLAs
also carry regulatory ramifications if the data
in the message is inaccurate, incorrect, or
not received on time. Keeping that informa
tion flowing requires a coordinated effort
among several groups within the Thomson
Reuters BETA Systems organization, a part
of the larger enterprise that serves the
financial markets division.
Some customers receive or process a million
messages a day.
Thomson Reuters BETA Systems follows an
application lifecycle approach to ensure that
applications are designed to meet custom
ers’ needs and operate as planned, that any
problems are resolved quickly, and that any
lessons learned are communicated back
to the innovation team for consideration in
the next application rollout. Team members
listen to the customers, determine how to
deploy each customer’s application on the
Thomson Reuters infrastructure environ
ment, and then support the application.
The backbone of this successful messaging
environment entails three key areas: innova
tion, creativity, and support.
Innovative Solution Designs to
Meet Business Requirements
Each client or firm has different require
ments and message volumes, so ever y
messaging infrastructure that we design and
create is unique. Most customers need
a close-to-real-time messaging solution.
Some customers receive or process a million
messages a day; for others, it’s a few hun
dred thousand.
This is the innovation piece: The application
development team translates each custo
mer’s requirements into a unique solution
design. The team determines the best way
to move data from one application to ano
ther, which often is determined by where
the applications reside. If third parties
are involved, then the application devel
opers identify how the third parties are
sending the information and where the
information needs to go. The application
development team decides which inter
faces, middleware, and communication
tools it will use to deliver information and
solutions to customers.
Creative Architecting for Success
Next, the architectural team and the admin
istrators of the middleware messaging team
step in. This group is responsible for the
middleware of the customer solutions; spe
cifically, this group sets up the queues and
channels. Middleware is the key to moving
the information and transactions around
different systems, which include UNIX,
Windows, and z/OS. Middleware messaging
occurs across both mainframe and distrib
uted platforms that generate or process
messages. Most of the messages, which
primarily come from the mainframe, require
a specific message format translation or a
specific filtration.
Creativity comes into the picture as this
architec ture team ensures that client
solutions are designed to be the most
efficient method for each client or firm. The
team answers questions such as: What
type of messages will the messages be?
What are the requirements for delivery?
Who is it going to? Does Thomson Reuters
have a preexisting communication to that
client or firm? Is this a new client or firm?
What should be set up for the monitoring?
Is this something that has a time-frame
requirement? Does it have low-latency
messaging requirements? Or is it just
messaging where everything is OK as long
as the customer receives it within that
specific day?
For example, if the customer wants a specific
message that delivers cash information, the
middleware messaging team defines the
steps necessary to complete that transac
tion. The team identifies the message, the
source of the message, the volume of the
messages, the SLAs, and anything else
needed to set up the proper support environ
ment to align IT with the business needs
of the client.
Middleware is the key to moving the
information and transactions around
different systems.
T his group ma na ges t he day-to - day
operations through the solution rollout
when business par tners or end-user
clients are using the applications. The
mid d lewa re a rc hite c t s a n d a d mini
strators also form the second-line support.
When a situation is not automated and
cannot resolve itself, or when a problem
is not a quick fix and an MQ administrator
must troubleshoot, then this group is pulled
back into the loop.
51
Effective Support to Maintain
Availability and Performance
of Customer Solutions
support through a client service center and a
technical operations department.
After the rollout of customer solutions, the
support team ensures that those applications
remain up and running. Because every cus
tomer solution is unique, our systems
management must be flexible to accommo
date each and every customer. Depending on
a customer’s requirements and the SLAs, the
middleware messaging department will
implement different alerts and reporting. If a
message needs to be somewhere within
milliseconds, then the system alerts must
notify everybody if a message has been sit
ting in the queue longer than this SLA.
Monitoring and Automation
The monitoring system tells firstlevel support exactly what to do
with each alert.
We also make sure that the people respond
ing to issues have the information they need
when they need it and in the way that they
need it — whether it’s on a page, a cell phone
message, or a dashboard. We provide 24x7
We automate support as much as possible.
We use software to monitor both the specific
environment in regard to the messages and
the environment that the messages are com
ing from. That monitoring system sends
alerts about anything that might create a
problem with the sending and the receipt of
the message to customers.
The monitoring system tells first-level
suppor t personnel exactly what to do
with each alert. In some instances, the
monitoring and alerting process is auto
mated to indicate the steps required to
resolve the issue. In other cases, the alert
might indicate that the problem involves a
specific customer and instruct first-level
support personnel to forward the alert to
the technical operations department if the
problem requires specific expertise. The
aler ts are automated according to the
specific case-by-case scenario.
5 benefits
of a Comprehensive Middleware Management Solution
»» Proactive alerts of potential problem areas
»» Faster problem resolution
»» Single interface for monitoring and managing all platforms
»» On-demand reporting for trending and analysis
»» Increased ability to meet SLAs
52
Reporting
We generate reports on the volume of mes
sages per customer and use that data for
billing. The organization also uses the analy
sis to determine the time frames in which the
messages went through. Because we sup
port clients and firms in the financial services
industry, targeting specific time frames is
critical. Most important is the time between
the opening and closing of the market at the
New York Stock Exchange. When analyzing
message delivery, the organization looks for
a specific time frame on Mondays through
Fridays, whenever the market is open.
The monitoring and reporting capabilities
help IT find and fix problems faster — and
meet performance objectives.
All this monitoring and reporting not only
provides the necessary information about
utilization, trends, and analysis for the IT
organization, but it also provides our custo
mers with the service level that they expect.
The monitoring and reporting capabilities
help IT find and fix problems faster — and
meet performance objectives.
Five Key Features of an
Effective Middleware
Management Solution
When evaluating a middleware management
solution, here are some key features to look for:
»» Enterprise-wide middleware coverage
of all the platforms that you have in use,
and a single interface, reducing the com
plexity of the solution
»» Proactive notification of hot spots with
the ability to quickly detect conditions that
are slowing down key applications
»» Specific problem identification and location to pinpoint both the specific problem
and where it resides
»» Wide variety of dashboards with rolebased access to enable users to quickly
and easily find and fix the specific problem,
contributing to lower mean time to resolu
tion (MTTR)
»» On-demand reports for trending and
problem resolution, with easy access to
historical reports that can be used for
planning and identifying trends in capacity
and performance
Aligning Middleware with the
Business
At Thomson Reuters BETA Systems, every
messaging infrastructure that the organi
zat ion designs and creates is unique. By
unders tanding a client’s requests, by being
innovative and creative, and by establishing
systems management that enables flexi
bility, the organization can develop and
support a unique messaging infrastructure
that enables critical decision making for
each client or firm. ●
About the Author
Felix Garcia is team lead for WebSphere Middleware Messaging and Automation at Thomson
Reuters BETA Systems.
53
Flexible, Yet Reliable: Meeting the Challenges of Global Business
Flexible, Yet Reliable:
Meeting the Challenges
of Global Business
The needs of global IT users are growing in complexity and
diversity. To meet these requirements, use a hybrid solution
consisting of distributed systems integrated with a centralized
mainframe. Distributed systems offer flexibility in meeting
local user requirements, while the mainframe offers superior
reliability and the benefits of centralized data management.
By Bruce Chen
54
55
In
I.T. and in the world in general,
physical walls are being removed.
People travel more, and national
borders are less important than ever before.
More access to IT systems occurs via the
Internet. And the number of sophisticated IT
users who employ a wide range of client
devices — for both business and personal
use — to access IT systems has proliferated.
Challenges of a Global Business
Environment
The modern global IT environment presents
some unique challenges. Previously, most IT
systems were localized to a single time zone
or even a single local economy. Systems
needed to be available during business
hours, and maintenance could be conducted
during off-peak hours. Now, business and
retail IT users access IT systems from mul
tiple time zones. IT is more likely to need
24x7 hours of operation, which changes
maintenance requirements. And back-end
systems need to be more stable to minimize
unplanned downtime during all hours.
Also, a growing diversity of end-user client
environments in a multinational region such
as Asia-Pacific creates significant differences
in cross-culture, cross-border, and crosstechnology user maturity. Some users
access information systems from traditional
desktop client applications or through main
frame terminal emulation. Others conduct
business from mobile laptops or via the
Internet. The use of handheld device applica
tions that provide retail and business
enterprise functions has also significantly
increased.
56
Balancing Flexibility with
Stability
So, what do you do? On one hand, the front
end of computing systems needs to be more
flexible. You may need to localize different
client/server applications to meet the needs
of different countries. Or you may need to use
different client applications for different plat
forms that range from desktop computers, to
store-based kiosks, to handheld devices.
A structure of multiple distributed systems
connected to a centralized mainframe is
becoming a very popular system design.
On the other hand, it is more important than
ever to have stable back-end systems to
maintain application functionality, transac
tion integrity, and service quality. Supporting
a diverse and distributed client environment
requires integrating different distributed
servers with a common back-end architec
ture. As a result, a structure of multiple
distributed systems connected to a central
ized mainframe is becoming a very popular
system design.
The Resurgence of the Modern
Mainframe
Not too long ago, it seemed inevitable that
the mainframe would eventually be replaced
by distributed servers. However, the use of
the two architectures has reached a balance
point. For systems that have a very large,
single database instance, significant I/O
bandwidth requirements, intensive batchprocessing jobs, and quality-of-ser vice
requirements, some workloads are now
moving back to a mainframe.
Across Asia, as in most of the world, end
users are sophisticated technology consum
ers and require more options for local
operation. Many applications are tailored to a
location by using specific application or deci
sion logic. To simplif y deployment and
maintenance while allowing scalability, many
applications are written in Java or use ser
vice-oriented architecture (SOA) technology.
Applications may use MQ messaging or
other middleware technology to access
centralized data and transaction processing
on a mainframe.
It is difficult to maintain transaction quality in
a distributed environment where distributed
servers may span multiple locations, where
client applications might be written in differ
ent languages, and where middleware and
systems management software are from a
variety of vendors. So it makes sense for
transactions initiated from a distributed
environment to be executed at a central
mainframe location.
Centrally managing data in a geographically
distributed computing environment offers
several key benefits.
Benefits of Centralized
Processing
Centrally managing data in a geographically
distributed computing environment offers
several key benefits. Distributed systems are
effective for localized data input and output,
but not for heavy computing and I/O. By
centrally processing transactional data in a
mainframe environment, you can greatly
simplify the collection and analysis of data.
Aggregated Reporting
The most effective way to access data initially
generated from multiple sources is to con
solidate the data at a single location. If the
data is in a centralized relational database,
then you can easily access and query the
data from multiple distributed sources. If,
however, the requested data is stored in
distributed systems and multiple databases,
then queries and access based on a key or
index is impractical.
Because all the transaction data and
service records are stored centrally on
a mainframe, the batch processing of
bills is greatly simplified.
As an example, some telecommunications
operators consolidate services from multiple
distributed ser vice providers, such as
Internet, local telephone, and long-distance
telephone services. Cell phone operators
also increasingly offer point-of-sale services
that must be reconciled in monthly phone
bills. Each service provider may have differ
ent front-end applications that monitor and
summarize billing data.
To process a customer’s bill, all billing in-
formation is consolidated to a centralized
mainframe. If that data were collected from
multiple distributed locations to process
a bill, then large amounts of data query
and transport would affect the performan
ce of each distributed system. However,
bec ause all the transac tion data and
service records are stored centrally on a
mainframe, the batch processing of bills
is greatly simplified.
57
Localized Tools
Centralized transaction processing is an
effective way to support localized applica
tions. In another example, a bank in Taiwan
is expanding and opening branch offices
in many countries across the Asia-Pacific
region. Different countries have different
securit y rules, dif ferent per formance
requirements, and in some cases, different
maintenance windows. Each localized, frontend system must be modified and adapted
to the requirements of each country.
Central data management also
offers data mining capabilities that
create significant cross-sell and
up-sell opportunities.
without a mainframe to centralize the data
and transaction processing.
The bank maintains a central mainframe
with a single database schema and transac
tion engine. Each country may have specific
data mapping requirements, but the transac
tion logic and processing rules are common.
The central mainframe has 20 different
database management system (DBMS)
engines. However, the central mainframe
strategy requires only two database admin
istrators. If each country had a distributed
database, then maintenance and mapping
requirements would demand significantly
more resources.
Customer Data Mining
A user might initiate a transaction in one
country that has a unique distributed envi
ronment, but the transaction is processed
centrally and then received in another
country that has another variation of the
distributed application. It wouldn’t be fea
sib le to develop a network of distributed
systems to support the transaction flow
Central data management also offers data
mining capabilities that create significant
cross-sell and up-sell oppor tunities.
Collecting and analyzing transaction history
and behavioral data is problematic in a dis
tributed systems environment. Data mining
from a centralized database helps you target
usage patterns that suggest opportunities for
5 Reasons
to Centrally Process Transactions
»» Better maintains transaction quality
»» Simplifies the collection and analysis of data
»» Enables aggregated reports from data generated at multiple locations
»» Offers significant data mining capabilities
»» Requires fewer IT staff to manage
58
offering products and services most likely to
be of value to a particular user. Identifying
associations between customers also helps
facilitate referral business, which is a power
ful way to drive new business opportunities.
different languages in the different distributed
systems — but also with the transaction
identifiers and system names that may be in
different languages. As a result, it isn’t always
easy to integrate data from different systems.
Hybrid Model Challenges
When you build a centralized database, by
design you will account for different coun
tries, systems, names, and languages. If
each locality defined what data should look
like without having a centralized standard,
then how would you manage the data? You
can’t. It’s imperative that you have a centrally
managed database so that you can manage
the complexity.
Although a hybrid mainframe and distributed
architecture offers advantages over a single
platform solution, the hybrid approach pres
ents unique systems management challenges.
With a centrally managed but distributed
architecture, accessing and analyzing systems
management data from multiple localized
environments are issues when monitoring
end-to-end transactions.
Distributed systems may use monitoring and
management tools from multiple vendors.
Those tools may also have different native
languages. As a result, consolidating and
analyzing system messages can be prob
lematic. In some cases, it is difficult to see
different systems on the same screen.
Scanning distributed systems can be a chal
lenge if performance data is not in the same
format or language.
It’s imperative that you have a centrally
managed database so that you can manage
the complexity.
For example, a transaction may start in
Taiwan, go to a central mainframe, and then
proceed to an office in China. The transaction
and data may span multiple networks and
servers that each may have different moni
toring tools. The complexity is not only with
business data — where the user’s name,
address, and invoice number may be in
Six Key Recommendations
Six key recommendations can help IT
organizations plan for global grow th
using a hybrid mainframe and distributed
system approach.
1. Use Distributed Servers When You
Need to Localize Applications
Distributed servers enable you to more easily
customize and localize as needed to meet the
computing requirements of the end user.
Eventually, applications may lead back to a
large database on a mainframe, but closer to
the end user you need specific servers to
meet their unique needs.
In the Asia-Pacific region, for example, sepa
rate localities and countries may have
specific business needs and requirements
that will differ from those of another locality.
Those various needs and requirements are
best served by a distributed environment,
the server environment, because you can
better customize. You need a combination of
59
flexibility on the end-user level and security
and performance standards at the back end,
which involves the mainframe.
2. Leverage the Centralized Data on a
Mainframe to Drive Incremental Revenue
You might use distributed servers to address
the immediate needs of localities. But having
a centralized database on a mainframe —
instead of separate databases in many
locations — enables you to look at the overall
transaction history across many regions and
mine that data for revenue opportunities.
Because of its scalability, performance,
and ability to address security issues, the
mainframe is still the best platform for
centrally storing business-critical data.
And having a centralized repository of cus
tomer data makes it easy for you to drive
increm ental revenue by using it to mine
data and to identif y up-sell and crosssell opportunities.
Because of its scalability, performance,
and ability to address security issues,
the mainframe is still the best platform
for centrally storing business-critical data.
is more stabilized. In contrast, country B
is new to the finance world and offers
plent y of new business oppor tunities.
To maximize the profit in these two reg ions, the common strategy for country
A is to increase the effort in taking care
of existing customers and expend less
effort on looking for new customers (upselling). However, the strategy should be
the opposite for country B: Creating new
opportunities and gaining market share
should be higher priorities (cross-selling).
Such business practices should be custo
mized on the distributed servers, and the
SOA should be designed according to
business practices.
4. Ensure You Have the Ability to
Manage Across Time Zones
Generally, enterprises have more peak users
during the hours when people tend to be
awake. The Asia-Pacific region encompasses
such a wide time-zone berth that you need
full availability to provide users with access
to their data. Invest in tools that allow your
centralized database to maintain full per
formance and 24x7 availability.
5. Measure the End-User Experience
3. Account for Regional Differences
When you’re designing the centralized
database, be sure to account for regional
and language dif ferences in business
data and IT systems. Not only that, the
differe nce in business practices among
regions should also be taken into consi
deration. For example, let’s say one bank
has busin ess in both country A and coun
tr y B. In country A, the finance ind ustry
has been developing for some time and
60
Even though much of your IT systems man
agement is centralized, you need to have
tools that allow you to understand and
measure the end-user experience. For
example, services in Japan and Australia
might be running fine, but the end users in
Korea might not be getting the business
service that they require. When you run a
data center and you have this type of hybrid
environment, then you must manage your
systems both centrally and locally.
6. Educate Others About the Value the
Mainframe Provides
As globalization increases and business
needs become more diverse, it’s a good
idea to remind the var ious busines s
leaders of the strength of centralized
processing. If your end users in Korea,
for example, see that they’re getting the
business service, they may not care about
what’s happening in another country. But
IT stakeholders and business leaders con
tinually should be reminded of the benefits
and the value that the mainframe — that is,
centralized processing — provides while
allowing them the flexibility to meet their
localized needs.
Invest in tools that allow your centralized database
to maintain full performance and 24x7 availability.
Don’t assume that your end users under
stand the benefits of centralized processing,
because at the end of the day, their needs are
very localized. They need to understand why
the mainframe is valuable and why it’s the
best means to run their business, even
though they have localized concerns.
Hybrid Architecture Supports
Global Growth
As businesses go global and end users make
more demands, using a mainframe as the
back-end data and transaction server with
localized distributed servers offers a far bet
ter solution than either architecture alone.
The connection to end users is becoming
more sophisticated and encompassing a
wider variety of client environments, making
it more important than ever to have a main
frame anchor for critical business services.
The mainframe is not going away anytime
soon. With a hybrid environment, the main
frame can anchor a global growth strategy
for the foreseeable future and beyond. ●
About the Author
Bruce Chen has been managing IT systems in the Asia-Pacific region for
the past 25 years. He has more than 20 years of experience in data center
management and has worked at a variety of different vendor sites throughout
the years. Chen has helped to develop several successful enterprise applica
tions that sold not only to domestic enterprises and government agencies,
but also to international companies. He has an M.B.A. from National Taiwan University.
61
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Mainframe Teams
The Seven Habits
of Highly Effective
Mainframe Teams
The mainframe has a bright future, but only if you
continue to leverage your mainframe investment
and explain how it maximizes the entire corporate
IT investment. To accomplish this, practice the
seven habits of highly effective mainframe teams —
those teams with a track record of successfully
leveraging and promoting their mainframes.
By Bill Moran
62
T
he mainframe is a vibrant processing
platform; it has a bright future within
the enterprise. Mainframe IT staff know
that the mainframe offers superior perfor
mance, availability, and security in processing
critical computing workloads — both batch
and online. They have watched the mainframe
become ever more efficient and flexible, with
the ongoing evolution of its architecture and
the availability of Linux on the mainframe.
Today’s mainframe is well equipped to oper
ate as a highly cost-efficient server in the data
center and to run advanced applications.
Proactive collaboration with distributed
systems teams can help expose a new
generation of IT technicians to the mainframe
and its modern capabilities.
Unfortunately, to others in IT — and to senior
management — the mainframe may be a
mystery. Worse, it may be perceived as an
expensive and outdated piece of hardware
cranking away in the depths of the data center.
Therefore, IT organizations still face a few
challenges in getting the most from their
mainframe investments. For example, they
must be able to overcome organizational
silos and increase recruitment. And they
must be able to demonstrate that the main
frame actually helps maximize the entire
corporate IT investment.
Meeting the Challenge
Mainframe teams who have met these challen
ges make use of seven critically important
habits. Read on to learn about these habits of
highly effective mainframe teams — along
with suggestions for senior IT management —
that can ensure a productive future for the
mainframe in your organization.
1. Collaborate with Your Counterparts
Your mainframe, UNIX, and Windows teams
should constantly share information about
the way things need to be done. This proactive
collaboration (as opposed to the reactive
collaboration in a war room) increases the
overall productivity of IT and lowers costs.
However, collaboration rarely happens out
side of war rooms. Try to be proactive in your
leadership: Cross-train and cross-manage
your teams. Various advanced tools from
vendors can help. For example, at one Ptak,
Noel client, a new staffer was assigned
to diagnose a mainframe problem using a
GUI-based, cross-platform tool, and a main
frame veteran was assigned a similar
problem using a 3270-based traditional
tool. The new staffer’s productivity nearly
equaled the veteran’s.
A large inhibitor to mainframe growth is its
complexity, along with the fact that main
frame talent is looking to retire. For the
mainframe to continue, new staffers will
need to enter the field, and it is important to
recognize this reality. Proactive collaboration
with distributed systems teams can help
expose a new generation of IT technicians to
the mainframe and its modern capabilities.
Mainframe management tools are constantly
improving, enabling non-mainframe IT staff
to manage mainframe resources with little
or no training. Mainframe tools are also
evolving to appeal to a new generation of IT
technicians. For example, event management
63
software can now send alerts to iPhone and
iPad devices.
how new mainframe applications could
benefit the business.
Although tools can help, staffers first must be
willing and able to learn and use the tools.
That’s where your leadership and inspiration
come in, which leads to the next habit.
3. Actively Seek New Opportunities
2. Leverage People, Not Just
Technology
Remember that the knowledge in the minds
of your mainframe experts is a valuable
asset. They’ve probably been in the business
for a while, and they really know how to run
big, brawny applications 24x7x365. Also,
they’ve been working with virtual systems
for years. Virtual sprawl and virtual stall may
appear to be new kinds of problems, but in
fact, mainframe teams faced and solved
these kinds of problems years ago. They have
a lot to offer to distributed systems teams.
Capture their knowledge and wisdom. Build
it into processes, of course, but also use it to
inspire and train newer hires. Everybody
wins: The veterans receive recognition and
satisfaction, and the newer hires quickly
become valuable to the business and
advance in their careers.
Don’t hesitate to involve the mainframe
experts in decision making. For example,
most companies that are maintaining
mainframe applications are unwilling to
develop brand-new mainframe applications,
usually because the mainframe experts
have not been tapped for their expertise in
Keep looking for places where the mainframe
can efficiently solve business problems. For
example, new Web applications that handle
high transaction volumes are usually ideal.
Here’s a great example of what can happen.
The IT organization at a Ptak, Noel client
reduced its expenses to levels of five years
earlier, while increasing transaction rates
several times. The company achieved this by
migrating work to the mainframe. It had been
migrating away from the mainframe, but in
this case the company made an againstthe-grain decision. As a result, it achieved
a dramatic improvement in its business.
Keep looking for places where the mainframe
can efficiently solve business problems.
And many clients have consolidated multiple
Linux systems on the mainframe and saved
on software, air conditioning, power, and
cooling. The mainframe can also save signifi
cantly on staff costs. Roughly speaking, in the
distributed systems environment, you need
more staffers than would be required on a
mainframe.1 This means the mainframe
could, in many cases, provide the same —
or better — service to the business units
at a much lower cost.
Take advantage of these more-favorable
economics by identifying problematic
1 Of course, this depends on the mix of Linux, UNIX, and Windows in the distributed environment. You must make the
comparison accurate by counting all support personnel.
64
applications with high service-level
requirements and high operating costs.
How can the mainframe help?
Proactively identify opportunities where
the mainframe could save money or improve
business performance.
In most organizations, there is a communi
cations gap between the mainframe team
and senior management. More so than the
technology gap, this communications gap
often makes it difficult for IT organizations
to understand how the mainframe can solve
“non-mainframe” problems and maximize
the overall investment in IT. Take the initiative
and bridge that gap by proactively identifying
opportunities where the mainframe could
save money or imp rove business perfor
mance — then talk about those savings and
improvements in business terms.
4. Think Outside the Mainframe
While it was evolving from the sole processor
to the multi-tiered environment, the main
frame has changed in many different ways.
The most conspicuous change is the user
interface, from green screen to GUIs. It’s not
just a cosmetic improvement; it’s also an
important cultural improvement, because
new staffers are no longer forced to learn an
interface they may regard as obsolete.
The mainframe, which started as a batchoriented system, has been extended to
transaction processing and the Web —
and it still does an outstanding job of batch
processing. This dual capability enables
the mainframe to play a flexible role in
today’s hybrid data center.
Architectural advancements such as zLinux
are very popular, and the new zEnterprise
System shows great promise. It has the
potential to provide unified management of
much of the data center.
Even the development environment has
evolved. You can now buy an attractively
priced emulator that allows you to do
zSeries development and initial testing
on a PC. For many IT organizations, this
is a major productivity boost.
Use all this knowledge to benefit the
whole business. Push yourself and your
vendors for new ideas that stretch the
mainframe’s utility.
5. Show the True Cost and Value
Determine and demonstrate the true, accu
rate cost and value of the mainframe, and
make an apples-to-apples comparison
with distributed systems. Remember the
comm unications gap between the main
frame team and management. The main
frame team should take the initiative and
present its numbers to all stakeholders.
Start by reminding senior managers that
they have already made the acquisition
investment in the mainframe in many areas:
the hardware, the staff, and the software.
Point out that internal expense management
systems may still have the mainframe paying
the full freight for the data center, including
floor space, electricity, heating, ventilation,
cooling, and air conditioning. Try to develop
an accurate picture of your IT expenses.
65
In some companies, even if senior manage
ment agrees that the mainframe is cheaper,
they still prefer distributed systems because
it’s so easy to assign costs. Major vendors can
help answer this objection; they have software
that helps to assign mainframe costs easily.
In addition, calculate the benefits. Don’t be
timid; be aggressive. Remember the 80/20
rule: The mainframe is 20 percent of the over
all expense but does 80 percent of the work.
Don’t forget continuity and disaster recovery.
If a mainframe is properly maintained, you
won’t even have unscheduled downtimes.
The cost of outages on your distributed
systems is variable by business type, by
applications, and so on; it’s difficult to deter
mine the cost precisely. However, the cost
tends to be a significant number over time
because, when the distributed system with
the database goes down, it may take many
hours to get it back up, to rebuild the data
base, and to correct it.
5 beneFits
Mainframes are able to operate at a 90 per
cent utilization rate, whereas distributed
systems may operate at 20 or 30 percent.
In other words, the mainframe provides a
strategic advantage: a far greater ability to
meet service level agreements (SLAs).
6. Talk Business, Not Technology
Most IT leadership is concerned with meeting
SLAs and controlling costs and may view
mainframes as old-fashioned and expensive.
When mainframe folks use “mainframespeak,” they confirm the belief that mainframe
people are living in the past.
The key for the mainframe team is to always
talk in terms of business requirements. Start
the conversation by observing that the main
frame can help the business maximize its
investment. Find out what your business
counterparts need. How can you serve their
business units in the best possible way?
With its unrivaled availability, the mainframe
can help deliver the level of service defined
in SLAs.
of Practicing the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Mainframe Teams
»» Raise staff productivity
»» Control costs
»» Improve continuity
»» Facilitate quicker disaster recovery
»» Enable business to enter new markets
66
For example, is there a database that is un
available and holding back some key busi
ness objective? The mainframe could almost
certainly help there. Here’s an examp le:
A federal agency was using zLinux and
wanted to serve other agencies. It talked
about the Linux services it could provide and
the guaranteed SLAs it was willing to sign.
It didn’t mention the mainframe at all.
This approach was quite successful. The
lesson: Lead with the ser vice and it s
benefits, not with the mainframe or its
capacity. Don’t even mention platform; users
may never know or care that they’re running
on a mainframe.
Lead with the service and its benefits, not with
the mainframe or its capacity.
7. Be a Reasonable Champion
Be careful not to overdo your advocacy. By all
means, the mainframe is a very effective
platform, so take credit for the mainframe
where credit is due. But don’t risk your cred
ibility by claiming that the mainframe is the
ideal platform for everything. It’s not. It’s
OK to acknowledge that for certain applica
tions, UNIX, Windows, or Linux stand-alone
systems might be the best solution.
In the Web-based environment, the main
frame plays, or can play, a significant role.
It offers outstanding availability, the best of
any general-purpose system you can get
today. For some businesses, the mainframe
is the place to put the front end of the Web,
but in many businesses a distributed system
might be better.
Utopia will have arrived when the mainframe
is so smoothly integrated into corporate IT
that people will forget they’re using it. They’ll
just know they’re getting great service.
Maximize Your Investment
Ptak, Noel clients who practice these seven
habits of highly effective mainframe teams
gain substantial business benefits. Your organi
zation can, too. You can raise staff productivity,
control costs, improve continuity and disaster
recovery, and enable business units to enter
new markets. Your mainframe will help max
imize your entire corporate IT investment,
and you will have the numbers to prove it. ●
About the Author
As research director at Ptak, Noel & Associates, Bill Moran leverages his
more than 30 years of experience in IT analysis, technical management,
and technical education to help clients elevate their solution sales
discussions out of the technical weeds. He also organizes technical
updates for clients on such issues as new hardware, new software,
and implications of competitive actions. Moran has also held research positions and
senior management positions at Ideas International, D.H. Brown Associates, and
Coopers & Lybrand. Previously, he held management and technical management
positions at IBM and was responsible for the company’s worldwide, large-systems support
for the IBM World Trade Corporation and benchmark testing for IBM’s mainframe systems.
67
Ten Tips for Mainframe Success
Ten Tips for
Mainframe Success
IT organizations can reduce and optimize mainframe costs by taking
advantage of specialty processors, selecting the right vendors, and
continually tuning performance. Follow these ten tips to make the
most of your mainframe investment.
By Jonathan Adams
68
69
W
hat’s top of mind for IT leaders
today? In response to BMC
Softw are’s 2010 Annual Main
frame Survey, 65 percent of the respondents
indicated that reducing IT costs was a
top priority. And this is no surprise; not
only was this the most important priority
indicated in the survey, but it is what we
hear continually in visit s to customer
sites and from exec utives who are mem
bers of the BMC Mainframe Advisor y
Council. IT organiz at ions from around the
world are saying, “Help us reduce costs to
our business and make the most of our
IT investment.”
A comprehensive workload
automation solution can help you
effectively redistribute workloads
without impacting the business
services that they support.
What can you do right now to reduce
costs and get the best value from your
existing investment in the mainframe?
Focusing on cost optimization is a good
s t ar t . C os t optimization is all a b out
maxim izing the value of your investm ent
in the IT infrastructure. But first, you
need to know which factors are driving
most of your costs. And in almost every
case, cost is associated with capacity or
MIPS utilization.
You can reduce and optimize mainframe
costs by concentrating on three main areas:
Take advantage of specialty processors,
select the right vendors to work with, and
continually tune performance.
70
Tips for Maximizing Your
Mainframe Investment
Here are ten tips to effectively achieve cost
optimization for the mainframe within the
three areas mentioned previously:
1. Use zIIPs and Specialty Processors
to Reduce Costs
One of the most exciting things that IBM has
released recently is the assist processor, a
zIIP or zAAP engine. These are considerably
less expensive processors than generalpurpose engines and can run specific types
of workloads so that you can offload those
workloads from a general-purpose engine.
In addition, with a general-purpose engine,
after you purchase the hardware, you still
need to pay software license charges. With a
zIIP engine, there are no costs beyond the
initial hardware. But even though the overall
cost of a zIIP engine is lower, you still want to
make the most of your investment. Look for
vendors that offer products that have zIIP
enablement. For example, tools should
enable you to easily identify zIIP-eligible
workloads so you know what workloads you
could offload to a zIIP processor if you were
to buy it. Make sure you understand the
impact of zIIP and specialty processors.
2. Identify Ways to Lower Your
Four-Hour Rolling Average of
MIPS Utilization
Some outsourcing vendors will charge you
based on your four-hour rolling average of
MIPS utilization. This is another area where
you need to understand the load on your
machine and tie it back to the contract with
the vendor. How can you reduce that four-hour
rolling average? Moving specific workloads
to specialty engines can definitely help.
You can also redistribute the timing of your
workloads to move some of them out of
peak processing periods. A comprehensive
workload automation solution can help
you ef fectively redistribute workloads
without impacting the business services
that they support.
3. Don’t Save Money at the Expense
of Service Levels
Look for software solutions that can model
what workloads will look like on a specialty
engine. It’s not enough to just move them
from your general-purpose engines. Ask
yourself: Do I still have the desired response
time? Do I still have access to the direct
access storage device (DASD)? Is there
anything that might make using the assist
processor not so beneficial? Be sure to
identify the workloads and model them
so you know the end result before you start.
You don’t want to save a few dollars off
the bottom line only to lower your service
levels to the extent that you cannot meet
your business requirements.
Well-written code can accomplish the same
amount of work with less MIPS utilization and
less resource utilization overall.
4. Realize That Efficient Code Is King
Look for solutions providers that have effi
cient code that can perform the operation or
workload effectively in the least amount
of time, not only from an elapsed time per
spective, but also from a CPU perspective.
Well-written code may run two or three
times as efficiently as poorly written code.
And well-written code can accomplish the
same amount of work with less MIPS utiliza
tion and less resource utilization overall. A
good solutions provider will benchmark its
own products, release over release, and
constantly strive for improvement. If anything
changes in the environment, such as a new
operating system or a new version of a sub
system, the solutions provider should always
be looking for ways to improve the efficiency,
effectiveness, and speed of its products. All of
this translates to cost savings.
5. Look for Vendors That Can Offload
Some of Their Own Work to Specialty
Processors
An effective vendor tool will identify and
model what you can offload to a specialty
processor, and actually help you by putting
some of its own processing onto the zIIP
engine. That’s another way a good vendor
can pass off savings to a customer. For
example, if one piece of code is more efficient
than another and runs with less of a footprint
on the general-purpose engine, then go fur
ther and move a portion of that footprint to
the less-expensive engine, freeing up even
more general-purpose MIPS.
6. Evaluate Whether Outsourcing Is
Right for Your Business
If you are looking at outsourcing, be sure that
you can do so without losing a competitive
advantage. When resources are under your
own roof and your internal staff is looking
after them, you have a certain degree of
control. But you also take on the pain and
the burden of managing everything, so it’s
unders tandable why you might consider
outsourcing. However, be sure outsourcing
is right for your business.
71
Some companies have determined that IT is
such an integral part of their business that
they need to have IT in-sourced and wholly
owned to compete effectively. For example,
at a large U.S. bank, the CEO decided the
company could not differentiate itself from
its competitors if it had a commoditized IT
environment. He believed that banking relies
so heavily on IT that his bank needed to own
that function to be differentiated. In other
words, they had to do IT better than the
competition: The banking products and
business applications they put on the market
had to be better and hit the market faster
than everyone else’s. So, he chose to go the
in-sourcing route.
7. If You Decide to Outsource, Carefully
Conduct Due Diligence on the
Outsourcing Vendor
If you determine that outsourcing is right
for your business, make sure you implement
the right levers and controls to maintain the
service level agreements you have with your
customers in terms of responsiveness,
speed, and transaction times and volume. In
addition, look for confirmation that the vendor
is acting in your best interest and is striving
to optimize the resources used.
If you determine that outsourcing is right for
your business, make sure you implement the
right levers and controls to maintain the service
level agreements you have with your customers.
For example, if there is a problem with re
sponse times, be sure the vendor is not
adding huge amounts of capacity to fix
the problem and then charging you more
than you should be paying for capacity —
especially when the vendor could use the
hardware more efficiently. You can address
this by having good controls in the contract,
with a periodic rationalization to net out
how much capacity you used versus what
is in the contract, efficiency studies, and
throughput studies from time to time.
Everyone understands that the outsourcer
needs to make a profit to stay in business,
but a good outsourcer will focus on running
as efficiently as possible so that it can offer a
fair price and yet still make a good margin.
5 points
to Consider When Evaluating Mainframe Value
»» Remember that the lowest bid does not automatically mean the best value.
»» Recognize that price is not an indicator of value.
»» Analyze efficiency, reliability, and performance.
»» Consider security and risk.
»» Calculate the total cost of ownership (TCO).
72
And be sure you’re not stuck with a contract
that doesn’t allow your business to respond
to changing needs three years from now.
Price is not an indicator of value, and
the initial price tag shouldn’t be the
only consideration.
8. Understand That ISVs Provide Good
Value for Your Investment
In the past, the perception of the high cost of
independent software vendor (ISV) software
has been cited as an inhibitor to mainframe
growth, preventing IT organizations from
putting more projects and applications on the
mainframe. Today, savvy IT organizations are
realizing that ISV software can help reduce
total costs by lowering MIPS footprints
through the exploitation of more efficient
code and utilization of lower-cost processors
(zIIPs). In other words, you can save money
over the long haul with more efficient
sof tware that accomplishes the same
amount of work using a smaller footprint
of hardware, DASD, resources, and attention
from the IT staff. So look at all the vendors,
line them up, and benchmark them to see
who’s more efficient. The 2010 mainframe
sur vey shows that companies are now
saying that ISV software is no longer the
big expense.
Even if you are outsourcing IT services,
you can retain the right to select and
even contract for products directly with
ISVs. In this way, you can better establish
and maintain the most efficient mix of
sof t w are products to meet your busi
ness goals, such as availability, speed,
and ef ficienc y.
9. Evaluate Long-Term Value:
Lowest Bidder Does Not Always
Equal Best Value
Price is not an indicator of value, and
the initial price tag shouldn’t be the only
consideration. You’ll also want to consider
long-t erm efficiency, reliability, and per
formance; flexible terms and conditions;
pricing options; and the two- or three-year
total cost of ownership. Look for a vendor
that can provide metrics and tie software
to its actual utilization.
By looking at the bigger picture, you can
evaluate which vendor delivers the best value
over the life of the contract. Mainframe cost
optimization is the overall package; it’s not
just about buying inexpensive software and
hardware. The bottom line is long-term val
ue. Buying the cheapest products may end up
introducing more risk to your business.
Finally, look to trusted vendors that have
been in the market for a long time, who will
be there in a time of crisis. You want a vendor
who will stand behind you and will also be
there to help get you back on a solid footing if
the need arises.
By looking at the bigger picture, you
can evaluate which vendor delivers the
best value over the life of the contract.
10. Look for Tools That Help with
Dynamic SQL Tuning and Performance
Select tools that can help reduce the applica
tion footprint or resource consumption of
DB2-related applications. Tune your in-house
applications and make sure that they’re
running properly. Also ensure that the per
formance of your overall machine is optimal.
73
Closing Thoughts
In all of this, remember that IT exists to serve
the business. Make sure that you’re getting
the most value for your IT investment, and
don’t lose sight of the fact that you still must
be competitive at the end of the day. If the
business need requires you to be quicker to
market and more efficient than your competi
tors, you may choose to own rather than
outsource your IT environment. But whether
you in-source versus outsource, you need to
take ownership of your costs. So take advan
tage of specialty processors, carefully
evaluate vendors and outsourcers, and con
tinually tune performance, and you’ll be well
on your way to getting the most out of your
mainframe investment. ●
About the Author
Jonathan Adams is the vice president of Data & Performance Management
of Mainframe Service Management at BMC Software. In this role, Adams leads
the development, support, and quality assurance for the DB2, IMS, MainView,
and Middleware Management products within BMC Software’s Mainframe
Service Management Business Unit.
Adams has been at BMC since 1995. He has worked on mainframe optimization and
networking products, helped launch BMC’s enterprise-wide MQSeries mission in 1997,
and has worked in the MainView and MSM organizations in various management
positions since 2000. Prior to joining BMC Software, Adams worked in IT at BellSouth
Services where he held a variety of analyst and systems programmer positions in
technical support and data center operations. Adams received his bachelor’s degree from
the University of Alabama and a Master of Business Administration from the University
of Alabama at Birmingham.
74
A Compilation of Articles by Industry Experts
VIEWPOINT
The Mainframe Strikes Back:
5 Reasons to Stay with the Mainframe
This publication was created by BMC Software.
Business Runs on IT. IT Runs on BMC Software.
The Keys to Effective Integration
*199997*
VOLUME 10
Business thrives when IT runs smarter, faster
and stronger. That’s why the most demanding IT
organizations in the world rely on BMC Software
across distributed, mainframe, virtual and cloud
environments. Recognized as the leader in
Business Service Management, BMC offers
a comprehensive approach and unified platform
that helps IT organizations cut cost, reduce risk
and drive business profit. For the four fiscal
quarters ended December 31, 2010, BMC
revenue was approximately $2 billion.
Visit www.bmc.com for more information.
The Economics
of Computing
4 Guidelines for Maximizing the
Value of the Mainframe
Published by BMC Software

VIEWPOINT - Focus on Mainframe Cost Optimization

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