Keeping the mainframe on the mainline with a mature management model

This year marks a significant landmark for the mainframe, as it reaches its 50th anniversary. Over that time, the pressures upon it have changed significantly, and the mainframe is now handling workloads that were never even envisioned when it was first built. In the same way that modern railways are barely recognisable from the billowing steam and piercing whistles that were characteristic at their birth, the mainframe of today has had to evolve significantly in order to keep up with the rapidly evolving IT landscape. The rise of mobile, cloud, virtualisation and modern big data analytics applications are giving rise to a ‘new normal’ in relation to the mainframe, encompassing four key attributes:

1. Mainframe applications are no longer solely a back-end function, they are supporting customer-facing services, such as internet banking
2. Modern IT environments are becoming increasingly diversified, meaning mainframe workloads need to span multiple platforms and operating environments
3. As complexity rises, so too does the number of mainframe transactions, forcing up Million Instructions Per Second (MIPS) consumption and the resultant costs
4. Experienced mainframe developers are reaching retirement age, which is creating an ever-widening skills gap that could impact businesses’ ability to support IT services.

Perhaps the singularly most disruptive change facing the mainframe is the need to serve up millions, or even trillions, of transactions for customer-facing applications every day. This is particularly apparent in the impact of mobile applications. For example, a simple log-in to a mobile banking application can result in the execution of between 10 and 20 mainframe transactions. As mobile and other modern technology trends continue to gather pace, the pressure on the mainframe will only grow in kind, widening the gap that exists between IT management needs, skills and capabilities.

Mind the gap
Clearly then, the mainframe environment is maturing, and so too must the management teams responsible for its upkeep. However, many organisations still approach back-end mainframe and front-end distributed IT environments as separate worlds. As a result, IT teams are wasting days, weeks and even months in ‘war-room’ scenarios trying to work out whose problem it is, rather than focusing on identifying what the cause of the problem is and how they can fix it together.
By taking a blinkered approach and focusing only on their own piece of the puzzle, IT teams are unable to fully understand the highly complex nature of modern IT glitches. This makes it nigh-on impossible to triage and remedy the symptoms efficiently and effectively. Not only does this result in greater costs in IT support, but it can also significantly increase the mean time to resolution (MTTR), prolonging poor end-user experiences and potential lost revenues. Indeed, understanding the business context of application failures is instrumental in the adoption of the new, more mature management approach that is needed. In order to address this challenge, IT departments must foster a shared view of IT that enables all teams; across both mainframe and distributed IT environments, to work together on the same level.

Getting on the right tracks
There are, of course, a number of obstacles that must be overcome before IT teams can achieve the level of maturity that is needed:
· Driver shortage – whilst traditional mainframe developers become increasingly scarce, there is also a need for more modern technology skills for the cloud and mobile era. As a result, developers need to be proficient in both new and old technologies. IT managers must cross train teams to impart the knowledge of more experienced developers onto the newer generations. Furthermore, they should be looking to modernise the dated ‘green screen’ programming environment of the mainframe to enable less experienced developers to get up to speed more quickly
· Tunnel vision – management must also have visibility into the broader, distributed IT environment, rather than just monitoring the mainframe and distributed systems in isolation with separate tools. This means that they must adopt a newer generation of application performance management tools that are fit for the modern era
· Passengers first – For decades, mainframe teams have been insulated from burdening themselves with concerns over the end-user experience by those responsible for maintaining the front-end systems. Now that the IT landscape is becoming more open, every team within the IT department must learn to put the end-user experience first and foremost in every decision it makes, which requires mainframe teams in particular to adopt a new way of thinking
· Diagnosing derailments – with performance problems now spanning multiple platforms, environments and databases that are outside the purview of individual IT management silos, troubleshooting and resolution is becoming more complicated. Businesses should be taking a more cohesive approach to how they manage their IT environment, using tools that provide visibility into the entire application delivery chain so that problems stemming from multiple sources can be identified and triaged for effective resolution. The tools used by service management teams should also be integrated with those used by development teams to ensure that the IT department is working collaboratively, efficiently and effectively

Full steam ahead
Employing a modern, cross platform approach to Application Performance Management (APM) can eliminate IT departmental inefficiencies and bridge the gaps that exist between mainframe and non-mainframe teams. Having a cohesive view across the entire application delivery chain and fostering greater collaboration between development and operations teams can help to take the guesswork out of problem solving and reduce the MTTR by eliminating the need for war room scenarios when cross-platform problems occur. Taking steps now by investing in developer training and modernising the mainframe environment will also help to overcome the looming skills shortage. Ultimately, this more mature approach to IT management will help businesses to create a more efficient and streamlined IT operation that is fit for the future, setting their mainframe on the right tracks towards supporting improved customer experiences and increased business value.