Four Ways to Transform Your Mainframe for a Hybrid Cloud World

An IBM Redpaper publication

Published 04 June 2021

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ISBN-10: 0738459763
ISBN-13: 9780738459769
IBM Form #: REDP-5639-00
(24 pages)

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Authors: Guillaume Arnould, Guillaume Hoareau, Herve Sabrie, Sebastien Llaurency, Yann Kindelberger

Abstract

The IBM® mainframe remains a widely used enterprise computing workhorse, hosting essential IT for the majority of the world’s top banks, airlines, insurers and more. As the mainframe continues to evolve, the newest IBM Z® servers offer solutions for AI and analytics, blockchain, cloud, DevOps, security and resiliency, with the aim of making the client experience similar to that of using cloud services.

Many organizations today face challenges with their core IT infrastructure:


  • Complexity and stability
    An environment might have years of history and be seen as too complex to maintain or update. Problems with system stability can impact operations and be considered a high risk for the business.
  • Workforce challenges
    Many data center teams are anticipating a skills shortage within the next 5 years due to a retiring and declining workforce specialized in the mainframe, not to mention the difficulty of attracting new talent.
  • Total cost of ownership
    Some infrastructure solutions are seen as too expensive, and it’s not always easy to balance up-front costs with the life expectancy and benefits of a given platform.
  • Lack of speed and agility
    Older applications can be seen as too slow and monolithic as organizations face an increasing need for faster turnaround and release cycles.


Some software vendors suggest addressing these challenges with the “big bang” approach of moving your entire environment to a public cloud. But public cloud isn’t the best option for every workload, and a hybrid multicloud approach can offer the best of both worlds. IBM Z is constantly being developed to address the real challenges businesses face today, and every day we’re helping clients modernize their IT environments.
There are 4 strategic elements to consider when modernizing your mainframe environment:


  • Infrastructure
  • Applications
  • Data access
  • DevOps chain


This paper focuses on these four modernization dimensions.

Table of contents

Infrastructure modernization
Application modernization
Data access modernization
DevOps chain modernization
Conclusion

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