In this article, you will explore the best practices for mainframe modernization. Starting by defining a mainframe and explaining why it’s essential in today’s world. Further, the article covers some of these systems’ most common modernization opportunities. It includes cloud-first approaches and agile methodologies—and finishes with how you can use autonomous system operations to modernize your mainframe environment further.
What is a mainframe?
If you are wondering what is a mainframe, it is a giant computer that is used to run applications that are too big or complex to be run on smaller systems. Mainframes have been around for many years and still exist today because they’re helpful in data centers. For example, mainframes are used by large organizations such as banks, insurance companies and government agencies; they’re also used in healthcare because they can handle enormous amounts of data, like patient records from millions of people.
Mainframe modernization opportunities
The mainframe is the most secure platform. It has built-in security and encryption from the hardware, operating system and middleware levels all the way down to the database level. The mainframe is also more reliable than any other platform—so if you have an application that needs 99.999% uptime, there’s no better choice than mainframe technology.
Mainframes can scale up or scale out based on your business demands—and if you need to scale down for cost savings or regulatory reasons, you can do that with a zEnterprise EC12 server running Linux or Windows operating systems. And because of its superior reliability, scalability and flexibility, it’s also probably one of the most cost-effective platforms in use today!
According to Micro Focus, “Despite advances in technology, mainframe-hosted systems remain business-critical, and at the heart of enterprise computing. Nothing else matches their levels of performance, consistency, and reliability.”
A cloud-first approach
Cloud-first is a best practice for mainframe modernization. It enables more agile development, deployment and operations. It allows companies to move faster, be more responsive to market changes and take advantage of new technologies.
Agile and DevOps methodologies
The use of Agile and DevOps methodologies has been shown to:
- Increase the speed of software development.
- Increase the quality of software development.
- Reduce costs associated with software development
Autonomous system operations
By making the mainframe more self-aware, you can set up the system to be smart enough to detect and resolve issues before any human intervention is required. This also allows your team to focus on higher-value tasks while the mainframe continues running smoothly.
With this approach in place, you can also optimize your system performance by increasing its speed and efficiency with minimal downtime or disruption—a win for both users and IT teams alike!
Continuous, pervasive intelligence
Continuous, pervasive intelligence is the flow of information across the enterprise. With continuous and pervasive intelligence, you can get better insights into your data. This will help you make better decisions that improve productivity and reduce costs.
To achieve continuous, pervasive intelligence, you need an analytics platform that supports:
- An integrated view of your data—including core systems, social media feeds and external sources such as weather data and satellite images—gives you a holistic understanding of what’s happening in your organization right now.
- Flexibility for users to access information through tools like dashboards. Or reports that they can share with others in their organizations who don’t use software to analyze data.
The mainframe is not dead but in a state of transition. Organizations that invest in modernization today can take advantage of the many benefits of a modern mainframe. These include improved efficiency and productivity, increased agility, lower costs and more predictable performance for applications that run on their data centers.
