Mainframe Modernization: The Why and How

If your organization uses a mainframe or you are interested in modern mainframe computing issues, be sure to register for and join me in my webinar for GT Software, titled Mainframe Modernization: The Why and How. on Tuesday, October 29, 2019 from 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CDT.

This webinar will discuss the rich heritage of the mainframe and the value of the applications and systems that have been written over many decades. Organizations rely on these legacy systems and the business knowledge built into these applications drive their businesses.
But an application created 20 or more years ago will not be as accessible to modern users as it should be. Digital transformation that enables users to access applications and data quickly is the norm, but this requires modernizing access to the rich data and processes on the mainframe.

This presentation will expose the value proposition of the mainframe, and look at the trends driving its usage and capabilities. I will look at the IT infrastructure challenges including changing technology, cloud adoption, legacy applications, and development trends. And look at tactics to achieve mainframe modernization amid complexity and change.
So if mainframes are your thing, or you just want to learn more about the state of the modern mainframe, be sure to sign up and attend!

IBM Unleashes the z15 Mainframe

In New York City, on September 12, 2019, IBM announced the latest and greatest iteration of its Z systems mainframe computing platform, the IBM z15. And I was lucky enough to be there for the unveiling.

The official IBM announcement letter can be found here if you want to dive into the details. But before you go there, consier first reading what I have to say about it below.

Before going any further, here I am with the new z15 in New York… don’t we make a handsome couple? 

The event was held at 3 World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. Ross Mauri, General Manager of IBM Z, kicked off the event extolling the unprecedented security delivered by the z15 with encryption everywhere and the data privacy passports. He claims that the IBM z15 is the most secure platform you can get, and the new capabilities back that up. Mauri also acknowledged that "there's always the next big thing in technology" but stated that "IBM is innovating and leading by anticipating customer needs to ensure the on-going relevance of the mainframe."

And there is a lot to like about the new IBM z15 platform, both for long-time users and those embracing the platform for new development. IBM is embracing the multicloud approach and reminding everybody that the mainframe is a vital component of multicloud for many organizations.

But modern infrastructure with the latest application development techniques is not as simple as throw out the old and bring in the new. I mean, let’s face it, if you have a mainframe with possibly hundreds or thousands of man years of work invested in it, are you really going to take the time to re-code all of that mission-critical work just to have it on a “new” platform? Rewriting applications that work today cannot be the priority for serious businesses! Especially when the modern mainframe is as new as it gets, runs all of that legacy code that runs your business, and also supports new cloud apps and development, too.

The IBM Z works perfectly as a part of your multicloud development strategy. The cloud promises an open, flexible world. But your most critical workloads also need to run securely and without interruption. To accomplish both objectives you must support cloud with an underlying IT infrastructure. And for Fortune 500 companies and other large organizations, the multicloud includes the mainframe as part of the enabling infrastructure.

What’s New

The new IBM z15 is housed in a convenient 19 inch rack, and that means it can be integrated into a standard rack. So you get all the benefit and strengths of the mainframe while fitting into the size expected by a standard data center.

Did you know that there are more transistors in the new IBM z15 chip than there are people in the world! Inside the IBM z15 processor chip, there are 15.6 miles of wires, 9.2 billion transistors and 26.2 billion wiring connections — all of which allow a single z15 server to process 1 trillion web transactions per day.

The mainframe is the ideal platform for many organizations. It provides the resiliency, security, and agility needed to power, secure, and integrate your hybrid cloud. And it capably, securely, and efficiently runs your transactions and the batch workload required to keep your business humming. IBM used to talk about five 9s of availability (that is 99.999%) but with the new IBM z15, IBM can deliver seven 9s (that is 99.99999%)! That is 3.16 seconds of downtime per year, or only 60.48 milliseconds of downtime per week. Now that is impressive!

The primary new features that are worth your time to investigate further, and that were highlighted by IBM at the kickoff event are:

• Encryption everywhere which protects your data anywhere, even after it leaves your system, with new IBM Data Privacy Passports, which delivers privacy by policy.
• Cloud native development that simplifies life for developers as they build and modernize applications using standard tools, including new support for Red Hat OpenShift. This enables you to both modernize the apps you have and to deploy new ones using the tools of your choice.
• IBM Z Instant Recovery can reduce the impact of planned and unplanned downtime. Instant Recovery can speed the return to your pre-shutdown SLAs by up to 2x.

The flexibility of the z15 is noteworthy, too. The new IBM z15 provides the flexibility to implement 1 frame...

or up to 4 frames, as your capacity needs dictate.

And did you know it can run multiple operating systems, not just z/OS? The IBM Z platform can run z/OS, Linux on Z, z/VM, z/VSE, and z/TPF. This enables organizations to run legacy applications and modern, specialist ones using the operating system of their choice. Indeed, convenience and flexibility are hallmarks of the IBM Z platform.

The IBM z15 is a modern platform for all of your processing needs. And that is backed up not just by IBM, but also a brand new survery from BMC Software, in their 14th annual mainframe survey for 2019. The survey shows that 93% are confident in the combined long-term and new workload strength of the IBM Z platform, the strongest showing since 2013! Other highlights inlcude a majority thinking that mainframe growth will continue, along with increasing MIPS/MSU consumption... not to mention that the mainframe is handling increases in data volume, number of databases, and transaction volume. If you are working with mainframes in any way, be sure to check out the new BMC Mainframe Survey.

Indeed, with the new IBM z15 things are looking great for the mainframe and those that rely upon it to power their digital business.

The Power of Data Masking for Data Protection

Data privacy regulations and the desire to protect sensitive data requires methods to mask production data for test purposes. Data masking tools create structurally similar data that is not the same as the actual data, but can be used by application systems the same way as the actual data. The capability to mask data is important to be in compliance with regulations like GDPR and PCI-DSS, which place restrictions on how personally identifiable information (PII) can be used.

UBS Hainer’s Masking Tool for BCV5 (their test data management solution) offers robust masking of Db2 for z/OS data. I wrote about this capability previously on the blog last year (see Data Masking: An Imperative for Compliance and Governance, November 12, 2018), and if you are looking for a concise, yet thorough overview of the product’s data masking capabilities I point you to that blog post.

So why am I talking about data masking again? Well, it is a thorny problem that many organizations are still struggling with. As much as 80% of sensitive data resides in environments used for development, testing, and reporting. That is a lot of data that is ripe for exposure.

But I also wanted to share a new video produced by UBS Hainer that explains how data masking can help you to stay compliant and protect your sensitive data. It is well worth your time to watch this 2 minute video if you need to better address the protection of sensitive data at your shop.

Click to watch the video

Data masking is not a simple task, and as the video helps to explain, there is much to consider. To effectively mask your data requires a well-thought-out process and method for implementation to achieve success. As such, a tool like BCV5 Masking Tool can simplify how you address your Db2 data protection requirements. It provides dozens of easy to use masking algorithms implemented using Db2 user-defined functions. It ensures that the same actual value is translated to the same masked value every time. And the value will be a plausible value that works the same as the data it is masking. The tool understands thing like referential integrity, unique constraints, related data, and so on.

A reliable method of automating the process of data masking that understands all of the complicated issues and solves them is clearly needed. And this where UBS Hainer’s BCV5 Masking Tool excels.

BMC AMI for DevOps Intelligently Integrates Db2 for z/OS Schema Changes

Organizations of all types and sizes have adopted a DevOps approach to building applications because it effectively implements small and frequent code changes using agile development techniques. This approach can significantly improve the time to value for application development. The DevOps approach is quite mature on distributed platforms, but it is also gaining traction on the mainframe.

As mainframe development teams begin to rely on DevOps practices more extensively, the need arises to incorporate Db2 for z/OS database changes. This capacity has been lacking until recently, requiring manual intervention by the DBA team to analyze and approve schema changes. This, of course, slows things down, the exact opposite of the desired impact of DevOps. But now BMC has introduced a new solution that brings automated Db2 schema changes to DevOps, namely BMC AMI for DevOps.

BMC AMI for DevOps is designed to integrate into the DevOps tooling that your developers are already using. It integrates with the Jenkins Pipeline tool suite to provide an automated method of receiving, analyzing, and implementing Db2 schema changes as part of an application update.

By integrating with your application orchestration tools AMI for DevOps can capture the necessary database changes required to move from test to production. But it does not just apply these changes; it enforces and ensures best practices using built-in intelligence and automated communication between development and database administration.

The ability to enforce best practices is driven by BMC’s Automated Mainframe Intelligence (AMI), which is policy driven. The AMI capability builds much of the DBA oversight for schema changes into the DevOps pipeline, enforcing database design best practices as you go instead of requiring in-depth manual DBA oversight.

Incorporating a database design advisory capability into the process offloads manual, error-prone tasks to the computer. This integrated automation enables automatic evaluation of Db2 database schema change requests to streamline the DBA approval process and remove the manual processes that inhibit continuous delivery of application functionality.

Furthermore, consider that intelligent database administration functionality can be used to help alleviate the loss of expertise resulting from an aging, retiring workforce. This is a significant challenge for many organizations in the mainframe world.

But let’s not forget the developers. The goal of adopting a DevOps approach on the mainframe is to speed up application development, but at the same time it is important that we do not forgo the safeguards built into mainframe development and operations. So you need a streamlined DevOps process—powered by intelligent automation—in which application developers do not have to wait around for DBA reviews and responses. A self-service model with built-in communication and intelligence such as provided by AMI for DevOps delivers this capability.

The Bottom Line

BMC AMI for DevOps helps you to bring DevOps to the mainframe by integrating Db2 for z/OS schema changes into established and existing DevOps orchestration processes. This means you can use BMC AMI for DevOps to deliver the speed of development required by agile techniques used for modern application delivery without abandoning the safeguards required by DBAs to assure the accuracy of the database changes for assuring availability and reliability of the production system. And developers gain more self-service capability for Db2 schema changes using a well-defined pipeline process.