{"id":99,"date":"2023-02-21T07:16:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T07:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cloudtechner.com\/blog\/?p=99"},"modified":"2024-06-13T11:04:39","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T11:04:39","slug":"mainframes-and-devops-modernization-of-hidden-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudtechner.com\/blog\/mainframes-and-devops-modernization-of-hidden-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Mainframes and DevOps \u2014 Modernization of Hidden Power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Author: Mohinder Kumar<\/a>, Director<\/p>\n\n\n

DevOps<\/a>, <\/span>IBM Z<\/a>, <\/span>Legacy<\/a>, <\/span>Mainframe<\/a>, <\/span>Modernization<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n
\n\n\n
\n
\"\"\/<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Back in 2006 Amazon launched its cloud services providing infrastructure on demand which drastically changed the way infrastructure used to work and with DevOps in 2009 added further power, speed and agility. Since then, IT infrastructure has undergone huge changes. From on-premises infrastructure to cloud infrastructure, manual provisioning to automated provision, virtualized hardware to docker containers and then DevOps to DevSecOps everything has changed so fast in recent years. Despite these disruptive technology revolutions still there is an old workhorse running since years without much change and that\u2019s a Mainframe.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of mainframes is very long, they have been running since early 50s. With the advent of new technologies like virtualisation, cloud computing, many people started predicting that it\u2019s an end of mainframe era. But the reality is far away, as per 2020 reports, 44 of top 50 banks use mainframes, 90% of credit card transactions are still handled by mainframes, 23 of top 25 airlines use mainframes. According to Allied Market Research<\/a>, the mainframe market is expect to touch $2.9 billion by 2025. Reason? No cloud computing comes close to matching the speed, reliability , security and more important cost-efficiency of mainframes in longer run and due to this mainframes are still heartbeat of many large financial organizations. \u201cThere are 6900 tweets, 30,000 facebook likes and 63,000 Google searches per second but the mainframe CICS (mainframe based transactions) runs 1.1m<\/strong> transactions per second which equates to 10bn<\/strong> per day\u201d \u2014 (source Rob Lambs IBM Hurley Laboratory director).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If all running perfectly then why change? Does it really makes sense to bring DevOps on Mainframes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite all benefits like speed, security and reliability of mainframes, one of the biggest challenge of working with mainframes is slow time to market and mainframe \u201cbrain drain\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With technology revolution customer expectations have increased, they want new services that too quick without compromising on the quality and security. Due to increasing competition, reduce time to market and increase demand to deliver new and agile solutions, DevOps is a critical contributor to the success of business. As we have seen with DevOps and agile methodology, the speed of delivery has significantly improved from several months to few minutes with more even more than hundred releases in a day is a reality now. While reports show mainframe usage will continue to grow in upcoming years but if organisation wants to continue to provide reliable services with reduce time to market and innovation they can\u2019t succeed without DevOps and agile process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To tackle \u201cbrain drain\u201d or declining Mainframe expertise, we must focus on enabling , uplifting and empower Mainframe SMEs with DevOps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adoption Challenges<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

DevOps success in any organization is based on three key principles People, Culture and Automation. Lack of automation capabilities and tools, build and deployment limitations and more important people who are working on mainframes since decades are about to retire in upcoming years do not want to change themselves, all these factors make it really hard to bring DevOps on mainframes and that\u2019s the reason DevOps being largely looked at distributed world only and mainframes are still neglected by DevOps community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talent is another challenge in fact risk to DevOps adoption on mainframes, no new people willing to work on mainframes and hardly any trainings on mainframes which can fill the gap of old generation vs new generations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further moving off the mainframes is also not a solution as its too risky, costly redesign and too time consuming process. With billions of lines of code added every year, for many firms it\u2019s almost impossible to move off the mainframes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to overcome?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Over the recent years, organisations working on mainframes have realised the importance of DevOps and made significant progress on building the tools for automation around mainframes. With mix and match of distributed and mainframes specific tools, DevOps on mainframes is a reality now. Many organisations already got success in implementing DevOps on mainframes with new edge cutting mainframes tools while many are on it. A recent IDC survey reveals that 55% of organizations have invested in and integrated DevOps as part of a mainframe transformation initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below some high level overview of DevOps strategy which can be adopted to enable Mainframes aligned with DevOps process for faster delivery and agility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultural Change<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Everyone feels Elephants can\u2019t dance. The biggest challenge with Mainframes DevOps adoption is the mindset change. Educate, and Empower the team on the need for DevOps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tools Enablement<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The biggest hurdle in adopting DevOps for mainframes was lack of right set of tools for automation. Thanks to IBM, who has made significant progress in moving mainframes tool stack from Closed source to Open-Source frameworks. Following tools can be adopted for Mainframes DevOps adoption<\/p>\n\n\n\n