Everything you need to know about Mainframes

What is mainframe?

A Large, high speed computer, particularly one supporting various workstations or peripherals. The most prevalent current example is the IBM Z mainframe. This is descended from the System 360/370/390/zSeries/System z. There are lines of computers from Hitachi and Fujitsu that run operating systems called MSP and VOS3, which were plagiarized from IBM’s MVS operating system in the 1980s.

Where it is used?

Mainframe computer or Mainframes (informally alluded to as “large iron”) are computers utilized basically by huge associations for basic applications; mass information preparing, for example, registration, industry and customer measurements, undertaking asset arranging and exchange handling.

Why to use mainframe?

To perform large scale exchange handling (a great many exchanges for every second).
Supports thousands of clients and application programs simultaneously getting to numerous Resources.
Manage terabytes of data in databases
Handle extensive data transfer capacity correspondence

What is z system?

Z/OS is IBM’s latest operating system that can manage many multi-tenant mainframe applications, each running in protected memory spaces and offering varied performance goals. Mainframes with z/OS are commonly used to run extensive, complex, mission-basic outstanding tasks at hand for substantial venture associations.

Which industries use Mainframes?

There are mainly six industries where mainframe is being used.

In banking, finance, health care, insurance, utilities, government, and a multitude of other public and private enterprises, the mainframe computer continues to be the foundation of modern business.

Benefits of using Mainframe

Reliability, availability, and serviceability:

The reliability, availability, and serviceability (or “RAS”) of a PC framework have dependably been significant factors in information preparing. When we state that a specific PC framework “displays RAS qualities,” we imply that its structure puts a high need on the framework staying in administration consistently. In a perfect world, RAS is a focal plan highlight of all parts of a PC framework, including the applications.

Security:

One of an association’s most important asset is its information: Customer records, bookkeeping information, representative data, etc. This basic information should be safely overseen and controlled, and, all the while, made accessible to those clients approved to see it.

Scalability:

It has been said that the only constant is change. No place is that announcement more valid than in the IT business. In business, positive outcomes can regularly trigger a development in IT foundation to adapt to expanded interest.

Proceeding with similarity Mainframe clients will in general have an exceptionally expansive monetary interest in their applications and information. A few applications have been created and refined over decades.

What’s new for IBM Z?

z14

The z14 family has another single-outline model, based on an industry-standard structure factor. Alongside innovations like inescapable encryption you can make a minimal effort, secure, cloud foundation and recognize openings through confided in advanced encounters.

Why IBM z-Select the model perfect for your business or server farm?

Encode all application information very still and in flight
Convey outstanding administration – notwithstanding amid pinnacle volumes.
Increase business congruity with a dependable stage.
Make an incentive through secure application and information advancement.
Reveal urgent experiences through AI.

Stats about Mainframes

71 Percent of Fortune 500 Companies Use Mainframes.
Mainframes handle 87 percent of all credit card transactions.
Mainframes handle 68 percent of the world’s creation IT remaining tasks at hand, yet they represent just 6 percent of IT costs.
IBM’s z13 framework can bolster up to 10 terabytes of memory
A z13 Mainframe can endure a seismic tremor having an extent of at any rate 8.0 on the Richter scale.
Income from z System deals expanded 64 percent in 2017, contrasted with the earlier year.
Starting at 2017, 92 of the world’s best 100 banks kept on utilizing mainframes.
The middle Mainframe software engineer pay is about $73,000, as indicated by PayScale.

How to modernize the mainframe in a fast-changing banking industry

On one hand, our clients face changing controls and rivalry from new kinds of banks entering the market. Keeping up methods we are continually pushing ahead—conveying new applications, enhancing the client experience and quickly stretching out new usefulness to on the web and versatile channels.

Then again, we should keep up our clients’ center saving money frameworks with nonstop accessibility and perfect security. These COBOL-based frameworks have been around for quite a long time are as yet basic to bank activities.

The hole between these two universes is extending as COBOL software engineers are resigning, supplanted by another age of designers. In this manner, we chose to construct an extension—one that will keep the two universes in sync, even as the banks advance.

Simplifying layers of complexity

We’ve constantly kept up a multi-level cross breed engineering to associate front-end, appropriated frameworks with backend IBM z/OS stages, utilizing IBM’s Information Management System (IMS) programming. This enables us to fabricate new Java-based applications that can get to information and exchanges from center saving money frameworks.

Notwithstanding, this engineering can get quite perplexing, with an entire layer of pay rationale expected to intercede exchanges. This unpredictability backs us off as we convey new applications and administrations to showcase.

Our test was to disentangle the design. We required present day, reusable programming segments with movability crosswise over both appropriated and z/OS situations, however we likewise needed to secure our interest in existing business rationale.

A groundbreaking approach to mainframe modernization

The arrangement was to carry Java into the IMS creation situations. We worked with IBM to make a typical run time condition inside IMS, making Java and COBOL inter operable. Truth be told, we were the primary organization on the planet doing this and we produce around 180,000,000 IMS exchanges multi day. Presently this innovation is accessible to everybody.

We presently have a more straightforward design, with more tightly reconciliation between center managing an account frameworks and new, circulated applications. This gives us greater adaptability and makes improvement less demanding, so we can assist our clients take creative administrations with marketing quicker, from the web and portable applications to ATMs and past.

Sooner or later, our front-end designers won’t know whether they are calling Java administrations or IMS exchanges in light of the fact that everything will be gotten to in one steady way. Today, in excess of 80 percent of our absolute outstanding burden is Java-empowered. A Java-empowered IMS exchange may call Java programs running in the IMS Java JVM. Along these lines IMS exchanges can utilize the tremendous number of Java standard libraries and outsider programming items. It likewise enables us to code new business rationale utilized in the IMS exchange in Java rather than Cobol and to relocate Cobol projects to Java.

It’s a progressive procedure, and we’ll at last achieve 95 percent of the all out remaining task at hand being Java-empowered.

This blend of Java and COBOL in the IMS condition is a decent method to modernize the center applications on the centralized server well ordered. We’re conquering any hindrance among old and new, helping our clients utilize their current speculations to empower what’s next in managing an account.

More details : Mainframe

Yes, “i” can!

IT personnel naturally have their fingers on the pulse of today’s innovations and one eye fixed on the future. As a result, each rising generation of systems administrators and application developers seems convinced that they know better than their forefathers and can remedy all kinds of issues with new tools and tricks. Unfortunately, this appetite for innovation can cause overzealous administrators to fix what isn’t broken and swap out systems and practices that are still delivering strong results.

Here are the salient points to be noted.

A Rock Solid Foundation

The first generation of IBM i may have been introduced before some of today’s young guns were even born, but the platform remains as vital as ever. It also enjoys a consistent reputation for high availability, security, and disaster recovery capabilities. Regardless of what a firm’s future IT ambitions look like, those traits will always be highly prized attributes.

With strong fundamentals in place, the hassle and expense of downtime can be a distant memory and companies can be more aggressive in their strategic pursuits.

A Bridge to the Future

Whether or not the younger generation of IT professionals care to admit it, business technology is sequential in nature. Even so-called disruptive developments like cloud computing have clear roots in practices and principles that came before. With that said, learning an IT department’s past and present modes of operation are a worthwhile pursuit for any new hire.

At the same time, IBM i can also facilitate smooth transitions in an era when the pace of innovation is faster than ever. The robust platform can reliably support legacy programs holding up back-end operations while leaving plenty of room for the ingenuity of home-cooked applications to thrive.

Automation Is Your Friend

Going off that last point, workload automation is becoming all the more valuable as IT environments grow more complex and distributed. When staffers are confident that bread and butter operations are reliably humming around the clock, they have more time and energy to push the envelope with strategic pursuits that can unlock new business opportunities.

IBM i is Listening

Finally, IT young guns should know that IBM i is by no means a static platform. We need to understand that we will have to honour emerging developments and new rules of the game with new features and possibilities. So any lingering fears that tying one’s fate to the OS could leave them behind the curve can and should be put to bed.

Source: helpsystems.com

The role of the mainframe in digital transformation

Today’s economy centers around the idea of technologies being connected, the enabler of what many are calling digital transformation. With larger enterprises still relying on mainframes to serve as the foundation of their technology stack, many question how to power leading-edge processes that enable real-time customer experiences and great efficiencies, using what are often considered to be legacy technologies. What may surprise people is that the mainframe remains a powerful tool for driving digital transformation.

It all comes down to creating the connected mainframe.

A recent IDC study found that traditional perceptions of the mainframe being an outdated technology are inaccurate; respondents showed that the mainframe has the potential to play a central role in digital transformation. In fact, the study found that the general belief among industry practitioners is that the connected mainframe can serve as the foundation of an enterprise-wide expansion.

How the connected mainframe drives digital transformation

How can the connected mainframe drive digital transformation? To begin with, the mainframe can be a provider or a consumer in the API economy. With the right tools, the mainframe can produce applications to power mobility, modern web-based processes and more. It allows for a faster time to market due to the use of already-adopted technologies and for innovative app development for today’s demanding customers. The mainframe’s ability to handle DevOps ensures the timely release of reliable applications in order to keep up with the fast-paced API economy.

Additionally, mainframes can easily adapt to today’s big data demands by monitoring numerous processes from a single source. By partitioning the mainframe, users can create environments that rival today’s cloud and virtual machine spaces, while still working within their secure environments. The result is a trusted space for enterprises to collect and analyze their structured and non-structured data, allowing them to easily keep up with today’s industry demands.

Lastly, the connected mainframe allows enterprises to efficiently implement cognitive computing. With machine learning and AI technologies flooding the market, these technologies remain useless without the proper data to mine, analyze and identify patterns within. While a common trend is to abandon the mainframe for modern technologies to drive these changes, the mainframe can backend cognitive computing processes by building applications on top of its established data repository. This leads to a more defined AI environment that pulls from the full gamut of data across numerous channels, effectively removing the need to rebuild a database.

Why consider using your mainframe for digital transformation?

First and foremost, using the mainframe to drive digital transformation is cheaper. In fact, IDC’s study found that operating costs for mainframe technologies dropped 35% once the mainframe was integrated with modern solutions. These cost reductions came from licensing fees, staff management and even power and facilities costs – as well as the benefit of not having to pay for the implementation of and training on a new system.

By keeping the mainframe in the fold, enterprises also benefit from baseline familiarity with the systems that are currently handling their operations, as opposed to uprooting everything and starting from scratch. Instead, mainframe integration solutions can be implemented to power the mainframes with modern user interfaces, allowing IT teams to easily work and innovate within the new environments without extensive training.

Finally, mainframes offer stability, as they are the backbone of many enterprises. From their increased security – compared to cloud-based systems – as well as their ability to easily handle enterprise-wide data and assets, mainframe shouldn’t be viewed as older technology. Instead, they must be viewed as the stable foundation to drive future innovation.
In short, the mainframe is here to stay

When it comes to the mainframe, we must remember that it is a critical component of the digital economy. As professionals, we must change our way of thinking of the mainframe as outdated and instead understand its ability to continue powering innovative business operations. If any mainframe-based enterprise is looking to cut costs, increase stability, and drive digital transformation, they should start by embracing what has powered them to this point and celebrate the legacy of the mainframe.

Source: appdevelopermagzine.com