Under the best of circumstances, mainframe systems are complex, expensive, and difficult to scale. In today’s world, applications written for mainframe legacy systems also present significant operational challenges to customers compounded by the dwindling pool of engineers who specialize in these outdated technologies. Many organizations want to migrate their legacy applications to the cloud but to do so they need to go through a lengthy migration process that is made more challenging by the complexity of mainframe applications.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
The most common tactic is for the organization to better realize their z/Series options and adopt a strategy built on complexity and workload understanding. To make the evident, obvious, the options here for the non-commodity are not as broad as with commodity server platforms and the mainframe is arguably the most widely used and complex non-commodity platform on the market.
Impact and Result
This research will help you:
- Evaluate the future viability of this platform.
- Assess the fit and purpose, and determine TCO
- Develop strategies for overcoming potential challenges.
- Determine the future of this platform for your organization.
z/Series Modernization and Migration
The biggest migration is yet to come.
Executive Summary
Info-Tech Insight
“A number of market conditions have coalesced in a way that is increasingly driving existing mainframe customers to consider running their application workloads on alternative platforms. In 2020, the World Economic Forum noted that 42% of core skills required to perform existing jobs are expected to change by 2022, and that more than 1 billion workers need to be reskilled by 2030.” – Dale Vecchio
Your Challenge |
It seems like anytime there’s a new CIO who is not from the mainframe world there is immediate pressure to get off this platform. However, just as there is a high financial commitment required to stay on System Z, moving off is risky and potentially more costly. You need to truly understand the scale and complexity ahead of the organization. |
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Common Obstacles |
Under the best of circumstances, mainframe systems are complex, expensive, and difficult to scale. In today’s world, applications written for mainframe legacy systems also present significant operational challenges to customers compounded by the dwindling pool of engineers who specialize in these outdated technologies. Many organizations want to migrate their legacy applications to the cloud, but to do so they need to go through a lengthy migration process that is made more challenging by the complexity of mainframe applications. |
Info-Tech Approach |
The most common tactic is for the organization to better realize its z/Series options and adopt a strategy built on complexity and workload understanding. To make the evident, obvious: the options here for the non-commodity are not as broad as with commodity server platforms and the mainframe is arguably the most widely used and complex non-commodity platform on the market. |
Review
We help IT leaders make the most of their z/Series environment
Problem statement: The z/Series remains a vital platform for many businesses and continues to deliver exceptional reliability and performance and play a key role in the enterprise. With the limited and aging resources at hand, CIOs and the like must continually review and understand their migration path with the same regard as any other distributed system roadmap. |
This research is designed for: IT strategic direction decision makers. IT managers responsible for an existing z/Series platform. Organizations evaluating platforms for mission critical applications. |
This research will help you:
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Analyst Perspective
Good Luck.
Modernize the mainframe … here we go again. Prior to 2020, most organizations were muddling around in “year eleven of the four-year plan” to exit the mainframe platform where a medium-term commitment to the platform existed. Since 2020, it appears the appetite for the mainframe platform changed. Again. Discussions mostly seem to be about what the options are beyond hardware outsourcing or re-platforming to “cloud” migration of workloads – mostly planning and strategy topics. A word of caution: it would appear unwise to stand in front of the exit door for fear of being trampled. Hardware expirations between now and 2025 are motivating hosting deployments. Others are in migration activities, and some have already decommissioned and migrated but now are trying to rehab the operations team now lacking direction and/or structure. |
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Darin Stahl |
The mainframe “fidget spinner”
Thinking of modernizing your mainframe can cause you angst so grab a fidget spinner and relax because we have you covered!
External Business Pressures:
- Digital transformation
- Modernization programs
- Compliance and regulations
- TCO
Internal Considerations:
- Reinvest
- Migrate to a new platform
- Evaluate public and vendor cloud alternatives
- Hosting versus infrastructure outsourcing
Info-Tech Insight
With multiple control points to be addressed, care must be taken to simplify your options while addressing all concerns to ease operational load.