MAINFRAME MODERNISATION: EXPERTS’ GUIDE

MAINFRAME MODERNISATION: EXPERTS’ GUIDE4 Ways To Boost Performance & Agility Through Mainframe Modernisation

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As a result, they have to store, secure and protect a large volume of digital

data within their mainframes.

Many of them operate in particularly security-sensitive sectors, including

government, finance, banking, and insurance, which means that ensuring their

mainframe workloads can run safely and uninterrupted at all times is one of their

key priorities. As is preventing the risk of data breach, avoiding loss of sensitive

data, and building in scalability for the years to come.

All of which can be effectively addressed through comprehensive mainframe

modernisation that involves not just optimising performance, but also allows to

capitalise on some of the latest technology solutions, making it possible to maximise

opportunities and drive better business outcomes today and in the future.

MAINFRAME MODERNISATION: EXPERTS’ GUIDE | 4 Ways To Boost Performance & Agility Through Mainframe Modernisation

INTRODUCTION

IN 2020, MANY ORGANISATIONS STILL DEPEND ON

THEIR MAINFRAMES FOR NUMEROUS MISSION-

CRITICAL BUSINESS PROCESSES, INCLUDING DEALING

WITH PAYMENTS, CLIENT COMMUNICATIONS, AND

VARIOUS IN-HOUSE SYSTEMS NECESSARY TO KEEP

THEIR OPERATIONS RUNNING SMOOTHLY.

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WHAT’S THE SECRET TO CREATING A THRIVING,

MODERN MAINFRAME ECOSYSTEM?

Here are the four key areas you should address to ensure your

organisation’s mainframe modernisation will bring the long-term

benefits you’re seeking:

Platform modernisation for better stability

Data access modernisation for intelligent, timely insights

Application modernisation for greater productivity

DevOps toolchain modernisation for faster time to market


PLATFORM MODERNISATION FOR BETTER STABILITY1By employing cutting-edge IT solutions, you can leverage

a platform that is specifically intended to encrypt data,

facilitate cloud-native development, and offer a substantial

level of accessibility and stability so that your workloads can

run continuously and without any interruptions.

That’s where contemporary technologies like Containers,

APIs, and DevSecOps come in. DevSecOps involves focusing

on application and infrastructure security from the beginning

and automates some security gates to prevent the DevOps

workflow from decelerating. Choosing the right tools to

incessantly integrate security, like leveraging an integrated

development environment (IDE) with security features, can

help achieve these objectives.

Likewise, containerisation offers portability between

different platforms and cloud. You only have to write the

code once, and you can run it anywhere. It also provides

improved security by segregating applications both from the

host system and from one another.

THE FIRST STEP

TO MODERNISING

YOUR MAINFRAME

IS UPDATING YOUR

ENVIRONMENT BY

IMPLEMENTING THE

LATEST FEATURES –

THIS WILL ALLOW YOU

TO GET THE MOST OUT

OF YOUR EXISTING

INFRASTRUCTURE.

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APPLICATION MODERNISATION FOR GREATER PRODUCTIVITY

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Modernising your mainframe applications starts with

creating a roadmap that will classify which applications

are suitable for a fully automated transformation to

contemporary languages and databases.

Consider moving modules or applications using

container-based solutions such as Kubernetes. By

properly implementing it into your engineering

workflows, you will be able to experience significant

productivity improvements.

Kubernetes has plenty of tools available in the

ecosystem that allow to significantly shrink

release cycles, streamline design workflows, and

ultimately enhance the software quality from

development to production. And you can customise

them precisely to your requirements. Additionally,

most of the tools in the Kubernetes ecosystem are

open-source and free to use.


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That’s why you should make sure you’re employing innovative data management solutions to fulfil the

demand for real-time, actionable insights from data. This will also help you avoid the cost of the security

exposures because of superfluous data movement off the mainframe.

By using intelligent data integration platforms, your IT team will be not only able to save valuable time

but also empowered to automate the accessibility of precise, reliable data sets, and convert them into

analytics-ready data for the organisation. These platforms can systematise the whole data warehouse

lifecycle and the formation of managed data lakes with little to no coding.

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3DATA ACCESS MODERNISATION FOR INTELLIGENT, TIMELY INSIGHTS

Like every business aiming to stay ahead of the curve,

you need actionable and timely insights from your most

recent data. If you want to maintain your competitive

edge, you can’t afford the additional time required to

duplicate and transform data.

DEVOPS TOOLCHAIN MODERNISATION FOR FASTER TIME TO MARKET

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DevOps is an amalgamation of people, processes,

and tools to help organisations overcome contemporary

challenges in an agile and effective way, and is based

on a continuous cycle of enhancements.

When it comes to modernisation, DevOps helps unite

individuals to have a common vision, necessitating

everybody’s input. Any variation in a system process

needs the flexibility to acclimatise to cultural shifts.

DevOps empowers businesses to create a people-first

culture and bridge the gap between Dev and Ops teams.

As the pressure to develop, debug, test, release, and

quickly deploy applications continues to increase, you

have no other option but to embrace DevOps. It enables

you to rapidly deliver software and address your

organisation’s needs.

However, to take full advantage of new DevOps tools

and processes, you have to first understand how to

transform your operations in order to construct an agile

and lean DevOps pipeline from contemporary source-

code management.

DevOps commands CI/CD practices in businesses

that follow DevOps principles. It concentrates more

on automation and iteration, which helps modernise

code pipeline and delivery. Which is why it’s best to

involve a DevOps specialist who can help you with

environment provisioning and artefact deployment.


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For organisations relying on the reliability and security of their mainframes, modernisation is

often viewed as a necessary step, that nonetheless remains delayed until it’s unavoidable. The

complexity of mainframe processes combined with the widening skills gap can make mainframe

modernisation seem challenging at first, but with the help of an experienced mainframe services

provider, it can be designed, planned, and successfully executed with less effort, time and costs

than expected. It will not only breathe new life into the mainframe, but also deliver numerous

additional benefits for your entire IT environment in the long-term perspective.

ISI has over three decades of mainframe expertise in helping organisations across Australia assess,

rationalise, and modernise their legacy systems and mainframes to improve business agility and

performance. We can evaluate your mainframe environment against industry best practices and

analyse the performance and capacity of mainframe infrastructure and platform and guide on its

existing utilisation and ability to meet future demands.

CONCLUSION

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU

MODERNISE YOUR MAINFRAME

APPLICATIONS AND BUILD A TAILORED,

FUTURE-PROOF IT INFRASTRUCTURE?

LET’S TALK!

www.isi.com.auMAINFRAME MODERNISATION: EXPERTS’ GUIDE | 4 Ways To Boost Performance & Agility Through Mainframe Modernisation

https://isi.com.au/contact-us/#contact-form

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MAINFRAME MODERNISATION: EXPERTS’ GUIDE